Beer and Clothing in Las Vegas

Here's how my day started: The train at DIA that takes you from security to the gates stalled and all the lights went out.

People are dumb as cows, they continued to pile on to the darkened train like a cattle car. By the time the lights went on it was packed and the doors wouldn't close.

Do you think they had the common sense to get off and wait for the next train?

Once we boarded the plane a young 20 something chick sat down next to me, reeking of cigarettes. She had a wicked smoker's cough which of course she did not even try to cover her mouth with her hand.

I had one of my oncology journals with me so I turned it to a 2 page spread of an ad for a type of chemo for metastatic lung cancer and left it flipped open on my lap for the duration of the flight.

I arrived in Vegas after a quick but turbulent flight.

I picked up my rental car and was out of the airport in 20 minutes. I felt a little queasy from the flight but I was hungry too.

I decided to go check out the sushi place my friend Pam told me about. It was an easy drive on the freeway.

Awesome! It's called Sushi Freak and it was worth the trip.

After that I checked into the hotel and then went to Walmart.

I scored. Eight dollar bras at the Spring Valley Walmart. No more chafing.

I got a glimpse of this classic Walmartian fashion statement: the blurry thong in the picture. Nice. Plus they had touristy stuff for Vegas in there. Now who would go to Vegas to visit a Walmart?

Beats me.

I got a case of water and a big towel to throw over the steering wheel and vinyl in the car when I'm parked in Death Valley so I don't burn the crap out of myself. I remembered to bring my shade screen. Living in Arizona does teach you some things about the heat.

It actually rained a little while I was driving around and the temperature in Vegas was a cool 86 degrees when I arrived. Cooler than Fort Collins!

I have to admit it's a little strange, even lonely, to be here this year without my entourage. Walmart isn't the same experience without Felix and the rest of the crew.

But I do this to get some sleep, because once I get to Furnace Creek, there won't be much sleeping for a few days. We'll be too busy having fun.

So...I might have a beer and relax, take a shower and wash the day's travel grunge off me, and chill out. Tomorrow morning, Furnace Creek!

Screaming in the Shower!

No, this is not meant to be a pornographic blogpost or an opportunity to show my boobs to the world like those narcissistic people do on Facebook. I just got back from the sweatiest, slowest, chafingest, longest, torturous-est 8.8 mile run and thought I would chafe my right boob off in the process. I kept moving and felt like crap. It took an hour and a half.

I had a water stop that was perfectly placed 30 minutes into my out & back run, so I got two equally spaced water breaks. On the second water break I finally looked down at my tank top and there was a big bloodstain that leaked through my bra onto the shirt. I'm sure that looked gnarly to all the walkers and cyclists passing me, especially as I ran down Lemay Avenue on my way home with all the morning traffic.

Here's another reason why Walmart is really not so bad. The bra I was wearing today, a Saucony bra, probably sells for 30 to 40 dollars retail. When I run in the humidity, it chafes me. Last night I ran 11 miles, in no less humid, hotter conditions, and faster, which means more opportunity to chafe, but I was wearing my $8.00 Walmart bra. No chafing whatsoever.

I am still really tired from my work days, plus I put in over 16 miles yesterday. I need to pack and do some studying today and tomorrow.

I got some great ideas for some fall mini-adventure runs. Felix is already in for motorcycle crewing. Soon to be announced. Does it involve Walmart? Maybe, maybe not. But there are some places I've always wanted to check out that are within a day's drive from here, and I'm making a list and figuring out some fun and creative routes.

Time to take a shower and expose my chafed skin to the water. If you hear screaming, you'll know why.

Calm Between the Storms

Not much change to the weather forecast for race day. Still humid, 60-80 degrees, with possible severe thunderstorms.

Last night there was an outrageous thunderstorm here in Eldridge. It knocked out power in the hotel for a few minutes. It was crashing so loud I thought there were elephants in the room above me. It literally shook the room. Rain was coming down in buckets, or sheets, or swimming pools. We got over 2 inches of rain here last night. It only lasted about an hour, but if that happens during the night on the track, we're definitely going to have to find shelter and halt the race for a while.

It's cloudy and humid again today. The sun is coming out a little, but it looks the same as yesterday. There was a tornado that destroyed a turkey farm about an hour or so southwest of here.

This morning I woke up early and did a few errands. Then I went into Davenport to the Walmart, which, like it or not, is becoming a part of my pre-race ritual since I run in so many out-of-the-way places. I only spent $39.71. Felix would be so proud of me. He thought I spent way too much in Nevada, but we were out there for a week and there were 6 of us!

I thought about getting this top, my lap counter at the track wouldn't have any trouble spotting me in this. But it seemed impractical. Yes Felix, I do think about those things.

I found out why people shop at Walmart. They have specialized clothing, with technical features you can't find anywhere else. And it's such a bargain!

After Walmart I drove down to the Mississippi River, just out of curiosity, I found myself on the riverfront in Moline, Illinois. I walked along a path down there. Nothing much going on, not very exciting at 9 in the morning. That was it. I wanted to get back to Eldridge and start organizing my stuff.

I drove back to Eldridge, dumped the water out of my coolers and re-filled them with ice. I'll have to top them off tomorrow, I'll need ice for my drinks and maybe for my head and neck when it's that warm out. Nothing will dry in this humidity, so I might have to change clothes a few times. There's nothing worse than a saturated running bra rubbing your skin off.

Now I'm in the room, eating a big salad, one of my pre-race rituals. Salad in a trough. I bought the trough at Walmart. Gotta get some fiber in before the big race, clean out the pipes before race morning! McDonald's is open at 5 am, and I'll do my usual pre-race 1000 calorie breakfast sandwich there in the morning. Sounds kind of gross right now, but last July was the last time I had one!

Doug and Marji will get here this afternoon and then we'll go to the pre-race dinner and briefing at Lancers Grill. Hopefully I can at least set up the tent tonight, so there's less to do in the morning.



All I have to do now is put my feet up and drink. Margaritas would be nice, but I'll have to wait a few days...

Kicking Back at the Track

Nice day today. Cool morning, perfect running temperatures. I took the girls for a quick warmup and then headed over to the track to get a 24 hour "race pace" run in, which really amounts to running super easy and getting used to the curves.

Last night Shannon kept me running a good steady pace for 10 miles. We were talking the whole time and I averaged 8:17 a mile.

What that tells me is that I'm not pushing myself hard enough when I run alone. I thought I wasn't capable of running that pace for 10 miles, much less being able to talk through it.

So it's not that I don't have the fitness, it's that I don't have the leg turnover. I haven't made my legs go fast for so long that 8 minute pace feels hard, not aerobically hard, but in terms of making my legs do the work.

The only solution to that is to get back to running faster and doing intervals, and probably adding back some half marathons, marathons, maybe even a few 10Ks and 5Ks.

As much as I hate to deal with those types of races (I have every excuse in the book not to do them) expensive, crowded, early in the morning, sometimes requiring a drive to Denver or longer than that...if I want to regain any of the speed that I know is in there, I have to do the work. Come to Jesus time.

On Sunday my running column in the Xplore section of the Coloradoan featured Shannon and Run to Work Day. He's been making great progress with it already this week, using social media sites to spread the word. It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop into something really great. Bigger than Bike to Work Day, that's for sure.

Soon I will be doing a full blogpost on Run to Work Day. I think it has a ton of potential, and the biggest stumbling block seems to be access to showers at work for most people. That's one of the things that Shannon is working on...there is no limit when you use your creativity to solve problems. I could go on and on about these things, especially when it comes to the general public and their inertia, but I'll save it for the upcoming blogpost.

Chris at AdventureCorps included a link in today's newsletter to one of my previous columns about making your own adventure run, which I appreciate very much! Thanks Chris! It was about the recent Extreme Running Tour de Walmart.

Now I'm hanging out in the woman cave, watching the lilacs bloom. I hope you're enjoying the spring as much as I am!

A Brilliant Birthday Idea

I always like to do something creative with running on my birthday. It doesn't always happen, and more often than not, it snows on my birthday. But three years ago, when I turned 45, I invited some friends to join me for a 45K birthday celebration called "One Foot in the Grave", celebrating being halfway to 90. We ran around the cemetery for 45 kilometers, or 28 times around the one mile loop.

This year I have a different idea. Tonight, after my thirty miler, and after a homecooked dinner of caesar salad and grilled salmon, Dennis and I went out to Walmart. Big date night for us. I used to avoid Walmart at all costs, but since I discovered its virtues as an ideal pre-running supply store, I do occasionally find myself there, once or twice a year before a big race. Then my neighbor had to get me hooked on this girl beer, Michelob Ultra (3.2) with pomegranate and raspberry flavor. I can't find it anywhere else in town but Walmart. It's a great recovery drink after a long run. So now I go to Walmart to stock up on 3.2 beer.

OMG, what has happened to me?

So we made our excursion over to the Timnath Walmart, closest to our house. It was an adventure, as Walmart always is. We got my stash of girl beer, then we got a couple of other items. I was trying to find some inexpensive kitchen towels, since I just threw two of them away that were gross and disgusting. I asked a Walmart associate who was busy scanning items in the shampoo section. He enthusiastically offered to walk me over to the kitchen towels, even though I told him he could just tell me where it is. I was impressed with his customer service.

With Dennis following behind pushing the XXL shopping cart, the associate led me across the store, past the incontinence section, and down the main east-west aisle, past the displays of interesting clothing. Walmart fashion is so eye-catching, I couldn't help but do a double take at this sports bra. Purple camo. They also had matching tank tops. Very cool. I also noticed that the associate had rather large love handles flopping over his waistband, but I could barely keep up with him, with my post-long run stiff old lady limp.

After we picked out a few towels, I led Dennis back over to the purple camo bras. They were only $8.00, but they didn't have any smalls left. Bummer. In the adjacent aisle there was a display of animal print "extreme push-up" bras. They weren't sports bras, though. There is nothing quite like Walmart fashion.

Then the lightbulb went on in my head. I hadn't used my brain all day, apparently it was recharging for five hours while I ran. I was ready to go, gears grinding at full speed.

"I know what I want to do for my birthday this year," I announced to Dennis.

He rolled his eyes.

"I want to do an Extreme Running Tour de Walmart: Shop 'Til You Drop. I want to hit all four Walmarts and buy an article of clothing at each one, and wear it."

We have four Walmarts within reasonable running distance of my house. Two are in Loveland, one is in Fort Collins, and this one in Timnath.

Now that I am older, I need to run more miles. I could do 48K, but I wouldn't be able to make it to all four Walmarts, so I think I need to get tough. I can do 48 miles, and it would be a good workout for me at that point in time. I need a fifty-ish run soon, so this is perfect.

Dennis agreed to be my mobile aid station, he'll be my crew at each of the Walmarts, I can re-fuel along the way.

Now I just have to figure out the route, and invite anyone who wants to tag along for all or part. My birthday is March 10th, which is just three weeks away.

What a fantastic idea! I amaze myself...