Another 26.2 miles.............

[RedRonin]

The Tulsa Route 66 Marathon is now in the books.

Disaster was narrowly averted, though. At mile 15 my left hamstring did it's level best to convince me it was coming right off the bone. For three previous years I've signed up, paid for and trained for the Oklahoma event. Each of these years I've pulled up lame just weeks prior and had to drop out.

Wanna take a wild guess how well I handled having my leg lock up? Suffice to say that an anger induced, chi supported high-volume string of obscenities are probably still reverberating around any part of the state that will produce an echo.

But here's what I love about the community of people that participate in these events: Within in seconds of seeing me pull up and begin massaging the back of my leg, there were a half-dozen other runners that took time off of their runs to check on me. One guy saw the salt deposits on my shirt and shorts and immediately gave me two restaraunt salt packets to get my sodium levels back up. Another pulled two ibuprofin from a ziplock in his pocket and a third handed me a single serve packet of Bio-Freeze. Each one wished be luck and continued on their way.

I hobbled to the next water stop and took in the salt and one of the ibuprofin. Things loosened up enough for me to continue. I was reduced to walking in the last 10 1/2 miles but I'd built up more than enough time before to easily make it in prior to the cutoff. In fact, I found out that even though I run really, really, slow.... I can walk pretty damned fast. I'd been on a pace to have easily blown my PR in the marathon to pieces. So even walking in the last 40% of the race, I was still only 23 minutes of my personal best time. Not too shabby for a gimpy old fart.

I wouldn't have had a snowballs chance of continuing without people that didn't know me from Adam taking the time to stop and help out a fellow runner in distress. To have finally gotten to this event after three years only to have to have taken a DNF would have been a huge downer.

It doesn't take any time at all to forget how friggin much it hurts your various body parts to do one of these things. My legs will be fine in a couple days. The blister the size of my head on the right foot will be gone in a week. The memory of the people that came to my aid will be with me the rest of my life.

Tulsa is now behind me and Orlando is looming large and only 7 weeks away. Training for distance is over and now I have to concentrate on two day endurance and quick recovery.

I'm going to kick Goofy's ass.

[Ara]

How people run marathons, I will never know.

And how people have such big hearts continue to amaze me.  

Kick some butt!

Always~
Ara

[Zenon]

Hey, speaking of marathons RedRonin, I'm going to  run an amateur marathon on december 2.  it's 10 kilometers long.

I've never done this before, any tips on how to survive it?

[RedRonin]

Hey, speaking of marathons RedRonin, I'm going to  run an amateur marathon on december 2.  it's 10 kilometers long.

I've never done this before, any tips on how to survive it?

A lot is going to depend on how much you've trained so far.  If you've done some running up to 4 or 5k then you shouldn't have any problem.  If not, it's still a short enough distance that you can cover if you take your time.

Unless you're absolutely deterimined to place overall or in your age group, just kick back and have fun with the experience.

The biggest mistake people make in their first run is to get all caught up in everyone else's pace.  They take off too fast and run out of energy before the race is over.  Know what your pace level is and stick with that.  People are going to pass you.  You will pass other people.  Just make sure you're running your race and not someone else's.

Have some good high-carbohydrate meals for a couple of days prior to the run.  Drink plenty of water as well.

After that, just have fun.

[Shadow]

Congrats on making it through my friend.

Keep us posted on when you are going to be in O town.  You know we're just a short hop down the road from there. With any luck we can even find you some space to crash here at the ranch and you won't have to deal with some hotel.

I'll make sure we have some good coffee to cook up and I'll make a pot of my chili, Publix gorcery store has a good supply of habeneros right now.

[Rowan CedarWolf]

Wow, what an accomplishment! You must be quite proud of yourself. I don't know how you do it! The spirit of humanity never fails to surprise me, you know just once I wish they would show that on the news in place of the shootings and muggings! Oh well.
Congrats Red and good luck in the next one!

[RedRonin]

You must be quite proud of yourself.

Actually, this is just something to do that allows me to get my exercise and do something with it.  I'd only been running a few months when I figured out it wasn't going to last long if all I did was laps around the track.  Signing up for an event, especially after paying the entry fees, etc, gives me a focus point and something to shoot for.

My overall scheme is to do a marathon in each state as well as on all seven continents.  Got a hell of a long way to go, but it's a way of seeing places in this world that I'd never otherwise go to.

And as I mentioned above, the people at these things are a joy to be around.

Can't get too wrapped up in pride when there's still 75 year olds passing my ass up.  Not about the competing anyway.  It's all about having fun.

[Sebbi]

I'm going to kick Goofy's ass.

YOU GO GIRL!!!

I mean... oh bugger

*hides and finds shovel*

That every state, every continet idea sounds amazing. If you do London then get in touch  - might be able save you a hotel fee.

[Anonymous]

I'm glad you managed to do at least some of the course. It's good to see that there actually people out there who are willing to help.

Well done.

[RedRonin]

Keep us posted on when you are going to be in O town.

I'm arriving January 4th and going out on the 8th.  Hotel and all that is part of the event package, so I'm already booked at the resort.  It'd be great if we could get together for a bit, though.

This thing is regimented as all hell.  I'm doing the Goofy Challenge, which is running the half-marathon on Saturday and the full marathon of Sunday.  We get a Donald Duck medal for the half, a Mickey for the full and the 3,000 of us that are legitimately trying to kill ourselves get a Goofy medal for completing both.  Looks like there's roughly 25,000 participants on each day.  At least I should have plenty of company on the route............

I have to pick up my race packet info and attend a special Goofy meeting on Friday.  I should be able to knock that out pretty early and have the remainder of Friday free.  The weekend's shot with the running events.  My flight out isn't until 7 on Monday evening.

I'll PM you more details as they come in.

[RedRonin]

I'm going to kick Goofy's ass.

YOU GO GIRL!!!

I mean... oh bugger

*hides and finds shovel*

That every state, every continet idea sounds amazing. If you do London then get in touch  - might be able save you a hotel fee.

Was planning on Iceland as my European stop..........

............but after that comment.................

[Shadow]

I should be able to knock that out pretty early and have the remainder of Friday free.

Jennie's first thought was that we should take you out drinking Friday night. I'm tellin' ya, the woman's developed a wicked sense of humor that has gotten pernicious over the years.

I figure it would be best to go somewhere you can get a good high carb meal that will help keep you going.

We'll see Monady if the "Goofy" medal lives up to it's name. :twisted:

[RedRonin]

A shot from somewhere early in the day.  I can tell because the "@#$@!%&%^(**&@$^$$ my leg hurts" expression hasn't shown up yet.



Some Friday night pasta would be great.  Drinking would be a bad thing, though.

[Anonymous]

Why does it say LSD on the front of your top?

[RedRonin]

Why does it say LSD on the front of your top?

Well, hell, I need SOMETHING to get me through these things.........

Actually, underneath the large letters are the words "Long Slow Distance", which is about the most accurate description of my running.  Sort of a shuffle and a trot with a bit of a waddle added.  Once you get past the 10% or so of runners that actually are competetive, the rest of us have some pretty "interesting" running styles.