Ferguson guts her way through Las Vegas marathon

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It was Viva Las Vegas for local long distance runner Billie-Jo Ferguson as she pushed her body to the limits, competing in the full marathon portion of the Rock n’ Roll Marathon.

“It was perfect conditions actually. There was no wind. It started late in the day into the evening so it was around 17 degrees (Celsius), said Ferguson of her 42.2 kilometre distance.

Ferguson finished her run in four hours, 11 minutes and 58 seconds.

“It wasn’t quite the time I wanted to finish in, but I had just gotten over a knee injury so I didn’t train for the month before I ran it but I thought what the heck I’ll do it anyway,” said Ferguson.

“Before my injury I was wanting to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but I was quite a bit off that qualifying time.”

“I’m hoping next year I’ll run again to qualify and hopefully I’ll qualify. If not I’ll keep trying until I do.”

Nevertheless, Ferguson participated in the longest distance the event had to offer.

“It was tough. I didn’t have any issues with my cardio which surprised me. But definitely the next one I do, I’ll know how to train with more weight training. It’s tough physically where you have to have that muscle endurance,” said Ferguson. “I told people after I was done that it is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done mentally and physically. Running for four hours straight, you have to push yourself through it where you have all these things going on through your mind. Running it in Las Vegas was probably one of the best places to do it because there was so much to see being so beautiful with all the lights.”

Ferguson estimates there  just over 30,000 people doing the half marathon and marathon combined according to the run web site where she heard when combined with the half-half marathon of a 10 kilometre distance there were as many as 70,000 competitors.

“There were a lot of people in my predicament where when you get to that 30K or 35K mark and you are ready to give up or start walking, you see these other people along the way and you could tell they were slowing down to where they weren’t lifting their knees as high, but it makes you feel a little better that you aren’t the only one struggling to get through the race,” said Ferguson. “You see all those other people doing it so it pushes you too.”

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