After months of training and anticipation it is the morning of the marathon. I woke at 4 am. Keeping with the normal routine I made coffee and had a bowl of GO LEAN Crunch!! Good stuff!
I then decided to get on Facebook and check for messages and to update my status before departing for downtown OKC. Oh I had to squeeze in a game of Mafia Wars. At this point, I am getting more and more excited. My mother and Frank came in for the race as well as Tiffany’ step brother Jimmy and a friend so I had to wake everyone up. We then made it out the door a few minutes early. After a quick stop to pick up a friend of mine (Matt was running the marathon as well), we made it to the marathon at 5:30 am. After parking and walking in 40 degree weather (Oh and it is windy of course…..we are in Oklahoma no surprise there) we made our way to the corral area for the race. They then made an announcement for 168 seconds of silence to honor the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Everyone stopped talking except wouldn’t you know a security guard, he was yelling out orders. We all told him to STOP TALKING. After walking around a bit to find the location for the start of the race, I met up with another friend from my Life Group (from Lifechurch.tv) named Marty. He is amazing! Oh I need to mention here that Marty and I were running in Honor of Sgt Ben Davis, USMC who perished in the bombing.
The time has come….4….3…..2….1 and we were off. My friend Matt (who runs much faster than me) took right off and waved goodbye to Marty and I. Go figure that my Garmin couldn’t find satellites until a second after I started the race, but none-the-less it found the satellite and I was set.
Marty and I started off on a feverish pace; the first mile was clocked at 9:09. That was about 1 minute faster than both of us wanted to pace at, but we both felt really good so we continued. Mile 2, 3, 4 and 5 were just about the same as we clocked at 9:39, 9:18, 9:01 and 9:07 respectfully. To be honest we were both extremely happy with the pace and the time. I was thinking the whole time that I could not maintain this pace, but to my surprise it continued and after 7 miles we were still clocking a 9:01 pace. At this point it was time for Marty to split off to finish the half-marathon. I continued straight, giving Marty a High-5 and good luck. Let me mention here that the crowds were so supportive and the water and Gatorade stations rocked throughout the entire marathon!
At this point I had just lost my pace partner so I thought I would probably start to slow down. To my surprise the pace continued. Miles 8, 9, 10, 11 were all clocked at 8:59, 9:16, 8:58 and 9:09. I was feeling AWESOME!! Oh during this time I had to stop for a quick bath room break or should I say a short porta potty break. Miles 12-16 were still at this fast pace and at this point I was thinking that the Wall I normally hit at Mile 16 was not going to come. During this part of the race we ran by Lake Hefner and with the wind in our faces…well that was a real treat! But it sure did feel good when I turned around and the wind was at my back….gliding along was wonderful. Miles 17-19 went without the wall and my mind was thinking “You Da Man!” No wall today baby. Boy was that all about to change!
Hello body and legs, welcome to mile 20. Yes I hit the wall and hit it hard. It was like I looked over and saw the flag with 20 MILES on it and my legs said “Yep we are done”. I was like really, come on I have made it to 20 miles and now you want to hit the wall…come on legs get it together. After four miles of back and forth arguments with my legs, Miles 20-24 were timed at 9:45, 10:13, 12:03, 11:26, and 11:17. Finally they gave in and I finished the race strong.
After finishing, it was time to give myself a treat. I hit the cookie, banana, bagel and water stations hard. Then I quickly found everyone to celebrate together.
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