Pre-Race Vegas Recap & WHICH IS BETTER?!?!?
Friday is tomorrow and I cannot wait for the weekend. It was a short week for me, but it honestly felt like those 3 days were actually more like 10 or more… Saturday will be a complete lazy day for me. I actually aspire to not change out of my sweats the entire day. I also will be reading more of my new Library book Shoe Dawg by Phil Knight and I’m completely obsessed with this book.
I figured the next best way to get me through the rest of this week (besides staying on vacation) was to recap my trip for you! So here’s recap of what we did leading up to the 5k. I’ll have a 5k recap for you tomorrow and 13.1 recap for you on Monday. I flew into Las Vegas Wednesday morning and got there around 10:30. My mom & gram flew into the airport around 11:30 that morning so I did a lot of people-watching at the baggage claim waiting for them to arrive. Then it was straight to get the rental car & then the nearest In-N-Out.
YUM. So tasty. I’m not sure if it’s better than Five Guys, but it certainly tasted really good. We then drove 4 hours to Grand Canyon- South Rim and thanks to the time-change (daylight savings + Grand Canyon being in AZ), we arrived there after dark around 5:30. Boo. We were all pretty exhausted so we went to bed early and then got up the next morning for a run (my mom & I did).
Running in the Grand Canyon (we did the Rim Trail, which spans over 7 miles one way?!?) was SO beautiful. It was not a pancake-flat run, but oh so beautiful. I cannot get over these run views!
Our stay at the Kachina Lodge was perfect (the Rim is literally out the front door of the lodge), but parking for it was really challenging (especially arriving there in the dark). We drove around several times before we found where we needed to check-in and then drove around some more to find a parking spot.
After our run, we walked over the Canyon edge and saw a baby fox just curled up on the ledge! How cute is he?!?
We also did the Desert View Drive, which I can’t recommend enough. So many great viewpoints and also apparently you may see a Mountain Lion?!?
I had never been to the Watchtower on Desert View Drive and it was so beautiful! Not just the views, but really the history itself really interested me.
We drove back to Vegas Thursday late afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Flamingo. At first I was a bit hesitant on switching to a different hotel this year, but I really liked the Flamingo. The casino itself didn’t smell as cigarette-smoky as others and the rooms had recently been renovated. They had a great flat screen TV, shower was awesome, and the location itself along the strip was great (especially close to the finish line of the 10k/half/full marathon).
On Friday, we went to the Expo (I’ll include the recap of that tomorrow with 5k recap), returned the rental car, went to the Premium North Outlets (didn’t see much to purchase), and then went to see Celine Dion in concert!
I’ve been a HUGE fan of Celine since I was maybe 9 or 10 so it was amazing to see her perform live. I was so excited that I actually TEARED UP when she started singing?!? Anyone else ever get emotional when they heard their childhood favorite artist (or just favorite artist in general) perform?!
Also sporting my $10 jacket that I scored at the Gap Outlet that morning!
We slept in on Saturday and prepped for the 5k!
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In-N-Out or Five Guys?
Favorite childhood singer or artist?
What are you currently reading?