Training means that you run, regardless of where you're at. One thing that I've heard consistently from all of my friends that have trained for marathons is "never, ever skip your long runs. No matter what."

So while in Las Vegas on business, I had a 9 mile run scheduled for Saturday. (Thankfully, this is a "recovery" run, so it's actually short as far as "long" runs go.)

I ran up and down the Vegas Strip. I started just as the sun was rising at around 6am, to avoid the extreme heat (it's supposed to be 107 today). The drunks were walking back to their hotels, which made for an entertaining spectacle of humanity.

Highlights included:

+ Two drunk dudes singing the Rocky theme as I passed them (!!)

+ Super hot girl with drunken slit eyes pointing at me and winking, from the back of her cab

+ Dude barfing into a garbage can, while his buddies consoled him

+ Hooker postcards on the sidewalk getting skankier and skankier, as I headed further away from the "nicer" properties

+ The massive sidewalk sweeping machines that pick up the skanky hooker postcards that have filled the sidewalks through the night

+ Passed out cabbie driven up onto sidewalk, getting pulled out onto a stretcher, while police take crime photos (at least I hope he was passed out.)

+ Dude swimming in his pants, in a fountain at Miracle Mile shops, and then grinding his wet butt on his two girlfriends

+ Two stair climbs that I couldn't avoid on the pedestrian overpasses nearly KILLED me

+ The "Brooklyn Bridge" at New York, NY was closed to pedestrians. Sooo wanted to run over this

+ It's so dry, you don't sweat. (Totally amazing!)

+ As the sun fully rose, runners slowly replaced the drunks on the sidewalk

I ended the run with the sun up, and OK Go "This too shall pass" playing on my ipod, with the totally appropriate lyrics "As the morning comes..." There could not have been a more appropriate song at that moment...

I must do this again. Totally awesome.

As always, feel free to make a donation to the American Heart Association to help cover my donation/entry fee into the marathon! I can't do this without you.