Tulsa Marathon

Not sure why it has taken me so long to so this post. Maybe because I was a little disappointed in the race.

The Tulsa Marathon was on Nov 11, 2008. Kim and I went up on Saturday to the race expo. I picked up the packet, shirt and we walked around a little. I actually found a pair of shoes to replace my old ones at 60% off, so that was nice. We went back to her brothers apartment where we were staying and just relaxed. We watched some football, talked and had a nice time. I cooked some spaghetti like I always do. It's relaxing to have the same thing before a race since you know how your body will react.

Race morning came and we headed out to the race start. It was nice compared to NYC. We were able to sleep in and I was able to park about 30 seconds away from the start. Not too bad. It was pretty cold at the start, about 35 so we were bundled up. Luckily it wasn't long before the start. All at once we were all gathered in the corral and were off.

The first few miles were a slight uphill, but not too bad. We went down by the river and finally saw a few people. It seemed night and day compared to NYC. The crowd was almost non existent. There were bunches around water stops but it was pretty lonely. I was running a good pace, about 8:40 miles which was a little faster than I hoped, but I felt great.

I got to the halfway point in 1 hour 55 minutes. At the turn around we finally got the wind at our backs and I picked up the pace a little bit. Nothing else of note happened for a while. Then came mile 20. A group of us headed into the water stop when all of a sudden a woman stopped dead in her tracks when she got her water. I was right behind her and ran straight into her. All of a sudden my right knee locked completely up. It would not bend at all. I ended up walking about half a mile before I could move it at all. I was able to do a run/limp for a little bit before I had to walk again. My race was pretty much done at that point it was just a matter making it to the finish.

It seemed like the last 6 miles would never go by. My knee started feeling a little better and I was able to run more and more. Not fast, but I made progress. Then mile 24 came and it was time for the brutal hills. Why they designed a course to have long steep hills at that point in a race is beyond me. Everyone around me was either walking or doing a little shuffle. Mile 25 came and it was downhill again. Then the sweet, sweet mile 26 sign and just another turn and there was the finish line. I ran across in 4:10:01. Not was I was hoping for, but I finished.

After the run was disappointing. All the marathoners were herded into the food tent with what looked like only 2 lines. There were not moving at all. I stood in the same spot for about 5 minutes (standing still isn't fun on the legs after a marathon) before I left and went to get my post race beer. Kim and I got over to the beer tent only to find that the half marathoners polished it off about an hour before I got there. Ugh. We decided to call it a day and just grab some food on the way back to OKC.

I'm not sure if I would do the full marathon here again. The half would be fun, but the full was just not worth the money for what you get out of it. The nice thing is that it is close to home.

Since then I have been resting quite a bit. My knee is still a little sore from time to time. Now on to the Houston marathon.