Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon race report

Pretender · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:36 pm

The 5th Annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon really started for me on Saturday with their health expo at the Cox exhibition hall. It was huge and was alot of fun. I especially enjoyed the free massages. :o) I picked up my packet with my bib, chip, t-shirt, etc. I got to listen to Frank Shorter, et all pontificate on various topics of interest. It was very well done.

I really wanted a relaxing evening by myself the night before so I could prep and get to bed early. Instead I spent the night with my family at my mothers house in Edmond. My nephew came over to visit his cousin (my son) and he apparently had plans to spend the night. The sleeping arrangements for Friday and Saturday nights were that I was to share an air mattress with two six year old boys. I finally got to sleep at 11PM on Saturday night and my alarm woke me up at 4AM. OK, less than ideal. :o)

The race was scheduled to begin at 6:30AM on Sunday morning. It was about 40 degrees and felt really chilly to me. I opted for a long sleeve racing T and my polartec top. Unfortunately, I pinned my bib to the fleece top and not to the T underneath (more on that later). Before the race started, there was 168 seconds of silence in memory of the 168 men, women and children murdered 10 years ago. It's amazing to see thousands of people and not hear a thing by the birds chirping. Two and a half minutes doesn't sound like a long time, but it really was. I couldn't help thinking that every second represented a life cut short. What it must have meant to the families and friends. Especially to those who lost children (the bomb was right in front of the daycare).

The race began. I couldn't believe all of the walkers that I had to pass. What the heck? I lined up at the 5hr corral. They were way in front of me. What is with these people? OK, enough griping. The race was pretty fun and the weather was about perfect. Not windy and not hot (which is pretty good considering that in OKC it's easy to have both). The temp was probably about 62 at the end of the race. At the 10 mile mark I decided to take of the polar fleece. I knew it was going to cost me some time since I pinned my bib to it. I stopped right by a port-a-potty and took off the camelbak and got to work. I then took a leak and took off. Total pit stop time? Four minutes! Doh! See if I make that mistake last year. By the way, I found it interesting how many people actually will stand in long lines during a race. I think they probably drink too much. I took at leak at the 10 mile mark only because it was right there and I had to get my top off. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have made the whole race without stopping. Speaking of not stopping, I actually ran the whole race and didn't walk any of it. Of course there were times when people were moving as fast as me and they were walking! Oh well. But I did finish the race! I was in such pain, but I finished it. Yeah! <trumpet fanfare> My barge-like 5:21 time still managed to get me 31st in my division (200lbs and up!). I don't know how many there were in my division, but I'm pretty sure it was more than 31! There were probably a total of around 6,000 runners. Anyway, it was literally the hardest thing that I have ever done. Props to all your marathoners. It may have felt different if I would have done it 20 years and 50 pounds ago, but for now it was without a doubt the most physically challenging thing I have faced. I train on dirt roads and even my 20 mile training runs didn't prepare me for what it would be like to run 26.2 on cement. My legs were dead and my knees hurt so bad I could barely walk after the race. But I told my wife that the only way I wouldn't finish the race is if I got hit by a car or some such. I look forward to next year though. I will be speedier. My plan for speed work is to come into the race 20 pounds lighter! That should also help the pounding on the knees. I'll probably skip the Hogeye half marathon in Fayetteville that is 3 weeks earlier next year. I don't think that I really recovered adequately from that when I did OKC. I probably won't bring my 70oz camelbak next year. It lasted through mile 17. I refuse to run with the 100oz model and if I'm going to have to stop for water, I might was well carry a large mouth squirt bottle that's easy to refill with water.

The only bad news was that my mom's 2000 Chevy Tahoe that I drove the race at 5am was stolen out of the parking lot (along with my wallet). Welcome to OKC I guess! I emailed the race people this morning to ask about how many runners there were total. I mentioned what a great event it was and that I planned on returning next year. At the end I mentioned in passing that the only downer was having the vehichle ripped off. They replied a short time later. I guess the stolen car thing at the end threw them off a bit since they didn't answer my question, but the really cool part was that they wanted me to email them my vitals and they are going to comp me next years registration! Woo-hoo! Silver lining! That's really great. They had zero to do with the theft, but I know that they want people to have an overall positive experience. Hat's off to the race directors and planners. They are super.

All in all a great experience.