On the day of the Laughlin half marathon and 5k we pulled into the Avi Casino parking lot and before my friend and I even got out of my truck we spoted two of our friends from vegas! They pulled in near us and he excitement ensued. I decided to wear bunny ears-one of the two ladies that we met up in the parking lot is known for running in fun costumes or accesories so I was excited to see her! She wore black cat ears, boy were we a pair! I had these light pink bunny ears. I thought Id be self consious but I loved them! I didnt get a single nasty look from anyone but I did get a lot of smiles and nice comments from runners and volunteers. I definatly stood out in the crowd! We met up with some more runners from the Las Vegas Road Runners club. And we headed into the Avi to try and find our way to the start line. Shortly after entering the casino someone spotted one of our club t-shirts. They are bright yellow and hard to miss! I turned and looked and could not for the life of me spit out the womans name! Doh!! She was the wife of a runner so I squeeled ‘Jerry’s wife!!’ and gave her a huge hug. She probably thought ‘Oh my God who is this crazy woman with bunny ears hugging me?!!’ but I introduced myself and we soon got directions on how to get to the start/finish line. I was SO excited, which is pretty darn normal for me. I was an escaped mom!! I started hopping down the ramp and almost tripped myself laughing so hard when I remembered I had bunny ears on. Oh what a dork I am!! We got to the start finish line and soon came a few more people I knew, lots of hugs and laughs. The runners I have had the opportunity to meet have all been awesome people, they are a rare breed for sure so when a bunch get together lots of goofiness and smiling ensues! Soon it was about time to line up, one last porta potty break and I got in the crowd of runners, it looked like maybe 200 people? Much much smaller than the 16,000 I was used to in vegas. I looked out ahead of me and it looked flat (yay) and there was nothing out there, seriously nothing. It was a dirt road witht he colorado river to one side and desert to the other and nothing in the distance.
And we were off! I quickly split off from my friends, they are all faster runners than me. I was hopeing for a 2:30-2:35 half marathon time, everyone else was in the 1:45-2:30 range. I was keeping a 11:30 pace which is almost exactly a 2:30 pace. I felt good. Very strong, fast, my legs had been pretty stiff from the day before and that wasnt even bothering me much at all. The first three miles were pretty mundane, I think it messed with my mind a little. Just dirt, dirt, dirt and more dirt on one side and water, water, water and more water on the other. I passed the first water station around mile 1.5 or 2 and snagged a cup of water. Usually I dont drink on the first stop, dont need to! But it was hot and I could feel something was becomeing just not right. I slowed my pace a bit I wasnt sweating enough, it was hot and I was barely ‘glowing’ and I was running at a good pace for me! I took a powergel right before the next water stop, double mocha…I loved this flavour. I come bounding up to the water stop feeling okay they try handing me gatorade and I asked for water and they say they have run out. I litterally cussed after thanking them and moving on. I couldnt drink gatorade right after a gel, it would cause me some major gastrointestinal problems. Things started getting a little fuzzy around here. I stopped sweating. It was hot, I was running in the sun in the desert without water and had another mile and a half until I hit the next water stop. I arrived at the next stop and grabbed two waters. And trudged on, my pace was starting to slow a great deal I was beginning to feel a bit ‘icky’ I was getting that chill/hot/chill/hot that you get when you are getting the flu. BLECH! I took another powergel one hour and thirty minutes into my race. Little did I think this would be almost my half way point. Mile 6.5 (ish) was the turn around. This was mentally very challanging for me. I had to go back the way I came. That was so difficult for me mentally. My husband had phoned me about 45 minutes into my race I believe, I was feeling pretty good still at that point. He didnt have anything important to tell me I guess. But now I am just past the turn around, between mile 7 and 8 I think. The fuzziness was really taking over at this point and my phone rang again. I quickly fished it out of my top and looked at the number, it was a runner friend of mine offering encouragement. I trudged on, the alternating chills and hot flashes were coming stronger and I was running slower and walking more. The dirt seemed to go on forever and the miles came slower and slower. I finally hooked up with another female runner and we chatted a bit and encouraged each other on. We got to the next water stop (somewhere around mile 8 or 9) and asked for water as they tried to hand us gatorade. Not only where they out of water they were out of cups so we gad to use reviously used cups. BLECH! Nasty!! But I drank the gatorade. Gatorade doesnt sit well with me but I needed fluids. This made my stomach churn worse than it was.
Shorlty after bam my calf just seized. I couldnt believe my eyes, my calf was concaved instead of convex, it was flexed inwards instead of being curved outward. WOW. That was some seriously intense pain! This angel along the course helped me get it worked out so I could stand, and then showed me a stretch to get it loosened up further. I thanked her and we tried to start up again and bam, nope not happening at all so I told her to go on and Id work on my leg. She hesitated and I insisted and she ran on. I worked on it a bit more and started hobbling, I tried to run and BAM both legs. Oh holy hell. Ive had two kids, both were unmedicated labours and those were FAR more pleasant that both my calves seizing!! I finally got going again and hobbled along. Then I started puking. I felt like crying, I felt like crap! I ran my hand through my hair and it was totally dry, I took my bunny ears off and felt underneathe the headband and it was completly dry. This was really concerning me. The next aide station came up and I took all the water I could carry and trudged on, a friend called me at 11:31am- one minute after I should have crossed the finish line. I think I was around mile 9 or 10. I told her things werent going well at all and I would be a long long time still. I was comforted knowing she was there and more friends were waiting for me at the finish. I trudged on, one more water stop. This was I think mile 11.5? I again took all the water I could carry, I had taken my last two gels by now and kept going. It was never freakin ending!! Sure 13 miles is a long way, but its not something I havent covered before, and enjoyed covering on foot! This however was torture. Mile 12 came up and in the distance I saw a yellow shirt coming towards me, one of our club shirts. I knew immediatly who it was and felt so thankful. He had run his race and was now running back to help me in. He swung around to ‘run’ (hobble) me in at this point all I could do was run to an electrical post then walk to the next and so on. He was right there encouraging me the entire way, only once did my calf try cramping during this. Finally there were no more electrical posts and the finish line was ahead and I said ‘lets just do this’ and we ran. I felt like I was going to drop dead at any second but the finish was so close and Jerry was right there beside me. I could hear the COWBELL ringing (our clubs ’sign’) and I could hear my friends screaming and cheering me on and all of a sudden Jerry wasnt beside me and I crossed the line and pretty much stopped. Walked to the lady to scan my bib and grabbed two waters, people started handing me water after water and I drank and drank. I was handed a bagel and was told to eat. Ug…I just couldnt. I forced down a nibble and it almost came back up. I took my glasses off and some people commented on the salt on my face and no sweat. It was all pretty nasty. Afterwards I found out what really happened to me out there. Thatll have to wait for the next instalment.
This past weekend was what I had been training for for about 3 months! I was so excited!! My friend was driving back from a week in vegas and was staying with us Friday evening to Saturday afternoon. So I met them down in Laughlin, which is between vegas and my home at the expo. All the races I am familiar with have expo’s. Its where you pick up your race number, goody bag and t shirt. This race was fairly small so I expected a small expo and I wasnt dissapointed 
it was nice though, low key, no lines at all! The expo ran from 2pm-8pm on Friday and 8-8:30am on Saturday. There wasnt a whole lot being offered at the expo, some shoes, socks, avon, some realestate type place selling condos or something to that affect, some ladies from the American Diabetes Ass (I think) I brought my boys and my friend brought her two boys and husband and my friend saw that there was a 5k too! And she convinced her hubby to cough up the $45 late registration fee so she could run her FIRST RACE!! Cliff shots was a sponsor of this race and their presance was strong at the expo, they had a bunch of products available for purchase and they gave many samples of their bars, shots (gel) and shotbloks (sort of like candies that replace gels) among the ‘junk mail’ in the race package was two samples of bio-freeze. This stuff is awesome, absolutly GLORIOUS stuff. If you have muscle pain for any reason you have got to look into it!!
We looked around but didnt purchase anything and headed back up to my home. I got to bed at a decent time and my kids slept well. My husband worked on the day of the race so the babysitter slept at our home. The morning of the race started around 5am when my oldest woke up looking for a binky. He went right back to sleep but I was FAR too excited to go back to bed. So I started some coffee and made my traditional pre-race breakfast of waffles with chopped pineapple. The morning was uneventful as was the drive down to Laughlin. Next up- our arrivial at the Avi Casino in Laughlin Nevada, the location of the race!