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| Finally, a race "together" |
First of all, I want to point out that this marathon is one of the most organized marathons I've ever ran. Everything was top notch. If I had to point out any glitches they would border on nitpicking. We stayed at the host hotel, the Holiday Inn downtown, which was right next to the starting line and within walking distance to the race expo. They offered all marathoners a 3:00 pm checkout on race day, and treated us like royalty. The expo itself wasn't huge, but they had a collection of vintage cars on display, which I thought was pretty cool. I was disappointed that they had a limited supply of official marathon gear, especially since it was Brooks race apparel, but in our race packets we received a really nice short sleeved tech tee, so that was enough.
Being able to stay in the hotel room race morning instead of standing in porta-potty lines was priceless. The starting of the race went off without any problems, and during the first half of the marathon we ran with the half marathoners, which wasn't too congested. All the water stops were flawless, with consistent set-ups from station to station, and all were almost exactly 2 miles apart (1 mile apart on last 6 miles). There were local bands on the course and spectators all along the course, cheering and having a great morning. Flash forward for a moment to the finish, where we received gorgeous medals and free beer in a nice set up in Veteran's Park. Buses promptly took us back to our hotel. Perfect race in every way. Except one. The course is butt-ugly! I'm sorry Tulsa! I know they don't have much to work with, and they tried to highlight all the points of interest in town, so it's not fair, but I am just being honest.
Actually, the first half was somewhat scenic, as it traveled through their cool Brookside area of town, along Swan Lake, through some high end neighborhoods and along the Arkansas River, but once we left the river the picture turned pretty bleak; old warehouses, freeway crossings, desolate areas of town, and add to that a lot of concrete on the course. I thought that once we reached the University of Tulsa (mile 21) the scenery would improve, but sadly, this ended up being another dead area of town. Dreadful scenery combined with one of the hilliest courses around (but hey, I knew it was hilly so no excuses there), and throw in occasional gusty south wind stretches, and it made for a very rough day.
As for the "Center of the Universe Detour", I somehow managed to run right past the turn without even seeing it, so no dilemma for me. I had actually forgotten all about it, so I wasn't even looking for it.Those from our group that did it said it was pretty cool.
Still, I am glad I ran this race. Sometimes the tougher the race the more appreciative I am about being able to work through the rough spots and make it to the finish. Our visit to Tulsa was great too. We had great food everywhere we went, and really enjoyed the Brookside area of town--wish we had more time to hang out there.
Everyone in our group ran great times. Even though some are unhappy about their times, they did awesome on a really tough course. I am especially impressed with Laura Hebert's 4:00:17 marathon, her first! She's a natural. It was great to be able to be a part of that this week-end.
Other group stats:
Jerod Honrath 3:14
Toby: 3:16
Erin: 3:39
Mark: 3:54
Jamie: 3:55
Me: 4:06
Kathy: 4:21
Zelda ran her first half marathon! Her time was 2:20, beating her goal of 2:30 by a long shot. Mike ran a 2:01. I wish I had seen the mad hatter sprint to break 2 hours!
So in conclusion, would I recommend this marathon? At first I said no, but now I would say yes, knowing that the course is really hilly beginning to end, ugly for the majority of the 2nd half, and has a lot of concrete. Other than that, perfect.
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