The next morning, my sister flew in from Vegas. My step brother got married in the evening so she came solo to attend. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception in a 300 year old barn. It was a rustic ambiance but with a modern flare. Sandy was a beautiful bride! There were about 100 guests and just about everybody danced the night away.
The next morning my sis and I headed out for a long run. Clearly we barely drank at the wedding, lol. We set out for 12 but had to stop at 9.5 due to time constraints. We averaged in the 8's so I was happy regardless. This was our last long run before the Vegas half marathon. While Melissa visited, we fit in another run and a trip to the gym. We also visited family, did some Justin-friendly activities and drove to Maine and back in a day. She was in CT from Friday-Tuesday.
On Thursday, only two days after she left, we flew to Vegas. This trip had been planned before we knew Mark and Sandy were going to marry in late November and Melissa was coming to CT. Quite the treat to get so much quality time in with my sis!!
I ran the morning of our flight then again our first full day in Vegas. I wouldn't run again until Sunday, the day of the half marathon.
Knowing this race would accommodate 44,000 runners, we decided to forego any PR's and just have fun. The race was at night under the neon and glitz of Las Vegas Blvd. It was pretty cool. We put together matching costumes...think Santa's little helpers. We attached strings of LED lights to our tutus and shirts, along with jingle bells to our gloves. We looked AWESOME!
We approached the crowded starting line from the police substation parking lot. My sister being a cop has its perks- free parking! We lined up in our corral and began our fun run about 10 minutes after the gun. Everyone seemed to love our outfits. Strangers even took pictures of us!!
Mia, my youngest niece was manning a water station around mile 4. We stopped to chat with her, took pictures, found a semi clean port-o-potty, took more pics... It was nice to just sorta trot the course, stop when we wanted and have no real desire to run hard. It was fun!!
We finished in over two hours. No worries! After we crossed the finish, retrieved our medals, water, etc., we were clueless on how to get out of the mob of other finishers and what seemed like their entire families! Melissa started to panic, which led us to hopping through fences.
We began to plot our escape after the crowd pushed us a good 1/3 mile back to the chute where finishers were approaching the finish line. We were about 2/3 mile from our car, and frustrated we wouldn't get out of the madness until midnight.
My sis was determined!! So much that we squeezed our bodies through the spectator fence, ran against the traffic of finishing 1/2 marathon runners, darted across their path, squeezed through another fence, crossed the path of the marathon runners then proceeded to squeeze through two other fences before getting onto Las Vegas Blvd. and car bound.
We returned to my sister's before 9:00 and I was back to the hotel with Joe and Justin shortly after. Phew!
We rested yesterday, got in a gym sesh today and now I'm on a plane home to CT. Not since 15 years ago have I spent so much time with my sister. Thankfully we have a love of running in common. We won't see each other again until February, then subsequently in the summer. Hopefully we can log more miles together.
It's always bittersweet parting from each other. Though many miles keep us apart, the miles we run keep us bonded.
So here I am on a plane. Justin is behaving wonderfully! He slept for 3 hours and will be up all night, but whatever... As long as he's not "that child" on the plane, I can deal. About an hour til we land. About 90 minutes til we see our kitties and about 12 hours until I will hit the pavement again.
About 10 weeks until the Hyannis FULL Marathon... Yes I registered. I'm committed now!! Oh boy!
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