What Happened in Vegas...

Anyone that knows me, knows that I absolutely ADORE visiting Las Vegas. I'm not even a huge gambler- I just really enjoy the food, the party atmosphere, and the "anything goes" vibe of the strip.  So, this summer when I saw that the Competitor Group was going to hold the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon at night on the strip, I jumped at the chance to register hubby and I. I figured this race would be a great final race of 2011 and would take a big chunk out of my remaining miles on my quest to 1000.

The race was scheduled for Sunday night so my parents and hubby flew to Vegas on Saturday morning. Hubby and I had also signed up to participate in the race's "Run Through Wedding Ceremony" and we had a mandatory meeting for that on Saturday afternoon. After landing and getting the the MGM Grand, our hotel, we booked it to the expo to pick up our packets so we could make our meeting on time.

Hubby with his race number

The expo should have tipped me off to how the rest of this race was going to go. With 44,000 runner's participating in the race and countless family members and friends in attendance, I figured the expo would be enormous. Nope- not so. The rows were quite narrow and people were should to should trying to get through. I generally try to stay calm in situations like this but I was getting so frustrated that after we grabbed our packets and shirts, we only stopped at 3 booths and then we left. What a headache.

After the expo, hubby and I attended our informational meeting about the Run Through Wedding Ceremony. There were 106 couples who were either getting married for the first time, or renewing their vows. We got all of our info for the ceremony and then made our way back up the strip. We grabbed a cupcake at the Cupcakery in the Monte Carlo- Hubby had strawberry shortcake and I had lemon. Hubby definitely made the better choice.

Watching the Broncos and Vikings

After an amazing dinner with my parents at Diego in the MGM Grand, Hubby and I gambled a bit and then went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us!

TEBOW!

On Sunday, we decided to watch the NFL games in the Sports Book at the MGM. We grabbed some food at the buffet (OMG- bread pudding- so amazing!) and then tried to find a seat in the sports book. It was SO CROWDED that we ended up sitting on the floor after a security guard told us we could. About an hour later, a different security guard made us move so we went back out to the casino to finish watching the game. Luckily the Bronco game was on every tv in the casino and I went crazy when they pulled out another win! I even "Tebowed" in the casino.

So many people!

After the game, we headed back to our room to get ready. We got dressed in our gear and said goodbye to my parents. We had to head to the Mandalay Bay to meet up with the rest of the Run Through Wedding couples. We tried to ride the monorail from the Excalibur to the Mandalay Bay but the lines were terribly long. In the end, we decided just to walk.

Hubby's ready!

We finally found our group at the Mandalay Bay and took a couple group pictures (I didn't get one though :( ). A lot of the couples were dressed in wedding-esque running gear. There was lots and lots of tuile skirts and veils. I thought it was so adorable that some of these couples were getting legally married while running a race!

Our group got to start in one of the earliest corrals- Corral 14 and we were escorted there by one of the race officials. We had to stand in the corral for over an hour and while we were there, the sun went down and it got really, really cold. Luckily, we met some amazing people (two CSU grads and one woman who also works in Student Affairs!) that we chatted with to pass the time. We also got to watch some performances by the Jabawokeez and an 80's cover band on a big stage that was set up next to the starting line.

Finally, it was time to start the race...be sure to come back to see how it all turned out in the end!