I got up to my normal parking spot a little later this year and found someone had already grabbed my spot. I ended up getting a real good one on 5th and Broadway which worked out perfect for my quick get away to Church services after the race. I had planned on hanging out in the pancake church till about 15 till start. I took my racing shoes and a bag up to the church and hung out and ran into Eric and his daughter, Jimbo and his son, and Roger. Roger question me about having a backpack which I totally goofed on that one... I hurried back to my car and decided to change there and leave my stuff in the car. Thomas my brother was going to be crewing for me along with my nephew Carl and Mary. I just hung out and waited for them to get there and gave them my Nuun bottles. Then we made our way to the pancake church and hung out there till about 15 till.
I got down to the start line and ran into a bunch of buddies. J-hat was doing the quick Boston turn around and I told him to get up there with me but he declined and hung out a bit behind.
I overheard Patrick Gomez saying to some of the 1/2 marathon guys what his plan was 5:22 pace. I knew there was no way he would be able to get the course record this day with the warm temps and wind this being his debut as well. I figured if he could run that pace I couldn't keep up with him anyhow... My plan was to try and go out at 1:16-1:17 on the first 1/2 and hope that I could hang on to that pace coming back and at least try to get the single age (2:37:ish) or the main goal all time master (2:36ish) both which I know I am able to run and in shape to run. The real challenges with these records are the weather vs the time of year the marathon is ran in OK.
We took off and Patrick took off with a big pack of 1/2 marathoners and I was running with a few myself.
We thinned out real good going down Lincoln towards the capitol. mile 3
After the 10k split I passed a Coyote going up gorilla hill and pretty much ran a solo race the whole rest of the way.
I had my crew give me water/nuuns at mile 7, 12 and 21. I hit the wind at lake Hefner and saw Patrick about 1-1.5 miles ahead of me going down Lake Hefner trail.
When I got down to S&S park Scotty D ran with me for about a mile. He was waiting at the relay station there.
I saw Craig Thompson at mile 10 and 18 taking pics. He gave me some encouraging words.
When I got down to mile 21 Mary told me that Patrick was 8 min. ahead of me. And I knew the hell I was fixing to pay going down Classen blvd into the wind for the next 3-4 miles. Toward the end of Classen I had a dude go flying past me and I realized he was the Tulsa Runner Relay guy. The last few miles were a real struggle and I basically went into survival mode. Jazz (OK Runner Relay) caught me and ran with me for about a 1/2 mile at mile 25 and I told him to go catch the Tulsa Runner Relay just ahead of us.. I found out later that 1st place Patrick Gomez was cramping pretty bad and I was catching up to him. He is a great runner and has a lot of talent and I was happy for him. I was impressed at the fearlessness he had going into the race..he was on pace at the 1/2 to get the record. He ended up only beating me by a couple of minutes.
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