Our flight landed in Las Vegas last night (Saturday) a little after 8:00pm. We took a taxi to the hotel, got checked in, went to our room, and then set out to explore and find dinner. We finally sat down to eat dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe in the Venetian at about 10:00pm. I was texting with Brian, as he and Robin are here for the half-marathon as well. I asked Brian whether he'd gotten any information from the race organizers, since I hadn't. He said yes, suggested I look in my spam folder, and forwarded me the e-mail. I started looking through all the information he sent, and realized that the Expo where we were supposed to pick up our race packets was only running on Friday and Saturday, not on Sunday before the race (which didn't start until 5:30pm on Sunday). Okay, no big deal, I'm sure we could still get our packets. I asked Brian about it, and he sent me to a web page which talked about how the first 1,000 people (there are 44,000 registered for the race) who paid an extra $40 on top of the $130 for the race entry could pick up their race packets on Sunday. The deadline for this was November 27th. And it was sold out.
About now is when I'm starting to get somewhat pissed off. I'm not totally sure at whom. Partially the race organizers for totally failing to send either me or Donovan any information (we both checked all possible e-mail locations, and didn't get anything from them since we registered in March), and mostly at myself for totally failing to realize ahead of time that I didn't have any information about the race weekend. Had we known about packet pick-up ahead of time, we would have scheduled our flights differently so that we could get to the Expo on Saturday. And if not that, then at least we would have known about the $40 race-day pick-up option in time to choose whether or not we wanted to do it.
Donovan at this point is trying to figure out a way for us to still do the race. We could go over to the start area today (Sunday) and see if we can get someone to give us our race packets since we never got any information from them, blah blah blah. I'm not really loving the idea of getting all geared up, making our way over to Mandalay Bay, and then finding out that we can't do the event. Truth be told, I've been sort of iffy about the whole half-marathon thing for a few weeks now. It's been clear to me for a month or two that we would be walking and not running, since I hadn't done the run training necessary for this distance. And walking 13.1 miles in 40-something degree temperatures wasn't sounding so fun to me anymore!
Today we were hanging out and doing stuff, and not really planning our time well. About 2:30 in the afternoon we started talking about making our way over to Mandalay Bay, and I was really not feeling it. In the end, we made our peace with not doing the event, and we spent a really nice afternoon in the hotel room, where we watched a movie while having a late lunch. Around 6:00pm, we decided to go out to the strip to see if there were still any runners going by. Boy were there! The half-marathoners were going by in a constant stream, and while we were standing there, we saw the first full marathoner heading back towards the finish. We were less than two miles from the finish line, and the marathon clock was at 2:15 when it passed us. That guy was *flying*!! Standing up on the bridge watching all the runners go by below, I was very happy with our choice not to do the half-marathon today. It is still my intention to complete a half-marathon in the next few years, and this wasn't the one! And I'm very clear that even without doing the race, Donovan and I are still having a fantastic few days in Vegas!! :)
Half-marathoners running north on the strip
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