Back tracking

I'm BACK from Vegas and feeling pretty good! It was an awesome trip thanks to so many things: a fun city, wonderful resort, good race but mostly the awesome support team that was out in Vegas with me and the cheerers from home! It was so nice to receive so many lucky vibes from people and have the support out on the course. I am very satisfied with the trip and couldn't have asked for anything more.

I am going to back track to the beginning of the trip and cover the whole thing with different installments. I am realizing the more I blog that I am using this for record keeping so if it is a snooze I am sorry!

4:50 am on Sept 8th was wake up time and after 2 flights donned in compression tights we had made it to Vegas and to our resort, Loew's Lake Las Vegas, at about 2:30 pm. LHA and I were very tired so laying by the pool and going down the resort water slide a few times was a perfect way to wake up. Something that I must mention now was the over abundance, literally the whole weekend, of hot bods. It was insane. I have never seen so many extremely fit people in one place ever. I immediately got very intimidated. By the pool all the guys were in speedos. Gotta love that European style! LHA sadly forgot his...

After cleaning up and figuring out some logistics for the days to come we went on a drive of the 40 miles of bike course that is in the Lake Mead National Park. It was beautiful. And hilly. So hilly. Some pictures:

These are not very good because there was a storm rolling in so the light was not ideal and it was sooo windy. That night we went to the strip and I won $24.00 on a slot machine, my favorite gambling tool!

Friday was full of packet pick up, a nice 30 min swim in an awesome saltwater lap pool and a 20 minute run on the bike course. I got a nice preview of the hills to come on the run as well! That night we got to witness the vow renewal of my brother in laws parents in an Elvis chapel. It was amazing. Our jaws were dropped for the entire performance. We also got to go to the Old Las Vegas strip where one of our friends boyfriends attracted a HUGE group of people as his 6'7" frame did the dougie. It was epic. We concluded our night at the Sugar Factory on the strip across from the Belagio and saw Mr. Belding! From Saved by the Bell. ZWM spotted him and I'm pretty sure it made his birthday complete.

Saturday was a bike ride, short run, bike drop off, run bag drop off and some relaxation in a hotel robe for the afternoon. I was hanging out by our porch trying to get cellphone service when I saw some people going for a swim in the lake. I immediately wanted to join as I had not swam in the lake so far. LHA and I got in and I am so thankful that we did because my goggles had gotten warped around the eye piece and were leaking! Thankfully LHA and I swapped and I was good to go. If that had happened during the race I would have been swimming in circles with one eye shut! We then had a nice Italian dinner at a local place in Henderson. I always eat pasta with simple marinara and shrimp on top and some bread to go with it. It was very good and LHA won $85.67 playing video poker at the bar before hand. Win win. At dinner and throughout the whole day I was getting very excited to race. The anticipation of it all was awesome!

I slept very well and awoke at 5:00 on race day. Ready to go!

I am so sad to be back from vacation; it truly was a wonderful one.