A Little More Vegas RnR

Ice skating rink outside the Venetian.  So pretty, I think this was my favorite
decorated hotel!  And yes, I have a skirt on under that coat!

Las Vegas sure is beautiful at Christmas time, don't you think?

One of my favorite things about races- going to the expo!  I love shopping and I love running so combine the two and VOILA instant happiness!  We intended to get to the expo right as it opened on Saturday morning but we were apparently on Vegas time- we arrived closer to 1pm I believe.  Oops.  Anyways, we grabbed our bibs and race shirts and wandered around to check out all the fun (and free) stuff they were offering. 

We are official!

I contemplated a last minute outfit change for the race- but I think I might have gotten a bit cold! 

We posed for a few fun photos and tried to win some prizes- I ended up with a Dodge t-shirt and a Brooks sweatband.  I really wanted to get a shirt from the Brooks store, but they were completely picked over by the time we were there so I didn't see anything I wanted.  Hopefully I can order one online instead.

Will and his groupies

After we had gathered all of our loot we headed back towards our hotel to enjoy the rest of our night.  We headed down to New York New York and had some dinner at Il Fornaio- the wait was a bit long but it was worth it- my lasagna was really tasty and the bread was amazing.  We also found the cutest candy store so we wandered around in there and then did a bit more carb loading.  Sugar is carbs right?

Yum- lots of carbs here!

Here is the break down of my mile times from the race, according to my Garmin:
Mile 1- 9:27
Mile 2- 8:41
Mile 3- 8:57
Mile 4- 8:47
Mile 5- 8:49
Mile 6- 9:04
Mile 7- 8:53
Mile 8- 9:44
Mile 9- 9:14
Mile 10- 9:24
Mile 11- 9:27
Mile 12- 9:06
Mile 13- 9:01
Mile .21- 8:45
I am not sure what happened in mile 8, although I think it is when I realized that my ipod was not hooked onto my pocket and was just swinging freely.  It was a bit tricky to keep moving and hook it back on properly -if it fell I was going to be screwed.  And the mile 10/11 slowing was due to having to move right to the water station, then having to head back to the left so I could keep trying to up my pace.  Also- my garmin says I ran an extra .11 miles so all that weaving around added some distance for me.  Oh well, what can a runner girl do??  Darn 18 seconds anyways!

Inside Caesar's Palace

I am not sure if this will work or not, but here is a link to a video clip at the 5K point. 
Click HERE
You can see me at the very last second of the clip if you are staring right under the 5K sign, I am behind a guy in all black and then I glance at my Garmin (checking my pace lol).  But you can see just how crowded it still is at the 3 mile marker.  You can also see the 3:20 pacer for the marathon run by- those guys are cruising and I feel so bad that they are suddenly mixed into our chaos!