Route 66 Results Summary: I came in 34th overall and 9th in my division with a time of 3:09:41, which was a PR by 2 minutes and 53 seconds. I averaged 7:10 for the race. I felt pretty strong up until mile 22, but then I felt my pace slipping away and was not able to control it any longer.
Splits: 6:55, 6:58, 6:51, 6:51, 7:01, 6:46, 6:53, 7:01, 7:00, 7:07, 6:50, 7:08, 7:00, 6:51, 6:56, 6:56, 7:09, 7:02, 7:09, 6:55, 7:01, 7:23, 7:27, 7:26, 8:10, 8:36, 4:17 (.50 miles).
I ate Ramen stir fry the night before to load up on carbs. I ate meals that included pasta and potatos for the previous two weeks on a daily basis. I went to bed the night before feeling overly full from dinner. I woke up feeling really good.
Leading up to race time it was about 24 degrees with an 8-9 mph N.N.E. wind. I wore my throw away sweat shirt and brought my throw away sports bottle which contained gatorade that I sipped on for about an hour leading up to race time.
I met up with Shane about 30 minutes before the start of the race and we hung out with some of his friends for about 15 minutes before walking to the corral. I had a brief moment of panic when my watch was refusing to link up with the satellites. I only had about 4 minutes until start time when I realized it was not already linked. I ended up restarting it and getting it to link just about 20 seconds before the start.
Miles 1 - 5 (6:55, 6:58, 6:51, 6:51, 7:01) I ran the first four with Shane. My plan was to go out in 7:00 flats. I held pretty close to the plan here as I would throughout the race until mile 22. These first 5 were through down town, the Utica Square area, Cascia Hall with the always pumped up atsmosphere of the drum line, and the nearby beautiful homes of the surrounding residential area. Shane's plan was to go out in 7:00 flats for the first four miles and then gradually start to speed up. He left me at the four mile mark. I thought disaster was about to strike as I felt that strange pain in the back and bottom part of my right heel that I felt on my dress rehearsal run in my new shoes last Wednesday. The pain came on all of the sudden as it had on Wedensday, so I tried to focus on less heel stricking and more of a mid-foot strike. It felt tolerable and controlled so I tried to tell my mind to just let the pain numb away and I focused on the race. Then an amazing thing happened. I'm pretty sure that by the end of the fifth mile the pain was completely gone.
Miles 6 - 10 (6:46, 6:53, 7:01, 7:00, 7:07) These were mostly flat or down hill. This section began in a mostly flat residential area, followed by the flat Brook Side area, followed by about three miles on the nice and mostly flat Riverside Drive. I pulled out my mile splits sheet for the first and only time at the 7 mile marker to see how I was doing on time. My sheet was in a small clear zip lock bag tucked into my racing belt with a packet of GU. I was about 1:30 or so ahead of time at this point. I put the zip lock bag back into an empty slot on my racing belt where I thought it would be safe. When I looked back down about 1 mile later it was gone. This was a last minute plan that failed. Next time I will wrap in in tape and put it around my wrist.
Miles 11 - 15 (6:50, 7:08, 7:00, 6:51, 6:56) This segment contained the first of a series of nasty hills. The first 1.5 miles was an easy finish of the long flat River Side Drive area followed by a hard hill that lasted about half a mile which took us back up into the down town area. I was very pleased that they no longer had us running over one of the short but very hard hills that is a bridge going over a rail road track in the down town area. This segment finished by running out of down town and back onto Peoria for a full mile of up hill fun. I ran this one in 6:56 and felt very accomplished, because I was thinking back to last year on this same part of the course where I did not fair as well. I think the wind was maybe a little worse last year.
Miles 16 - 20 (6:56, 7:09, 7:02, 7:09, 6:55) Mile 16 took us back to the Utica Square area, home to the infamous Hicks Brunson Eyewear, and back past Cascia Hall, and then into the hilly residential fun that started to suck the life out of me and set the tone for the roughest parts to come. Mile 17 was a hard hill. Mile 18 was less hard, but all up hill none the less. Mile 19 had me especially concerened when I was studying the course a couple of weeks ago. I knew that right in the middle there was a massive dip on 21st street that goes under Highway 51. Mile 19 as a whole was a little like running through a valley starting at one side and running down through the trough and then finishing uphill at the top of the next peak. Mile 20 was an easy down hill residential street that took us into the University of Tulsa campus.
Miles 21 - 26.2 (7:01, 7:23, 7:27, 7:26, 8:10, 8:36, 4:17 (.50 miles)) This segment begins with about 1.5 miles through the beaufitful University of Tulsa campus. I managed a 7:01 starting out here, but I could definitely feel the my tanks running low on energy and I was wondering how I was going to sustain my pace for another 5 miles. Here we exit the campus on Delaware, head down to Cherry Street, and eventually end up back on Peoria. This area was packed with rolling hills. On the other side of each hill was a nice down hill that gradually lowered the total elevation, but the hills that kept coming were relentless. From here we took Peoria, which was a nice long down hill, and then back into down town via 6th street. It was mile 24 in which I experienced something a little strange. I was running under highway 75 about half way through my 25th mile. The sounds of the traffic on the highway were reverberating loudly underneath the bridge. I had felt like maybe I had something left to pickup my pace just before this. When I got under the bridge my vision started flashing like a strobe light and I started feeling a little light headed. I slowed down just a bit and gradually things began to feel normal again. From here I finished the race and I finished strong, but I really wasn't able to approach marathon pace again until that last few hundred feet of the race.
Finish Line: After I crossed the finish line I hobbled through the tent and grabbed some warm spaghetti and gatorade. Alisha met me after I came out and I hobbled to grab a beer and then immediately to the gear check tent so I could change into warm clothes. I started to get really cold at this point and was very happy I had someone to help me change. If I had been by myself I probably just would have grabbed my checked bag and hobbled to my car which was about 10 blocks away to warm up. I may have even walked to the med tint because I felt like I was shutting down. It was not until we got to her car that I started to warm up and only feel the usual post marathon effects.
In conclusion: I ran a pretty aggressive race for the first half and was right where I needed to be to finish in 3:05. First half: 1:31:48. Second half: 1:37:53. The hills on the back half and the freezing cold temps were just a bit more than my body was ready for. That said, I'm really happy and proud of this PR producing performance.
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