the hills of West Tulsa

I was sitting around playing on MapMyRun and strung a series of hilly roads in west Tulsa and Sand Springs that could make a good night run for the group of crazies I run with. It had it all--several shortish out-and-backs so we could refuel, and a QT for an aid station. Genius.picture courtesy of Arnold Begay
Eleven people were suckered in to give it a go. (Well, ten, besides me.) Is my hair really that white???

picture courtesy of Ken Saveth
A brave crew prepares for upwards of 30 miles of hills!


So off we went--leaving Russell's house and heading to the top of Lookout Mountain where KTUL Channel 8 is headquartered.


Thomas was a few minutes late, but easily caught up with our plodding pace.


Each of these out-and-backs had at least 200 feet of climb. 215 feet in a little less than a mile for our first leg.


The climbing begins. I'd run a tenth and power-walk a few steps.  This was good training for Arkansas Traveller, or Pumpkin Holler.


Peeing was apparently ok, but not dumping.


The sign didn't stop Jason--rebel that he is.


And speaking of rebels, Thomas reads the sign and promptly breaks the law.


This was our second climb if the night. 239 feet of vertical, and was possibly the toughest grind of the night. Kathy and I talked about coming back Wednesday to do repeats here. Any takers?


This road was another dead end, (hence the out-and-back) and everyone was in good spirits.

picture courtesy of Roman Broyles
We mad it back to Russell's house with about 6 miles under out belts. Chris had joined us for the first time, and was no doubt wondering WTH had he gotten himself into?

Our next out-and-back took us to 49th W Ave and north to 21st St and over three hefty hills. I have heard this road called Three Sister's Road, and Three Bitches Road. At the bottom of the first valley, we hit a nice cool pocket, but with a blanket of smoke from someone burning trash. It could have been worse--at first it smelled like BBQ, but someone else said it smelled like burning tires.

This leg had climbs if 71', 147', 52', 83', 174', and 94'. I stepped in a pothole and tweaked my gimpy left ankle, and bowed out at the end of this leg, finishing with 11.6 miles.


Here's my elevation profile, with 1,075 feet of climb. Not bad for a couple of hours of running in Tulsa.

Of the original 11, about four went back out for more mileage, which took them to Prattville (Sand Springs) and back. I will slug out some more miles today and tomorrow to keep pace with my training.

picture courtesy of Kathy Hoover
The bad side of me bowing our early was that I missed out on Russell's famous cheesecake. I have heard it was more epic that an EPIC Ultra, and that's pretty darn epic. Knowing the friends who chowed down on it after their run, I bet there's nary a morsel of leftovers. Fun times though. Let's do it again!
PS--the dumping pic was photo-shopped!