It’s easy for most people to separate their work and personal lives. By day they are an assistant account manager or food service technician, and by night they surf for porn or watch reality TV.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to draw the line. Working on Roll the Bones, I know that I have 769 pages of manuscript to get into publishable shape; that’s taking up most of my free time. But I still get to do some fun stuff, which for me includes training to run the New Las Vegas Marathon. For months, I’ve enjoyed running as a respite from work and gambling.
Suddenly, running and gambling are part of the same story. Check this email out:
History will be made at this week’s New Las Vegas Marathon when you’ll not only be able to run the world-famous Las Vegas Strip for the first time, you’ll be part of the only Marathon in the nation you can gamble on. In order to bring an unprecedented level of excitement to the race, you’ll be able to bet on the winner of The Challenge and the top male and female professional runners.
This Friday at 1:00pm at the Professional Runners News Conference, the New Las Vegas Marathon will announce the time differential for The Challenge. The Challenge is an L.A. Marathon innovation in which the Professional Women Runners start the race in advance of the Professional Men. Past statistics of this year’s field of professional runners will determine the time differential. The first runner to cross the Finish Line wins a $50,000 first place cash prize and a $50,000 bonus for winning The Challenge.
You can learn more about the marathon here. If you live in Vegas, please consider volunteering–every little bit helps, and the runners really appreciate it.
Anyway, it’s a strange feeling to see gambling and running come together like this. But I’m going to turn it to your advantage, and give you an absolute lock: you can bet the house that I will NOT win the 2005 New Las Vegas Marathon. I’ll be satisfied if I finished, and thrilled if I do so in less than 4 hours.
It’s so typical that people in Vegas have to take a time-honored athletic tradition like the marathon and turn it into another way to gamble. Not that I’m complaining–those gambling taxes (partially) pay my salary.