On November 18th, I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa. This was the third time I did this race. More importantly, it was my third marathon in
Oklahoma, allowing me to complete my third circuit of marathons in all 50
states.
I couldn’t get a flight on Saturday that arrived in time for
packet pickup, so I had to fly to Tulsa Friday afternoon. I stayed at the downtown Doubletree, which is
the official host hotel. The hotel has
an airport shuttle, so I didn’t have to rent a car.
My flight arrived early, and I didn’t have to wait long for
the next shuttle, so I got to the hotel in time to walk over to the expo. The expo was held at the Tulsa Convention
Center, which is right across the street from Doubletree.
When I did this race before, the race packet included a
T-shirt. This year, we got a jacket
instead. I have lots of T-shirts, so it
was nice to get something different.
This race has a post-race VIP area for members of the 50
States Marathon Club and Marathon Maniacs.
They call it “Maniac Corner.”
While I was at the expo, I stopped by the booths of both clubs, and I
got a wrist band for admission to Maniac Corner after the race.
My friends, Karen and Robert, were also staying at the
Doubletree, so I was able to join them for dinner. We went to a downtown pizzeria called Joe
Momma’s.
I had trouble sleeping that night because my room was too
warm. I had the air conditioning on, but
it didn’t seem to be working. Saturday
morning after breakfast, I asked to have the hotel engineer look at it. It took him all of two minutes to find the
problem and fix it.
There’s a spot in downtown Tulsa called the “Center of the
Universe.” It’s a small concrete marker
inside a circle of bricks. The marathon
has an optional out-and-back detour that takes you to the center of the
universe. If you choose to do this, it
adds three tenths of a mile to your race distance. I opted not to take the Center of the
Universe detour during the race, so I walked over there on Saturday instead.
What makes the Center of the Universe noteworthy is an
acoustic anomaly. If you stand in the
center, you can hear your own voice echo loudly, but people outside the circle don’t
hear the echo.
The sun was directly behind one of the downtown buildings,
so I also noticed an interesting optical effect.
Around noon, I walked back over to the expo, where I bumped
into my friends Heather, Krista, and Brian.
I joined them for lunch at a café in the Brady Arts District and we
spent the afternoon walking around downtown.
For dinner, I went to a pre-race party in honor of Jim Diego
and Ray Constantine. Jim was finishing
his journey to not only run marathons in all 50 states, but also sing the
National Anthem in all 50 states. Ray
was finishing his quest to run half marathons in every state. It was a buffet-style dinner at Ti Amo
Ristorante.
Saturday night, my room was much more comfortable. I slept well for a few hours, but then I woke
up and my brain went into pre-race checklist mode. Did I remember to unpack my headband? Which bag is that in? What time to I need to leave the hotel? I never got back to sleep.
I finally got up at 5:15.
It was 37 degrees and rainy when I woke up, but it looked like the rain
might stop before the race. I got
dressed and went downstairs for a light breakfast.
By the time I left the hotel, it was no longer raining, but
there was about a 30% chance of a passing shower during the race. The temperature had cooled to 35 degrees, and
it wasn’t going to get any warmer. I
often seem to get this kind of weather.
I don’t know if it will rain or not, and it’s cold enough that it makes
a big difference. My choices were to
either wear a rain poncho or just dress real warm and hope it wouldn’t
rain. I opted to just dress real warm.
As I left the hotel, I started to feel a fine mist in the
air. I briefly considered going back to
get a rain poncho, but I didn’t think I had enough time. As I crossed a street, I felt a strong gust of
wind. I had been worried about rain, but
I should have been worried about the wind.
It felt much colder than I expected.
They had a gear check, so I checked a bag with a warm poncho
that I wanted to have after the race. I
didn’t want to spend too much time standing outside in the wind, so I waited as
long as possible before entering my start corral. While I waited, I stayed near the entrance of
one of the nearby building, so I wasn’t exposed to the wind.
There were four start corrals. Corral assignments are based on an estimated
finish time that you provide when you register.
I entered the race a long time ago, so I didn’t have any idea how fast I
might run it. I probably gave an
estimate of four hours, but I don’t remember.
I was assigned to corral B.
After entering through the back, I worked my way forward, looking for
pace groups. My last four marathons have
all been faster than four hours, so my goal was to keep that streak going. I was behind a 4:30 pace group, so I kept
moving forward. Then I saw a 4:15
group. I continued to move up. When I got to the front of the corral, I saw
the 4:00 group. Everyone planning to run
faster than four hours was in corral A.
While we were waiting for the race to start, I got to hear
Jim singing the Star Spangled Banner.
It’s the first time I’ve heard him sing.
He sang the anthem for two different waves at the New York City Marathon
two weeks ago, but not the wave I was in.
Corral A started at 8:00 AM sharp. Those of us in corral B had to wait another
minute or two before we were allowed to move forward. Then we were held at the starting line until
8:05 before our corral started. By the
time I started running, everyone from corral A was around the first turn and
out of sight. It occurred to me that if
I went out faster than a four hour pace, I might be running by myself. That’s not good when there’s a strong
wind. You want to be surrounded by other
runners.
As it turns out, I was never running by myself. I went out ahead of the 4:00 pace group, but
there were plenty of runners in my corral who went out faster. I tried to just run my own race and find a
pace that felt fairly comfortable.
As I made the first turn, I immediately felt a strong
headwind. I was running downhill, so the
wind didn’t feel tiring, but it was cold.
The terrain for most of the race was gently rolling
hills. There were no killer climbs, but
we often alternated between a few blocks of gentle upgrade and a few blocks of
gentle downgrade.
The first mile was mostly downhill, so it was a little
fast. It only took 8:05. As soon as the course turned uphill, I slowed
down. I tried to maintain a consistent
effort, so I sped up a bit going downhill and slowed down going uphill. As a result, my mile times were erratic, but
even my slow miles were fast enough to break four hours.
By the second mile, I was already passing some of the slower
runners from corral A. That was
surprising, since they started five minutes before me. Since most of the runners from my own corral
were behind me, I soon found myself surrounded mostly by corral A runners. As a result, I was passing other runners
throughout the race.
I was only two miles into the race when I noticed the first
beer stop. The race organizers encourage
local residents to set up their own tables with snacks and beverages for the
runners. The race even provides “block
party kits.” I’ve stopped for beer
occasionally in races, but it was much too early for that. In the next few miles, I started to notice
tables with Jell-O shots.
A few miles into the race, I wasn’t feeling the wind as much. Going up a hill, I actually felt like I was
warming up. I was wearing a light jacket
that was mostly unzipped, so it wouldn’t cover my race bib. After about five miles, I unzipped it
completely. That was premature.
At about six miles, I noticed another table with beer and
two more tables with Jell-O shots. If
you indulged everywhere alcohol was available, you could get seriously drunk
doing this race.
At seven miles, I saw some port-o-potties with no lines and
decided to make a quite bathroom stop. I
might have been able to hold out until the end of the race, but I was more
comfortable after stopping. As I resumed
running, I saw another spectator offering small cups of pretzels and … you
guessed it … Jell-O shots.
With the next turn, I was once again going directly into the
wind, and I quickly got cold. My hands
were too cold to zip up my jacket, so I had to endure the cold as best I
could. The next several miles were all
exposed to the cold wind.
Each time I’ve done this race, the course has been
different. One of the additions this
year was this tunnel under a relatively new land bridge.
After the tunnel, I realized my sunglasses were coated by a
fine mist. Apparently, it started
drizzling lightly. Fortunately, it
didn’t last long.
After another mile or so, we came onto a parkway alongside
the Arkansas River. Near the river, I
really felt the wind. As we I got closer
to the downtown area, I saw some long bridges across the river. I knew we had to cross the river, and I
realized the bridge would be completely exposed to the wind. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
Between 10 and 11 miles, I finally made the turn onto
Southwester Boulevard and the bridge across the river. As soon as we crossed the river, we turned
around and came back across the river again.
It seemed cruel to make us spend so much time over the river in the cold
wind, but this bridge is part of the historic Route 66. The course takes us all around the city, so
we’re only on Route 66 for about a mile.
After taking this picture, I had trouble turning off my
camera. My fingers were too cold to
press the buttons, so I put my camera away for the rest of the race.
After crossing the bridge, we entered the downtown area and
ran right past the Doubletree. I
seriously need to make a list of all the races that have taken me right past my
hotel.
Shortly after the 12 mile mark, the marathon and half
marathon routes separated. We made a
sharp right turn and I immediately felt a cold headwind again.
I reached the halfway point in 1:55:35, putting me on pace
for a 3:51 finish. My legs were getting
so cold they felt stiff. I wondered if
that would slow me down in the second half.
As I got out of the downtown area, I started seeing more
spectators offering beer or Jell-O shots.
I continued to hold off. I was so
cold that beer just didn’t seem appealing.
I considered having a Jell-O shot, but not until later in the race.
Alongside the river and on the bridge, the course was
relatively flat. East of downtown, I
once again encountered rolling hills. I
started to lift my effort going uphill as a way of warming up. It seemed to help. My legs no longer felt stiff.
At 15 miles, I saw a table with bottles of liquor. I looked closer and spotted a bottle of
Fireball. I abruptly crossed the street
to stop there, and they poured me a shot of Fireball. It warmed my throat, if nothing else.
I continued to run harder on the hills. It helped me cope with the cold, but it was
tiring me out. I noticed my mile splits
were getting slower, but I was still on a four hour pace.
Around 18 miles, I saw a sign that said, “Beer and Doughnuts.” I saw cups of beer, but no doughnuts. Then I saw someone walking out of his house
with a fresh tray of doughnuts. I was
tempted, but I kept running.
After another mile, I saw two more tables with Fireball
shots. I was worried about getting
hypothermic, so I didn’t think it would be a good idea to have any more
alcohol. I didn’t know if it would
impair my ability to stay warm.
As one of the residents was offering me a Fireball shot, I
said, “I already had one. I can’t afford
two.” He understood and nodded in
agreement.
I saw one more table with Fireball shots and I lost count of
the number with beer or Jell-O shots. I
used to think the Rock ‘N’ Roll New Orleans Marathon was the ultimate party
race. I was wrong.
As I made my way back toward downtown Tulsa, I expected the
wind to be at my back. Maybe it was, but
I was still freezing. I knew by know I would
break four hours by a comfortable margin.
Now it was just a struggle to endure the cold for a few more miles.
Between 23 and 24 miles, I made the turn onto Peoria Avenue,
which would take us back into downtown. Along this street, I could see runners still
going the other way. I saw a few familiar
faces. They still had 12 miles to go. I
couldn’t imagine being out in that cold wind for that much longer.
As I got back into downtown, the streets were familiar, but
the wind was ferocious. In the last
mile, I passed the street where some of the runners were turning to take the
Center of the Universe detour. I was
happy to keep going straight.
In the last mile, we took an underpass below some railroad
tracks. The ramp on the other side was
the first hill that really felt steep.
As I got closer to the finish I saw a sign for 25.9 miles. The Center of the Universe detour is 0.3
miles, so for the people who took the longer route, this sign was actually
26.2. I pressed on and finished in
3:52:49. I slowed a little in the second
half, but not much. I was pleased to have
my fifth sub four hour marathon in seven weeks.
Shortly after I finished, a volunteer gave me a heat shield. I wanted to zip up my jacket, but my fingers
were useless. He helped me get the
zipper started.
Something I had forgotten about this race is they always
have cool finisher medals. They change
the design every year. The top part
rotates.
My hands didn’t work well, so I was selective about
post-race food. I had a slice of pizza
and a bottle of protein drink. My race
bib had coupons for two post-race beers, but I skipped that. My hands couldn’t hold a cup, and I didn’t
want to drink anything cold.
After the New York City Marathon, I got a fleece-lined
poncho. I brought it with me to this race,
so I could have it in my gear bag. I had
to ask the volunteer at the gear tent to untie my bag for me.
I made my way to Maniac Corner where they had a big
tent. It wasn’t heated, but it provided
shelter from the wind. Inside the tent,
they had pizza, hot pasta, and two kinds of beer. I had a small sample of one, but holding a
cup with cold beer made me start shivering.
I didn’t feel like eating any more food yet.
After visiting with friends, I eventually had to leave the
tent to walk back to the hotel with Karen and Robert. Our hotel was only a half mile from the
start, but it was more than a mile from the finish area.
After taking a hot bath and changing clothes, I felt more
like eating. I walked over to a Naples
Flatbread Kitchen and Bar to have my post-race pizza. Then I went to a brewery a few blocks away
for a post-race party with friends.
With this race, I finished my third circuit of marathons in
all 50 states. Will I do a fourth circuit? I might as well. I’m already about halfway there.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:52:49
Average Pace: 8:53
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
362
Completed circuits of 50 states: 3
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