Rock 'n' Roll

It's official. I have decided to take on another marathon. Call me crazy. I know I am. I really have no idea why I'm doing this to myself. I LOVE being lazy, eating junk food, and not sweating. Therefore, training for and running a marathon is completely counter intuitive. But alas, I press forward.

Following Red Rock, I took a nice week-long break from running. But with the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon only about 11 weeks away, it's time to get serious about training.

The Vegas Rock 'n' Roll sounds like it'll be amazing. With bands and live entertainment at every water stop and the finish line located on the strip, this race is sure to be a blast. Shoot, they even have a minister running the race who will be marrying race participants along the course. Coolest wedding ever, right?!?

And if music, running Elvi, and free beer at the end isn't enough motivation to run this race, dear Ryan has decided that he will be taking on the half marathon. I couldn't be more proud!!!! Actually I could. If he ran the full marathon I'd be ecstatic, still, I'll take what I can get!

With all the extravagance the LV Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is sure to deliver, I'm very very VERY nervous about running it. There is a time limit of 5 1/2 hours.

If you may recall, I barely pulled myself across the finish line in Ogden within 6 hours. In order to meet the cut-off in Vegas, I'll have to shave 45 seconds off of each mile. That's no small feat.

Can I really drop 30 minutes from my marathon time? I really don't know. That's a lot of time to shave off.

In my defense, I have gotten faster since Ogden. I've also decided on a better game plan and will not be stopping so long at each of the aid stations. Neither will stop and frolic with my family and friends along the course for too long. And most importantly, I will be running at a much lower altitude.

When I ran my first 10 miler in Vegas, I ran it in about 1 hour. Subsequent 10 milers back home in the Wasatch mountains, it's taken me about twice as long to run that same distance. Therefore, I'm hoping that training at higher altitude then racing at sea level will greatly increase my speed.

But just to make sure, I think Ry and I will be heading down to Vegas in November to run my 20 miler. If I can run my 20 down in Vegas in a reasonable amount of time, then I won't stress over the 5 1/2 time limit. But until then, you'd better believe I'll be training my butt off and integrated lots of quality speed work into my training schedule. And of course, prayers, good vibes, and well wishes are sure to help and most definitely welcomed!!!

Here we go again...