Tag Archives: oklahoma city marathon

Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon Race Recap (Part 1)

by

Much like the deranged sorority girl email, y’all better buckle in. This might be a long (but ultimately fulfilling) post!

When I drove into Oklahoma City for the race expo on Saturday, the whole city was buzzing. People were swarming everywhere, armed with their clear gear check bags and expo swag. Traffic was terrible. As K put it, “this city [was] crapping itself”. It took me 15 minutes from when I exited off of I-40 and finally pulled up to the valet station at the Colcord Hotel, also known as paradise.

I felt so fancy as I handed the valet my keys, checked into my room, and ascended to the 11th floor. My room was nothing short of fantastic.

Fabulous, right?

After I squealed a little, I headed to the Cox Convention Center for the race expo. The line appeared to be ridiculous, but it was because they only let a small number of people into the packet pickup area at once, which made that line nonexistent. I was also able to pick up the packets for my family with no wait!

After I got my bib and such, I headed to the real expo area where I bought all my 13.1 swag. I got a sticker for my car, a RUN OKC tech tee, and a fuel belt for my race fuel (more on that later).

K arrived shortly after I got back to the hotel, and we walked over to a Subway because she skipped lunch. Then we watched some trash TV until it was time for dinner at Iguana with my entire family! Best pre-race meal. I was even able to resist loading up on chips and salsa (mostly due to nerves).

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, where I perfected my playlist and waited for my last roommate to show up, Kristen! She was running the full marathon so I offered her my floor so that she wouldn’t have to drive up from Norman at 4 am. We hit the sack at 10 pm to prepare for our 5am wake up call. K gave me a melatonin pill which made me sleep beautifully, and I woke up only slightly annoyed at the world. 

Me!

Me and K!

Kristen!

Part 2 coming soon.

What I’ve Learned About Half-Marathon Training So Far

by

  • Don’t eat sport beans with caffeine.
  • Long run on the weekend, keep your base up during the week.
  • Don’t stress if you miss a midweek run.
  • Cross train when you’re not running.
  • Yes, you must cross train.
  • Don’t buy new shoes too close to a race, but….
  • Don’t race in too-worn shoes.
  • Take it at your own pace.
  • Try and find time to run or workout with friends. They might be faster than you, but treadmills go at anyone’s pace. And you always need a helper to count crunches.
  • Make this battle personal. It’s the only way you’ll find the strength to train for so long, to skip going out with your friends in order to hit the gym, to get up on race morning and pour yourself into shoes and hit the pavement.

Feeling Fine at 9 (+1)

by

This post is super late but it’s been in the drafts folder for two weeks! My bad.


I ran 9 miles today.
I ran 10 miles today!

Don’t you love it when you’re bad at calculating distances? Or does that just happen to me… Read on for the full story.

I made a huge mistake during this run: leaving at 11 am so that I could get the run out of the way and see my friends later that evening. By the time I was in the “please, God, strike me down anytime now” portion of my run, it was almost 80 degrees and the hot Oklahoma sun was beating down on my poor little frame.

I did my two mile loop twice to get 4 miles out of the way, but then I realized that due to the heat, I couldn’t wait 20 minutes in between water breaks. So, I switched to a one mile loop. I’m sure everyone who was doing yardwork thought I was literally insane running around in a circle 5 times. Such is the life of a distance runner.

So, I get home, thinking that I’ve completed my 9 miles at a somewhat slow pace for me, but that’s alright. Then I get the itch to check mapmyrun.com…

Turns out each of my loops was about .1 over what I thought it was. (So my 2 mile loop is really 2.2 miles, my 1 mile is 1.1) Not that much, right? But when you’re doing it 9 times, it adds up. So I wasn’t incredibly slow! I was just running more than I thought I was!

10 miles/ 2 hours

Bust

by

If this blog were actually the children’s show Sesame Street, the word for last week would be “bust”.

Does Sesame Street even do a word of the day/week?

Whether or not that’s an actual segment, last week was a total bust. In more ways than one.

I had to delay my long run until Sunday because I went to Dallas for an appointment and forgot a jacket to run in. And also appropriate pants. Oops. But I had more than enough time Sunday to get out there and pound out 7 miles on campus.

My plan seemed to be working perfectly during Sunday afternoon. I picked up a sandwich for lunch and then took a nice long nap before dragging myself out of bed and dressing myself in my running getup. I also remembered to bring Sport Beans that my mom had sent me in the mail. These were watermelon flavored and contained caffeine, so I thought it would be a good idea to try them out before the race. Remember, kids, never try something new on race day! And if you’re planning on wearing brand new shoes for a race, you might as well just take a razor blade to your feet because there will be blood everywhere anyway.

I ate three beans and then started my run.

Three-quarters of a mile in, things were not going well.

When you want to puke 6 minutes into a run, you can kind of guess that things may not be going your way that day. But alas, I kept going and finished my 2 mile loop in a slower-than-average time. Mostly because I was trying to self-diagnose my sloshy stomach as I pounded the pavement.

I thought I might have been hungry, so I ate two more beans and then took off on my loop again. It was at this time that the wheels really fell off the bus. I began suffering from horrible calf tightness that reckoned back to my early days of running during which my calves would get so tight that somehow circulation got cut off to my feet and they went numb. (I am not a doctor, but this happened in 3 races, and ever since I started taking walking breaks, I have not had any numbness. Riddle me that.)

So, let’s regroup. I’m trotting around an an embarrassingly slow pace, trying not to puke in the lawns of any historic homes, and wishing I could slice my calves in half because my addled brain thought it would relieve the tension.

During a walk break, I texted B about my ailments, who promptly told me to stop running. I told him I didn’t want to be a failure.

I basically just waited for him to console me with “You’re not a failure!” before I slowed to a walk completely and turned around for home.

I thought about blaming the Sport Beans, but I remembered I had a package of them before a 5k once and was fine. Those didn’t have caffeine, so maybe that was the catalyst for my misery.

However it happened, 7 miles turned into 3. A terrible, awful 3 miles that capped off a terrible, awful week filled with tears, frustration, and not a lot of running.

But it’s a new week now, and things are going better. I made myself stick to the plan and not add in an extra long run this week. I have not cried once, and it’s already Tuesday! And tonight I ran a totally respectable 3 miles at 10k goal pace.

So let’s move on with our lives now, and leave the bust of last week behind.

Total mileage for Bust Week: 5 miles

Six Miles on a Saturday Night

by

Whew, lookin’ rough.

6 miles/ ~60 minutes (I’ve been taking a break from formally timing my long runs to keep morale up)

The first two miles were of awful-average difficulty. Especially because they begin with a huge hill (I took a picture! I’ll show you later!). After two, I took a quick water break and then did two 1.5 mile loops and planned on stopping. But I felt super great during the 3-5 mile period. I even did a sprint through the pretty wooded trail I run through.

Due to this “feeling good” phenomenon, I decided to push it for a personal distance record of 6 miles. I kept telling myself, “This is your long run! Don’t cop out now! If you stop, you’re just going to have to go through all this pain again tomorrow!” Since it was getting dark, I looped around some neighborhood streets to finish the last miles because the streets had streetlamps (duh).