Buckle up! This is going to be another loooooong post.
This year, my husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary. Since we both like to run, we decided to do it our own way, with a couple of significant races here and there. hahaha what a shocker!
First, we ran the Portland Half Marathon in October. This is where we met 20 years ago. We didn't make it to our high school reunion but we invited our special high school friends to join us at the run. You can read my recap,
here
Then, we ran together the New York City Marathon in November. This was my dream since I was 10 years old and to run it with my husband this year made it even more special. Check
I won the lottery!! and
Dreams Come True!
And last but not least, we finally decided to renew our vows at the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon this last weekend. It has been another dream of mine since I was a teenager. Well, sort of. Check
this out.
Oh, you want to see our RNR LV Renewal pictures? You just have to wait!
Friday, December 2nd - Rock N Roll Expo
It was over-crowded and crazy but I didn't care. Besides picking up my race bib, my shirt and my goodie bag, I had only 2 goals: A picture with an Elvis and meeting my running idol, Kara Goucher.
Mission accomplished! I was at the expo for one hour. I waited for 40 minutes to take a picture with Kara and for the first time EVER, I was starstruck. All I said was "Nice to meet you. Can you sign my book?". If you know me well, you are probably laughing. I wanted to tell her how much I admire her but I was suddenly shy. LOL. This never happened to me before. Not even when I met Ron Livingstone at the SuperBowl.
After getting my picture taken with Kara, I walked to the iFitness booth to say hi to Uri. He was selling hydration belts as if they were pancakes. I also stopped by the
RunGirlRun booth and purchased compression socks and a cute performance top that I ended up wearing at the wedding-race.
Saturday, December 3rd
From 10:00am to 12:00pm, we were at
The Las Vegas Great Santa Run
If you want to see more pictures, click
here.
After The Las Vegas Great Santa Run, we grabbed a quick bite and headed to the Mirage hotel for a mandatory wedding meeting at 3:00pm. This meeting was for all the wedding couples and their running friends.
They gave us final instructions, wristbands and our Wedding Renewal Certificate. They told us to be at the Mandalay Convention Center on Sunday no later than 4:00pm.
After this meeting, we headed back to our hotel, picked up our family and drove to Buca Di Beppo. We had reservations for 25 people (our wedding party and their families) at 6:00pm.
Carb-loading Family Style
I could have eaten all this at mile 9 of the race!
What do you do when your race doesn't start until 5:45 pm? Sightseeing with the kids while the grandparents do some gambling!
Visited New York since we felt homesick :(
Visited Luxor since my daughter is fascinated with Egypt.
We were back at the hotel by 2:00pm. We agreed with everyone in the wedding party to meet at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center by 3:00pm to take pictures. This gave us 20 minutes to prep. My friends M&M arrived at the room shortly after. May had picked beautiful hot pink wrist corsages for all the bridesmaids and my daughter. What an awesome gift!
It matched my pinkilicious outfit!
Forty minutes later, we were at the Mandalay Convention Center taking pictures. Here we go:
The Bride and The Groom
The Wedding Party
The running Bridemaids
The Boys
Family G
My yogi sis. Do we have time for some BY poses?
Feeling happy!
At around 3:30pm, more and more wedding couples started arriving and so did more runners dressed up like Elvis. Yes, we were all sharing the same special corral. How nice!
Posing with Elvi (plural for Elvis)
The meeting at 4:00pm was very short. They took some professional group pictures. Hopefully, something similar to this one.
Soon, we were outdoors, frrrrrrrrreezing at Corral 13. Over 1:15 minutes to go.
It's time to warm up! Let's do some yoga!
Half Moons at the starting line
Our corral started on-time, 5:45pm. We had until 6:20pm to make it to the ceremony site at the Volcano. Since this was only 2 miles away, we decided to take it easy. We all ran together side-by-side to the Mirage. It was beautiful. 44,000 running participating in my wedding party :-) I am so glad I ran without music. As we passed the Bellagio, the water show started. It was dancing to the tunes of Frank Sinatra's "The Lady is a Tramp". We were signing. I looooved it. We arrived at the Mirage around 6:05pm and waited for 15 minutes or so. A reporter from 8news was interviewing couples and our friends were close enough to take pictures of us.
The ceremony was nice and sweet. We got to exchange our vows and promised to love each other FOREVER while the flames of the Mirage's volcano erupted.
OK I need to admit it is kind of corny but very cute. We kissed each other, hugged our friends and exited the area to continue running. No time goals for this race. Just for fun!
I ran together with my bridesmaids, M & M, almost the entire race. This is the first time I did this. I usually run alone with my music but I skipped it so we could chat and hear each other.
Even though I didn't want to PR or anything, I wanted to run at a nice pace but I found it difficult at times. I did a lot of zigzagging, jumping around bushes, skipping cones and trying to make my way through the sea of walkers. By the time the crowds thinned out, we were already at mile 9. I was hungry and thirsty but there was no water to be found. There was nothing left at the stations. Aghghgh. I, then, realized that I haven't eaten all day. OMG! I started loosing it but soon enough my energetic friend May caught up with us. Few minutes later, we saw my hubby and the Mandalay Bay hotel at the end of the Strip. This is it. I gathered whatever energy was left and finished strong. 2:25:10 + 21 minutes at the Mirage. Not bad! hahaha
Highlights
- Our wedding ceremony was beautiful. The Mirage Volcano erupting at the end of the ceremony was a nice touch.
- My wedding party. So thankful for having all our friends with us on that special day
- Running side-by-side my bridesmaids, almost the entire 13.1
- Running into my groom a couple of times
- The Bellagio Fountains dancing to Frank Sinatra music
Areas of improvement (this is for the RNR organizers)
- More music bands
- No water at some of the water stations
- Post-race food. The bananas were so green I could have prepared Cuban tostones with them,
- The way the roads were divided. There were small traffic cones in some areas separating half marathoners and full marathoners. I almost tripped a couple of times. Also, I almost got run over by a bike rider who was directing traffic.
- Stuck at the Mandalay Bay Hotel for hour and a half, after the race. Let me show you.
Chaos at the Mandalay Bay Hotel
Note to everyone that made it to our special day - We are so thankful!
We have "kind" memories of our Big Fat American-Cuban-Spanish-Austrian Wedding 15 years ago. However, we always wished for something more simple, something more us, something stress free. Wait! There is nothing "simple" about us. I am constantly reminded that we live on the edge. And to be honest, I love it this way. We had a blast! Love you guys! This is exactly how we envisioned our BIG day!
Re-editing
I just found out that we made it to the 8news. You can see us clearly at 0:40.
