2011 OKC Memorial Marathon

(Picture: Waiting for the start, wearing our brown trash bags)

Marathons tend to be hard enough without driving rain, hail, gusty winds, lightning, and 30-degree temperatures. The 2011 OKC Memorial Marathon was quite the experience...

Picked Marty up at his house, and then we picked up Sam in Denton on the way. Stopped for lunch/breakfast in Ardmore -- I ate the lunch I had brought myself (I refused to change my routine), which kind of freaked out the little girl who waited on us. We got to OKC around 1:30 and went straight to the expo to pick up our packets. The expo was pretty boring, so we didn't spend too much time there and just went to the hotel. It was a beautiful, sunny cool day, and there was an art festival right by packet pickup, so the downtown area was bustling. We decided on rest rather than walking the art festival.

Veronica and Brian were running late, so we just checked in at the hotel and rested. Sam and I shared a room. The bathroom doors were multi-paned French doors, and the toilet was right there -- what the h?

Lied in bed and caught multiple episodes of some super-couponer show -- people who fill their garages and bedrooms with huge amounts of stuff (regardless of whether it will expire or not, or whether they will ever use it or not) because they can get it for free with coupons. One woman said her closet with 200+ bottles of her daughter-in-law's favorite soda made her happy, another women her 3-year supply of toilet paper, a man his 100+ bottles of hand soap. Made me sad, and a little angry. This world wasn't meant for everyone to stock what they don't need and can never use.

Went to dinner -- reservations at 6. Brian and the GPS took us on a long loop around the city until we finally found the Olive Garden. I told him I swore I could see our hotel from the restaurant. It was a beautiful prom night in OKC, and the lines at Olive Garden were out the door and down the sidewalk. It's always nice to be with someone from the corporate HQ (Veronica) because we walked right past them all and into our private nook at the restaurant, had two waiters assigned to our long table, and were warmly greeted by multiple other people and management staff from the restaurant. Veronica and Brian paid for all our dinners. Bill from our training group gave Veronica and I a nice card with a $50 gift card in it -- what a nice guy! Ate dinner with Veronica, Brian, Sam, Marty, Courtney, Alan, Jaulik and husband, Bill and his wife and Courtney's parents. Ate my standard pre-race cheese pizza.

Brian took us back to the hotel, and he and Veronica and I headed over to Walmart. They needed some things, and I wanted a carry bottle of Gatorade to get me through the first few water stops of the race when it is always so crowded. I told Veronica that I couldn't believe that Bill gave us each a $100 gift card; she looked kind of confused and said he had only given her $50. I laughed. When we got back to the hotel, Sam was already snuggled in bed, so before very long it was lights out.

I didn't sleep a wink. I kept checking my alarm clock all night so as not to oversleep. I finally got out of bed at 3:30. The race started at 6:30, so we were meeting in the lobby at 5:15 to drive over. Sam had said not to let him sleep past 4:30. So, I got up and made some coffee, ate a Clif bar, and showered. I swear when the light came on in the bathroom, the whole room lit up with those dad-gum French doors. I'm surprised Sam was able to sleep. We all met in the lobby at 5:15 but kept going back and forth to our rooms because we'd forgotten stuff. As we finally started out the door to the car, it started to sprinkle. Back to the rooms for brown plastic trash bags (for wearing.)

Brian drove us all downtown in Veronica's car, we parked and made our way towards the starting line. We were still early, so we snuck into a really nice old hotel to sit in the lobby and use their restooms. We found a spot to sit, looked out the window, and the deluge began. Lots of lightning. Soon, word came that the race start had been delayed 30 minutes until 7. The rain never let up, but the lightning stopped, so people started making their way towards the starting line about 6:45.

We waited on Veronica for one last restroom stop, the lines were long, and we didn't actually head to the starting line until about 6:55 -- race start at 7, and we were at least 4 blocks away. Marty and Sam had left earlier (we didn't see them again.) So, we hustled over in the driving rain and wind. We weren't sure where we were going, but looked over and could see people running, so we made a left and headed that way. Before we knew it, we were in a huge crowd of 5Kers who were standing and waiting for their race to start -- about 20 minutes after the marathon start. They didn't want to let us squeeze through -- at one point I thought we'd never get through, but we finally did, assuring them we were marathoners and needed to get going. I had forgotten to start my Garmin in all the confusion, so I turned it on, and it finally found a satellite about a minute past the starting line. We were on our way. Heavy driving rain with lots of wind, and super-chilly temps. It wasn't too far before we ran through our first puddles deep enough to completely soak our shoes and feet.

Veronica and I ran together the whole 26.2 miles. We picked up Jaulik (who ran with our group in the spring) at about the half-way point, and she ran with us the rest of the way also. Sam was doing the half-marathon and passed us at about mile 7 -- he and Marty had actually started behind us since we had squeezed our way through the 5Kers to the front of the line. We never saw Bill or Courtney or Alan or Robert. We tried to stay on pace as best as we could -- at every mile marker I gave a report of how many minutes we were off on our 4:30 goal, and gave assurance that we could possibly make up some time at the end (we were using a "modified warm-up" pace band where you start and finish slower.) I tossed my Gatorate bottle at the halfway point, I had only taken a few sips, and was tired of carrying it. The rain stopped for about 3 miles from miles 13-15. I actually took off the soaked $2 sweatshirt I had picked up for Veronica and I at Academy (months ago for the Austin marathon, which was hot, so didn't need them), but I tied it around my waist just in case I might need it later. Veronica never took hers off -- she was frozen the whole way.

At mile 15 it clouded up, and the rain started again. This time it was heavier, windier, colder, and at two different points contained hail. Lots of lightning. I put my wet sweatshirt back on. We kept moving forward -- it was so cold and windy, there was no stopping, we had to keep moving to stay warm and keep the hypothermia away. Veronica was fighting like a champ to keep going. At mile 22, I looked over and made eye contact with her, and the tears were flowing, so I decided I couldn't make eye contact any more, or we'd never finish. So, we just kept going. We did finish -- Veronica, Jaulik and I side-by-side! Ran the entire way! 4:46:50 was our finish time, which was respectable given the circumstances.

Near the end, Veronica said she was so cold that she felt like she was going to pass out when we stopped at the finish line. She was not looking well. We finished together, stood for a moment as they draped our medals around our neck, and headed down the chute. Almost right away was the medical tent -- we snuck in the back door. There was a blowing heater in there! We stood for a few minutes trying to get warm, and then someone stood up from one of the chairs, so Veronica was able to sit down. Finally, I thought I was warmer, and I said I was going to go find Brian and bring him back. Don't move from right here, I said. I walked outside in the driving cold rain, walked further down the chute and didn't see anyone I knew, and began to get bone-chilled again, so I headed back to the tent. Veronica was huddled in the corner, shaking all over. She said she was not getting warmed up and was going to need some medical help.

I went over and flagged someone down and said we needed some help, so they cleared a table, and I walked Veronica over to the table, and they laid her down, took off her shoes and socks, made a tent so she could discreetly change into one of their medic dry shirts, and then they wrapped her up like a mummy in a couple of blankets. Her vitals signs were good; she was just super-chilled. She started to come back around before too long and kept telling me to go back over where the heater was because I was shivering, too, and to look for Brian. I'd walk to the edge of the tent, look out at the driving rain, and thought there is no way I was going back out there again. I prayed for Brian to walk in, instead. Every few minutes I'd go back and check on her and let her know I hadn't found Brian, yet. I wasn't for sure how to get to the car from where we were (Veronica had the key!), where anybody else was, or how in the world we were going to get out of this place. The rain kept pounding.

Finally, I overheard someone mention something about somebody shuttling people to their cars -- 5 at a time in a mini-van. I commandeered a ride for us on the first one, and we shuffled out into the rain and into the warm mini-van. By the time we finally got to the car, we were starting to thaw a little and cheer up a bit. But, we got in Veronica's car and started it up, and it was freezing in there, so we started to shiver and shake again. She started dialing people to see where they were. Next thing we knew, Marty was walking up to the car. He had been in the building across the street and saw us. Sam and Brian were at the Starbucks up the street -- they said stay right there, and they'd come to us.

In all the excitement, we had given up on getting a finisher's shirt, but once we were all in the car, Sam said if we'd drive over near the finish line, he'd jump out and go get our shirts, so we did, and Sam got our shirts. We finally got back to the hotel around 2, and got chilled again getting from the parking lot into the hotel. After I took a hot shower, made a cup of coffee, and put on all the layers of clean dry clothes I had left, I finally started to warm up.

On our way back home, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for a hot lunch, which took forever, got a little chilled again, and then headed for home. There was lots of construction on I35 coming home, at one point, coming to a complete stop, and the rain and storms were wild from before Ardmore all the way to Denton, but we finally made it back to Sam's truck in Denton to drop him off, to Marty's near White Rock Lake to drop him off, and home by 7:45. During the trip home, I finally had to tone down the heat in the car -- we finally got thawed out.

Takeaways from this year's OKC. Next year, pay a little more to stay at a hotel within walking distance of the starting line. Go to Walmart and stock up on 88 cent clear plastic parkas with hoodies (that you can probably wear the entire race and the photographers can see your number through it -- with our sweatshirts covering our numbers, our pictures of the experience will be buried in the lost and found pictures.) Figure out something besides Clif bars and Clif Shot Bloks to eat during the races -- all that sweet starts to get nauseating afterwhile -- I'm thinking maybe those peanut butter-filled pretzels. Will have to try some training runs with those.

OKC was quite the experience, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Can't wait for the next marathon.

Next Up: Nov. 19 Wild Hare 50-Mile Endurance Trail Run
50 while I'm still 50 -- turn 51 on Nov. 20

Garmin Statistics:
Overall: Miles: 26.65; Time: 4:47:12; Pace: 10:47
Laps: 41 degrees/1-10:19, 2-10:59, 42 degrees/3-10:48, 4-10:26, 5-10:37, 39 degrees/6-10:33, 7-10:34, 8-10:27, 38 degrees/9-10:37, 10-10:52, 11-11:19, 37 degrees/12-10:57, 39 degrees/13-10:54, 14-10:42, 38 degrees/15-10:20, 16-10:17, 37 degrees/17-10:27, 18-10:25 19-10:27, 36 degrees/20-10:19, 21-10:24, 37 degrees/22-10:41, 23-10:54, 24-11:15, 25-11:47, 36 degrees/26-12:06, .6-12:05

Northwest Garland at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday

It would probably have been safer for me to stay at home this morning and not gone for my early morning run. There was a negative energy in the air that just made things not feel right.

This was northwest Garland at 4:30 a.m. today.

I wasn't bothered at all by the biggest possum I'd ever seen giving me a big smile as I headed down the street towards Shiloh Rd. After all, I am one with nature early in the morning.

Up ahead near Goodwill at Shiloh and Beltline there was a group of 5 teens talking loud and cursing. I thought, "This can't be good." So, I crossed to the other side of the road, and they didn't bother me other than to throw a few choice words in my direction.

It seemed like there were 10 times as many cars as usual on Shiloh this morning. Lots of loud thumping bass music. Maybe the big party had just let out.

Just north of Arapaho on Shiloh I heard a man on his back porch yelling out, "Shut the f up!, and shut your f-ing mouth!" at someone over and over. That was unnerving. I was going to flag down the GPD if I saw one this morning -- I usually do see them in the mornings.

Up ahead near the Shiloh bridge, I noticed another runner out. Another early morning soul. But, he swung down into the Spring Creek Reserve to a car that was waiting down at the bottom. I wondered what kind of a deal was being made down there this morning.

I was barked at for the first time in months by several different dogs this morning. They had finally gotten used to me and had decided to just sleep and not bother with me anymore. But this morning, I guess they sensed the negative energy and were up and barking.

On my way back from 190/George Bush Freeway, it was finally energizing to see and wave at "Cap'n Jack" (who always wears a fishing cap) -- my other regular early-morning sidewalk mover.

Back near Arapaho and Shiloh again, I heard someone pumping up a pellet gun (I know the sound -- I went through several pellet guns as a kid.) I imagined being hit by a pellet at any minute, but was able to duck by the fence and get up on the alley where I felt more protected.

Obviously, I made it home safely, but I hope mornings in Northwest Garland in the future are a lot less interesting than today was.

Fishing

The spider webs are back.

I run a little later on Sunday mornings -- sleep in a little, and don't want to be out too early when some are just coming home from their Saturday nights (they tend to be unruly towards early morning runners.) I like to time my Sunday morning runs so that at my turnaround the sun is just rising.

It's a beautiful time of morning. The birds are really singing their morning songs.

As I crossed the Shiloh bridge this morning, headed south and back home, the sun was lighting up the new spider webs. On virtually every corner of every square in the railing, there was a glistening web -- probably a total of 50 different webs. Fishing for their breakfast. Casting their seines, perhaps.

Some appeared to be novice webs -- irregularly shaped, corners flapping in the wind. Others were the webs of experienced spiders -- perfectly symmetric, beautiful and built to last.

As I shuffled by, enthralled by the sunlight on the webs, I was sure at any minute I was going to see the words, "SOME PIG".

A Wild Morning

Big storms last night in Garland, but they were over and out of the area by 4:15 when I left for my run this morning. Everything was washed clean. A few large tree limbs down.

Sometimes a black plastic trash bag looks like a skunk when you're out running, and sometimes a skunk looks like a black plastic trash bag, the former always being better than the latter.

This morning, I experienced the latter. Luckily, the skunk didn't spray, but I surprised him, and he surprised me. He jumped about 2 feet in the air, and I jumped about 4 feet in the air.

Hootie the owl in the top of the tree off in the distance must have seen it all and thought it was pretty funny (a hoot) because he immediately started hooting. And, he hooted until I was up and over the hill.

I don't know if wild animals have some kind of special communication or not, but when I got home, a raccoon was crossing the street in front of the house. He stopped and looked at me, and I was close enough to see a kind of smirk on his face, like he was thinking, "you goofball."

It was a wild morning for a run.

I'm Jamie Lee

Do you remember this scene in the movie Halloween? Jamie Lee Curtis had been to the house across the street and seen the horrific carnage, and was stumbling back across the street to the house in which she was babysitting. Michael Myers was following her, zombie like. She got to the house and couldn't get the front door open, and here he came.

I was Jamie Lee this morning.

I had finished my run and was finishing up my "newspaper ministry", putting several neighbors' newspapers up on their front porch. I was at the house directly across the street from mine and was headed back home when 3 mean-looking dogs ran through the yard between our and my neighbor's house.

They turned and headed down the street away from me, so I thought, "OK. Just walk slowly to the front door, and everything will be fine." I eased my keyring out of my pocket, and it jangled. Drat it all!

They turned and looked my way, and then started running towards me. Bah!

I rushed to the front door, pepper spray in one hand, key in the other. For the life of me, I couldn't get that key in the door, couldn't concentrate enough on the lock to stick in the key! They were barking now as they got closer. Gaaa!!!

I finally got the key in the lock, opened the door, and pulled the glass door shut right as they got to the door. Noseprints all over the glass door.

I really prefer that my morning runs be a lot less exciting.

Lost Dog

"Lost Dog" "Male German Shepherd" "Goes by Butch". Runners don't like signs like these.

I was out running early one morning when up ahead I saw a Rottweiler trying to attack drive-by cars. I stopped, he saw me, and he turned and started running towards me.

I said, "Lord, I guess today You're calling me home."

But, the Rottweiler slowed and walked up to me. I patted him on the back and said, "Good boy!" He ran off, kicking up his heels.

I picked up my pace again and continued on. He followed me for a bit, then stopped to attack another drive-by car.

"Lost Dog" -- a forboding sign.

Spring

The forecast may call for a winter weather "event" today, but I know spring is on its way. God told me this morning.

I reallllly didn't want to go for my run this morning. I was tired, and sleepy, and it was cold out, and the north wind was bending the trees.

I knew the 3 miles north would be brutal, but the 3 miles back would be OK. And, I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to run tomorrow morning because of the weather.

So, I put on an extra layer, knowing I'd be too warm on the trip back, but at least somewhat more comfortable at the start. 4:06 a.m.

I don't run with headphones because I love the sounds of the morning, and sometimes I need to hear the sounds of the morning for my safety. The sounds of a speeding GPD car headed north on Shiloh Rd., of the nails of a coyote scratching the pavement as he crosses the street behind me, of a mockingbird welcoming the sun.

I grew up in Corpus Christi and have been a sportsman my entire life. I know sounds. And, about 3 houses down from mine I heard my first faint whisper.

Then, by the end of my street, there they were. Flying low under the clouds. Directly over my head. Like ghosts in the night, their white underbellies reflecting the city lights below. A couple changing their positions in the pattern. Headed north, back to their summer home.

God's perfect timing sent them on their way days ago, and timed my morning and theirs perfectly so that we'd meet at the end of my street at 4:10 a.m. As I turned north and headed up Shiloh Rd. and towards 190, that north wind didn't seem quite as cold.

Spring is on its way. The geese know. God told me.