Hey y'all glad to see more casinos figuring out this covid mess, and some of you brave souls getting back to the tables! We had a few days and were in the area on road trip so decided to use a Tuesday comp room at Harrah's, Laughlin. Here's what I learned.
FIVE DOLLAR TABLES!
Aquarius - $5 ATS Gold Nugget -$5 Tropicana -$10
Aquarius seemed to have no problem keeping the table running all day.
Gold nugget opened the table at noon.
Harrah's, Tropicana, and Riverside were doing the 10$, and Trop opened the table at 6pm. Dealers in short supply, info from the pit manager. Heard this from multiple bosses across town.
If you are gonna stay in Laughlin, the Gold Nugget was desolate, perfect if you want to keep to yourself, but this was a weekday after all. Paul was a kind, hard working old-school dealer. Didn't get to tip him enough as my budget was already busted this trip. They have some decent video poker too, if you are into that. New members still get a free wheel spin for freeplay.
Aquarius felt pre-pandemic vibes. You could stand at any position if you were playing, and I got a good hour in ($60 buy in!!) and rolled my best there. I love longer tables. Hit 3 $1 hardways for the dealers, I was down to $10 and back to $60 three times, finally fizzled out. It is really hard to play with $60 but I made it happen. Almost hit the small but could not hit the snakes even if it was mating season! The table almost hit the ATS two more times but the dang snakes were hibernating. Insane.
Now, a word about pandemic procedures.
In an era of endless information, it seems that there is still no one agreed upon way to deal with covid-19 in public spaces. In general, I've found you just need to wash your hands and use sanitizers frequently, thick tight fitting cloth masks or a supply or surgical masks are a good thing, mandatory at one of my home casinos, Casino Del Sol. However, I got away with just my gaiter in Laughlin.
I've been going to casinos for a good two months in Southern Arizona now and the sanitizing seems to happen less on the slots and tables than before, so you have to just look out for yourself. I do enjoy a cigarette in a casino sometimes and it seems hard to get a drag in without some employee telling me to pull my mask up again. Apparently smoking and gambling gets security to boot you at some places, as one employee at Harrah's took it upon himself to watch me smoke and a third warning pulling my mask down to smoke would have called security. I put out my cig and called it a night.
Harrah's by far the most strict about everything Covid. With places to throw on the table marked by tape, 6 spots, and if you are with a significant other you can only stand directly behind, not touch any rails on the table. I Almost got booted for leaning over to see the throw.
At Aquarius it was everything like normal craps but spectators couldn't hang at the empty table, had to stay six feet back. Dealers didn't like the ambiguity but they still seem to be figuring things out there.
Sorry my rant went long but these are interesting times.
TLDR:
FIVE DOLLAR TABLES in Laughlin!
Aquarius - $5 ATS
Gold Nugget -$5 (table games opened at noon)
Tropicana -$10 (craps opened at 6pm weekday, seems to be a dealer shortage)
Covid-conditions: Aquarius: pre-pandemic standing at the table, masks (duh).
Gold Nugget: desolate, great dealers when they have them
Harrah's: half-capacity standing, no spectators in general, forget enjoying a smoke without getting threatened with the boot.
Use sanitizers and get out there everyone, but be safe (don't lick your dang hands and stay away from your face...) and keep rolling!!
submitted by This past weekend I ran the inaugural
Laughlin / Bullhead City Half Marathon, a.k.a. "Best Dam River Race."
Background Laughlin is a town in Nevada on the Colorado River. For most of the year it's a sleepy little casino town, a far cry from the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas; the big draw in the summer, aside from gambling, is the river itself. Across the river is Bullhead City, Arizona. Just above these two towns is the
Davis Dam.
Some friends from my running club invited us to join them for a weekend in Laughlin centered around this inaugural race. They go to Laughlin every summer with their non-running friends, and apparently spend quite a lot of money there. Everyone in that town seems to know them; as a result, our rooms were totally comped, and we got VIP treatment at the hotel. Score!
All told, there would be 6 of us from the running club, and 7 non-runners who planned to walk the 5K.
Training / Goals Due to a lingering hamstring tendon problem, my training mileage was relatively low leading up to this race. Therefore I had no aspirations of
racing or going for a PR here.
Weekly mileage was: 12.1 / 13.3 / 15.1 / 13 / 16.3 / 24.8 / 11.8 (taper the week of). Clearly not enough to go for a serious result, so I expected to run this race nice and easy. Just go out and have a good time with friends. My only goal was sub 2-hour, which should be no problem whatsoever. Maybe sub-1:50 if my tendon felt ok.
Most importantly, this race would serve as a benchmark to determine if I should go ahead with my marathon in January. It's out of state, so I need to get plane tickets; but I didn't want to do that without being confident that I could actually
finish (again, not
race) 26.2 in another month. If this half went well, I would go ahead with next month's full.
Race Day Alarm at 5:15, quick shower to wake up, ate a banana and a Clif bar. Weather report said 37F, so I decided to wear a long sleeve tech shirt under my short sleeve. I debated putting on another layer, but was glad I didn't; as it was, the long sleeve was a little too hot late in the race. Not a cloud in the sky, so it would warm up fairly quickly.
Down to the hotel lobby to meet our friends by 6:15. 5 of the 7 non-runners had apparently opted to sleep in and skip the 5K, so it was just 8 of us. 4 doing the half marathon and 4 doing the 5K.
The start line was about a mile down the hill from our hotel, so I thought this would be perfect for a little warmup jog. Nobody else agreed, to the 7 of them drove down while I ran it nice and easy. With parking time, we arrived at the same time.
The event was fairly small - 295 half finishers and 158 5K finishers - so navigating the start area was easy. After the worst-sung national anthem I've ever heard (they tried, so I respect that, but it was baaaaaad), the half starters were asked to informally organize into 2 "corrals" - sub 2:30 and above 2:30. Our group moved up to get in the front half. While there, we met a guy who noticed my club shirt and said he went to school with another member of our club. Cool!
The Race Miles 1-5:
7:29, 8:10, 7:52, 6:45, 8:12
The first half mile was flat before turning up, up, up out of town. The next 2 miles gained about 500 feet. As soon as we got off the main drag in Laughlin, we were blasted by a major head/side wind. So, climbing plus wind.
At mile 2.6, we turned to a 1.8-mile drop of nearly the same elevation, but directly into the wind. I felt like I was pushing hard just to go downhill, though the mile 4 split clearly shows I was having an easier time than on the climb.
The race environment got the best of me, and I went out a lot faster than planned. I blame my fellow running club member Chris, who went out at an impressive pace (and eventually finished about 1:45s ahead of me). I stupidly kept up, and then felt I was committed to this pace - dropping back to a more comfortable easy pace after going out fast would make me look like a newb.
Miles 6-10:
8:13, 6:44, 7:57, 7:39, 6:44
More wild variation in pace due to wild elevation swings in the course.
At mile 4.4, we turned up a winding gravelly/sandy dirt road for another climb on an out-and-back. The desert scenery up this little canyon was breathtaking - if I hadn't committed myself to racing, I would have taken a few photos. We passed a crazy cowboy at about mile 5, hootin' and hollerin' at us, all part of the fun. That gave me a little boost and I was able to pass 2 people on the way up.
Mile 5.8 was the turnaround, back down the dirt road where I passed another unsuspecting runner. At mile 7.2, we returned to the main road and headed up another steep climb to the Davis Dam. Once on the dam, we crossed the state line to Arizona and gained an hour. Across the dam and up the hill for a little ways before turning around and
running back over the dam the way we came.
I picked off another 2 people coming back down and across the dam; according to my calculations at the turnaround, I was now in 17th place overall.
Miles 11-13.1
6:39, 7:03, 6:51, 0:33 (6:46/mi)
The final 5K was mostly along a flat paved path following the river, with a nice tailwind to push us along (finally!). I gradually reeled in my next victim,
passing him at mile 12, the only short climb of this stretch. Good thing, too - he was in my age group!
My hamstrings both felt tight during this stretch, but no cramping or other forced stoppage, so good news. The problem tendon felt ok - good enough to keep up the pace, but not great.
Final time: 1:36:54 (
sprint to the finish pic]
This was good for 16th overall and 2nd place in my age group (the guy I passed at mile 12 was 17th/3rd). Not exactly the easy non-award performance I envisioned, but nothing hurt too badly after, so I'll take it! It's also about 5 minutes off my PR, which makes me wonder how I would have done on a flat course without wind. Or how far a real injury-free training cycle could take me.
Post-Race Every participant of legal age got a ticket for a free beer in the beer garden, provided by
Pints Brewery from the nearby Colorado Belle casino. I think this was the best post-race beer garden I've ever experienced. So much better than the typical Michelob Ultra crap!
They served a choice of their Pints Premium Golden Ale, Jackass Stout, What the Puck Pale Ale, or Bodacious Blueberry. Since my wife doesn't drink, I used her ticket too, trying the stout and the blueberry ale. Both were good, but I wanted more of that blueberry! It can be hard to get the balance right with a fruity beer, but they absolutely nailed it. Yum.
Age group awards were a little weird - they didn't split out male and female. This worked out ok for the 5K, which had a number of women in the top 3 of each age group, but I don't think many made the cut in the half. I've never seen this and wonder if it was an oversight by the race director or what?
Either way, 3 of our group of friends
placed in our age groups - Leo, 1st in 65-69 5K; Chris - 2nd in 45-49 half, me - 2nd in 40-44 half. We got a nice stein with the race logo, a ribbon, some Hershey's kisses, and a certificate for another free beer inside the aforementioned brewery. I really should have used my ticket for another blueberry ale, but never got back over there the rest of the weekend.
The rest of the weekend was resting, bowling, food, and karaoke (I abstained from the last one).
Thoughts Given the low training mileage, my chronic tendon problem, and the tough course, I'm very pleased with this result. Compared to
my last half marathon in October, this was a significant improvement even with fairly little mileage.
Will I do the marathon in January after this? Probably. I'm giving it a few more days to rest up from the race, and also for the cortisone shot I got yesterday to kick in. As long as my tendon feels good, I figure I can do a full marathon at an easy ~8:30-9:00 pace next month. No racing!
Would I do this race again? Yes, definitely (especially if the hotel is free again). It was a fun weekend, a beautiful and challenging course, and a great beer garden. Despite a few minor first-time organizational issues, the race was well-run.
I just wish they'd had the start line in Arizona (Mountain time) and the finish in Nevada (Pacific time). I could have run a world-record 0:36:54 half marathon! :)
TLDR Hilly, windy, and beautiful course. Ran 1:36:54 for 2nd place in my age group. Pleased with the result, all things considered. Great beer garden afterwards. Would run again.
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