Girls NFR weekend and the Las Vegas Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon

For the last 10 years or so, I've been meeting some of my college girlfriends in Las Vegas in early December for a girls weekend. Our main purpose is to go to the National Finals Rodeo but we cram in a lot of other fun stuff too.

The NFR is like the Super Bowl of rodeo. The top 15 competitors in each event are eligible to compete for 10 days straight. At the end of the rodeo, an event winner and an overall winner is announced. This rodeo showcases the best of the best and it's amazing to watch. The town of Las Vegas is totally transformed into a small town with cowboys everywhere.

Four years ago, while we were there, we decided to train for the following years 1/2 marathon. None of us had run that distance and we thought it would be a fun challenge to do together. This year our runners were my friends Diane, Chris and Dave came too. Denise decided not to run because she is nursing a sore knee and ankle. Dave decided to run even though he's been fighting a foot/hip injury that is yet to be fully diagnosed!

The past few years the race has been held Sunday morning. This year they changed it to a Sunday night race. I think the novelty of running down the strip at night was a big selling point because the race sold out with 44,000 racers signed up. While we were there we heard on the local news that they would like to increase the participants to 64,000 next year so they could run the biggest 1/2 marathon in the world.

We all met up in Vegas Saturday morning to get to the check in.

Here we are, all checked in! Diane, Denise, me, Chris and Dave. I met Diane and Chris in our Cal State Long Beach dorms 34 years ago. I've known those girls longer then I've known Dave :)  I met Denise when we moved back to California 16 years ago!

Afterwards, we went downstairs to do a little shopping in one of the rodeo gift shows. It was a lot of walking for the day before a race but since the rodeo and shopping was our main reason for being there we just decided to have fun. Afterwards we had a nice dinner and headed back to our hotel to watch the rodeo in one of the lounges.

Sunday morning we went to our favorite coffee shop, Blueberry Hill. Yum! I had pumpkin pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon. It was kind of tricky trying to decide what to eat for a night race but I thought this was a good choice and I had all day to digest it. Then we headed back to get a parking spot at our hotel before the deluge of runners showed up. We stayed close to the start line so it was quite convenient. A little more shopping at another rodeo gift show in the hotel next door and then we headed back to our rooms for some rest time before heading out to the start line. 

We didn't want to go out too early because it was cold! I think it was high 30's-low 40's at the start. Our hotel has an indoor walkway to the next 2 hotels so we took that route and then headed out to our corrals. With all the body heat, it was surprisingly comfortable outside :) The race folks do a good job of setting up corrals and having good live entertainment to get everyones energy up. Even with corrals numbering over 30, it was still crowded but that's just the nature of this race. 

Dave and I waiting for the start.

Diane, Chris, me and Dave ready to go.

We were in corral 17. The race started at 5:30 but I think it took us until about 6:00 for us to cross the start line. 

I usually don't have to run when it's this cold (I love California!) so I had to think about what to wear. I wore running tights, a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve running pullover, a hat and my gloves. This worked pretty well. The sleeves went up after the first mile and the gloves came off after the second mile but then I was comfortable for the whole race. 

I've been working on some running goals lately and by big one is to minimize my walk breaks. The longest I've run without a walk break is 8.25 miles. My big goal for this race was to run the whole thing. No walk breaks. Through the whole race, I kept telling myself, 'You're doing a freaking Ironman next year! Buck up!' It worked. I ran the whole race. First time ever at this distance! I was so excited. In a way, having such a big crowd helped because when I would get tired I would just put myself behind a group for a while and slow down my pace until I regrouped and then I went on my way. The crowd never thinned at all. Even though they sent the corrals out every 2-3 minutes, it stayed crowded the whole course. Between the people racing, the big crowds watching and the Vegas Strip lights, there was so much to look at. It was a fun race. It was big, crowded, had walkers walking in the middle of the road, Sponge Bob, many, many Elvis's including one with a big boom box he pushed in a stroller, people getting married and all sorts of other crazy stuff. This is what this race is like. To me, it's more of an 'experience' race. I was happy with meeting my goal. I was happy with my time (2:25:44). I was happy running with my girlfriends and Dave. It was all good :)

After the race we met back up in our rooms. Showered and changed, we headed out in search of food. That is where it all fell apart! Some restaurants were closed and the others had a 2 hour wait. The race organizers need to work with the hotels to give us more options. We grabbed a quick snack at Una Mas and ate in our rooms.

Monday morning (the race done!) we finally were able to fully concentrate on rodeo fun. More shopping , a good dinner and then.........

The Rodeo!!!

Denise and I waiting for the show to start.

The National Anthem being sung.

All of the cowboys and cowgirls parade in with one of the participants leading their state while carrying their state flag.

There was a barrel racing arena record broken and fastest times in a few events. It was a great rodeo!

We decided we're going to skip this race next year. I think, 2 weeks post Ironman, I won't be ready/willing/have any desire to do it and we all really want to get back to having our regular NFR girls weekend fun without having to race. Life is all about balance and setting priorities :)