There and back

Whew, what a week! I ran in 3 states, starting last weekend in Atlanta where I was visiting some of my knitting friends, Marianne and Erin, and then to Las Vegas for a conference. Atlanta was fun. I had a nice run in my friend's neighborhood, except for the damn hills! They may not seem like hills to the natives down there, but to this Chicagoan they were huge. I made it though, even with a bit more walking than I hoped. I'll take it. 

Then off to Vegas. Well....that was an experience. I was staying in Excalibur, which is at the south end of the strip for my conference. I figured instead of just using the gym, I would run on the strip. When else would I get to run on the Las Vegas strip? Let me tell you, it was interesting, starting with walking through the casino and out the door around 5:15am (since it was wicked hot when I was there, highs of 105). At first I felt strange walking through a casino in my workout clothes, but then I walked by a group of people seeing 5am from the other side, dressed in neon and furry go-go boots. I saw lots of characters on the strip: other runners, people stumbling home, women of the night (or dawn, as it was), people giving me the thumbs up, a few hecklers, a "nice booty", a guy tried to run with me (he didn't last long), and someone who should have been in bed yelling "Why are there so many runners?!" It was interesting I tell you! 

View of New York, New York hotel on my run. 

On the con side, if you haven't visited Vegas recently (or ever) there are lots of pedways (escalator/stairs up, bridge across the street, escalator/stairs down) to cross the major streets. I'd say there and back for 3-4 miles I must have come up to 6-8 of these. That kind of put a damper on my pace. The first run, I wasn't really expecting that and I was extremely frustrated. There was NO WAY I was going to run up and down all the stairs, so there was a lot of walking. Also one set of stairs were being cleaned, so I ran through a building and rode an elevator in another spot. Pretty crazy! 

I hated the bridges so much I didn't take a picture, so this pic is from here. 

Despite my grousing, it didn't stop me from running the strip again a few days later. The next time I tried to think of it as an obstacle course, it worked (sort of). Even though they weren't the greatest runs, last week's certainly weren't boring. Because the training schedule is so aggressive (at least for me--I'm not used to running 4x per week), I'm finding it easier to get out and do the runs, moreso than when I was just running casually. I know even if my runs aren't the best, I've got to get out there and do them I'll never make it. I was actually really surprised at myself for waking up at 5am in Las Vegas, of all places, to run.  

And now I'm back to good ol' flat Chicago. We had a group long run last weekend on the lakefront, where I met more of the Bright Pink team, I went for a nice long bikeride yesterday to McCormick Place, and another run today. I'm still trying to find my pace, but at least my only obstacles in the near future are the heat and myself!