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.