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April 11, 2005

Still on Vegas time

I have finally found a few minutes to update. The last week has been very busy and honestly I don't know where the weekend went to.

Last Sunday (seems like months ago now) a friend and I headed off to Las Vegas. We had planned the trip for a couple months, it was my reward to me for completing Around the Bay. Lots of drinking, eating, shopping and gambling and no running. I was planning to run on Sunday morning as we were leaving early in the afternoon, there was a scheduled 16 miles. However when I got up Sunday morning there was an evil snow storm with high winds. So the holiday started a little early. The flight there was great, arriving on time. We checked into our hotel the Excalibur, then quickly headed across the street to New York New York for a well deserved drink. I couldn't resist the Yard of Margaritas for $14.95, I figured it would be the size of 8 margaritas (48 oz) but the alcohol of 1! I was wrong it was the alcohol of 8!

I love Vegas! What amazed me the most was how clean it was, for a city were you can do anything anywhere ... there was no evidence. I never saw anyone cleaning the streets or sidewalks, but they were always spotless and nothing every smelled smokey. I think there is a vacuum over the city that just sucks everything up.

Here are a few of my favourite Vegas things ... in order

1o. Buffets!
9. Free drinks
8. the toilets at MGM (I ranked all hotels, MGM came first followed by New York New York)
7. Big Elvis at Barbury Coast
6. Beers on the Patio at Jimmy Buffets' Margarita Ville
5. Caesars Palace (all of it)
4. The flowers at Bellagio
3. moving walkways (in fact anything that moved so didn't have to!)
2. Bling, bling, bling
1. Bellagio fountains

One interesting fact I learned was that walking is hard. I can run for endless miles and will get stiff but walking destroyed my feet, I limped back to our hotel on the last night (to go cup in hand). So four days, a couple more yards of margaritas, $243 of slot winnings, 4 blisters and a new favourite city later it was time to head back to Canada. We boarded the plane at 6.30am together with a drunk guy singing Via Las Vegas, a barking dog and 3 crying babies. When we stopped in Salt Lake City only the 3 crying babies got back on board!

Normally after a holiday and a week off of running I am rested and eager to get back at it ... not so much this time. In fact it's Tuesday, I arrived back Thursday and I am still exhausted.

It was Saturday morning before my running shoes got back into action. A nice little 5k. The weather was great, blue skies, warm (for Canada in April) and a slight breeze. Sunday it was back to reality, 10 miles was on the schedule. The weather gods had given us the nicest day of the year so far. It was a mentally and physically hard run. My head was not in it at all, it wanted to be back in bed, and my left ankle felt like someone was hitting it with a hammer. I experienced this pain a year ago when I had the same Brooks shoes I do now. I didn't put the two together until now, so I am thinking I need new shoes and they won't be Brooks this time, I did try mizunos last summer so I might give those a try this time around.

We are scheduled to do speedwork tonight, if I get the new shoes I will go and test the ankle out (it still hurts when I walk) after the run tonight there is dinner and drinks to wish all the runners going to Boston good luck.

Posted by Ali at April 11, 2005 2:59 PM

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Posted by: Larry Neumann at May 24, 2005 10:19 PM

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