12 Marathons in 12 Months...ACCOMPLISHED!

I finished my 12th marathon of the year at the Rock 'N' Roll Las Vegas Marathon!
My 2009 goal.
And...it just happened to be on my birthday!

It was a whirlwind trip. We didn't leave until early morning Saturday. Arrived to Vegas, met up with Karen and went to packet pick up and rocked out with some Elvi.

Then that afternoon Amanda and I headed off to see the Lion King as Doug met up with his team to go to the pasta party to celebrate the start a great journey...their first half marathon.

Then it was an early morning race day with a 6:15 am start. I kissed Doug as he left uber early to meet up with his team to give them their last minute inspiration and instructions. Amanda and I 'slept in' til around 4:45 am. Karen then came up to meet us so we could take the tram to Mandalay Bay.
The Marathon Girls...

Before heading out, I lost my phone somewhere in between our room and the bathroom downstairs. I wanted to take it with me to call Stacey and Nikemom to see if we could meet up and also to take some pictures of the race. I didn't find it, but thought it might had been upstairs in the room. It ended up at lost and found and I was able to recover it. Whoo Hoo.

At the start, Amanda took off to her corral and Karen and I started together. The start was fun with 15 minutes of continuous fireworks, the whole strip still lit up, 2 white tigers pacing at the start, 30 thousand people and huge tv screens displaying the coverage of the marathon.

I ran the first half with my BFF, Karen, and then had a strong second half. From mile 12-26.2 I passed over 100 people and only 2 of those ever passed me back up. I felt like a rock star! And as I crossed the finish line, I had the best person ever present me my medal...Doug.

We then waited for Karen and Doug presented Karen with her medal as well. With several tears flowing, we headed back to the hotel to get ready and cleaned up to meet up with a few friends for celebration drinks for:

Doug's 82 marathon...my birthday...Doug's team completing their 1st half marathon...Karen's 2nd marathon...Amanda's 3rd marathon and my 12th marathon of the year. Now THAT'S a lot to celebrate!

Here is a few of us after Mexican food and margaritas!

All in all...a fun weekend. A whirlwind...and I never even put a penny in the slots as I was already ONE LUCKY GIRL!