OK – Racing Americana

Sunday December 6 2020

I went out too fast, again. And had COVID slowing me down. But apart from that, this Tulsa Runners’ World Half Marathon race was good…

We flew from Charlotte Friday after work, departing around 1800, arriving in OKC at 2000. We collected the rental (I had a strop) and drove to eat an OK meal at Ludivine. We shared some salmon and steak, then headed to the AC hotel. Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast at Kitchen No324, visited the Oklahoma bombing memorial and visitors centre, before heading to the National Museum of Cowboys and Western Heritage – it was quite fantastic.

We drove the 90 minutes to Tulsa along the very boring turnpike, and picked up my race packet from Runners World. We visited The Greenwood memorial and monument, before checking in at the Marriott to relax before a delicious Gnocchi, short rib and gluten free chocolate cake dinner at Amelia’s Wood-Fired Cuisine, downtown, next door to the Woody Guthrie Heritage Center.

We relaxed at the hotel, caught up on the Cornhole World Championship on ESPN, and hit the hey after prepping for the morning’s race.

We drove the 5 minutes down the road to Turkey Mountain, and had enough time to settle and warm up before the 0930 race.

It was a strong field, and frustratingly, I went out too fast, once more, pulled along by the race at about 6.08 per mile. I settled into a better rhythm as the course turned and headed along the far side of the river. We turned around, headed back to the start, including the now-uphill section after crossing the bridge. We Td at the start/finish area (at around 8-9 miles) and headed downhill and along the near side of the river. My energy levels really started to deplete and by the time I turned around again, just after 10 miles, I was starting to flag. I made it back to the start, but especially with the steep uphill to finish, I was a mess crossing the line, and immediately collapsed and had to be sick, which was nice.

It turned out I had COVID – so it would take me some time to recover and get back to running.