Ten Years of the Tulsa Run

I moved to Tulsa in August 1997, over Labor Day. I remember it because Princess Diana was in a fatal accident the same weekend. I had moved here from Farmington, NM, which is in Four Corners Region. It is warm there, but it is a dry heat, not the humid, wet, icky heat of Eastern Oklahoma.

When I moved here and started running in the heat, it kicked my tail. To this day, I dislike running in the dog days of summer, although it is becoming a bit easier to do. My goal for summer running is to maintain fitness levels. Of course, I do have a treadmill inside, which provides wonderful relief from running in 85% humidity, but I enjoy running outside on the weekends at the minimum.

Ten years ago, I ran in the 20th Tulsa Run, a 15k road race starting in downtown Tulsa, meandering down along the Arkansas River, and returning to Veteran's Park. It boasts a large field, great support, volunteers, fans and great post-race goodies. I have missed it twice in the past ten years. In 2001, I had been only three weeks post-partum, so did not run. In 2006, the race was moved back two weeks to coincide with Oklahoma's Centenniel celebrations. I was eight weeks post-partum and ran it at a personal best, 1:19:41.

As mentioned previously, I ran Denver Half Marathon two weeks ago at a personal best. My friend, Anne, predicted another personal best for 2007 Tulsa Run at 1:15. I poo-poo'd the notion. My goal was simply to meet the time I had last year.

Race condition Saturday morning at 9 a.m. were perfect - clear, cool high 40's. Roughly 8,000 entrants, I think. I shivered with pride and gratitude when the troops from Fort Sill marched to the back of the lineup. They run the entire run in formation and it is an awesome sight to behold. There were 17 runners who have run all 30 runs and were designated with special plaquard on their running tees.

The gun started and it took 2 minutes to reach the starting line. I said good bye to my former boss, Dave, and told him I would see him at the finish line. Dave is a fast runner and had challenged me to run a marathon 8 years ago (it was St. George.)

The first 2 km are filled with jostling for position, moving from side to side looking for an opening, trying to find my pace. They are up and down hills and tough. I hit 3 km at about 16 minutes, started calculating in my mind where I was and how I was doing. I hit 4 km at 21:20 and 5k at 26:10. I was getting faster, so started to see a little hope.

Between 7 and 8 km, I passed a former coworker who told me my pace was great and encouraged me to keep it up. I hit 8 km at just over 40 min, so I was starting to average 5 min/km. I kept thinking of the next km mark and would not let my mind go further than that. The middle kilometers are boring and go along Peoria, then back up the same route, between 6 km and 12 km. It is typically the hardest part of the race for me to remain focused.

I hit 10 km at 50 min straight. Then I started to hope that I would indeed hit that 1:15 mark. But I knew that last 5 km would be tough - mentally and physically. At 12 km, I started counting my right footfalls. I do this to keep my pace and to focus through a tough section of a run.

I hit 13 km at 1:04:30. I struggled to maintain my focus. I hit 14 km at 1:09:35 - starting to back off my 5 min/km pace a bit, but still able to hit that mark. I hit the finish line at 1:14:40. A personal best - averaging 4:59 min/km or 8:01 min/mile.

I freaking rocked and felt awesome!