Route 66 Marathon 2013 – Race Report

Marathons: Paul #29, Leah #19, State #14 : Route 66 Marathon 2013
24th November 2013, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Finish Time = 3:53:23

Just 7 days after the Philadelphia Marathon we were lining up at the start line in Tulsa for the Route 66 Marathon. The shortest period we’d previously had between marathons was 3 weeks, so 7 days was a huge unknown. Adding to that, an Arctic cold front was sweeping the US and hit Tulsa that exact weekend. What should have normally been a mild weather marathon had turned into 17F / -9C. I’ve never run a marathon in 3 layers of clothing before (and still been freezing!). I’d also caught a cold and bad cough following Philly and for most of the nights leading up to this marathon, including the night before, I had been waking myself up during the night through coughing so much.

Lined up at the start in layers of clothing

Lined up at the start in layers of clothing

We fully expected to finish in 4:30 – 5:00 in this race, but as soon as we started, I was determined to make it another sub 4.

Tulsa isn’t really the most scenic place, but there were some nice neighbourhoods that we ran through and of course running on the iconic Route 66 itself. The weather was so cold it actually froze the water in the cups at the aid stations and some of them were just cups with mostly ice!

Running the course

Running the course

There was a huge turnout from the Marathon Maniacs club and we got to run alongside some of the founding members including #1 “The Prez” who has run over 350 marathons.

Biggest Regret

My biggest regret of the race was not crossing the finishing line with The Prez. We met him right at the end and could have finished with him, still in under 4 hours, and then with a great finishing picture to keep for all time. Instead we carried on with our sprint to the finish, crossing the line just a few seconds ahead. Bad Maniac decision!

On the final stretch to the finish, The Prez is just behind us

On the final stretch to the finish, The Prez is just behind us

It was probably helpful that it was so cold I couldn’t feel my legs as I knew they were painful. When we finished we couldn’t quite believe that we’d managed a second sub 4 within 7 days, also making it 3 sub 4-hour marathons within 4 weeks! Even with that, our 3:53 finish time put us in the top 15% of finishers.

At the end of the run there was a special Maniacs tent with free beer, pizza and a whole load of other hot foods (you can tell we mainly concentrated on the pizza), which was fantastic. I’ve never been so glad to get back to warm shower though!

Elevation Graph from my running watch:

2013-Route66

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