As a Vegas virgin, I never understood the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” phrase. I mean, obviously I understood what it meant theoretically, but I didn’t understand why it was such a widespread phrase. Then I went to Vegas and now I totally get it. Vegas is this weird alternative universe where you don’t stress about the ridiculous amount of money you’re spending, its normal to drink at all times of the day and literally the impossible is prone to happen. #OnlyinVegas

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My friend Delaney has been trying to convince me to go to Vegas for a while. Except I’m a super lame person (I don’t know why I have friends). I kept making excuse after excuse for why I didn’t want to go. One day Delaney tells me that Hilton offered her a special in Las Vegas for $50 a night for two nights. The special expired in November 2016…which conveniently happens to be when the Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon is. I have had my eye on this race for a while because it sounds soooo cool! They shut down the Strip and you run your 13 miles at night down the Las Vegas Strip with all the lights glaring. After Delaney brought up Vegas for the millionth time, I told her I was in if we could go during the weekend of the race. Not only did she agree, but she signed up for the half marathon with me!! That is a true friend right there.

This will come as a surprise to no one buttttt, I didn’t exactly follow through on my training plan. Before you start shaking your head, I did REALLY well all throughout September and the first half of October! And then I went to visit Mara in Puerto Rico in mid-October and I wasn’t really able to recover from the trip which threw me off my schedule (yeah yeah excuses excuses I know). Needless to say, by the time we arrived in Las Vegas in mid-November, I had only run 3 times in the past month and I was not feeling super confident.

Upon our arrival to Vegas on Friday, November 11, Delaney and I unpacked our bags and ran to the Las Vegas Convention Center to pick up our race packets for the half marathon. This race expo was by far the biggest and most intense race expo I have EVER been to. There were a million booths, sponsors and tons of people. I was not super in love with the race shirts, but I did think that the race committee did a good job of being organized at the expo. We did not have to wait a long time to pick up our items and it was pretty clear where we were supposed to go.

After our experience at the expo we went back to the hotel and acted like the party animals we are…aka we took a shower and a nap. #killingit

No, but actually, the shower and nap were essential to our Friday night plan. See, even though we were running a half marathon on Sunday, we were determined to experience Vegas in its fullest. Which includes going clubbing. And since clubs don’t close until 4 AM in Vegas, we really did need our beauty sleep to rest up for the long night ahead of us 🙂

Once we woke from our naps, we headed out to dinner at one of the restaurants connected to our hotel (Elara by Hilton). I am not ashamed to say that our main draw to the restaurant was the 3 for $10 drink special. I repeat, 3 drinks…for ten dollars. If you are wondering whether this is a dangerous combination, please let me inform you: it is! After our second ridiculously strong drink, Delaney and I had the bartenders make us our third drink to go (which is also another Vegas concept that blows my mind…taking alcohol drinks to go is like sippy cups for adults!!!). At this point Delaney and I headed back to our hotel to get ready for our big night out. Dressing for Vegas reminded me of my college days…it was kind of nice to be able to wear my college clothes again, it isn’t often that I get the chance to dress like a bitty. 🙂 However, what was unusual about this outfit is that I wore heels. Yes, I, the clumsiest of clumsy people, wore heels. Of course, please keep in mind that I bought them from Clarks and the heels is basically as thick as my leg….but still…I wore heels!!! It was a momentous day in the hotel room of Julia and Delaney. On top of all this, Delaney agreed, ever so kindly (aka I basically forced her) to do my makeup. I GOT SMOKEY EYES FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!

Around 11:00 Delaney and I headed out to the club, XS. It was at this point that I realized I was out of my league….the security process to get into the club was stricter than it is to get on an airplane! I kid you not, they didn’t let a girl in front of us in because she had a small make-up compact. (In case you were wondering, we found out later from the guys in the club that this is because of a cocaine issue. Again. I’M SO OUT OF MY LEAGUE.)

I had a lot of fun at the club. There was a really good DJ, a ton of people and just a fun vibe overall. However, it became evident really quickly that Delaney and I were going to have to make some friends because drinks were ridiculously expensive (like $18 expensive…for one drink). We headed out to the dance floor and happened upon a group of guys that were in Vegas for a bachelor’s party. Lo and behold, it turns out that they were all from the DC area (my type of people!). Weirdly enough, one of them even went to William and Mary (Delaney’s alma mater).

The group of guys had gotten a table (a casual $2,400…which also made me casually want to pass out, but that is besides the point) and we hung out with them for the rest of the night. Around 3:00 AM, my feet couldn’t take it anymore (darn heels) and we headed back to the hotel.

Our clubbing experience was a total success. However, being the Vegas newbs we are, there were definitely some learning curves. Namely, making sure to get ourselves on a guest list…which is apparently a thing you’re supposed to do in Vegas that we didn’t know. We paid $30 for our cover into the club, which isn’t terrible, but also is not great. #VegasLifeLessons

The next day, Saturday, we decided to take it easy (it was a long night, remember?) and hang by the pool. We were super lucky that the weather was so nice while we were there. Apparently, the weather is normally pretty cold by mid-November, but it was high 70’s the entire time we were there.

After our morning relaxing, we decided to check another thing off the Vegas list: GAMBLING!!!

Let me start off by saying that I am not a gambler. Not only am I bad at gambling, but I don’t enjoy it. I literally lose all my money in five minutes and then I get upset. However, since we were in Vegas, we decided it was a must-do. We were given instructions to do three things:

1. Andy told us to put $20 on black – Okay, for those of you who gamble I’m sure this is an easy instruction to follow. But for those of us who don’t know how to gamble we were lost. First of all, what game do you play when you put money on black? Secondly, how do you get the chips to actually make the bet? Thirdly, once you’re at the right table and you have the chips, were do you put your chips to make sure you’re betting on black?

As you can see, it was quite the struggle. After asking around, we learned the game was roulette and we could just give $20 to the dealer and they would give us the chips. We then used our intuition (slash confirmed with the five people standing next to us) where to place the chips. We bet $10 on black two times…AND WON BOTH TIMES!!!!!!!! Success story!!!!!!!

2. My dad told us to put $15 on the Redskins – Again, sports betting is not intuitive. We made it to the sport betting area….only to have zero idea how to actually place a bet. After standing there for a while, Delaney went up to a nice female employee and asked how to place a bet. Apparently, you’re supposed to go to this wall where there are a ton of sheet of papers, pick the sheet that has the game you want to bet on and then stand in line to place your bet.

When it was our turn in line we were helped by another friendly employee…who basically told us that we were doing it all wrong. You’re not supposed to say the name of the team you’re betting on (which doesn’t exactly make sense right?), you’re supposed to read off the number of the team which is listed on that sheet of paper you were supposed to pick up (aka I hope you remembered to grab that handy sheet). Luckily, there is only one Redskins out there so we managed to get our bet done correctly! In order to win, the Redskins needed to beat the Vikings by at least 3 points. You will not believe this….but the Redskins won by six!!!!!! ANOTHER GAMBLING VICTORY!!!!!!

3. Delaney’s boss told us to play the penny slots – Neither Delaney or I had ever played the slots before and let me tell you, they are the dumbest thing ever. The only thing they are good for is getting free drinks (not that we got any because we were running a half marathon the next day). We spent approximately 7 minutes losing all of the money we had put into the penny slots (a total of $5) and truthfully, I was bored after 2 minutes. I would not recommend.

 

After our gambling adventures, Delaney and I met up with one of the guys from the bachelor party the night before, Dan. The three of us went on the Linq High Roller, the Ferris Wheel in Las Vegas, and it was so cool!!!!!! I kind of feel like a child for saying this, but I was completely in love with all of the views of the city.

This was one of my favorite things we did while in Vegas and I would definitely suggest this to anyone who is going.

After grabbing a quick dinner with Dan and some of his friends, Delaney and I headed to the Mirage (a hotel in Vegas) to see Love, the Beatles Cirque du Soleil. I have never seen a Cirque before, but goodness those performers are so talented!!! The show was 90 minutes and honestly it felt like 25 minutes – there was so much going on throughout the entire performance that time actually flew by. The only drawback was that I felt like I could have enjoyed the show more if I understood the Beatle’s time period. A lot of the acts corresponded to certain time periods in history (Vietnam War, etc.) that I just don’t know too much about. It would be nice to get some of that background information before seeing the show again.

The next day, Sunday, was RACE DAY!!!! Even though the race was at night (our corral was not scheduled to start running until 5:00 PM), we were supposed to be at the race entrance at 3PM. The race start was ¾ of a mile from our hotel so we decided to walk there. Once we arrived, we were immediately serenaded by Snoop Dog, the pre-race concert headliner.

Have I ever mentioned that I think Snoop Dog is a completely overrated artist? I mean his favorite song literally says the same five words on repeat and they are not even intelligent words. Yes, Snoop, I will drop it like it’s hot.

Regardless, it was nice to have a concert while we waited for the race to start. The pre-race nerves can be the worst and it was good to have a distraction.

After waiting for the corrals in front of us to go, it was finally our turn at 5:00 PM. The race started off slow for the first two miles (there was so many people, you couldn’t really get moving).

During miles 3-6 we flew. Literally, we flew. It was a euphoric feeling running down the main part of the strip at night with a huge crowd cheering you on. Unfortunately, this feeling did not last. By mile 7 I started to slow down and by mile 10 I died (please note, the mile ten slump is a common theme from my past half marathons).

Here is how my death happened: At mile 10 I stopped to get water, lost Delaney and decided that I just couldn’t go on. As I was contemplating the struggles of my life (aka bending over, trying to catch my breath as I held on to my cup of water with a death grip), Delaney appeared by my side.

She asked me if I was ready to keep running and finish this.

NO DELANEY. NO I AM NOT READY. DO YOU NOT SEE THAT I AM DYING AND I AM ALREADY PLANNING MY FUNERAL INSIDE MY HEAD WITH MY LAST REMAINING BREATHES ON THIS EARTH?!?!

But I didn’t say that. I thought about it, I really did. But as I got ready to speak, I realized it was too many words and I really didn’t have that much energy. Instead I settled for the opposite of how I was feeling: “sure.”

Miles 10 -13 consisted of me trailing behind Delaney as every once in a while she would turn around and make sure I was still kicking back there. I was proud that I kept on running, but I felt bad for dragging Delaney down.

When I saw the sign for mile 13 it was like I had come back to life and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel! WE MADE IT TO THE FINISH LINE!!!!!

Finishing the half marathon was a great feeling 🙂 We finished the half marathon with a time of 2 hours and 26 minutes. Unfortunately, after you finished the half marathon you had to walk 1/3 of a mile before you could get any water. 1/3 of a mile doesn’t seem far until you feel so dehydrated you can barely breathe and your legs don’t want to function anymore. Then it feels really far.

Once we got our water and medal, we walked back to the hotel (another ¾ of a mile). My legs were cramping up so bad…I desperately needed a stretch. I would say the worst thing about this race is that there is so much walking/standing around before and after the race. Couple this with the fact that you’re in Vegas and you’re already walking a ton, your legs are at a serious disadvantage for running 13 miles. The first day we were in Vegas we walked 6.4 miles, the second day we walked 7.7 miles and the day of the half marathon we did a total of 18.6 miles…5 extra miles besides our 13 miles for the half. This is not to say that you shouldn’t enjoy Vegas while you’re there, it’s more to put it in perspective in terms of how much activity your legs are getting on top of running the half marathon.

After stretching and showering at the hotel, Delaney and I headed out for our final Vegas adventure: THE MALE STRIP CLUB!!!!!!! Okay, it wasn’t exactly a male strip club…nobody got naked, but we did get to see a lot of skin! The show was called ‘Aussie Heat’ (the knock off version of Thunder Down Under) and it was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

I’m a pretty confident person and I feel pretty comfortable in my own skin. However, let me tell you how NOT comfortable I am with men taking off their clothes in front of me. I was like an awkward middle schooler. I thought I would be cool and I was the anti-cool. I was that person covering my eyes and saying “oh my god this can’t be real.” You want to know the worst part?

AND THEN I GOT CALLED ON STAGE.

Now before you get to thinking that getting chosen to go on stage is some kind of honor, let me tell you that it is not. I did not look attractive – I had barely managed to put on shorts and a t-shirt after the race. I was not flirting with the Aussie men – I kept looking away to avoid making eye contact because I’m an awkward person as mentioned above. The only reason I was chosen is because of the darn seat I was in. The lady sitting next to me happened to go get a drink and while she was gone that left a clear path from the aisle to me.

Now I know you’re wondering why I didn’t refuse, right? Let me explain that to you. I’M AN AWKWARD PERSON AND I COMPLETELY BLANKED OUT WHEN FACED WITH A PANIC SITUATION. The moral of the story is that I am not good under a crisis. I follow the crowd. It’s terrible.

Anyways, this is how I ended up on stage at a semi-male strip club, blindfolded while everyone in the crowd watched and laughed. Good times.

But really, the show was a lot of fun and I’m super glad we went! It was incredibly entertaining and it’s definitely a fun adventure for a girl’s night out (or boy’s night out if that’s your thing).

By Monday, Delaney and I were definitely ready to head back home. We spent our last day in Vegas walking around and hanging by the pool. Overall, this was one of my better half marathon adventures and I’m super glad Delaney finally forced me to take the trip. I’m not sure that I will ever become a Vegas addict (I don’t gamble or drink enough for the city), but it’s definitely a fun vacation every once in a while. Viva Las Vegas!