2009 Route 66 Marathon Race Report - Prelude

Over the last few years, I had been talking with a couple cousins about running a marathon together. We discussed several but it had never come to more than just talk. Then, this summer I got an email from my cousin Jeff. The Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, where he lives, had gotten a new title sponsor - Williams. It was a sign. I had been planning on running my local half-marathon this fall but the idea of running with my family, and getting a shirt that said "Williams Marathon" on it, was enticing. I agreed to the idea, booked a plane ticket, and laid out my training plan.

My training was not great. I probably missed 20% of my planned runs due to illness and travel. Late in the plan I had a string of truly horrible long training runs (like, DNF horrible) but toward the end I had a spectacular 20 mile run that really boosted my spirits. It was the fastest I'd ever covered that distance, I felt great at the finish, and it made me feel like I could run my goal time of 4:30. I was pretty up about the whole thing until Friday of that week, when I came down with H1N1 flu. Two weeks before the marathon and I'm nursing a 102 degree fever, just great. Thanks to that I missed another week and a half of training and was doubting whether I'd recover before race day. No matter, the plane ticket was in hand and the entry fee was paid, so I figured I'd just get myself to the start line and hope for the best. In my mind I tried to focus on that 20-miler.

I rented Rocky III to watch on the plane. I found myself wondering whether the marathon was going to be more like Rocky's first or second fight with Clubber Lang. Was I going to end up lying to Burgess Meredith afterwards? Or holding up a championship belt? Either way I knew I was going to get beat up.  In the words of Apollo Creed, "There is no tomorrow!"

I was going to spend race weekend with my cousins in Tulsa but coming to Oklahoma and not spending some time with my mom would be, well, rude. And bad. And thoughtless. So I traveled early and spent a couple days at mom's house: taking care of some chores, running errands, and nursing a cold that seemed to have tagged along after the flu. A sore throat, drippy nose, and occasional hacking cough were a constant presence, and that made me more than a little worried about race day. I spent Friday night with some high school friends and we stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning. When I woke up on Saturday, I wasn't sure if I was feeling crummy from being sick, sleep-deprived, nervous, or some delicious blend of the three.

I got myself up and started thinking about breakfast, and heading out for Tulsa.