Viva Las Vegas! Viva Johnny Tri!

Yes this post will be rich with pictures and is brought to you through the incomprable hospitality of Johnny Tri!

The Great Santa Run
Saturday was the day, it was the test and the leg held strong. The morning started with a rubdown and a lower leg taping and then it was off to the Great Santa Run. It was amazing, at last count there were 7800 Santas ready to run. There were big Santas, small Santas, white Santas and black Santas. Some Santas were smoking some were eating energy bars some were drinking beer and some water it was just unbelievable. Once the race started it took a while to get going because I had started back in the pack with Johnny Tri and Miguelvis thinking that my leg may not hold out. We took off easy and just rolled into the race. By the time we were close to the first mile marker my leg was feeling good so I started to pick up the pace and when that felt good I picked it up a little more then Miguelvis took that as a sign to start pushing the pace and Johnny decided to let us go and go we did. I put the hammer down and pulled ahead of Miguelvis and started weaving between all the Santas that had lined up ahead of me, including the GEEKGRL who I finally caught at about mile 1.5. The fastest time recorded by Garmin was a 6:14 pace but with all the jacking around I didn't get anything like that for a full mile.

I was determined to get the most of my experience so I ran the entire race with my Santa beard on, I got a cup of water at the one aid station and tried to drink but ended up with a mouth full of beard and a beard full of water. I also tried to get at least one fast mile in a Santa suit. I didn’t really get the splits right so I have some easy running in all three miles in each of the mile splits registered by Garmin but was able to turn in some good times.

The Las Vegas Marathon
Me and Misty, Miguelvis and Johnny Tri woke early to head down to Mandalay Bay for the third running of the New Las Vegas Marathon. We had to go over to a special location for the morning gathering of running Elvi so that we could walk in an Elvi processional out on to the marathon starting corals lead by the Running Elvi mobile, which is a jogging stroller hooked up with a car battery and six speakers blasting Elvis. It is all draped in red and sequins with a big picture of the King himself on the front. When we came out onto the course we were greeted by a professional Elvis impersonator and they were playing the introduction to Elvis’s Viva Las Vegas concert. The Elvi had their own special coral that ran alongside the regular starting corals so we could be fed in to the crowd a bit at a time, sprinkled through the race.

I felt good from the very beginning. The drama of “will the leg hold?” was pretty much taken care of yesterday but I did still have that fear in the back of my mind that exactly 7 days prior I had ended a 15 mile run at about mile 1.5 in pain. I felt what I’ll call a minor complaint from my calf somewhere around mile 8 or so but nothing else. Miguelvis and I ran side by side almost the entire race. We started together and finished together but there was a bit of time from about mile 20 to 25 where he was as much as a couple hundred yards behind me because he has stopped at a couple aid stations but I just kept chugging on through. Somewhere around mile 16 my quads were protesting a bit, mostly they just had this kind of thick, heavy feeling. I was saying to myself, “If I can just hang on until mile 20 then I can take this pace on in.”

I ran the marathon without my Garmin, not by choice but because I forgot the damn thing at Johnny’s house so what pace I was holding I didn’t exactly know but I knew it was a good one.

Running as Elvis was a complete and total blast! There were just over 200 Running Elvi between the half and the full marathon and far fewer on the full which meant that where ever Miguelvis and I went we were still a novelty.

There were three British Elvi, one Dutch Elvis and a few Canadian Elvi but I don’t know what other countries may have been represented, if any. I must have said “Thank you, thank you very much” about 100 times. People just got such a kick out of it when they called out to you, er, Elvis, and got that famous reply. I also got a special boost through the aid stations, especially the ones with the cheerleaders lining the chute, they went wild for Elvis! It also seemed to liven up some of the runners to have Elvis out on the course, especially late in the race when people were hurting and were looking for pretty much any diversion to take their minds off the pain for a bit. I personally only had one bit of pain towards the end but it was totally managable.

After crossing the finish line Miguelvis started to throw up and was promptly carted off to the medical tent, which he later raved about. One thing that is for sure, the organization of this year's event was a hit! I went and got a massage and then was off to the finish line party where Miguelvis and I spent a couple hours having people come up to us as ask if they could have their pictures taken with us. Heck yeah Baby, we'ere Elvis and this is Vegas! We were also offered money for the chance to have a picture taken with us but we turned that away, we are, after all, men of the people.

On a side note, I absolutely crushed my marathon PR, I mean crushed it. My old PR was 4:47:19 set last year at the Lost Dutchman Marathon. My new PR, well, that’s posted below.

I am definitely running as Elvis again, heck, I may run many more marathons dressed as Elvis, it’s just way too fun for everyone! As a matter of fact, I am saying here and now that I will run the Mississippi Blues Marathon as Elvis, it is his home state after all.