Here I am at McCarron International in Las Vegas,  my whirlwind three-day Land Rover/Nevada Passage adventure coming to an all-too-short end. It has been eye-opening to say the least, particularly for someone who doesn't do much in the way of offroad driving and who thought of Nevada as comprising just two distinct entities: Las Vegas and desert.

Just a little after 6 a.m. here in the Nevada desert. The sun has been up for an hour, and I'm running around this luxurious comfort kingdom of a hotel room throwing stuff in my old Raid Gauloises duffle as we prepare to head out. There will be camping tonight, somewhere far away and off the beaten trail. The folks at Land Rover have secured permits to race vehicles far into the Nevada outback as part of the G4 Challenge, which starts in, oh, 38 minutes. I am waiting on the room service breakfast and still need a shower, but there's always time to post.

Just arrived at Lake Las Vegas to watch the Land Rover G4 Challenge. They're putting us up at the glorious Ritz Carlton, with its luxury spa and splendid mountain backdrop. I came here a few years back with my wife for our anniversary, and managed to find some fairly great running trails. I can see one of them out my window now, snaking up the side of a red-rock desert peak. At the top you can look out across the miles of desert and see clear to the Strip, which is a particularly nice view at sunrise and sunset. There's a media lunch in a little bit, and if I don't gorge myself too much and wind up napping away the afternoon, I aim to get out there and run a few desert miles.

Tuesdays with Marty...? Yeah, I missed the deadline. Woke up yesterday morning with about four of them staring me in the face, thinking I could get them all done. Worked backwards, starting with the toughest and going on to the easiest. The column falls somewhere in between, which tells you that I missed more than one deadline. 

Alas...

Though it has gone all but unnoticed in the mainstream press, American marathoning flexed a little muscle these past few Sundays. Last week in London, phenom Ryan Hall ripped of a 2:06:17 for a fifth-place finish at what has arguably become the most competitive marathon in the world. And just yesterday at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Deena Kastor came from behind to win in a dawdling (for her)2:29:35, showing that she is rounding back into the Olympic-medal winning form of 2004.