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