The 2001 USCAA Corporate Marathon National Championships took place at Las Vegas again this year.  I ran a very ugly 4:30:36, aided by a lack of training and having a bad chest cold through the race.  The sole benefit was to qualify me for the 2001 Comrades down run.

I flew out Thursday evening on very full planes.  Everyone wants to be a millionaire.  Tom was waiting for me at the hotel and we had a beer at the microbrewery in the Monte Carlo hotel, next door.

Friday morning I had buffet breakfast with Ron and Liane, then Tom, Liane and I went for lunch at a Mexican place.  Then we stopped at a Mexican microbrewery, ZTeja’s and then went to the expo to pick up our packets and "work" at the USCAA booth.  Then we had Chinese.  I ordered a real spicy dish that made my head sweat, and I felt it helped burn some of the junk out of my chest.  I had been fighting what felt like pneumonia for a couple weeks.

Saturday morning Tom and I had the buffet and took Liane on a drive into Red Rock Canyon, only about 30 minutes from the strip.  I wanted to get away from the nonsense there and see what the countryside was like.  It was nice - hot, sunny, and desert.  We had a nice drive.

Saturday evening we had our traditional team dinner thanks to Tom's planning. Everything was wonderful, including the service, the company and the capellini.  It was very good, just right.  And I tried to take a team photo afterwards.

The race, of course, was Sunday morning.  We all met at 4:45 in the lobby to walk to the buses, then rode out to Jean, Nevada for the start.  It was warmer this year at the start by probably 10-15 degrees. My splits are shown below.

I made a pit stop in mile 13 as you can see.  I felt like I could make it when I got to 15, but by 20 I felt like using all the available time to do so.  Since Comrades requires a 4:45 marathon qualification this year, I figured I had 4:44.  Even though all the 100s of people that went by me in the first 2 miles were still coming back to me, it wasn't getting easier.  I had only run 12 miles in training leading up to the event.  I hadn't run the mileage I planned, and I actually planned to under  train.  So I under under trained.  And I was sick, so I guess I had plenty of excuses.  At mile twenty, I decided to walk the first 3 minutes of each mile and then run to the next mile marker.  I considered it training for Comrades.

There was more scenery this year - this year there was a crushed car off to the right and 4 empty railroad cars on a siding off the the left.  Last year there was nothing.  Another difference was that last year I expected some scenery and this year I knew better.  Finally, last year I was disoriented when I finished, but this year I tried to be in a good mood.  Ron, Tom and Liane were waiting for me and we walked back to the corner where Ron had parked and he drove us back to the hotel.  That was extremely nice.  Ron had been watching people finish for over 2 hours, and Tom and Liane waited well over an hour.

After, we rested a little while and then walked to the team results and awards meeting.  Then we had supper and went out dancing.  Well, no one I knew danced, but we did go to the race party and caroused at some more interesting places before retiring for the night.

Tom, Kim, Liane and I shared a wonderful breakfast at Monte Carlo before I left for my plane.  Great trip!