Well I really hadn't planned on running this race and probably wouldn't have if my Grandma's marathon plans hadn't fell apart due to a death in the family. I've always wanted to do this race and I'm sure glad I did.
I some how persuaded Aaron and Amanda in going with me on a whim..Kyle was already out there hanging out with Talbot who graciously put us up for the weekend and showed us an awesome time.
We loaded up and headed out Sunday just after morning church services and dodged thunderstorms that produced hail, tornado warnings and a funnel cloud sightings all through Kansas..This worked out pretty good seeing how boring the Kansas drive is. We ended up making it to Talbots about 8-8:30 and they had dinner waiting for us. Luckily they were nice enough to pick up our packets with all our race bib's and what not.
Team OK RUNNER
We got up bright and early I think i woke up on Oklahoma time because I was up before the alarm clock.. we had a small breakfast and jogged down from Talbots place.
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Literally 1 mile away from the start line.. Even made a Starbucks stop. I could tell on the jog down that the altitude was showing some effects on me. We did some warmup strides and a few port stops and off we went.
Right away I noticed how thirsty I was within the first 1/2 mile. I took water at the first stop and glanced at my watch and it had me at 5:20ish and I knew this wasn't going to be the pace for me...not today. We got in about a mile and a half and started up a small hill that put the altitude in real perspective..I wondered if I would even break 40 min. I kept plugging along and tried to stay relaxed and distract myself with all the crazy stuff going on around me...
I never really felt great in the race but did about mile 4 start feeling a little more of a 2nd wind and was able to keep the pace around 5:40's. I told some of my running friends that this was the first race in a long time that I actually thought about and had to fight thoughts of walking. I felt kinda nauseous and thought I was going to puke but never did.
I can remember counting down the miles and k's till the finish. We made a small turn the last 1/2 mile going into the Folsom stadium and I heard a woman hollering at the dude in front of me to show his bib#. She actually ran out to get him and I made my way up the last hill and into the stadium that had folks all around cheering. It was really neat. They laid out some white plastic flooring on the field to run on and it was really slick. I thought my feet were going to come out from me on the last corner and swung out wide and picked off a dude right at the finish.
Aaron(Top OK Runner) had a great race with a 33:## was waiting on me and we stood around waiting for all the OK crew to come in till the race people ran us off. We had a spot that we met up and took some pics then headed back to Talbots and changed and ate some then rode some bikes back down and met Roger and Blakes crew to watch the elite race and watch the awesome Memorial day celebration. It was very moving and fun to be a part of the whole thing.
This was by far one of the best races I have been to. Well organized supported and fun to be a part of.
We made it back to Talbots to pack up and shower then grabbed a burger and headed back to OK.
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