Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon 2009 Part II

Part II: OKLAHOMA (That's-Duh-Bull-You-Eye-Enn-Dee-Why)

I woke up race day morning eager for a good run. We met up with the Kansas City Runner's Edge group in the hotel lobby and climbed aboard our respective busses. And sure enough, just as it had been all day yesterday, it sure was windy! That was going to slow us down, but Coach David had talked with us about that and I, at least, figured I could handle it. ("Famous last words?" "Just you wait.") At the Memorial, I made my way to the starting corral but, due to a mixup on my part, found myself in the 5k corral entrance rather than the Marathon corral. I pushed myway to the front and entered the Marathon corral about half a block away from the starting line. What this meant was, I would be surrounded at the start by a lot of runners who were going to run a *lot* faster than I was. That was okay, though, as long as I kept my pace slow and didn't let myself get caught up by the crowd and excitement.

I noticed, however, that my Garmin still hadn't picked up a satellite by the time the race started, so I had no idea of my actual pace. I forced myself to stay slow and tried to make my way to the right to get out of the way of the faster runners. Unfortunately, there were so many of them that it took some doing to get out of their way!

My Garmin picked up a signal about 3/4 into the first mile. When I reached the marker for that first mile, I slowed to a quick walk, employing the run/walk strategy I had planned for and trained with. I was still somewhat discombobulated due to my Garmin issues, but worked hard to push that out of my mind and concentrate on the rest of the race. Coach David alway says that the first three miles of a marathon are the most important, and I didn't want to let a bad experience with the first one influence the next two.

I took about 5 miles to really hit my stride. Walking the first 0.1 of each mile meant that I needed to run the remaining 0.9 at about a 10-minute pace to stay on target. I was doing pretty well with this as the course wound its way north and west out of downtown. Even when the course turned due west for a half a mile and the heavy wind came at us from the side, I was able to stay on pace.

The rolling hills in mile 11 posed no real challenge, partly because the wind was at my back again but mostly because they had nothing on Parker. Towards the end of mile 12 I caught sight of a runner wearing a Kansas City Runner's Edge shirt to my left. As I pulled alongside her I called, "Hey, Runner's Edge!" and gave her a thumbs up. A second later I heard, "Hey, Denver!" to my right. I looked, and there was another KC RE member. A quick smile and some words of encouragement helped make that a memorable mile.

I was still feeling pretty strong at the halfway point. I had energy to spare and was still on pace to finish in about 4:30. Actually the mile markers were helpful for this: most of them had signs stating "You are on track to finish between X and Y time," and each one I saw showed a window of between 4:34 and 4:47. When the course turned south just before mile 14, to run along Lake Hefner, finally running directly into the wind, I got my first real taste of what the rest of the day was going to feel like. With no tall buildings to block it, the wind was free to slam into us with the force of a Mack truck. I gritted my teeth, lowered my head, and pushed through. I knew I could still hold my 10-minute pace for the run, and now my short walk breaks would be all the more appreciated.

After leaving Lake Hefner at mile 17, there was a quarter-mile downhill slope. Halfway down it I saw a Denver Runner's Edge shirt. It was Bret, who runs in the same pace group as I! I poured on the speed a bit to catch up to him. ("I couldn't for the life of me figure out when he'd passed me to begin with, because I know I started the race ahead of him." "Was he glad to see you?" "I'd like to think so. We swapped congratulations and I moved on.") It was about this time that I realized that I'd made it farther than any of my other marathons without crashing or having to stop. ("I had stopped once before that point to reapply my Body Glide, but I didn't count that because it was only for a second. And absolutely necessary." "Yes, yes, we all remember your graphic description of your Band Aid issues last year.") Not only that, but I'd even manged to pick up some time, as when I passed one of the mile markers the "on target" sign said "4:17 to 4:32"!

I was still holding myself beween 9:55 and 10:15 miles when I finished mile 20. Now, my original plan had been to maintain my walk breaks until I got to this point, and then just run out the rest of the course. But the wind was so fierce at this point (it may even have increased in intensity), and I still felt so strong, that I decided to stick with what was working. So I kept going, pushing against the wind as the course continued to move south. I kept on through the next 2 miles and my pace only slipped a little. Soon I noticed I was back on track for a 4:34 to 4:47 finish according to the signs. But at mile 22 I started to slow down. I slipped from a 10-minute pace to between 11 and 12:30 for most of the rest of the race.

When I had about a mile to go, though, I dug as deep as I could to find enough energy to run out the rest. I turned onto the home stretch, and the excitement of the moment took over. Seeing the finish line as I crested the last hill added to my depleted energy reserves. Seeing and hearing my RER friends at the 26 mile mark gave me that last extra push to get over the finish. The clock said 4:42:07. My official time would probably be faster by a minute or so; but even if it wasn't, I had just PR'd by almost 15 minutes!

CODA

After I'd finished and collected my medal and finisher's shirt and Carl's Jr cheeseburger, I joined my friends at mile 26. There we cheered for the runners coming in, including the remaining RER folks. We returned to the hotel, cleaned up, and packed up before hitting the road.

The bus ride back was lots of fun as we swapped stories and congratulations and drank celebratory drink after celebratory drink. ("After celebratory drink after celebratory drink after..." "Watch it! You're going to give the impression that all we do is drink and run." "Your point being?") We all had a lot to be very proud of: in very difficult race conditions everyone had performed remarkably well, including 4 full marathon PRs and 4 half marathon PRs!

Official Time: 4:40:36
Total Races: 8
YTD race miles: 79.2
YTD total miles: 436.75
"Best" post-race celebratory drink: "Mad Dog" 20/20 wine thanks to Steve

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon 2009 Part I

Part I: OKLAHOMA (Oh-Kay-Ell-Ay-Aitch-Oh-Emm-Ay)!

Another out-of-state marathon, another Runner's Edge of the Rockies road trip.

The bus arrived late. A dozen of us were already waiting, standing around the Best Buy parking lot, *clearly* a tour group in need of transportation. When the bus did arrive it parked on the far side of the parking lot! ("It's a good thing you don't believe in signs or premonitions or anything like that, then, isn't it?") Randy volunteered to jog across and point out the obvious, and soon that whole matter was straightened out. Once all 30 of us were loaded up onto the bus, we were off! ("Was it, finally, the giant behemoth Barney bus that you didn't get either of the last two times?" "No, in fact, it was the same white bus we'd had...both of the last two times." "I'm beginning to think Barney doesn't even exist." "No, I've seen pictures." "Yeah, I've seen pictures of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, too.")

After a quick stopover in Burlington for some breakfast and a quick driver change ("You chased the first driver off after only a few hours?"), it was time for Introductions and Ice Breakers. Part of the Introduction included what we all do for a living, and it turns out that half the group are in espionage! ("I'd tell you what I do for a living but then I'd have to kill you?" "Exactly." "Fun crowd!") The Icebreaker game was Two Truths & A Lie. Everybody wrote down... ("No, wait, don't tell me, let me guess.") Then we had to guess a) whose clues were whose and b) which was the lie. It was a pretty challenging game, actually, with some very random facts about everyone on the bus. Anyway, I apparently don't know any of those people at all. ("Aren't these your friends?" "The sad thing is, nobody had any trouble figuring out which was mine--and which was my lie. Apparently, I am that transparent.")

For entertainment we broke out Running on the Sahara, a documentary about three guys who did exactly that. It was actually a very interesting film. Not only were there the logistics of running over 4300 miles, including having medical support and food supplied the entire way, there were also political issues: at first the government of Libya didn't want to let them cross that country to get to Egypt, and they had to face the possibility of crossing through Sudan instead, which would have been extremely dangerous. It was also fascinating to watch the three runners' respective personalities come into conflict, especially when the group leader seemed willing to sacrifice anything to finish the goal. ("Which they did, of course." "Naturally, although it wasn't easy for them." "Kind of makes you glad the most you're ever going to tackle is 26.2, eh?" "Never say never...")

After lunch at Wendy's in Hayes, Kansas, we put in Run, Fatboy, Run, a comedy about a guy who leaves his pregnant girlfriend at the altar ("Sounds like a winner!"), and then runs a marathon to try to win her back. It's a very funny movie whether you've run a marathon or not; but I think it's funnier if you have.

We arrived in Oklahoma City at exactly 7:00 pm. ("Score one for Coach David's itinerary!") An hour later, having unpacked and settled in, we met in the lobby to decide where to go to dinner. After some discussion we settled on the Macaroni Grill, less than half a mile away. About 20 of us made the walk along a street with no sidewalks or crosswalks to speak of. Then, of course, we had to figure out how to get all 20 of us seated as quickly as possible. ("Don't tell me. Nobody called ahead again, right? When are you going to figure out that what happened in Kansas City was pretty much a lightning strike of good fortune?" "A man can dream, can't he?")

We actually managed to get seated fairly quickly when we agreed to take whatever was available. I found myself sharing a table with Randy, Karen, and Jeff, seated right next to Dan, Jill, Kari, Suzi, and Annette who fortuitously happened to be at the same restaurant. Service at dinner was...not great. It took some time for our food to arrive; and no sooner had it than the waitress spilled a glass of ice water right into mine and Randy's respective plates. ("I'd barely had time to eat a mouthful of noodles and one shrimp!") It took almost as long for us to get our replacement dinners, but thankfully from that moment on the meal was incident-free. Then we had only to make our way back along the sidewalk-less road to the hotel. ("You talk like it's a bad thing. Didn't you ever play Frogger growing up?" "Funny thing about that game, though: you can win as often as you like, but in this case at least, you can really only lose once.")

I slept pretty well on Friday night--I think we all did. Funny how sitting for a 10-hour bus ride can make you very, very tired.

Saturday morning we got up for an easy 3-mile run around Lake Hefner, along the northernmost portion of the race course. This was our first exposure to the wind we would be facing during the run, and it was pretty consistent. Where it did break, however, the humidity kicked in. Given the choice, I decided, I'd rather take the wind.

After the run several of us went to a nearby pancake house for breakfast. I heard some mixed reviews about the food, but I for one had three of the most delicious blueberry pancakes I've ever eaten. ("I think I've found a new favorite pancake house." "Too bad it's three states away." "Tell me. It would be the most expensive $5 plate of pancakes ever.")

Later that morning we took a partial tour of the course. ("One of the perks of having our own chartered bus.") We drove from about the midpoint to about mile 8, and then through the neighborhoods of the final few miles of the course--what Coach David described as the hilliest parts of the course. As with when we did this in Kansas City, it was useful to see the kinds of hills and neighborhoods we would be facing. It was also nice to see that the streets were pretty flat and didn't curve down at the gutters as steeply as the ones in Denver do. That means we could run close to the gutter and not worry about feeling too lopsided. Seeing some of the landmarks near the end of the course was nice, too, as they would then provide visual cues to let us know we were about finished. ("Provided you remembered them, of course." "Yes, well...")

After the course tour we made our way to the Expo to get our bibs and timing chips and other stuff. I also had the pleasure of hearing Bill Rodgers (4-time Boston Marathon winner, 4-time NY Marathon winner) and Joan Benoit Samuelson (2-time Boston Marathon winner, Olympic Gold Medalist) speak, and got Bill's autograph and a picture of us courtesy of Jen. Later we made our way to Bricktown for lunch. At Jen's recommendation, we ate at the Bricktown Brewery. The 20 or so of us that were there took over the entire bar area and had some fantastic food. I also spent some time chatting up the very cute waitress, trying to convince her to come out and cheer for us at the race. ("'Us'?" "Okay, fine. Me.")

That night we had dinner at the Oklahoma City Memorial. The food quality was *much* better than what had been served at Omaha. After dinner some of us spent some time walking around the memorial. It's quite amazing, actually. One hundred sixty-eight empty chairs on a large lawn represent the victims of the tragedy. There's a lovely and peaceful reflecting pool along what used to be 5th Avenue, and south of that is the Survivor Tree--a large elm tree that survived the explosion. Not part of the official Memorial but equally as moving is the Jesus Wept statue across the street along fifth, an eight-foot high statue of Jesus, turned away from the Memorial with his hand over his eyes, which had been erected by the nearby church. It was all very moving.

Back at the hotel, I hung out with some members of the Kansas City Runner's Edge group. This is the Original Runner's Edge, from whom Coach David got the idea for my group. I enjoyed spending some time chatting with them before heading up to bed to do a last gear check and get some sleep before the Big Race.

Colorado Parkinson's Awareness 5k 2009

I drove down to Colorado Springs yesterday in a howling blizzard which did not bode well for this morning's race. Actually it could've been much worse--although it was snowing to beat the band and crazy windy and freezing cold, at least the snow wasn't actually sticking to the ground (because the wind was too fierce, I think). The wind continued to howl all night; and the morning, though sunny and cloudless, was still quit blustery. Nothing daunted, however, my younger sister and I made our way to America the Beautiful Park near downtown Colorado Springs (right next door to a large industrial park that was billowing steam into the atmosphere. I think they call that "irony").

During my customary 2-mile warmup, I thought back to my last race, the Runnin' of the Green Lucky 7k, and how strong I had felt on that race. I knew I could do at least as well on this one. I'd been thinking about it for the past few days, focusing on how I'd felt during that last race. I re-read the article on Go-Zone Racing that had been so inspirational and planned out my running strategy--going fast to start, fast in the middle, and fast at the end. Unfortunately I discovered that the first half of this out-and-back race would be run into the heavy wind. This was mildly disconcerting--there had been no wind at Runnin' of the Green last month. But it wasn't going to get me down; nor was the fact that my right ankle started to complain as I wrapped up my warmup.

As my sister and I huddled with the other runners at the start, using them as cover from the wind, I prepared for a strong race. Finally the race director called out "Ready, Set, GO!!" We were off. The course wound a circle around the park before cutting to the right on a crusher-fine trail that paralleled I-25 (about 0.4 miles in). By the time I was there, I was surprised to see that the crowd had thinned and spread out considerably. I was even more surprised to see the lead runner less than a third of a mile ahead of me! Doing a quick count, I figured that I had to be in the first twenty or so runners, maybe even fifteen! And "with a bullet" as they say: I soon passed a few more runners with ease. I was going at a good clip, less "comfortably hard" than "hardly comfortable," but a pace I felt confident I could maintain for the rest of the run. I felt about as I had during most of Runnin' of the Green, and told myself (without looking at my Garmin) that I was on pace for that.

Just past the first mile (side note: there were no mile markers on this course, although there were plenty of helpful volunteers to point the way), I passed the aid station. I'm used to having a water stop at the halfway point of a 5k, so I passed by without slowing. I figured, if I wanted to, I could snag some water on the return trip. Besides, I had just been passed by my first runner since the very start, and was a few feet away from passing another one or two myself. No time to slow down now!

As I made my way along the second mile I could see the handful of runners ahead of me making the turn at about the midway point. As I drew closer, I could see the lead cyclist and first runner coming down the back stretch. I was closer than I'd thought! The closest runner to me had about a .05 mile lead on me. I didn't risk a glance backwards, but imagined that I could hear the breathing of the runner behind me.

As I tore around the turn into the back half, rocking with Nickleback and Metallica, I thought of a recent column in Runner's World Magazine about using imagination during runs. The author told about some running fantasies he'd used--pretending he was on a mission with Jason Bourne, or on the set of a Martin Scorcese movie, or making his way to the stadium before his rock concert (the article, by the way, was inspired by James Thurber's Secret Life of Walter Mitty. A great story. Check it out). "Don't stop running, whatever you do!" I gave myself over to my own heroic fantasy: The Bad Guys had kidnapped my girlfriend, and given me only twenty minutes to find them (on foot, of course) and rescue her. And one of them was chasing me. If he caught me, I was dead--and so was my girl. I focused hard on that sense of urgency, and the adrenaline pumping through my veins. That, and the music, carried me through the rest of the second mile (at the end of which I passed my sister, just finishing her first. We slapped five and swapped congratulations.) and most of the third, until I returned to the concrete trail and the circle around America the Beautiful Park.

Once I could see the park, I risked a glance over my shoulder. My pursuer was a solid tenth of a mile behind me, and for a fleeting instant I thought about slowing down. But I knew if I did, he would catch me. And then both my girlfriend and I would be dead. Which would suck. As I turned into the curve, I increased my pace a little. I was pretty close to the guy in front of me--I'd closed the gap a little in that middle mile. But I didn't have enough in me to pour it on full speed for that last half mile. Then I saw the finishing clock as I approached the final part of that curve.

I almost didn't trust my eyes: here I was, at the 3-mile mark, and the clock read 22:30! I had a chance to come in below 23 minutes! In that instant, everything disappeared--my music, my fantasy, the runner in front of me, and the one behind me. All I could see was the finishing clock. I pushed my speed even more, determined to achieve this goal. Twenty-two forty-five . . . fifty . . . fifty-five . . . fifty-seven . . . fifty-nine . . . DONE!!

Looking around at the small crowd, I felt sure I'd finished in the top 15, and hopeful that I'd finished in the top 10. By the time I'd made my way across the park to get some food and water and then returned to the finishing area, the first page of results was up. Eagerly I scanned my way down from the top. And there it was, in black and white, for all to see:

Place	Bib#	Name	Sex	Age	Time
10	58	Douglas Tisdale	M	33	22:59

I'd done it! My first top-ten finish EVER, and a spankin' new PR (by more than a minute twenty)! I felt high as a kite and lighter than air, and couldn't stop smiling.

And I wasn't the only one destined to PR that day: when I saw my sister enter the park for the last half mile, I ran across to join her and run her in. She'd been walking at that point, but I encouraged her to pick up her pace. As we jogged towards the finish, I saw the clock sitting at 38:30. "C'mon," I told her. "You can finish this sub-40 easily! Let's go!" With me shouting encouragements at her, she pushed her pace even harder, crossing in 39:20, a solid 5 1/2 minutes faster than her best 5k!

Needless to say, we were both extremely happy with today's race.

Official time: 22:59!!
Total races: 7
YTD race miles: 53
YTD total miles: 346.4
Race Rank: 5th in age group, 10th overall!!