Pre-race Prep

Luckily, the race was Sunday evening, so I was able to get a good night’s sleep and had a lot of time to kill before starting race prep. I joined friend and fellow half marthoner, Jen, her dad and two close friends, Dieu and Lori-Beth for brunch at Paris and filled up once again – four large meals in a 24-hour span. This was my last planned meal before running, but once I left the buffet, I was thinking that maybe I had over done it. The walk back to Mandalay Bay was about a mile, so that got the digestion going. I returned to the room with the intention of resting, maybe even napping, but I was full of nervous energy and ended up puttering around until it was time to get dressed.

The first order of business was to prepare my race singlet: race bib with my participant number pinned to the front – Check; my name and Melissa’s code name in large, colorful, block letters stuck to the back – Check; third draft of mini bib honoring Melissa pinned to the back – Check.

Our team met in the lobby at 4:00 for a team picture and pep talk.

The plan was to wait in the warm lobby until it was time to line up for the race, but I couldn’t do that. The party was outside. I wanted to get a lay of the land, take in the atmosphere and watch the Cheap Trick concert playing outside the hotel. It was cold out there. I was glad I’d brought a sweat shirt to shed at the start line. Without it I would be shivering. I recoiled my fingers inside my sleeves and started looking for the stage. I could hear Cheap Trick, but there were speakers everywhere, so I couldn’t tell where they were. I walked toward the start line, where I found two tigers on watch – only in Vegas, right?

I eventually found Cheap Trick and rocked out with them until it was time to line up for the race.

I joined fellow teammates in corral 17 waiting for the 5:30 start. We counted down the start and off they went! Corral 1 took off down the strip. Those of us in Corral 17 didn’t budge. But after a few more count downs we started inching our way forward, counting down the groups in front of us. By this time my heart was starting to pump a little faster. The sun was down; the lights were bright; the band was playing; I was shoulder to shoulder with other runners in a sea of people slowly moving toward the start line.

Twenty minutes later, we got our own countdown. I shed my sweatshirt and the race was on!