Race #14 of 2016: Rock N Roll Las Vegas 1/2

I have to start off by saying that even though how this race played out was fun, I am not encouraging or supporting running while intoxicated.

Running while intoxicated? Yup. This trip to Vegas marked a first for me – running a half marathon intoxicated, while having spent the better part of the day (since this was a night race) drinking. How did this happen you might wonder? Well… the night before, after the 5k, my travel buddies both expressed interest in dropping from the 1/2 marathon down to the 10k. After having a chat with “someone in the know” we learned that if we did the 10k we’d miss the pre-show concert (what, no Snoop?!) and that the 1/2 marathon course was more fun. We’d also heard of folks that walked the half marathon and stopped for drinks along the way. Say what?! It only took a few minutes for us to decide that THIS was how we were going to do the 1/2 the next day.

Sunday morning started off with sleeping in a bit before hitting up the buffet in our hotel. Two pluses of this buffet? Proximity and the bottomless mimosas. On this occasion we took FULL advantage of the bottomless mimosas and spent a significant amount of time eating, drinking, and chatting about the day ahead. The rest of our day included a beer at a nearby bar, picking up cupcakes at Sprinkles, and getting ready for the race.

Our plan was to take the monorail from our hotel to the MGM grand and then walk the rest of the way to the start. Unfortunately the monorail was a cluster and we decided to walk. We had to head back through the hotel to get to the street so of course we stopped for a beverage to hold us over.

We arrived at the start with just enough time to run through the crowd and catch the last few minutes of Snoops performance. After that we made stops at the port-o-potties and relaxed some before the start. This year the corrals were broken up into three groups, which made things SO much easier, and we were in the last group. This meant a little more time waiting around in the pre-race area, but that was much better than being stuck in the corrals for an hour. While waiting we noticed a stop to get beer and decided to partake. It wasn’t a minute after we were handed our beers that it was announced that it was time to head to our corrals. So what are three beer drinking ladies supposed to do? Bring them into the corrals of course!

This decision start what I will refer to as “the beer effect.” Having a beer in your hand while wearing a race bib/standing in a race corral/running a race will lead to TONS of people you don’t know talking to you. We made some friends while waiting for the race to start and this just made us even more excited for the race ahead. When we finally made it to the start we decided to run as much of the beginning of the race as we could since a) it was a fairly boring couple of miles and b) there wasn’t anywhere to stop for a drink. We made it about 3 miles before we made our first drink stop.

Our first stop was at Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace. Anna-Marie and I made a beeline for the bathroom while Niki headed to the bar for beers. First lesson of running/walking and drinking? Beers in cups are hard to drink and hard to keep in the cup. After acquiring our beers we had to slow to a brisk walk. But during this time we made some more friends and got a few “Holy crap they have beers!” and cheering from people watching along the course.

We stopped for pictures with Elvis and pictures in front of wedding chapels before making our next stop for beer. At a 7-11. I have a feeling you are laughing your head off or shaking your head at this point, but picking 7-11 for our next beer stop was a really good idea. It was cheaper and we got big CANS of beer. Cans of beer are WAY easier to drink while moving. Way easier.

I must say that things kind of went down hill from here. The first 8 – 9 miles were great, but then my running companions hit a wall. A very BIG wall. There was talking of finding ways to cut the course, sitting down on the side of the road, and calling an Uber. Even though I was right there with them in my head, I made sure to try and keep them motivated. It didn’t work too well as I’m sure at a couple of points there were plotting to kill me, but we made it to the end. Woo hoo!

Did I have a good time doing it? Hell yes (for the most part). Would I run intoxicated again? Hell no. But if you are going to do something stupid like run and drink, Vegas really is the best place to do it.

After the race all we could think about was food and sitting. We headed to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be a Margaritaville attached to our hotel, and ate a quiet dinner before promptly retiring to our room upstairs. It was a long, fun, and exhausting day!