I decided to get out of town on JFK weekend. That way, I would not experience weather nostalgia. On Thursday, November 17, I headed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to run Sunday’s Route 66 Marathon.
On the drive out, I was either getting muscle or chest pains. My portable EKG did not indicate any issues other than a few Premature Ventricular Contractions. There was a 7 1/2 hour time limit. So, I was not worried about not finishing.
Tulsa was founded by a Band of Creek Native Americans forcibly resettled from the southeast states.
Tulsa uses the moniker of “Oil Capital of the World,” as many American oil companies are centered in the area.
US Route 66 was established in 1926 connecting Chicago with Santa Monica, California. The spots along the route and wandering by car were glamorized in the early 60s with the TV show called Route 66. Interstate highways were starting to be built at the time, bypassing towns and Americana. Remember those diners and 12-unit motels with the “No Vacancy” signs?
There was an optional .1 mile detour to the “Center of the Universe” in the final mile. On a mysterious spot, you can stand in a circle center and make noises that echo louder. Look out, Ashland, Virginia.
The marathon was founded in 2006. With the 2020 Covid year cancellation, this year was the 16th running.
One night when I was in Salt Lake City, Meg introduced me to a couple of her friends, and we played pickleball for a while. One of her friends told me he was running JFK this fall. I told him I was still undecided and would register at the last minute.
Roll forward to this past weekend; he won JFK with a time of 5:29. So, my goal for the marathon was to finish under 5 hours and 29 minutes.
I planned to finish 5 miles in 1 hour, 10 miles in 2 hours, 15 miles in 3 hours, and 20 miles in 4 hours. Hopefully, I could do the final 10km in less than 89 minutes. Going through the half-marathon in 2:30 would be nice.
I planned to walk 2 minutes every 10 minutes, drinking every two walk breaks. The route description had hills in the last 8 miles. So, I planned to adjust the walk breaks for the ups.
Saturday’s packet pickup was at the downtown convention center near the race start line. The packet pickup location and parking description were not very clear. With the closed streets, I found a parking spot and, following others, stumbled upon the expo.
In place of a race shirt, marathoners received a nice white jacket.
I used my drive to packet pickup to review my route for Sunday and scope out parking spots.
On Sunday, I left in time to get to where I planned to park by 7 am. Tulsa street parking on Sunday is free. I found a spot about a third of a mile from the start line and a half mile from the finish line.
After parking, I walked to the bag drop location near the start, leaving my bag with a dry shirt, hat, and neck gaiter.
My expected finish time placed me in the final start wave, which was scheduled for 8:17 am. I walked back to my car and stayed in the front seat until 8 am, when I took off my warm outer layers.
The forecast was sunny, with 25 degrees at the start and 49 degrees by my expected finish time. I had to dress to stay warm enough at the start but not overheat in the last 16 miles. Fortunately, there was little wind and a 17-degree dew point.
I wore shorts over compression shorts, a singlet over a long-sleeved shirt, gloves, a thick neck gaiter, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 19 shoes.
By 8:06 am, I was headed to the start line and stopped at one of the many porta pots near the third start wave corral. By then, the first two waves had started, and the final two waves had moved past these units. There were no lines, and my porta pot was exceptionally clean. An RD joke goes, “no matter how many porta pots you have, you’ll never have enough.” They may have had too many units.
After my brief pause, I walked to the back of my wave, and the gun went off within a minute, about 30 seconds ahead of schedule. I tied an extra long-sleeved shirt around my waist in case I had an issue on the course.
I wore my single bottle belt with UCAN topped with water at three aid stations. I added a UCAN Hydrate with each water fill.
About the wave structure: 1000 marathon and 2500 half-marathon runners participated. Both races were mixed in the waves based on the expected pace. So, the 4-hour marathoners and 2-hour half-marathoners were in the same wave. My bib included a color-coded wave letter. Because I predicted a 5-hour finish time, I was in the corral with all marathoners predicting over 5 hours and half-marathoners predicting over 2 hours and 30 minutes. We had about 1000 participants in my wave.
The corral assignment is the D in the upper left of my bib. Do you notice the funny barcode on the right? Software can read that on race photos to determine a bib number.
After the gun, I walked past as many people as possible in the corral toward the start. I was still behind the 5:30 pacer’s sign. Once across the start mats, the course was open enough to run at my desired race pace.
Going through the initial miles, I noticed the road surface was concrete. With concrete being six times harder than asphalt, I became concerned that the spring in my legs would suffer.
Even with navigating around the many walkers, some five abreast, I got through the first mile in 10:33. After incorporating my walk breaks, I stayed on an even pace and five miles in 54:29.
I had a few mentally driven chest pains in the first few miles. Except for leg pain, I had no issues after the second mile.
There were some hills in the first miles. I felt we were going down more than up, and the uphills were not stressful.
After winding through the nicer neighborhoods of south Tulsa, we ended up going north on Riverside Drive. My wave merged with the previous wave somewhere in this area. I never saw a significant break. The 5-hour pacer started at the front of my wave, and I passed her before mile 5.
After going through 10 miles in 1:49:59, we headed across the Route 66 Bridge over the Arkansas River. The bridge was the only portion of the course using Route 66. Half-marathoners returned across the river on the same bridge, and we were directed to a pedestrian bridge for our return.
The pedestrian bridge connected to the Riverparks Bank Trail, which we used for the next five miles. This trail parallels Riverside Drive, and we could see other participants as we headed south and north.
At mile 17, we took the Midland Valley Trail back to 15th Street. I went through the half-marathon in 2:25:14 and mile 15 in 2:47:09, with the 5-hour pacer passing me around mile 16.
At mile 18, I changed my plan to walking the ups and running the flats and downs. I started doing the math to determine my required pace to finish my 5:29. I had 125 minutes to do 8 miles. I needed to keep my miles under 15 minutes.
Once on Riverparks Trail, the running surface was asphalt.
We stayed on 15th Street past mile 20, which I reached in 3:50:54. I needed to keep them under 16 minutes. The two miles on 15th Street were 90% uphill and asphalt. There were many cracks and potholes on this road. Only Jackson, Mississippi, had a worse running surface.
Once at the top, we turned toward the University of Tulsa. Running through the campus, I tried a 150-step run and 100-step walk pattern and maintained this routine until we headed back toward the city.
By mile 23, we could see the tall buildings of downtown, and the 5:15 pacer passed me. The last miles were back to a concrete surface. My 25th mile was all walk, and I had no bounce in my legs. There were no downs to entice me to run.
The 26th mile was a walk continuation until a right turn to go under the railroad track. I had to run that down, which did hurt. There was a clock and sign at the 25.9-mile mark for my first time. Maybe that was for the people who took the COTU detour. I did not take the detour.
About 200 meters from the finish, we turned onto the final stretch. Seeing the arch, I ran to the finish.
My second half was 2:55:29 for a finish time of 5:20:43. My best time this year but 29 minutes slower than last fall.
I finished 600th overall, 385th male, and 13th in the Male 65 to 69-year-old age group.
This finish was my 80th marathon in my 45th state.
The finisher’s medal was huge at 5 inches.
The organizers did an excellent job with operational management. There was Shasta Cola and pizza rolls at the finish. I haven’t had Shasta since the late 60s. I’m on a no-alcohol med, so I had to forgo the complimentary beer.
They had a band at the finish park and a tent marked “Therapy.” Was that for physical or mental therapy?
After finishing, I had to walk back to my car, which included going over the train tracks. Both the uphill and downhills on the overpass were killers.
There was good crowd support on the course. Being an interesting route places this race nearer the top of my favorites.
It was a two-day drive to Oklahoma and a two-day drive home, around a 2500-mile round trip. Gas prices varied from $2.95 to $3.59 per gallon. Tulsa has a refinery in the western part of town. Being Oil City, their gas prices were under $3.