Tulsa Route 66 Marathon 2013

Photo By: Chris Barnes 2012

      Tulsa Route 66 Marathon started in 2006 and my first run of the Route 66 was in 2009.  Since that time I had run 2 other times and ran 2 of my fastest times I had ever ran at any other marathons.  This would be my 4th running of the Route 66th and I would love to say I have had 40 of them by the time I am 70.  I have told people it will be my staple marathon and I want to do this race every year even if it doesn't fit in my training schedule or I am hurt I will finished this race!

Amber Lynch and Scarlett

     So my wife and I loaded up, headed to Tulsa on Saturday morning leaving our youngest daughter for the first time overnight away from her momma with my sister Amber Dawn Lynch.  This would also be the first 1/2 Marathon my wife had done since having our 8 month old beautiful little girl.  The boys spread out between the other grand parents so we had a great weekend a head of us.  We got our race packets and some gu and then headed out to start Christmas shopping.  Later when we made it to the mall and I was almost ran over by a Mall Cop on his little stand up patrol thing, I was finished!  I headed out and got some coffee and started working on my lab-top.  My wife had a good time shopping and then I grabbed some dinner at Maccoroni Grill and I ate at the bar beside a guy from Kansas City and he was running his 5 marathon and he was excited about the course but not the weather.  I told him if the wind held off it wouldn't be to bad.  Then we went on and met a couple other friends for a nice dinner that I didn't eat because I had already ate but we had some great fellowship with them!
     Race Time!  We headed out from the hotel and it was crazy cold that morning somewhere around 28 degree's.  Headed out of the hotel I was warming up in and the National Athem was being sung.  We stopped and then headed to the start line.  Then they said 1 minutes until the wheel chair start and this means 2 minutes until you start the 2013 Route 66 Marathon!  I got to see some good friend at the start.  Ian Campbell that was in my age group and pretty fast, Aaron Ochoa that was running the half at a goal of 1:27 and that is where I wanted to be at for the half way mark so it was good knowing I could keep in sight.  The first mile is always very fast at Tulsa and then mile 2 has a few climbs in it so they usually even out.  I was feeling ok with the 6:30 average pace and I felt kinda funny at mile 3 but nothing I hadn't felt before at mile 3.  This is when Ian started dropping the hammer and held at 6:30 to 6:45 pace running the beautiful course through Tulsa.  I hit mile 6 and knew I was running down hill but it seemed hard to run a 6:45 pace and I was feeling soreness all over my legs.  I thought just get to mile 20 and then it is down hill and you can still get a BQ (Boston Qualifier) today.  So I held this pace which still felt hard down riverside until you climb out of riverside with a pretty good hill and this year a huge head wind!  I made it up to the top to see Katy Kramer that usually runs my pace and I had been with her at the beginning and now I had reeled her back in at the top of the hill and she made the turn for the marathon not to the finish the half as I thought she was running.  I then felt boosted that I had caught her but felt waxed from the hill, wind and mostly my sore legs that were normally in this point of the race feeling great! 

Riverside

    Half Way! I hit the half at just under 1:30.  The 2 years before I had been at 1:25 and 1:27 so I knew that with the way I was feeling I wouldn't get a PR and knew it was going to be very hard to get a BQ.  I did know sub 3 hours was not going to happen.  So I hit a 2 flat miles and both were 7 minute pace and I new I was finished with the race for the day. So I began to slow and my heart fell and I began to get very very cold!  I was wearing shorts and long T with gloves and a shock hat.  I was thinking I was going to have to stop inside somewhere and get warmed up if I was going to finish this race because I was so cold and I wasn't going to come this far and quite because I was cold.  At this point I felt or didn't feel that my junk was feeling frozen.  Never had that happen before in a race but I was getting nervous about it!  But then I ran past a relay station around mile 17 and a Buddy John ran with me and I told him I was slowing down and I was getting very cold but I was going to finish he said I will try to catch you at TU - Tulsa University, soon after there were an array of clothes on the side of the road.  So I stopped and started shuffling though the clothes.  Female Small's and Medium's seemed to be everywhere and I wasn't having any luck finding a shirt that would fit and there it was in all its glory a pull over Jersey brand navy blue hoodie!  It was to big but it was so warm!  I then found a pair of women's sweat pants with a boot fit loose around the ankles fit that came up to my shins.  The lady standing on the corner cheering us on smiled really big and me and I smiled back and took off running very slow! 

What I should of Had on!

    My spirits were still high enjoying the moment of the marathon even if were not running even a remotely fast marathon.  The story of a death march is to me when you are hurting to walk and walk is all you can do.  I wasn't hurting to bad and I wasn't walking yet!  I then ran with a girl from Fort Smith that was on PR pace and she was worried that it was hard the past few miles for the pace she was running.  I explain to her that the past 3 or 4 miles were all up hill and we had been fighting the wind.  Told her she was going to do great rest of the way in and hopefully helped her mind get ready for the final push out of TU.  She also helped my mind get off that I was starting to hurt really bad!  I then thought of how I had only taken 2 days off since the Ironman that was four weeks before and me thinking riding my bike was a day off from running.  But most days I took off from "running" I was biking up Cavanal that was a 2,000 foot climb.  I also had noticed the week before I did the race up Cavanal my time was ok but not a PR and I really really pushed with everything I had and was still not recovered.  With over 256,000 feet of elevation gain on the bike and 190,000 feet of elevation running for 2013 I had forgotten about resting for a marathon and was still chasing summits on the World's Highest Hill in Poteau, OK.  I will be writing another blog at the end of the year about my times on the mountain in 2013 so back to the exciting Route 66 walk race!
      I then stopped at mile 22 and ask a lady for her cell phone.  Not so I could call for a ride but I could call my wife and tell her not to wait on me.  Got her voicemail, "Kristin I am at mile 22 and I am walking so don't wait for me at the finish but I will finish today and I am not hurt or anything I love you!"  Walk race is what it was from this point, I would walk then I would run until my race pace would slow to a walk pace and I would walk again.  I did this for the next 4 miles.  They changed the course this year and it is a great new course and you can see a lot of marathons shortly after the half getting there walk race on.  I got more respect for the 4 to 6 hour marathoner because it was stinking cold and they were moving on like they probably do on every other marathon.  My respect was not gained from me being out there for as long as many of them were out there.  But they were racing just as I race to beat myself.  To line up with thousands of runs to really be racing one person that is yourself!  They had many more miles to go in the cold and they were pressing on and this was encouraging and inspirational! 
    Tuesday after the race my good running budding Tom and Matt got to have some great laughs about my marathon and me slowing down so much in the second half.  Tom checking, checking, giving up, and finally checking again seeing I had finished!  He thought the same as most would have that I would have quite.  And I might have it wasn't my Staple Marathon but I persevered and finshed my 4th Route 66 Marathon and my 42nd Marathon in the past 4 years.  They say you learn something at every race.  I learned so many things I would have to write a full blog to explain them all but learned mostly some races aren't about racing they are about finishing!  I will take note of these rookie mistakes and hit it again and again!  I have a big trail race schedule ahead and plan to get recovered and ready to push it hard again!

Route 66 Finishers 2013

 

Beach 2 Battleship Ironman 2013 - B2B - 140.6

       Well it started 7 years ago when I was setting on the couch weighing in 20 pounds more than I do now with a lot more body fat!  Flipping through channels on DISH doing what most Okie’s do best and I saw Kona the world famous Ironman in Hawaii.  At that moment I was floored at the distance and speed they were traveling and I told my wife right then I was going to do one before I turned 30 years old.  She said, “Do it, your Crazy!” So I got up and went and ran 1 mile around the neighborhood.  Got back and told her I better sign up for a Marathon first, and she thought that was a smart idea.  She is always good at bringing things into a realistic perspective because my dreams are out there sometimes and she might have thought this one was out there! But 7 years later and over 40 Marathons under my belt in the past 4 years the time had come for me to make the journey to Wilmington, North Carolina.

Who better to go with me than my cousin Kasey Ng who was going to do the ½ Iron at the very young age for an Iron event of 21 years old.  He has been becoming a great endurance athlete, this would be his 2^nd ½ Iron and he was pumped for the great course at B2B.  We also would bring his brother Kyler and mom Carrie for support team and drivers for the long journey halfway across the US.

       We drove over 19 hours stopping very few times. One great stop I found in Brownsville, TN was Helen’s Bar-BQ.  Carrie looked a little worried but she said she loved BBQ and Kasey was worried where we parked the car because he wanted to see the bikes!  It was a great hole in the wall Mom and Pop place. Helen had been cooking BBQ for 19 years at that location and had worked there for a total of 34 years.  My first African-American Fire cooked BBQ and it was pretty amazing. There was a lot of history in this place!

-Pre-Race

      We missed the 2pm Mandatory meeting so we had to hit the 5pm meeting or you get a 4 min penalty OUCH! So then we got lost looking where to take our bikes to Transition1.  It was very stressful just making sure you had everything where you needed it when you need it there. 

-Lesson Learned: Read how many bags you are going to have to pack for transitions and pack ahead of time before you leave to make sure you have everything you need in every bag!

After checking some bags and leaving our bikes at T-1 we finally got some dinner. PASTA!

Pre Race Sleep was terrible with loud people on one side, and a crazy loud guy above us, and then super early folks on the other side!  But this is always expected and I always sleep better with my lovely wife and Kasey wasn’t crazy about spooning so he took his own bed!  We were up at 5:10am to get some breakfast calories and final bag packing. Then off to the race and it was really feeling real finally that I was about to toe the start of an Ironman.  We got in the car and it said 35 degree’s. Wow!  That is cold when thinking about getting in the water to swim.  Good thing I had bought some women’s cozy socks at Target the night before to leave at the race start because the sand was freezing!

So they said a really nice prayer and directly after the pray they played Eminem-“Lose Yourself” Everyone started Dancing as I listened to the words “Look if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment would you capture or would you let slip…..” Oh how I wanted to be finished before I even started, and as I thought of this the music faded and they said go!

-Swim – 1:16:29

Very Very Top of the Pic is Me

       This race was a beach start with about 30 or 40 yards and then a 90 degree right turn and everyone was fighting for the inside and I did just the opposite and went way wide left. I wanted to stay on the far left side of the crowd.  This was awesome because we had about 1.5 miles of swimming straight up the channel.   The water was 70 degrees and felt warm, with great visibility in the water, the wind was blowing at us and the water was pretty choppy so when I came up to spot ahead of me and wanted to get a breath it was hard not to get a full breath of salty water.  I was very relaxed and had a great pace going thinking about style and staying comfortable.  About that time I saw a jellyfish and thought about sharks and all kinds of crazy ocean creepy things!  We went past the half iron guys as they stood on the shore line in the cold and then we had a sharp left turn coming so I got into some traffic but got out ok swam a little longer and then I saw a guy standing next to me and was what!  So I stood and walked about 20 yards fixed my Velcro on my wetsuit and readjusted my goggles.  That was a nice break!  It was crazy because the shore line was a long ways away so I guess I wasn’t in the current if there was any but I wasn’t worried about it. I turned the bend and I could see swimmers coming out of the water and at this point I wasn’t sure if my feet were kicking because my feet were frozen and my fingers were very cold.  Climbed out at 1:16 on my Timex and then got my wetsuit stripped by the kind people striping us of our wetsuits.  On to an air tube tent shower and it was amazing.  The people I came into the shower with were gone and then the next group was leaving and I was like well I got to get out of this thing sometime! So I headed out barefoot run on asphalt for a 400 yard run to T-1 transition got my bag and entered the changing tent / sausage fest / Vienna style because everyone was frozen by the time we got to the tent.  It seemed like forever to get my clothes on because I was shivering and wet but finally got out of there!

-Lesson Learned: when it is that cold probably should get some of the bootees and maybe a warm cap.!

-T-1: 12:53

Lesson Learned: Pack a towel to dry off with because I was wet and it was really hard to get anything on when freezing and wet

-Bike – 140 miles - 5:41:44

Mile 100ish

I had turned on my Garmin GPS tracker in the T-1 to find satellites so I could hit start when I got on the bike.  I looked down when I sat on the bike and no satellites so I was a little nervous because my game plan was to keep my heart rate low and stay relaxed on the bike.  I am not sure what the temperature was but it was freezing cold so to deal with the cold I was wearing a Patagonia Down Vest.  Yes a Down Vest and I think I was the only one on the course with such a big coat on but I was warming up finally and kept it on until mile 65.  Everything was going well on the bike at the beginning I had to pee 3 times when I was swimming and by mile 20 I had to pee again!  I had started my buffet of Gu’s, Stinger Waffles, Water, and EFS Sports Drink.  I thought I would hold it as long as I could and when I got to mile 40 I thought I would wait until mile 56 and I thought of dropping my jacket with the special needs bags and having them bring it in for me, but I didn’t’ want to mess with it so I left it on and took a pee just after the aid station and dropped what felt like 40 ounces of weight.  Around mile 60 I took the jacket off and stuffed it inside itself and then slide it between the aero bars.  Surprisingly it felt great outside I was just wondering when we were going to get out of the wind because it felt like I had been against the wind for a long time!  And about that time we turned got more wind and then turned again with a long awaited tailwind.  I was trying to figure out my north and south and see what the wind was doing but it was hopeless it was not working well.  I hear some guys in the T-2 tent talking about the wind and said it was amazing last year and this year was terrible.  So I was cruising along mile 80 when I see my jacket eject from the front and bounce down the road I look back to make sure no one is behind me and then I turn around and snag my jacket off the ground losing a minute or so but not going to lose that amazing jacket that has been with me for so long!  At mile 90 I caught a group. It was the front pack of women and they were battling back and forth on the bike.  This helped me keep my mind off the long bike ride watching them racing while I was just sitting back taking it easy.  I figured I would pick it up a touch for the last 10 so I left them and rolled on into a packed crowd at Transition 2.

-Lesson Learned:  The course was not really hilly at all and it was a great course, I do wish the wind would have worked a little better and I wish I would have done a check bag at special needs so then I could have dropped my gloves and jacket.

Did great with the heart rate maybe could push the second half a little harder but not much!

-T-2 Ran completely around the Event Center while they yelled my number to get me my Running Gear.  I sat down and didn’t get in a huge hurry and wanted to make sure I got a lot of Vaseline in the Hot spots

-Run 26.2 miles – 3:50

Mile 14 Feeling Strong Battleship Bound!

     I took off without my Garmin finding GPS because we had changed inside the civic center so I just took the pace slow and what felt really easy.  I also hit the lap button on my Timex and look at the time and thought man if I could run a 3:40ish I could break 11 hours.  But then I also thought of my good buddy Bryan and many blogs I had read of the death march of a marathon other racers had gone through after swimming and biking.  I kept to the game plan, which was not go any faster than 8-minute mile for the first 3 miles. I hit the first mile in 8:15 and was pleased at the pace and the effort.  The weather was still nice and I was just holding back what felt like through the first 10 miles.  I was now settled in just below an 8-minute pace and took in the great course down the river walk around Greenfield Lake a 13 mile looped course that I was to tackle 2 times.  I remembered the race director stressing that we had to run past the finish line not 1 time, not 2 times, but 3 times and he said we had to promise to run 2 miles past the finished line the 3^rd time until we couldn’t hear the music before we tried to DQ the race!  I thought this was pretty funny because I had decided before this race started I would finish unless I didn’t make the cut off times.  So back to the run I went past the finish line the 3^rd time heading out on my second lap and still feeling great passing tons of other racers and many racers telling me how great I was doing! I was at my favorite place on the course an aid station with load music and cheering!  After I hit mile 18 I felt a feeling I had only felt once before in my quads and it wasn’t a good one, soon after mile 18 my quads were killing me now and I began to slow down to an 8:25 pace for 2 miles.  After mile 20 I then felt the need to walk through a long aid station walk to the turnaround 50 yards and back through the aid station again fueling up double.  Then I decided I would run through the pain and only walk the aid stations back to the finish. Running through the get pumped stations with my head down still hitting the sign! After hitting mile 25 on a steep downhill I screamed as I let it go down this last hill. Finally I would pick up the pace to drag into the finish! 

Lesson Learned:  Train more on the flats in the bike so I can have some quads left on the run!  And then maybe run harder as I go if I feel good. I think it was very smart to go out slow.

My Tear Eyed Moment of Happiness! Kristin would have been there I really would have cried!

Kasey after my last Porta Jon Freeze Out FINISH METALS!

Beach 2 Battleship was a great race and I had a great time finishing my first Ironman! Lot of training and the payoff was great!

Big thank you to my cousins and my cousin Kasey for finishing his second ½ Iron and I am looking forward to the day he does a full!