Races: Labor of Love 50 Mile and Half Marathon
Back in Vegas for the final Zane Grey training run. Kimberly and I dig the heck out of a racing company called Calico Racing. The director Joyce puts on the most awesome fun events. Her company was the one that did the ‘Running with the Devil’ last year. So when I was looking for a final race and we saw that Joyce was putting on a whole weekend event up in the Mountains outside Vegas - you know we were thrilled. Not only was there a 50 mile event that would be perfect for my training, but there was a 1/2 Marathon the next day that Kimberly and I could run together! In fact it was a whole racing weekend event called ‘Labor Of Love‘. There was a 100 miler, 50 Mile, a Marathon, a 50K, and 2 Half Marathons, plus I think a 10K!
Just to make the weekend even more special, we were sent an invitation for the new Aria Hotel at City Center. How perfect, we could stay at the new Aria for a deal, check out the spa/fitness facilities and score some stuff with our Grand Daughters name on it (ended up being a whole lot of stuff Grandma could snag for the little one that came free even).
It was nothing more than a perfect weekend. I could live like this forever I tell ya’. The Aria is an amazing place. When City Center is done with all the other residences and hotels that place is going to be something special even by Vegas standards. I mean, it’s special already and half the places are not even open. Our room had the most futuristic view I have ever looked out from a room. That seemed appropriate as the room itself was all tech driven with settings that turned on the lights, opened the curtains, put on music, etc all to your specifications when you walked into the room. Everything was tech oriented, and whole modern, it still had a comfortable feel. We were impressed and we have done a whole lot of Vegas rooms over the years. Check out the pics, I took a ton (too much really). The best part of Aria was the Fitness and Spa - niiiiiiiice. We didn’t even do any massages, didn’t need to really, you get some of the best workout equipment in Vegas then you hit the Spa areas after working up a sweat. I love that they have so many co-ed areas, a salt room, hot stone room, lounges, pools, etc. We hit up everything there was I think. The steam rooms, sauna, drank about 10 of the bottle waters, they even had nice quality herbal teas. I could go on, but suffice to say, impressive, in particular for the $25 or whatever it was.
The Races were the most awesome experiences. You literally run in those huge Mountains you see to the West of Vegas in Lovell Canyon. For the 50 Miler its out 11 Miles and back twice, then out 3 and back 3. They elevation starts at about 5000 ft and essentially climbs on the way out and drops o the way back. The exception is this one HUGE hill in the middle. That hill was part of the 1/2 Marathon Kimberly and I did the next day too so we have pictures you will have to see. We met some great people including a friend Brian from Ohio who loves Ultra Running and we plan on doing another race together this year for sure. I was really happy with how the 50 turned out.
While I faded a lot the last few miles, I was able to finish in 8 hours and 39 minutes. It was 5th place overall and I got a little Cactus Pot Trophy that says First Place in age group 40-49 which was cool. Kimberly kicked butt the next day on the Half. I ran it with her so it was most fun. I think I had to hump it just to keep up - she was a little fresher than me :-). We got all kinds of cool medals, we got 3 tech shirts with awesome sayings, we met a ton of new folks, we got to do a Joyce Race…. like I said, I could get used to this kind of weekend!