I Moved to Las Vegas

The house under construction in Oct 2025

Introduction

Well, some of you may have noticed that there was a big lull in my normal running reports from about mid September until November.  

A safe presumption would've been that I was injured or lost interest in maintaining the blog.  Perhaps I had "retired" from running.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I was still running -- and putting some miles and solid sessions but I really didn't have time to race.  My weekends were busy "moving".

So much junk....

September 2025

So first off, I had to take a break from racing.  I was burned out from racing and an overuse of miles.  I was running two - three times a day sometimes.  Most of the miles were easy but at 55 years old and a body that just isn't tolerating high mileage these days, it wasn't working.  I remember coming home one day and just sitting on a bench in the bedroom wanting to cry. I was thoroughly exhausted.

So the first order of business was to dial it back a bit and stop racing.

Fall Running along the Jordan River Trail

It was also at this time that my wife and I committed to moving.  My wife had never really been happy in Salt Lake, considering it fairly boring, and she found it difficult to make friends.  As we like to say here in the United States, she gave it the college try for 13 years.

Initially we looked at Reno Nevada and that looked like the spot we were going to land.  We were looking for a place with no income tax, decent weather, at least a hint of a job landing if I should ever need one as a tech worker.  Reno really didn't fit this and ultimately we, or primarily my wife, decided that we'd go to Las Vegas.

I always figured that someday I'd wind up in Las Vegas - I was always fascinated by the city -- but I didn't really expect to actually move there.  (In 2012 Las Vegas was my first choice to move to).

In the spring, we wound up picking out a new construction that would be ready somewhere between Oct and December.

In late September we started packing and getting the house ready for sale -- which meant that a lot of my weekends were spent packing, fixing the house, and just doing things I'd rather not be doing.  There was also a large such of reluctance about the whole process. I loved Salt Lake, but I could use a change.  The timing just felt off.

October / November 2025

We listed the house for sale and on our "Open House" we had exactly 0 prospects come.  Rumors of a struggling real estate market had me scared.  We had put down money on the house in Las Vegas and the last thing I wanted is to be the proud owner of 2 houses.

Over the course of a few days we had 3 more people come check out the house.  One of them took the bite and put down a full price, cash offer.  Our house was sold.

The new owners were super gracious to us and allowed us to live rent free in the house after closing for a few weeks.  Suddenly my running weekends were spent with boxing things up and loading them into the garage.  I am not much of a muscle man, but my endurance paid off.

Even the cat was ready to move.

We also have a number of cats, and with the Las Vegas house now scheduled for mid December, we had to find a place to live -- for 2 months.  Finding any sort of rental that'll take a cat, let alone 4 cats, was a challenge.

For a period of about 2 weeks we lived at a hotel. With another family member and 2 cats, and therefore 2 rooms, it was going to be incredibly expensive to house us.  So we had to find another living situation.

Fortunately, we did find one in the same city that we lived in, which allowed me to continue training on the Jordan River Parkway and feeding the feral cats that I took care of.   It wasn't my favorite place to live and it was definitely a downgrade from what we had but it was a place to live.

The house we lived in for about 10 weeks

All the crap fit into one storage locker

It was also at this time that I was running stuff to storage in our local city as well as loading up a 26 foot truck and driving it to Las Vegas and putting stuff in a storage locker there. More or less, I had about a suitcase's worth of things to live off of.  Gone were my 100s of running shirts to just a mere dozen.  Even I got sick of the same dozen.

Going on a run in Mesquite

By November, I was able to race again, as all the stuff had been settled and my moving duties were basically on pause.  It was just a matter of paying my "last respects" to Salt Lake City.

Out for a run on a trip to Vegas

December 2025

At this point, things got fun.  The house was slated to be ours on the 15th of December.  So we finally had a date.  Our time in the smallish Airbnb we rented was coming to a close and fortunately we had a friend connection who had an AirBnb in Mesquite, NV who let us rent it for the remainder of our homeless period.

If you've read my blog for any period, you know Mesquite, NV is one of my happy places. I really like it there.  And the new condo we were going into was about a 15 minute walk to the casino.  Let's also say I was frequently flyer at the buffet.

I also had the opportunity really explore a new running route.  Usually when I am in Mesquite, I do the bike trail, but this time I got to explore some neighborhoods.  Also, there were some epic sunsets and moonrises that caught my attention.  With no races to distract me, I could also focus on some serious workouts.  My times improved ever so slightly.

View from the AirBnb in Mesquite

I really enjoyed my stay here and in all honesty, I would've liked to have spent more of my "between homes" time in cities I hadn't ever really experienced.  But with pet obligations and needing to close out my affairs in Salt Lake, we had to do what we had to do.

Amazing Sun Reflections

On December 15th, we took possession of the new house.  It is in an over the age of 55 community.  It has a ton of resort-like amenities, including a gym, trainers, pool, pickleball courts, frisbee golf, etc.  It is about as far as you can get away from the "Strip" but still close enough to the casinos.

Moon Rise over Arizona

I am starting to work into getting known in the running / racing scene here, and it'll be a work in progress.  I'll be sure to give more reports as time progresses.

On paper, I am still hoping to get back to Salt Lake City for races or just changes of scenery.  I suspect I'll be seen at the Southern Utah races a bit more often now, since it is only about a 2 hour drive.

The Gym at the community I live at

The pool

Stay tuned for more running adventures.

Upcoming Races

01/24: 2026 Sun Half Marathon - Santa Clara, UT (Confirmed)

02/22: 2026 Las Vegas Half Marathon - Las Vegas, NV (Confirmed)

03/26: 2026 Mount Charleston Half Marathon - Las Vegas, NV (Confirmed)