Race Recap: Route 66 Half Marathon

What a weekend! Tulsa experienced record lows for the race but it didn't stop me from having a great time! With a race start of 23 degrees and a real feel of 14...it was COLD!!!!! Beware there are ALOT of pictures :)

As soon as I stepped off the airplane I new this weekend was going to be magical. Route 66 signs were all over the airport. I got so pumped! I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma :)

I was excited for my first Half Fanatic/Marathon Maniac meet-up. I was finally amongst people who
GOT ME! Yes, there ARE people crazier than me.

I even met MM #3tp!

 

Karen and I walked around the expo for a while looking at the booths. We found the Little Rock Marathon booth...omg...I NEED that medal. I had to use 2 hands to pick it up. Looks like there is a Marathon in my future :) I hear it's hilly. It's a good thing I like to run hill repeats :)

 

Route 66 was the theme so that means cars! They were everywhere. So shiny! I secretly wanted a photo inside of it or even laying on it. I didn't want to get in trouble.

 

 This one is my favorite :)

One last photo before I leave the expo...I hope you're not tired of the pictures already! (I'm just getting started). I'm ready to ROCK this race! 10955 is in the house :)

 

Not only do I belong to the Half Fanatics group, I'm also a member of the 50 States Half Marathon Club. We met for dinner at Baxter's in downtown Tulsa. I had pasta! It was nice seeing old friends again and meeting new ones! We talked about our favorite races and got each other pumped for our COLD run in the morning. We are ready to Run Tulsa!

 

 

Well the time has come to brave the cold. I was so lucky that I bought hand warmers from the Expo. They're definitely going to get their use today! They were nice enough to slip inside my gloves and fit into the palm of my hands. We went to Maniac Corner first thing before race start and got a photo. Over 1000 MM/HF in attendance. What a turnout. I'm down in the second row-ish on the right.

 

 

I'm so lucky that I've met some great traveling friends. Karen and Jodi are fun to hang out with. This is our second race together. Karen is from St. Louis and Jodi is from Florida.

 

 

We were divided into corrals for the race start. I was in Corral C. Each corral at the start had a confetti release. It was pretty cool. Anders ~ I borrowed some of your pictures :)

 

 

 

See that last picture? We started with a hill. I mad a big mistake about this race. I didn't research the elevation gain/loss. The first 6 miles or so was hilly. Yes, the down-hills came too...but this was different. I don't know if the cold had something to do with it but it felt like I was going in slow motion ALL the time. I couldn't decide whether to walk the up-hills to save my energy. I chose not to. My watch didn't reflect a slowdown in time too much. I just decided to not look at my watch until the first beep (mile 3.5).  I was awfully tired in the beginning due to the hills. I guess my first mile was a little too fast for me...

mile 1: 9:32 (I NEVER run 9 minute miles) and that was with an uphill...what was I doing???
mile 2: 10:34
mile 3: 10:51 (watch out for speed bumps)
mile 4: 11:11 (these hills are killing me)
mile 5: 11:39
mile 6: 11:20

Every mile I was looking for Christine and Kyle. I really tried to find you guys...maybe my eyeballs were frozen :) Love you NUC :)

Water stops were good. Great encouragement from the volunteers. However...it was SOOO cold out that the Gatorade was turning into slushies. I have sensitive teeth so to drink that was brutal for me. I like to swish my mouth out with water too, but I couldn't even do that. And ICE...there was ice on the roads due to the water stops. I'm a clumsy person but luckily I didn't slip.

mile 7: 11:14

I tripped BIG time. I almost fell flat on my face. I stepped into a hole in the road and just tumbled forward but kept upright. Stay up...just stay up. And I did. I magically thought of the GOATz...hmmm...visions of Lake Cunningham dancing in my head :)

mile 8: 11:59
mile 9: 11:54
mile 10: 12:26

Anders found me!! (And by the way, I borrowed a few of your photos too :))

mile 11: 12:10 (This is where I realized my lips were numb on my face)
mile 12: 13:09 (Now I'm freezing...literally)

 

The last hill. I did walk up this one. And I was okay with that. 

mile 13: 12:07
last 0.1:  2:32

 

I walked QUICKLY over to Maniac Corner to exchange my Route 66 Half medal in for a Half Fanatics medal. I LOVE this thing. The Maniac tent was awesome. A private area of food, tents and warmers. I wish I could had stayed longer. I was just too cold. Did I mention yet how COLD it was?!! 

 

 

 

No PR today. But an okay time. 2:32:26. My first goal was to break 2:15 and I new that wasn't going to happen after my side stich in mile 1 and the awful dry-heaving around mile 2-3. It just wasn't my day.  It was still a great day. I met a ton of  awesome people and I wouldn't change it for anything.

 

 

PROS: Entire race, great medals, brave volunteers, MM/HF and 50 Staters

CONS: Cold...but can.t change anything about that. Bus at the end. It did NOT take you back to the  hotel.

 

 State # 6

 

OKLAHOMA

 

2:32:26

 

10th half-marathon complete

 



 

This medal was everything I had imagined. 

 

Next race: St. Paddy's Day run Half Marathon ~ Tacoma, Washington

 



My next adventure!

Boarding for my next race! It's going to probably be one of my favorites...I can already tell. Over 1000 runners at Maniac Corner! Let's do this! T-town here I come. I can't wait to catch snowflakes on my tongue  :-)

Signing off!
HF #4953

Love Meb. Take the time to read this.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/11/time-life/