Running on the Las Vegas Strip

Non-runners, especially those who don’t live in Colorado, often tell me how dangerous it is for me to run in the mountains. Mountain lions, snakes, bad weather, getting lost in the woods, falling down a ravine – stuff like that often comes up. But running in the mountains is no where as dangerous as running in the city – especially on something like the Las Vegas Strip.

I felt crummy all day – anti-social, introverted, a little sick, and cranky. I’ve only left my room twice – first to get a cup of coffee and a banana for breakfast and most recently to crank out a run. I’m staying at the Venetian so I went out the front door, turned right, and ran hard for about 25 minutes. It was amazingly easier to run at 2000 feet in the desert than it is at 9000 feet in Keystone. My 11 – 12 minute pace because a 9 minute pace and I just cruised.

Except for when I had to stop at intersections. I tried to dance across them even against the red lights, but that was tricky. Even when the white walk signal man was up, all the crazy people making right turns without looking honked and tried to run me over. Then there were the left turn people running the red light. Or maybe just the people who weren’t looking. My favorite was the rolling stop out of a shopping center parking lot that pushed me into oncoming traffic to avoid having to crawl over the car.

I made a game of it. As I got away from the strip (past the Encore) things got sketchy fast and my new found speed kept me a step ahead of the bail bonds cars and adult whatever things going on. Eventually I got to “downtown” which was quiet and empty, at which point I turned around. Back at the Encore, the throngs of people smoking cigarettes appeared and I had to dodge them also. At some point I stepped in a pothole funny as I tried to avoid a person typing on their iPhone and twisted my right ankle a little. I’m hyper sensitive to it since it was sore last week so I’ll watch it, but I don’t think it was goofy enough to be an issue.

As I walked through the casino looking for a post run apple – which I eventually found and paid $2.87 for – I couldn’t help but feel sick from the smoke. It’s like 100% of the smokers in America came to Las Vegas and lit up at the same time. Yuck.

Cars. People. Potholes. Smoke. Who said running in the mountains in Colorado was dangerous?