Vegas Baby!

It's easier to get motivated and pull yourself out of a funk when you've got something new and exciting to look forward to.

Several months ago, Savitre (aka Funny Girl) emailed me and told me I needed to sign up for the Las Vegas Marathon, because for the first time ever it was going to be run on the strip AT NIGHT. Very cool!

Once registration opened I signed both me and Krystal up. I'm doing the full. She is doing the half. It'll be the first trip to Vegas for either of us.

Even cooler, for some reason lots of folks from our little town are fired up about running the Vegas strip at night. We know of about a dozen people from here that are going. We're all going through the same travel agent so we hopefully get booked near each other at Mandalay Bay (the location of the race start & finish lines). Krystal and I already have our air and hotel booked. We are set!

Just one little detail though . . . that pesky thing called training.

You see, the Las Vegas Marathon has a 4 hr 30 minute limit on the course. If you fall below that pace, you get swept (or put on the sag wagon to cheat your way forward on the course). I plan on neither. I am shooting for a new marathon PR.

My previous PR is from the Little Rock Marathon this March, with a 4 hr 22 min 8 sec finish. That's just enough of a buffer to make me feel comfortable with the 4 1/2 hr time limit in Vegas. I'd like to do a sub 4 hr 15 minute marathon.

So, with all of this firing me up, I hit it hard with the training tonight. First I spent 45 minutes doing my bicep/back weight routine. That tore me up. After that I went down to the Lake Park to run a 5k.

The first half mile was comical. My arms were so worn out from weight training that they didn't swing quite right when I ran. My upper torso swayed back and forth wildly to keep balance. I must have looked drunk, or goofy.

Until next time, just keep goofin' . . .