For as long as my wife and I have been married, we have
always talked about to visiting Las Vegas for our anniversary. Each year we would talk about going but never
put the plan into motion until this year.
Our anniversary falls on August 22 each year which also happens to be
her birthday. Since we decided to
finally head out I just so happened to look for a marathon to do while out
there since we were not out in this part of the country ever. There happened to be a race in Rachel Nevada
on the same weekend at midnight about 2.5 hours outside of Vegas. I told Casey about it and without hesitation
she said okay and wanted to know if she could sign up for the half marathon
portion. I was pleasantly surprised
since my wife has only ran a few 5k races and one 8k. In her life she has never ran more than 5
miles at one time. She has never been as
crazy about running as I have and I have never pushed her to be a runner. It has never really been an issue of
contention between us, I enjoy running and doing races all over the country and
my wife enjoys travel and spending time together. During this 50 state marathon journey, we
have been able to see some really interesting places and experience many
wonderful memories. This trip to Vegas
would be one of the best trips we have ever had together. We arrived and did all of the normal tourist
excursions, we saw the Grand Canyon and experienced all of the daytime and
nighttime splendor that Las Vegas has to offer (most of it anyway). The good thing about this race was that it
started at midnight so we basically had to force ourselves to stay up late into
the night in order to properly acclimate to the time difference out there. I could write a whole different blog on all of
the fun stuff that we did and have a plethora of entertaining stories that I
will talk about for many years to come, but this is a blog about running.
The race is called the ET midnight marathon, and takes place
along the Extraterrestrial Highway in Rachel Nevada. The race starts at the “black” mailbox (it is
actually white) outside of the famed Area 51 sight and finishes at the little
Ale Inn 20 miles away. The race has a
51k, marathon, half-marathon and 10k. The
marathon and 51k start at the mailbox at the stroke of midnight and then the
half marathoners are taken 7 miles up the road and start at 12:30, then the 10k
runners are taken to the finish line where they do a 3.1 mile out and back at
1:00am. The marathon consists of the
first 12.5 miles being entirely up hill followed by 7 miles down hill and
another 3 miles up again and 3 miles down.
Another factor to keep in mind is that this is the month of August in
the middle of the desert and the elevation at the highest point is around 6000
feet above sea level. So we have heat,
hills and high elevation making this yet another tough race to put on the
calendar. I was mostly worried about my
wife though, since this would be her first marathon and to top it off she had
not trained for this at all, absolutely zero miles of running had been done on
her part to prepare for this race, to say I was worried was a big
understatement.
There were a lot of people that showed up to the race, most
of them were shuttled on buses from Vegas to the starting line. It was so amazing standing around before the
race with a lot of runners dressed in costumes and a sea of people wearing glow
sticks and head lamps. The air felt nice
with almost no humidity even though the temperature was in the low 80’s. The race started and off we went into the
night, the big difference I noticed immediately was that it was a bit more
difficult to breathe due to the elevation compared to good ole Tennessee. After about 3 miles, my body adjusted and
breathing became normal as we were just beginning the uphill climb. Mentally as the race was started, I mostly
focused on catching up to my wife since she would be starting 7 miles ahead of
me about 30 minutes after I started running.
I kept calculating on when I would catch up to her, I missed her and
longed for her mostly just to make sure she was doing okay and to be there to
encourage her. It bothered me that she
was alone in the middle of the desert on a difficult race course doing her
first half marathon without me there to help her. As the miles ticked on and I knew the top of
the summit was coming, I spotted her silhouette in the distance with my
headlamp, I knew immediately her stride and body shape and felt so much joy to
see her. I had not felt that emotional
about seeing my wife since our wedding day, I could tell that she was okay and
feeling very good and happy. We were
almost to the top of the hill together and so I stopped to run next to her for
a little bit and give her some of the encouragement that I had longed to share
for the entire race. After a few minutes
she encouraged me to go ahead and keep running, I did not want to leave her
again. In that moment I was ready to run
with her all the way to the finish line and forgo completing my #14th
marathon. Her finishing her race
suddenly became more important than any race I had ever done. I wanted to be with her and witness her
triumph of her first half marathon. Just
like our wedding, I wanted it to be her day and celebrate her accomplishment
but she would hear none of it. Casey
told me to go and continue and promised to meet me there at the finish, so I
reluctantly picked back up my pace and headed off into the darkness, missing
her once again. The lonely feeling I had
after leaving her made me want to run faster, I decided that the sooner I
finished, the sooner we would meet again.
By the time I had surpassed the top of the summit, the race
had spread out with only faint flickers of light out in the distance from other
runners barely visible. It is a very
euphoric feeling being alone in the middle of the desert at midnight by
yourself, no street lights, no houses or businesses and almost no traffic to
speak of. I turned off my headlamp to
run in the dark and experience something that very few people ever get to see. There was no interference from outside city
lights to block what the natural night sky was displaying, it was amazing, I
had never seen the moon shine that radiantly.
The moon was actually so bright that it almost hurt my eyes to look
directly at it and the only sounds I could here were my foot strides and the
breeze going across the sand. This is
why I wanted to do this race, most people go to Vegas to witness the massive
casinos, wild club parties and the vibrant night life but never get to experience
the peace of pure solitude in one of the most remote areas in the country. I was able to enjoy both and would do it
again in a heartbeat. Out of all the
races I have ever ran, this one is by far the most unique and enjoyable so far. This marathon beats out Boston and New York
and every other marathon I have ever done.
I did not keep track of the miles nor what kind of pace I
had been running, I did not care. I did
not want this race to end, I just wanted to keep on running until the sun came
up. This was one of those rare moments
in life that you just long to hang on to and hope that it never ends. I believe that there are certain times in
life where you get to experience a small piece of what heaven is like, maybe it
is during the birth of your child or during your first kiss, sometimes it comes
when looking at something magnificent or sometimes it comes when you are doing
nothing at all. I think each of these
times are just pieces of what heaven is like all rolled into one and after each
one, it makes you crave so much more. I
think sometimes people turn to many different vices in life hoping to find a
piece of euphoria and my use sex, drugs or alcohol to try and find it. I happened to find it while running in the
middle of the night in the Nevada desert and keep running hoping to find it
again.
The race finished and I had a 4th place overall
finish but was most elated to see my beautiful wife waiting for me at the
finish line with a smile upon her face.
I crossed the line and started to cry tears of joy as we embraced and
started to talk about our experiences. I
almost immediately received my trophy from placing first in my age group but
despite that, I was already holding the hand of my best prize of all. This race was special because it was in a
special place with the most special person in my life, it was marathon #14 on
our 14th wedding anniversary, we drove back to Vegas as we saw the
sun slowly rising over the mountains, we
got to spend one last night in Vegas with a suite at the Venetian with a
promise that we would someday be back and that there would be plenty more
adventures to come.
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