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GaRebelRunner
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Joined: 26 Sep 2003
Posts: 1097
Location: Tucker, GA
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 Posted: 05/01/06 - 20:52 Post subject: Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon
I entered this race the most unprepared I have ever been for a marathon. Just over recovering from surgery my longest run since December was just a little more than 16 miles and I had trouble even doing that. I fully intended to switch to the half. I figured I was really taking too much of a chance of injury or worse to run the full.
But at the last moment I saw that Road Runner Sports was sponsoring pace groups from 3 hours to 5 hours. So I decided on Saturday to keep my full marathon number and line up with the 5 hour pace leader (there were actually 3 of them). I figured if I felt any muscle pulls or any other possible injuries I would simply DNF but since 5 hours was a good hour under my marathon pace I felt it should work.
At 6:30am 11,000 marathoners, 1/2 marathoners, relay teams and 5k runners and walkers take off with temps at 54 degrees and a nice sunny day rising to 75 degrees by 11:00. This race has really grown and it took a little over two minutes to reach the start after the horn went off. The first 2 miles go by the Bricktown entertainment district and up toward the state capitol where the 5k group will break off. We continued on our nice leisurely pace passing through friendly neighborhoods to just past the 7th mile where the 1/2 marathoners will break off for their return to the finish line and then the 1700 of us running the full continue on our own.
From mile 7.5 we pass through more neighborhoods with many residents out welcoming us and cheering us on until we reach Britton just before mile 12 and then cruised past the 13 mile mark to go over a small bridge onto the Lake Hefner trails (asphalt) which take us around Lake Hefner from mile 14 to 17, where we meet our second bridge (once again nothing serious) when exiting Lake Hefner beginning our return trip downtown. We will pass through Nichols Hills, the Village and be entertained with country western, gospel and other music at each water station.
At mile 17 I decided to speed up just a bit and see if I could catch the 4:50 group pacers. I caught one of them right at mile 18 and continued with him the rest of the way. From mile 19 all the way to the end my knees were aching and my thighs were burning. I really felt like stopping but I knew if I did my legs would probably tighten up and I would have a hard time continuing. So I stayed right with the pacer, and finished at 4:50:25 gun time, 4:47:35 chip time.
This was the slowest marathon I have ever ran. But it was also one of the most enjoyable. My eyes were really watery when I crossed that finish line. I owe a lot of gratitude to the pacers because without them I wouldn't have had the motivation to simply keep running when I was really wanting to stop. I also ended up with a negative split for the first time in any of my marathons due to the 5 hour and 4:50 pacers staying on their correct pace. The 4:50 pacer and I didn't say more than probably 10 words to each other the whole time. It was just the fact he was there and I had someone to help pull me along. I'll have to buy something from Road Runner Sports just to show I appreciated them sponsoring the pacers.
And of course kudos to the OKC Memorial Marathon staff, volunteers, churches and citizens of Oklahoma City who really know how to make runners feel very welcome and go all out to show it. That's why I run this race every year.
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