At the end of August I got an email from USATF with the championships races for the rest of the year listed. I decided to go to Tulsa for the Masters 15K championships. My parents live in Norman, OK and it was a good excuse to go home.
I probably should have looked at a calendar more closely. It wasn’t until about a week before I was suppose to leave that I realized that Javelina Jundred was the same weekend I would be gone. This is a problem because my husband, my oldest son and his girlfriend all work for Aravaipa. Of course they were all working different schedules. This meant no one at home for my other two kids and no one home to take care of the dogs. My poor husband had to not only fill in as me, but had to do it while working an insane schedule. Well… what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Thursday night I headed to Oklahoma City after work. My plane was packed. Who are all these people wanting to go to Oklahoma City? My dad was actually landing about the same time as me so we met in baggage claim and drove home. A quick hi to my mom and one of my sisters, and I was off to bed. I slept like a rock and slept in very late. I meant I didn't get a run in, but I figured if I slept that hard, I must have needed the rest.
I still have young siblings at home, so my parent’s house is a busy place. My little sister tore her costume at school so we took her some clothes, dropped my other sister at work and grabbed so lunch before heading to Tulsa. I picked Pei Wei, but then realized the vegetarian options were kinda limited to giant bowls of food. I ordered spring rolls, which were yummy, but I was a little concerned about the grease. I don't typically eat much grease. Oh well. Hopefully my system would sort t out before the race.
We start driving and my mom is telling me about this giant spider that is in her car. Knowing I don’t believe in killing things she pulls out my little sisters flip flop and I agree to put aside my beliefs for her. Of course, right about that time the spider runs across the dashboard. He was not friendly looking at all! He runs into the AC vent. He spent the entire trip toying me. Peaking out enough to annoy me, but never enough that I could kill him. When we got to the hotel I decided to make an effort to kill the spider because my mom was worried we would get back in the car later and not now where the menace was lurking. With the spider appearing dead, we checked into the hotel.
Mom and I made are way to the convention center for packet pick up. Downtown Tulsa is nice, except not the way Google maps took us. There was a separate table for the Master’s Championship race so pick up was quick. We stopped at a Starbucks that was attached to the library. Can every library please do this? It was fun to sit and chat with my mom and enjoy the nice weather. Back at the hotel we worked out the plan for the morning and sat around watching HGTV. We ordered Domino’s Pizza so I could get gluten free. An hour later my veggie pizza showed up with bits of chicken on it. I would rather starve to death than eat chicken. I called the store and was told a free pizza was attached to phone number. Not so helpful since I don’t live in Tulsa. My mom shared her pizza because that is what moms do.
As soon as we decided to go to sleep, there was running and yelling. And it continued all night. We found out the morning we were sharing the floor with a young group of soccer players. I slept fine, but I think they kept my mom awake. I actually got an amazing nine plus hours of sleep. I was tempted to stay in my comfy bed and skip the race. It was nice to have an 8:50 am start. We walked the 10 minutes to the start at 7:40am.
The Tulsa Race was amazingly well organized. It was easy to get around. I never waited more than a minute or two to go to the bathroom. Because the Master’s Championships race has it’s own start time, getting to the start line was super easy. There was a line of volunteers keeping any one not part of our start time back. As I walked through this line one of the volunteers stopped me to ask if I was from Arizona. He had seen my race singlet and was excited to tell me he watches the YouTube videos put out by Aravaipa Running. I am use to meeting people on the trails that want to talk to me about Aravaipa, but I don't usually have people recognize and talk to me about Aravaipa at a road race.
The race was going to be hot. I decided to carry a small water bottle. I definitely felt like I stood out as a trail runner. There was only one other runner carrying water. We line up and the hear the call, “runner’s rake your mark.” We all get in the typical race start position. But there was a long pause. Then we heard the call a again and the gun fired almost before the words were finished being spoken. I only mention this because of what happened next. A step or two off the start line a female to my left goes down, hard. I tripped trying not to fall on her and jarred my back. I looked over my shoulder, wondered if I should stop, but kept going. If it had been a trail race I would have stopped no question. But a fast road race… I just kept going. I questioned my decision, but in the end I am okay with it. On a trail, with no help around, I would never leave someone. But this was the start line of a road race with a lot people standing around.
Mary is the athlete that fell at the start. She was able to jump up and keep racing. She actually passed me and came in 1 place ahead of me. When she went flying past me I felt a little less guilty. I finished in 1:03:01. Not close to my PR and not close to where I was hoping to finish. But I also know I could have pushed myself a little harder. I always hard it find to make the transition from ultra running to road racing. I also knew that I was overheating the last 2 miles. I purposely decided to ease up on the pace. Which was probably mistake since I finished so close to the 2 ladies that finished ahead of me. Road racing is tricky business! I was 7th female and 13th after age grading. The original results said I was 2nd in my division, but that wasn’t right.
I probably should have looked at a calendar more closely. It wasn’t until about a week before I was suppose to leave that I realized that Javelina Jundred was the same weekend I would be gone. This is a problem because my husband, my oldest son and his girlfriend all work for Aravaipa. Of course they were all working different schedules. This meant no one at home for my other two kids and no one home to take care of the dogs. My poor husband had to not only fill in as me, but had to do it while working an insane schedule. Well… what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Thursday night I headed to Oklahoma City after work. My plane was packed. Who are all these people wanting to go to Oklahoma City? My dad was actually landing about the same time as me so we met in baggage claim and drove home. A quick hi to my mom and one of my sisters, and I was off to bed. I slept like a rock and slept in very late. I meant I didn't get a run in, but I figured if I slept that hard, I must have needed the rest.
I still have young siblings at home, so my parent’s house is a busy place. My little sister tore her costume at school so we took her some clothes, dropped my other sister at work and grabbed so lunch before heading to Tulsa. I picked Pei Wei, but then realized the vegetarian options were kinda limited to giant bowls of food. I ordered spring rolls, which were yummy, but I was a little concerned about the grease. I don't typically eat much grease. Oh well. Hopefully my system would sort t out before the race.
We start driving and my mom is telling me about this giant spider that is in her car. Knowing I don’t believe in killing things she pulls out my little sisters flip flop and I agree to put aside my beliefs for her. Of course, right about that time the spider runs across the dashboard. He was not friendly looking at all! He runs into the AC vent. He spent the entire trip toying me. Peaking out enough to annoy me, but never enough that I could kill him. When we got to the hotel I decided to make an effort to kill the spider because my mom was worried we would get back in the car later and not now where the menace was lurking. With the spider appearing dead, we checked into the hotel.
Mom and I made are way to the convention center for packet pick up. Downtown Tulsa is nice, except not the way Google maps took us. There was a separate table for the Master’s Championship race so pick up was quick. We stopped at a Starbucks that was attached to the library. Can every library please do this? It was fun to sit and chat with my mom and enjoy the nice weather. Back at the hotel we worked out the plan for the morning and sat around watching HGTV. We ordered Domino’s Pizza so I could get gluten free. An hour later my veggie pizza showed up with bits of chicken on it. I would rather starve to death than eat chicken. I called the store and was told a free pizza was attached to phone number. Not so helpful since I don’t live in Tulsa. My mom shared her pizza because that is what moms do.
As soon as we decided to go to sleep, there was running and yelling. And it continued all night. We found out the morning we were sharing the floor with a young group of soccer players. I slept fine, but I think they kept my mom awake. I actually got an amazing nine plus hours of sleep. I was tempted to stay in my comfy bed and skip the race. It was nice to have an 8:50 am start. We walked the 10 minutes to the start at 7:40am.
The Tulsa Race was amazingly well organized. It was easy to get around. I never waited more than a minute or two to go to the bathroom. Because the Master’s Championships race has it’s own start time, getting to the start line was super easy. There was a line of volunteers keeping any one not part of our start time back. As I walked through this line one of the volunteers stopped me to ask if I was from Arizona. He had seen my race singlet and was excited to tell me he watches the YouTube videos put out by Aravaipa Running. I am use to meeting people on the trails that want to talk to me about Aravaipa, but I don't usually have people recognize and talk to me about Aravaipa at a road race.
The race was going to be hot. I decided to carry a small water bottle. I definitely felt like I stood out as a trail runner. There was only one other runner carrying water. We line up and the hear the call, “runner’s rake your mark.” We all get in the typical race start position. But there was a long pause. Then we heard the call a again and the gun fired almost before the words were finished being spoken. I only mention this because of what happened next. A step or two off the start line a female to my left goes down, hard. I tripped trying not to fall on her and jarred my back. I looked over my shoulder, wondered if I should stop, but kept going. If it had been a trail race I would have stopped no question. But a fast road race… I just kept going. I questioned my decision, but in the end I am okay with it. On a trail, with no help around, I would never leave someone. But this was the start line of a road race with a lot people standing around.
Mary is the athlete that fell at the start. She was able to jump up and keep racing. She actually passed me and came in 1 place ahead of me. When she went flying past me I felt a little less guilty. I finished in 1:03:01. Not close to my PR and not close to where I was hoping to finish. But I also know I could have pushed myself a little harder. I always hard it find to make the transition from ultra running to road racing. I also knew that I was overheating the last 2 miles. I purposely decided to ease up on the pace. Which was probably mistake since I finished so close to the 2 ladies that finished ahead of me. Road racing is tricky business! I was 7th female and 13th after age grading. The original results said I was 2nd in my division, but that wasn’t right.
Finish line!
Cool coffee mug the race hands out if you finish under 70 minutes for women and 60 minutes for men,
I am After the race my mom and I helped Mary as much as we could. She chipped her two front teeth. She needed stitches in her knee and her lip was a bloody cut up mess. I have kept in touch and she is recovering well. She can’t run, but was cleared to swim.
Back at the car to head home, my mom joked about making sure the spider was dead. Mom gets in and starts the car, I open my door at the same time and I see him run across the dashboard. He met his early demise with a blow from a flip flop. We closed out the day with some OU football. The next day I helped my mom at the fall festival for her church Where else would you be on Sunday night in Oklahoma, but the Baptist church? It was really great to go home and spend time with my family.
The race was amazing! I will definitely be back next year and hopefully run faster. If you have ever thought about the Tulsa Run, I highly recommend it. Up next, Desert Solstice. I am really looking forward to this race. As highly competitive as it is, it's also fun to see so many people I have met in the previous years. 24 Hours on the track gives you lots of time to chat and catch up. My goal is still a bit up in the air, but I will NOT be trying to break the 100 mile record again.
Back at the car to head home, my mom joked about making sure the spider was dead. Mom gets in and starts the car, I open my door at the same time and I see him run across the dashboard. He met his early demise with a blow from a flip flop. We closed out the day with some OU football. The next day I helped my mom at the fall festival for her church Where else would you be on Sunday night in Oklahoma, but the Baptist church? It was really great to go home and spend time with my family.
The race was amazing! I will definitely be back next year and hopefully run faster. If you have ever thought about the Tulsa Run, I highly recommend it. Up next, Desert Solstice. I am really looking forward to this race. As highly competitive as it is, it's also fun to see so many people I have met in the previous years. 24 Hours on the track gives you lots of time to chat and catch up. My goal is still a bit up in the air, but I will NOT be trying to break the 100 mile record again.
