Birthdays and Running in Sin City

The alarm rang early Thursday morning, and Nick and I woke to our first snow in Colorado.  It had been coming down since very early in the a.m., and showed no signs of stopping.  We loaded our luggage into the truck, and headed up to Denver to catch our flight to Las Vegas! Here is a 

glimpse of the treacherous roads Nick had to navigate:

We caught our flight and arrived later that afternoon in Sin City!  We checked into New York New York, where we would be staying for the next 4 nights.  Turned out to be a very good casino to us! 

Thursday night, we found an awesome burger joint in the hotel and then hit the blackjack tables.  We found our second home here.  We fell victim to the dangerous lighting of the casino floor and found ourselves finally cashing in after 4am.  

With the thick curtains in the room blocking out any ray of sunshine, and no concept of time, we finally pulled ourselves together in the late morning and hit the strip.  We wandered down to Caesar's Palace to indulge in the much buzzed about Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate.

After filling our bellies to the brim with Frozen Hot Chocolate and a very appropriately named omelette, "The Hangover", we walked over to the Venetian.  This is one of my favorite hotels.  It is absolutely beautiful on both the outside and inside.  Convinced we had literally walked all over the hotel, we finally found the Rock n' Roll Expo.  These are held before every Rock n' Roll half/full marathon event, and serves as a place for runners to pick up their number, shirt and 'swag bag'.  To any rookie race runner it can easily appear to be pure chaos, loaded with vendors passing out samples and selling gear of all kinds.  We decided to have a little fun at it with these pic boards from the race's biggest sponsor, Zappos. 

Friday night the rest of the crew got in town, and we all got together to celebrate Johny's Big Birthday (for you, Johny, I wont mention the number)!  Saturday came quickly, and we all headed over to Monte Carlo for their famous pub (over 200 beers on tap!) to watch the Dawgs vs LSU in the SEC Championship.  Sorry game for the Dawgs, but we still managed to have a great time!

After the game, we headed back to our second home, a.k.a. the blackjack tables, to win back our lost bets on the Dawgs.  About a $100 up, I headed up to bed, the only night I did so before midnight!  

The big day, Sunday, came and we all rested our legs all day in anticipation for the run that night. Over 40,000 runners had registered to run in the country's only night run.  We got out to the starting line at 5pm and took off around 6.  

Two hours and twelve minutes later, and in about 30 degree weather with a wind chill, I crossed the finish line!  I snagged my medal and made a beeline for our hotel.  Johny, Juliana, and I were the last women and man standing, and we made the most of our last night in Vegas, partying until 6am on Monday! 

We finally pulled into our new home in C Springs Tuesday morning, and rested from our amazing 5 days in Sin City!