21 Reasons to Run the Strip at Night

1. THE RUNNER TAKEOVER

There is no better feeling than being a part of a massive weekend. 40,000 people from 50 states and 64 countries, all coming to run–and take over–the famed Las Vegas Strip at Night.

2. THE STRIP

Whether you’re riding in a taxi from the airport, walking the sidewalk from casino to casino, or reveling at it from atop the High Roller Wheel, there is nothing in the world like this 4.2 mile stretch of neon beauty.

3. THE HOTELS

15 of the world’s 25 largest hotels wrap the Strip, housing over 150,000 hotel rooms. And the best part? They know darn well it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon weekend.

4. THE ENTERTAINMENT

Britney Spears? Check. Cirque du Soleil? Check (7 of them).  Seeing the crazy costumes people run in? Check, and free.

5. THE FOOD

Rated top-ten in the country for great food, and for good reason. Pick any top celebrity chef and they’ve got their name on something in Las Vegas. Into wine? There are more master sommeliers in Las Vegas than Los Angeles and New York City combined.

6. THREE DAY HEALTH & FITNESS EXPO

It’s the biggest (and longest) Expo Rock ‘n’ Roll puts on, and for good reason—it’s your first stop of the weekend! 100+ vendors, epic merchandise, and photo opportunities galore to get the weekend party started.

7. THE T-SHIRTS

Dark colored to embody the night races, but bright designs to reflect the Las Vegas neon lights, these are t-shirtsyou need in your collection.

8. THE SATURDAY 5K

The perfect distance to shake out to on Saturday night, and to get the friends and family involved who are tagging along for the weekend.

9. THE RUNNER PERKS

We’re putting together a bigger and better than ever list of Perks for you in 2016. Look forward to exclusive participant offers on dining, entertainment, nightlife, and shows to help amplify your race weekend–all unlocked by the wristband you receive at the Expo.

10. THE START LINE CONCERT

What other race can you get treated to a massive headliner concert from a 70 ft long stage with 30,000 of your closest friends, BEFORE you run?!

11. THE START LINE EXPERIENCE

The “pre-race jitters” are different here. The community is tremendous and as you cross the line, fire shoots into the sky. YES.

12. RUNNING PAST THE WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS SIGN

Your iconic Las Vegas tour starts before you hit the first mile marker as you run past the famed sign. Snap a selfie on the move, or jump into the photo area to line up the perfect shot.

13. THE COURSE ENTERTAINMENT

Local musicians and DJs lining the course with one goal in mind—to keep you pumped up from start to finish! All genres are covered, and they get into it!

14. THE RUN THRU WEDDING

Keep your eyes peeled on course for hundreds (yes, hundreds) of couples tying the knot or renewing their vows ON THE RUN! Only…in…Vegas…

15. THE RUNNING ELVI

The king of rock is well-represented each year in the form of hundred of white lycra-clad runners taking on the Strip at Night like the superstar himself. ROCK. ON.

16. RUNNING THROUGH DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS

Where Las Vegas all began. Staying true to it’s neon roots despite incredible gentrification, the vibe & energy is amazing!

17. THE MIRAGE VOLCANO

Not only are you finishing in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, but the Mirage volcano is erupting just to your right. If you’re lucky, your finish line photos will literally be on fire.

18. THE FINISH LINE

We bring the nightclub to the finish line, with lasers, lights and tunes to celebrate your epic achievement. See it all come together here in 27 seconds!

19. THE MEDALS

Words don’t do them justice…just take a look at the below, close your eyes, and imagine the feeling of crossing the finish line and being crowned with one of these like a running king or queen.

20. THE REMIX CHALLENGE

Those willing to take on the challenge of running back to back nights (Saturday 5K and Sunday marathon, ½ marathon or 10K) will be rewarded—heavily.

21. WALKING AROUND LAS VEGAS WITH YOUR MEDAL(S)

Wear them loud, wear them proud, wear them wherever the heck you want! You earned it.

Now, share this with your friends! The marathon and 1/2 price increases on August 2, so the clock is ticking! Use code RUNMEGANRUN for $15 off the half or full marathons!

(Originally posted here from Run Rock'n Roll)

Friday Favorites - July 10

I love Carlee's regular Friday Favorites posts and I've got so many things to share this week, I thought I'd jump on board! I haven't done one of my own in five-ever, so it's about dang time.

1. Sparkly Soul NEON Fun!
I mean... y'all know I love my Sparkly Soul. That might even be the understatement of the year. BUT I also love all things neon. And now they've combined two of my loves together!

You can also enter to win these neon 4-packs!

ENTER TO WIN 1 of 3 NEON 4-packs (thin or wide - winners choice)- Enter via Rafflecopter here: http://gvwy.io/s7rj1dOR 

- SHARE your favorite neon headband or tag a friend on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with hashtag #NEONsparklysoul and tag Sparkly Soul (@sparklysoulinc) through 7/13 11:59pm PST. Who doesn't want to win all the neon love?

2. Strut Your Stuff Sign Co. 

Now that we're in our new plac (also more to come on that later), and I've been collecting piles of medals on the corner of a chair at my parents' house, I've been eye-balling getting a medal holder - FINALLY! - for all that bling! Strut Your Stuff has some of my favorites, if not just for the quotations that they've done on some of their boards. Aaaaaaand the best part is that I just won one from their Instagram account! 

Can you say exciting? I sure can! Now my medals will finally have a home! And I think I'll scoop one up for Doug so he has a place for his, finally too. Happy times!

3. We Have Our OWN Place to Live!

I know, you'd think this would be an update from a long time ago, but like many other things... that'll come soon. Doug and I finally moved to our own place about two weeks ago, so it's been a crazy time of unpacking, finding things, waiting for the interwebz to get installed (sad when you realize how internet-dependent you've become) and so many other things. I'm beyond excited and it's wild and weird and wonderful all at the same time. 

4. We're Vegas-Bound!

... I guess following #3, no it's not what you think. Doug's officially on his three-week summer vacation and my next six weeks are absolutely bonkers, so all we found time for was a weekend to get away and go do something. So we're out for a few days just to get away and relax a bit before the crazy begins for me on Tuesday and before football kicks back up for him in a few weeks. Hooray!

Happy times. Happy Friday. Happy weekend everyone!

Whatcha up to this weekend?

Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas + Injuries

Fun things first, 'caus life's better that way, right?

Rock 'n Roll's Las Vegas race is back this year (because I doubt in a billion years they'd ever cancel it) - and race registration opens on April 1! Much like last year, the kick-ass team at RnR is doing a mssive kickoff launch party and YOU'RE invited.

All this party entails is that you run a 5K between now and April 1 (yup, even around your neighborhood), submit your proof of distance (by uploading a photo), and this sweet shirt (or tank!) is yours! It's like an actual virtual race... for FREE!

Many thanks to Ashley at RnR for pretty much the best gifs in the history of ever.

Who's in? Make sure you Instagram, tweet and share your fun with #LVkickoffnight!  You can also sign up for a registration reminder here, in case you forget that April Fool's Day is the day to NOT be a fool and make sure you sign up to run the #StripatNight. I ran the half in 2013, and while it wasn't my favorite race, running the strip is pretty cool - you can check it all out here!

As for me? I'm not sure running a 5K is in my immediate future. I spent yesterday at the doctor's, both for this nasty cough that's been getting at me since the LA Marathon (I sweeeaaaarrrr I'm working on my race post), but also to check out my ankle - something's not been quite right since last Friday and it finally got to the point that I needed to figure out what.

She grabbed the back of my ankle (think Achilles-ish), and pushed her thumb into where the inside is of my heel and I pretty much yelped - to her quote, "Yep, that's pretty much some overuse syndrome right there... definitely tendinitis."

So now I'm on resting orders until things feel normal - many thanks to the powers of Google, this could be weeks or months. I am far beyond prepared for the idea of months, but know that resting is absolutely mandatory so I can be back sooner rather than later. Womp.

Sooo... who knows what this means. I'm signed up for an actual 5K race on April 11, and then thankfully not until May 3 (OC Half) and of course Pixie Dust weekend May 9 and 10. I can only pray that with rest and careful strengthening exercises, I can keep my ankle in check and be back to good fairly soon -- keep your fingres crossed for me!

Since it's Spring Break this week, I was all ready for some fun runs, maybe down at the beach and everything, and now I'm just gonna chill on my couch... and maybe finally write some race recaps. :) More coming atcha soon!

Have you ever been diagnosed with tendinitis? Other suggestions, things to do? How long did it take you to recover?

Weekend Wrap Up: Las Vegas Lovin'

I am so far behind, y'all, it's not even funny! But to show you that my life is (a little) more than just running...

Shots, shots, shots... errrbodyyy... 

This past Saturday we celebrated Doug's big 3-0! He had pondered for awhile about what on earth to do for such a birthday, and finally decided Vegas was it. We went two years ago, also on his birthday weekend, as a sort of pre-Christmas vacation and had an amazing time, so decided it was definitely a place to ring in a new decade. His sister, her guy Todd, friend Jumah, friend Chris and his fiance Nancy and the two of us headed out on Friday for a birthday shenanigans weekend!

Friday we got to check out the new High Roller at the Linq - the world's newest largest ferris wheel (or observation wheel, as they call it). Y'ALL - this thing is awesome. I'm super glad we got a GroupOn for it, as I'm not sure I'd pay $45 a person to do it (our deal was $69 for two, including a happy half hour pass), but holy wow! So awesome.

We are stupidly good at selfies... 

On Saturday, we eventually rolled out of bed for a tummy-stuffing breakfast/lunch at the Hash House (funny enough, where we had gone two years ago that morning too!) before we headed over to the famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop... yes, as in Pawn Stars. Because when in Vegas, right?

Chris, Doug, Nancy & me.

Saturday night, we headed out for a full-on birthday celerbation - his actually birthday was Saturday, after all, so it was only fitting. After a beyond phenomenal dinner at Gallagher's, including some diabetes-inducing birthday cake, we headed out for our Vegas VIP club tour. More detail in a post to come, but basically we found this club tour concept via GroupOn (are you surprised?) two years ago, bought it on a whim, and had a freaking BLAST. So much so, that I had emailed them again a few weeks ago and mentioned that we were coming back, and could we get a deal? Done and done. So they basically cart you around to four clubs/lounges, you by-pass all lines to get in and no cover. Their bus is also a bar on board, so you can pretty much get fully loaded without spending an (expensive) dime at any of the clubs. This time around, we went to two places at the new SLS (Sayers Club & Life), Cromwell (Drai's), and Paris (Chateau). Yet again, pretty amazing time, not to mention that the first three are among the three newest locations of anywhere on the Strip. Winning!

Sunday, naturally, we crawled out of bed, made it to breakfast and met up with my dearest Katy Beth, and then walked the Strip for a bit for my favorite part: holiday decorations! The Bellagio is by far my favorite, but I love how done-up all the hotels get, with trees and lights and pretty much anything you can dream up. But the Conservatory at the Bellagio trumps all... if you haven't been, get there soon!

All in all, an amazing weekend and hopefully a pretty kick ass start to his 30th year. Happy birthday Doug! I love you!

What's your favorite hotel in Vegas?

Oh, Right... I've Got a Half Marathon to Run

... whoops. The good news is that I finally seemed to find some kind of motivation this week. Wonder where that's been (that's a revelation I came to this morning - post soon!).

It's almost here! Race day is two weeks yesterday, Southwest is sending me reminders, and details are coming together. Woo! I think I'm really just looked forward to a fabulous weekend with some fabulous ladies and getting out of a groove of some kind. Lasssss Vegassssss, here we come!

Monday
1.51 miles / 16 minutes / 10:35 pace
Finished out the Monday with running dragging Molly around the block just to get out. Lovely evening!

Tuesday
3.08  miles / 29:38 minutes / 9:39 pace
Felt slow, and sluggish and was tired running a 9:40 mile. Ugh. Lousy! But happy that I got out a second day in a row, for a second run... finally.

Wednesday
2.08 miles / 19:50 minutes / 9:32 pace
I remember nothing about this. Clearly lackluster!

Thursday
3.10 miles / 27:13 / 8:46 pace
Halloween miles (thus the 3.1!) and an awesome, awesome run. Made it a drive to just get on the sidewalk and push myself to see what I could do. Turns out... I ran only 3 second short of a 5K race PR. Who knew! Happy Halloween to me!

Friday
Rest 

Saturday
4.00 miles / 37:51 / 9:27 pace
Set out just hoping to get past the 3 mile wall. 4 is shorter than I planned, but still happy with how it went. I ended up chasing a lost pup a little bit because he looked like a dog on the flyer I had seen earlier in the run. Couldn't catch the dog and went back looking for the flyer, but couldn't find that either. I tried!

All in all... a decent week. 14 miles done, and not too shabby miles either. Better than zero! Maybe I'm slowly coming back.

Surf City | Week 12 & Giveaway Winners!

OH MY GOODNESS. Great week throughout, finally. I'm almost bummed I cut it short (thank you, Vegas) but I feel like I deserved this weekend 'off' and hope that it'll give the motivation to a) kick ass at the half on Wednesday and b) power through the next few weeks. Here we go! SIX weeks to go! Eeeep!

Monday: Rest
Rest
After Sunday's torrential downpour of a 5K, I was more than happy staying in my (dry!) warm, bed. Rest day happily accepted.

Tuesday: 9 x 400 m 
9 x 400 m / 4.13 mi total / 38:28 / 9:19 pace
I was a little emotionally charged from the day, and was ready to get some frustrations and extraneous mind boggle out of my head. The only way to do that? The gym, obviously.

My 9 x 400s usually go as such - 800 m warm up, 400 m repeats with 200 m rest & 400 m cool down. The splits (this is where it gets good!): 1:56, 1:55, 1:55, 1:54, 1:54, 1:48, 1:50, 1:56, 1:51! Snap! Should do track workouts while emotionally-charged more often (I kid. Sort of.) Personal best 400m at 1:48, and on set 6 no less! WHEW!

Don't forget to link up for Track Tuesdays! Be sure you're joining me and Run DMT each Tuesday (or, you know, whichever day of the week you prefer)! Check out this week's post out here!

Wednesday: 8 miles
8.12 mi / 1:19:23 / 9:46 pace
After the awesome Tuesday session, I really wanted to make Wednesday rock. I realize that I say that every week, but now that I'm getting down to that 6-week wire, I know that now is my chance to make things count. It's go time, baby! Headed to the gym after work for 64 make that 65 laps on the track.

Solid, strong 8 miles. OF the 8 laps per mile, I walked the first one and would run the rest, would say my slowest mile was just about 10:05. But with an overall of 9:46, I'd say this was a super success. So happy with how this went! I never thought I'd be able to bust out 8 miles on a weekday evening, but so excited to say that a) I finally did it and b) it was fantastic!

Thursday: 4 miles
4.25 mi / 39:07 / 9:12 pace
Last run in Georgia until 2013! Quick 4 miles after work (yes, back at the gym, ugh!), but wanted to make one last good southern showing for 2012. I'm ready to get to California where I might not totally freeze on morning runs outside. Aaaaah. Anyway, planned for 4 and figured if I felt good (as good as I did on Wednesday, at least), then I'd push for a little bit more because well... why not? Pushed through for a strong last quarter mile and really happy with this run too. Week = success!

Friday: Rest
Rest
Vegas-bound! Friday was chaotic - it was the last day of work (I took a half day) and left at lunch. I said bye to the pup and dropped her off at boarding where she'll be until I'm back on the 2nd (I hate doing that to her). :( Ran a last errand, got my car home, and a friend took me back to campus to catch the shuttle to the airport. Whew!

Landed in Vegas at 9:30, and headed straight here, duh, as tradition requires:
And then played all weekend!

Saturday:Rest
Rest
I was in Vegas. Wasn't that a given that I would be resting? ;)

[source, until I get mine uploaded!]

Sunday: Cross-Train
Walking the Strip ... totally counts.
I wasn't counting on making this happen, given that we weren't conscious Sunday morning until nearly noon. But we walked nearly the whole strip all afternoon, so it was a good mellow way to get something done, right? Right.

Total Week Run Miles: 16.5
Total XT Miles: maybe 2?
Total Week Miles: 18.5 or so. :)

And, the excitement you've been waiting for... our Premier Protein giveaway winners! So many thank yous to PP for hosting this and allowing me to have FIVE winners!

All the winners have been emailed. If you are a winner, you must email me back by Friday, December 28 at 5 pm EST with your address! If not, a new winner will be chosen!

Merry Christmas everyone!

How did your training go this week? 

Vegas Bound!

Doesn't the title say it all? On a plane, friends, to the Sin City, the Entertainment Capital of the World, Glitter Gulch, Lost Wages... Las Vegas! Stoked for a vacation to start the vacation - isn't that normal? I'll be in Vegas tonight through sometime Sunday afternoon, then driving back across the desert to southern California for the holidays.

And then it's family time, half marathon time, the bulk of training time, Kasey time, boyfriend time, and sunshine time. Aaaaah. So excited.

Have a lovely, lovely weekend friends!