OKC Memorial 1/2 Marathon race report!!
Very crowded, excellent organization and support, the entire race route had great! great! great! support from spectators, very festive yet respecful atmosphere, water stops were crowded (at least during the 1/2 marathon part of the course), awesome new medals! a must do for any marathoner!
I started out slow, through mile 8 I felt good but unsure. Mile 9-13 I whipped the race into submission finishing very strong. Very satisfied with the race. 2:14 and change.
Marathoners that didn't get to finish Boston were invited to run OKC for free. At the start, a lady next to me wished me good luck. She then told me she ran Boston but didn't get to finish. She was 25 miles into Boston. We hugged, I welcomed her to Oklahoma. She said she'd ran the OKC half a few years earlier. Out of about 25000 runners gathered at the start, we lined up next to each other and she picked me to wish well.
Will try and post a pic soon.
Enjoy!
Trails are hard!
Hey Ev--very nice race for you. Sounds like negative splits for a good finish. Neat to meet a Boston runner--can't imagine what must have been going through her mind at the start. Huge race even with both half and marathon.
Well, my trip to the doctor's on Tuesday proved only that I had a sore foot, but something broken wasn't the cause. today I go see a podiatrist to find out more (I can only hope). The soaking and icing had helped enough that I went to the gym yesterday and this morning for some elipticalling. I may have given the podiatrist something more to look at as it's now sore in a slightly different spot.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Queen of 3rd Place
ev - strong running!! Wow!! Must have felt great to pound out the last few miles so strongly! That one's on the list for sure.
Leslie - how's it going with the orthotics? Are you still also doing the bike? Sorry to hear about your brother and sister-in-law, so sad, it sounds like they're in for a really rough ride.
Stumpy - hope it ends up being a minor foot problem. A few years ago I had ongoing foot issues, one of them felt like a stress fracture but a change of shoes fixed it, then months and months of plantar fasciitis, also fixed by changing shoes. But it was amazing how painful something relatively minor could be!
r2 - sorry to hear about your trip being a no-go and the avalanche victims. Hope you get a break to get out there. There's so little snow here that my annual snowshoe overnighter, normally the first weekend in May, has been cancelled. Flying over the Sierra on Monday looking at the snowpack - looked more like late July than early May.
Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon - highly recommended! The run took us through mostly historic areas or upscale residential neighborhoods and parks. There was even a loop through the infield of Churchill Downs! It's not a fast course, however, there's a hilly park around the halfway point, and then numerous small rolling hills the last few miles that are a real bear at that point. Since I had not run more than 12 miles in weeks and weeks, I was happy to finish!
On to week one of more-or-less "serious" marathon training. Last time I BQ'd I used Daniel's "A" program as a general guide, but cut the workouts back a bit. This time trying to do them 100%. Yesterday included 5 x 800m, was able to hit 3:50 or a little faster and am very happy with that! Time will tell if the bod holds up to the intense training.
Ex runner