Day 2 of catching up....

The day before yesterday was day 2 of my double--2 marathons in 2 days--at Route 66 in my home town! Funny that less than a mile of it is actually on Route 66, but most of it was through the nicest parts of Tulsa--lots of trees, old stately houses, Cherry Street, and Brookside. I felt fatigued at the start, but the energy of the crowd helped as did the ibuprofen!

Like yesterdays race, there was a nice 3ish mile loop to start things off. Unlike yesterday, Almost all of the race was on concrete which has given me a case of the moans and groans. Everything below man-land hurts. I had a cup of coffee and a bowl of pain killers for breakfast!
I almost decided to not wear my watch, but I forgot to forget it. Leave it to me to do that! I settled in to running 11 minute miles, and if all went well, a 5 hour finish might be in the cards. Actually, after settling in, I really had no excess pain from running the day before. I passed a few friends, and was passed by others. As last year, I got to see the leaders come on their way back, and as last year, by the time I got through the Jenks loop, the crowd had thinned out quite a bit. Around mile 21 or so, I started to fade. I was taking a walk break about every 1/2 mile, but would walk for only a minute and then resume my slow methodical shuffle. Dana rescued me with a Gu and some salt & vinegar chips and a Rooster Booster and that fixed me right up! Much to my surprise, I caught up with Robert from the RunnersWorld training group. He was running with an injured toe, and had slowed to a brisk walk. I stopped and chatted with him, and it seems that by nursing the sore toe, he had injured the other foot. Sounds like zombie-luck to me. We walked through the 41st street aid station together. At this time, we had both noticed a group of very nice looking girls sitting on a table. I thought they looked like Hooters girls, and Robert thought they might have been OSU cheerleaders. One of them whispered, "Wanna know a secret?" Now I thought, Heck Yeah! I approached them, and she whispered, "I think you're supposed to be running...." YIKES! What a slam!! Me??? I thought later, Let's see her run a marathon, get her pretty toenails messed up. In fact,....well, enough of that. It was actually funny. Robert and I laughed about it after the race!

Later, I passed the advertised belly dancers. Now if you know me, you know they would catch my eye. But I'll tell you, I was so tired that I really could pay them no mind. But, If you know me and know I had a camera, you will also know they would find their way onto my blog! 
Now I will not bore you with tales of the late steep hills in the race, or brag about running sub 6 minute miles downhill through Cherry street. I'm sure you've heard all that before, or have topped my blazing speed yourself.I will say that at the finish I had as much applause as I dreamed possible. It's so cool to have such great friends. I finished in 5:06 and had no bruises, scrapes, blisters, or boo boos to show for it. Just a few aches and pains getting up and down out of the easy chair.
Congrats to Tatur Dave who set a huge PR and got in under 4 hours, to Robert, who toughed it out despite an aching foot, to Caroline who ran with a fever and still finished, to Brian who despite very very very little training finished in 3 hours and 65 minutes, and this on the 2nd anniversary of his 39th birthday! Kudos to all the others who stared 26.2 miles in the eye and conquered the distance. You all are awesome.