my favorite pics from the Half and Half Marathon (Trail Version, of course)

I posted a photo album on Facebook with 497 pictures. They can be viewed HERE. But this post has my favorites. I took a few pics pre-race before heading to my course marshaling location.

Ignore the legs. The pic is for the gaiters. Tom Robinson always goes for style.


Brandon and Cameron Plate--the phenom kids. As usual, Cameron has his game face on, and Brandon sports a smiley face.

My race duties consisted of directing traffic at the Funky Intersection, a name Roman and I came up with. The Snake Loop is utilized in the trail race. The runners come up the Jelly Legs Trail, run the west side of the Snake Loop, then north on a straight-as-an-arrow trail that bisects the Snake Loop to the north end, and then back on the east side of the loop, and they return to the intersection where they headed north--this time turning south. Confusing? Basically, it is sort of a deformed figure 8. It was well marked and had signs with arrows, but it needed a traffic director because if one runner went the wrong way, everyone behind him/her would follow.

I took the opportunity to snap lots of pictures--526 of them to be exact.


I missed getting winner Justin Franklin the first three times he passed through. He was just too fast! But I caught him on his last passing. At this point, he was around 10 miles into the race, and was a mere 64 minutes into the race. Do the math--sub 7 minute miles on trailz.


I liked this picture because it was one of many long trains of trail runners. On one particularly long train, I put the camera down and got 23 high fives as they passed.


Mile 10, and taking it to the house. Everyone seemed to be having a blast.

Not all my pictures were of runners. When it slowed down, I took a few of the surroundings.

Frozen bike tread marks, and my long skinny legs.


Follow the pink.



A perfect day to run. Yes, it was in the high 20s at the start, but it warmed up nicely as the sun did it's job.


Do you see the deer?


I don't mind people tossing litter near the aid stations, or in this case by my post, but tossing them out on the trail is NOT COOL. I pulled course markings, and picked them up for you litter bugs.


That-a-way.


The day before when marking the course, the trailz were damp, and 95% mud-free. But hundreds of pounding feet whipped the mud to the surface--not to mud-fest conditions, but slick and splattery in places.

Thanks Russell Bennett for this pic

Barbara helped me pull course markings after the race, and it's once again, a clean mountain. Thanks to RunnersWorld-Tulsa for putting on what in my opinion is Tulsa's best marathon.