Vegas Day 3: Purple Tutu

I have so many pictures for this day that I think I will make 2 posts out of it. A pre race post and a race/post race post. Our pre race day started with me getting in for the night at 4am after having consumed a rather large amount of alcohol and a steak dinner. Not my typical pre race night activities or food. I still got up early b/c I don't sleep well in a room full of others. When Stephanie, Jodi and I got up, Jenny was essentially headed out the door to go to a buffet breakfast with part of the group. The other part of the group also had plans to go to a buffet breakfast. The only problem for Stephanie, Jodi and I was that nobody in either group included us. I am not gonna lie.....this hurt my feelings and annoyed me. The morning was very much a Hendricks group vs the three of us. Mind you, I was the only one who cared about this. So our pre race breakfast consisted of yogurt from McVomit and Auntie Anne's pretzel. Again, not exactly what I normally go for before a race.  This meant we still had to have lunch before the race whereas I think everyone else had such a large breakfast there was no need for lunch. For the rest of the morning we just hung out in the room. I had my one 5 minute breakdown which I blame entirely on lack of sleep. Fortunately I had already warned my roomies that this was a possibility b/c I know how I am. It didn't last long nor was it very dramatic. Really I got really quiet and hung in the bathroom for a few minutes to collect myself. There really was no keeping my spirits down for long b/c this was race day and I LOVE RACE DAY!!! I become this ultra hyper cheerleader type person who gets SUPER excited about racing. I LOVE IT!!! I love the pre race dressing. I love the pre race hanging in the cold. I love the pre race hanging in the corral. I love it all. Just before the pre race dressing the three of us excluded from the breakfast ran and got Quiznos. The entire time I was eating it, I knew this was going to come back to haunt me during the race. Still I had a chicken sandwich and bag of chips. My typical pre race meal is some combination of oatmeal, bread with peanut butter, banana and yogurt. I eat a lot! Chips and mayonnaise are never part of the pre race meal.

While we were eating Stephanie decided to be the first to try on the purple tutu. In the swag bag we also got a free headlight which she kindly tried on for all to see. Isn't she cute? I really think she should have worn it but she was worried it would not stay on.

After lunch, my former PT came over to stretch my leg. I had considered skipping this part but am sooo glad I did not. I think it helped considering my leg felt great during the race. He was no so lucky as to escape our room without being forced to try on the purple tutu. That picture only made the blog for 5 minutes before it's removal was requested.

Finally the running girls in our room are dressed and ready to go!!! This is where my smiles start to get as big as Keith's. I LOVE RACE DAY!!!!!!! I LOVE RUNNING!!!!

I am such a dork but at least I am a truly happy dork:) I gotta say this.... someone on Carrie's facebook mentioned that every runner should know that wearing a tutu makes you 2 minutes slower. Ummmm... I was there to have fun and get Stephanie to  my predetermined goal for her. I had 2 minutes to spare since there was no going for a PR.

All the remaining pictures are when my camera was essentially broken. Now it is totally dead and Clark is going to have to take it to the repair shop in time for me to be able to take Christmas photos of the kids. By this point the entire group made their way to Mandalay Bay pre race concert. We really wanted a picture of our shoes. It is a little dark, but I am posting anyway.

Here we are all standing around talking while listening to Cheap Trick. I probably should be embarrassed to mention this but I had no clue who that was. I am not that much into music. Don't get me wrong, I like music, I just never know who anyone is. I mostly listen to the radio or pandora. Someone else who went will need to comment on whether they thought the concert was good. I would have nothing to judge it by.

Keith and Shane having a good old time. When the PT boys got going everyone around was laughing too.

None of us will ever be able to think of Shane's nicely shaved face the same again. Clearly a funny story that I don't think he would like for me to repeat:)

Here is the group picture without Jodi b/c she was taking the photo. I just look happy!!

Since the race did not start until 5:30 pm the weather while waiting was getting colder and colder. Here is Keith on the floor trying to keep warm.

Here is me picking Keith's brain about something running related I am sure. He did fix my garmin. I was using Clarks and it was not set up right for running. Around this time, PT realized that his garmin was already about to die. That sucked. I would have been pissed.

Stephanie and I starting to look a little cold.....but still very happy.

More standing around shots.

Me, Steph, Carrie, Jenny

Now we added Keith to the photo.

 This was Ry's way of either trying to avoid the pictures (just kidding) or keep warm.

 A little after 5pm I made the comment that we needed to get in the corrals. Thankfully I said something when I did b/c getting to the corral was no easy task. Keith was trying to get to corral 2 and PT, Steph and I were trying to make it to corral 5. We started at corral 17 I think and it was packed. I mean PACKED. You could hardly move. The bushes were all trampled. People were sardines. We formed a line holding on to each other and basically pushed our way to our corral. I am sure people thought we were moving up to a corral we did not belong in but no we were supposed to be in that corral. Finally we bumped our way up to either corral 5 or 6 and decided that was good enough. This part was freezing and I basically stood with my arms wrapped around Stephanie until time to go. Luckily Keith made his way up to corral 2. The rest of the crew were further back in corral 27 or something. I could not even imagine starting that far back and trying to get around so many people.

Here is the corral 5 crew!!!

Okay that is all I am going to say for now. I have to get some things done around the house before the kids get home and the phone starts ringing since I am on call all weekend. Boo!!!!!

Race report still to come (either later today or over the weekend). Feel free to comment on anything I missed.