The Route 66 marathon holds a special place in my heart. It was my first half marathon three years ago, and I have been there to toe the line every year since.
Of course, I was going to be there at the starting line this year, after everything that has happened to derail my running/triathlon efforts this year, I was determined to be there when the gun went off. On Friday afternoon, I was doubting that we were going to make it to Tulsa. Ice and snow had me thinking that I wasn’t going to see another half marathon in 2013. We changed our plans and decided to see what it looked like on Saturday morning and were happy to see passable roads were waiting for us.
We loaded up the dogs and the girls and headed up to the race expo.
It was a great relief to have an actual race bib in my possession.
I was pretty disappointed by the lack of name printed on my bib, and the crappy corral assignments for this race. The last years they have done a great job, I don’t know why they screwed it all up this year.
Race day was very cold. It was about 23 degrees out, but there was no wind. I am not going to lie, it was really cold getting to the starting line, but once we got moving it was pretty awesome out there. There were a couple of areas on the course that had a little ice, but overall conditions were very good.
Jen and I started together, but she twisted her ankle about a half a mile in. She told me to go on, but then caught back up to me at about mile four. My only goal for this race was to run a complete race. My plan was to just settle in with a pace that was sustainable for me on that particular day. After everything that had happened this fall I was just excited to be there and to be able to run a half marathon.
I did get to chat with a couple of other runners. There was a man that was running his 50th marathon on his 60th birthday, and a woman that was running her 100th marathon. I love the people you see out on the race course.
I knew that Josh and the girls were not going to be out there cheering me on, it was freezing outside, and really, it was only a half marathon. I was expecting to see my friend Ramsey. He and his friends had planned to break out the drum set and shots and be out there cheering the runners on. I saw him at about mile 8.5 and I cannot tell you how much it helped me to finish the race strong.
We did get a picture.
I will even forgive him his OSU gear. After this picture, I put my headphones in, cranked up the music and set out for the rest of the race. I definitely had a little more pep in my step and was able to pick up my pace a little bit.
They changed the route again this year, and it was hard to run past where the race has finished the last three years. The fact that there was a HUGE hill in the last mile of the race didn’t help either. I just plugged along, never felt like I was killing myself and had my head in the race the entire 13.1 miles.
It was definitely not fast, for me. My official time was 2:04, which was slower than my horrible showing at the Memorial half in May. This day I ran my own race, I didn’t care how anyone else ran, I just focused on being able to run my only half marathon this fall. Mentally, it was a huge accomplishment for me.
I met Jen at the finish line and we had a very cold, very slow walk back to the car. She did get her ankle checked out the next day and it was a severe sprain. It’s amazing what you can do when you sprain your ankle mid run.
I met Josh, the girls and my in-laws for breakfast and then we headed back home. I had been worried about how the weekend would turn out with the weather and the race, but in the end it turned out just fine.
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