I did this adventure race last year and said it would be on my to-do list for years to come--and I made good on that promise. I was on the Dream Team last year with Iron Horse and Mr. Rob Philip, and were it not for me being so pathetically slow thrashing through the water with an industrial ski vest, we might have snuck into the money. This year, there was a little jockeying for team members, and I wanted to ask my friend DJ to join my team, and it turned out that Channing was also looking for a team--so the team "Sexy and I Know It" was born.
There were more than twice as many participants in this years run, due to the fact that this is one of the coolest races in Oklahoma.
Our team--Channing, TZ, and DJ.
Our competition--Team RunnersWorld. Russell was oozing with confidence--learned from none other than TZ himself at last years race. Kathy viewed this as a chance to one-up me again, but I was not gonna let that happen.
The race started on time, and the first portion included a run to the lagoon, and a short swim across. It was shorter than last year, and I gave thought to trying to swim without a flotation device, but wisely opted to swim safe. (I use the term swim loosely.) I had a boogie board, and I planned on putting it under my chest and paddle like a surfer fixing to be shark food. This was an epic fail, as my whale-like body barely stayed above water and I had to use one hand/arm to hold on tightly to the board and pitifully paddle with the other arm. I held on to the foot of some guy who thought I was weird, and made it to where I could stand up and walk out of the water.
See the rocks on the left/ We came out there, and ran up the hill, and then back down to the dock where we jumped into the water again for a 15 yard swim. If we had been allowed to dive, I might have made it across quickly, but we had to go feet first.
We had the option of going straight across and climbing up these nets, or going back across the slightly longer way. I had figured there would be a huge log jamb at the netting, so I had planned on going back the way we came in--but everyone must have had the same idea. The netting actually was hardly used, and I climbed right up like a wet monkey. DJ and Channing were ahead of me, and I managed to find them easily in the transition area.
Next was a five mile trail run. This trail is awesome--much of the way was in the shade on wide soft trailz, and I ate em up like good Halloween candy.
Possibly the only part of the route that was less fun--couple hundred yards of loose gravel.
Channing borrowed my camera and took a pick for me.
More trail--kind of a jeep road, through the jungle.
We caught quite a few runners who were faster than me in the swim, although I was not actually in super-competitive mode.
Like last year, the trailz were marked flawlessly with zero chances of getting lost.
I turned around to check on DJ, and an army or runners had caught me. Oh well.
DJ scrambles up a 30 foot climb with the help of ropes.
about a tenth of a mile later, we had a steep decent that had to be navigated with ropes. There was about a 10 minute wait while some people rappelled down quickly and others held on for dear life.
The triple threat girls had caught us--could we hold them off?
We swapped photo-shoots while waiting for the ropes
Channing makes the jump and skidded down like a pro. I was a bit to cocky though, and was descending quickly and got my foot hung in a root and spun around hard slamming my arm into the loose dirt wall--no harm done except I ground my camera into a bunch of dust and grit. The lens would not open and I thought my picture taking was through.
This was the next section, and this was one of my pics from last year. DJ was back behind taken by the triple threat girls no doubt, so Channing and I walked to let him catch up. I worked on trying to free up my lens, and finally got it open and just left it that way to I could get a few more pics.
This was a dicey section where you could run on a steep side slope or through shoe sucking mud.
Channing ducks through some ginormous roots.
DJ blinds us with his white legs.
On our way to the fort where we had to answer some trivia questions, someone gave us a tip. "The answer is Abraham Lincoln!" DJ took it seriously although I thought it was a trick.
And a trick it was. DJ blurted out his answer before the question was finished, and was punished for his error.
Next--the canoeing. We had five miles to go across non-flowing water, and into a stiff wind. But it was a beautiful day.
It took us a few minutes to get our paddling figured out. I knew paddling on the left sends you to the right, but we seemed to over-correct a lot, and saw both banks for the first 1/4 mile, or so it seemed.
But we finally got a good system going and cut across the water in fairly straight lines. A large tugboat plowed right down the center of the channel at one point and sent a wave of water our was about eight inches higher than our canoe, and we hauled that water all the way to the finish. Rowing into the wind was a workout, and it seemed like we would never get there. I doubt a Garmin would even have registered movement as slow as we were.
We made it in, getting passed by probably everyone we managed to pass on the run. But we were not last in the men's division. And we beat a bunch of chick teams and coed teams. Best of all, we had FUN!
Tulsa's longest footrace was ran yesterday--the Midnight Madness 50 miler. This jaunt on bnoth the east and west sides of the Arkansas River between the RR pedestrian bridge and the 71st St bridge is a 10.3 mile loop, ran 5 times. (Do the math--it's actually 51.5 miles--BONUS!!)
This is the 4th year for this race, a brain-child of one Brian Hoover aka Head TATUR. 
This race always seems to attract media attention. Running what adds up to almost two marathons in the middle of the night and finishing in the heat of day in what is often the hottest part of summer just seems crazy, yet each years there has always been over a hundred runners crazy enough to do it. Check out the Channel 6 story on the event.
I, TZ, thought it might be a good idea at 10:00 pm to lay down and catch an hour long lap. I woke up at 11:45, and despite doing my fastest moving in recent weeks, arrived at the race just as the starting gun sounded.
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
I did not have my race number or ship, so I filmed the runners as they took off. 125 of them. It was a nice night--80-something degrees with a mid 70s low forecast and a decent breeze all night.
I had no desire to push the pace anyway, and got checked in, and took off at a slow trot.
The throng of runners were about a mile ahead of me when I got going, and I planned to pick them off one at a time if things went right.
The course went west on the RR pedestrian bridge--one of my favorite stretches to run. The surface is decked and it is soft on the feet. A good cross-breeze is always a treat during the hot days (or nights) of summer.
After three miles, I caught up with Eunsup Kim. His race strategy is start very slow and then speed up. He was in last place for laps 1 and 2, and then started running at a much quicker pace and moved up in the standings. I also caught up with Rachael, who was running this race for the third year determined to get a finish. We chatted for a while and then I moved on ahead a little.
The big party was at Turkey Mountain, where Marty Odom, John Nobles, Matt Carver, Bill McGee, Kristina Leihberr, Jenny Sanchez, and Danielle Martin waited on runners hand and foot.
From there, I ran the last half rather lackadaisical, and with my 10 minute delay starting, finished in 2:40 about a half hour slower than what I thought I'd be doing.
I refilled my water bottle and headed on out. Somewhere near 61st Street, I turned around and headed back to the start/finish. Maybe I lacked motivation, maybe I was just tired from working all day on a 30' ladder, maybe I was just sleepy, but one thing was certain--I was first quitter. I thought I would help out at the s/f aid station, and after checking in, left to make a coffee run and ended up napping in my car until 7:00 am. This concluded the personal side of this race (non-race) report.
I was awakened from my slumber at 6:51 when Brian was whooping it up about the men's winner approaching the finish line. 
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
Nick Seymour crushed his time last year by clocking a 6:51 this year. Aided by the cooler temperatures and a horse race for the first three laps with Katie Kramer, Nick just rolled.
Jennifer Overmeyer won the women's race, running 8:50 with the help of the slave-driving Stormy Phillips. Stormy would have easily won the women's title if he had followed through with that gender-change procedure he was considering.
The finish line buffet was being assembled. Darcy Carson and Venus Fulghum slice watermelon and prepare sandwiches with a smile. Hope they got good tips!. Maggie Cooper also pitched in serving food to weary finishers. Shorty Jennings worked all night and most of the day at the aid station at the end of the timing chute. 
I headed out to grab some coffee and some non-aid station stuff to eat, and dropped by the Turkey Mountain oasis to see how they were doing.
Bill was still standing. Matt was catching up on his beauty sleep.
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
The weatherman said we were looking at mid 90s for midday, where the mortal runners would be finishing. But we had partly to mostly cloudy and an awesome south breeze which made it closer to bearable. I was given chair duty. Part of the paved trail was under reconstruction and was closed, but RiverParks was allowing the race to run through it over a half mile section that was on packed gravel. No problem there. But a stipulation was that we had to monitor the traffic so ONLY our runners were in the construction area. This was a futile effort as many bike riders felt they should have access too. Every day since may 28, and every day until mid October this portion was and will be heavily fenced off. But on a brighter note, I got to see many of my friends in their finishing mile.
Ken Saveth, paced by Darcy Carson, jogs by with happy feet. Great job, K2!
Mitch Drummond is here so very near the finishing line en route to his first 50 mile finish. Kathy was a half lap ahead of him, and waited for over an hour at the TM aid station to pace our friend home. Barbara Pinkerton was Mitch's official pacer for lap five.
This is what it's all about. 14+ hours of pain (with some fun mixed in) gets you to the finish line and to a milestone that few people ever see. 50 miles. 
Picture courtesy of Brian Smith
133 people signed up ... 125 showed up ... 8 people stayed home .. 19 people succumbed...and 106 FINISHED ! Here are the results from the 4th Annual Tatur's Midnight Madness 51.5 Mile Race.
From Head TATUR Brian Hoover:
Volunteers for Tatur's Midnight Madness 50 Miler ! Words cannot describe how proud we are of all of those who compete in the race ! However we want to thank each and every one of the INCREDIBLE Tatur Volunteers. Many of them were out in the heat for over 31 hours with no sleep, literally running to keep the water, food and Gatorade stocked and iced, setting up all the equipment, marking the course, making sure the results were correct, cheering, setting up the aid stations, serving food, cooking bacon, cleaning the restrooms, handing out medals, patrolling the course, staying for hours after the race was over cleaning up trash, packing away the aid stations, etc etc. You folks are also TRUE HEROES !!
And a few comments....
* THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS! You are AWESOME!!!!
* You guys are the BEST!!!!
* Those volunteers were AWESOME!!! Seriously! They were the best ever. Thanks to all of you!
* THANK YOU!!!! The volunteers at the aid stations were amazing!! I was too exhausted to even really how them my gratitude but they were so helpful and really made sure I had everything I needed when I was too tired to even think about what I needed. Thanks to all of you!!!
* Thanks again to the volunteers....
4 hours ago · Like
* I only completed the last 10 miles as a "pacer" with my husband and I agree......the volunteers were awesome!
* Wow that was fun! Can't wait for next year!
* Thanks to Tatur Racing and all the volunteers. Another great event. Your hard work and sacrifice is appreciated by many.
* Great race yesterday! Thanks to Tatur Racing for hosting another great event.
* Finished! It was freaken' Hard! Thank you Tatur for making it fun as well! BTW- when will I be able to walk again:))))
* Tatur Racing rocks! All you runners rock!
* It was brutal....I cant walk now.....but I liked the challenge...
* Another awesome race pulled together by you and the crew again, Brian. Always have a great time out there at MM making me want to torture myself yet another year again. And my left foot has found it's home right next to the left one. YOU ROCK!!!!!!
* Thank you Tatur Racing for putting on such great races! I love the running community, they are all so positive and encouraging! I wasn't able to complete the entire race, but everyone still made me feel like a winner! You guys are awesome!
* This race was first class and the volunteers were a huge reason. Great job guys!!
Great group of volunteers! They made the race even better.
* Huge thanks to the volunteers. Especially everyone at the turkey mountain station it was my oasis out of the darkness. The bacon was just what I needed.
* Thank you SO much to all of the volunteers. Races like this couldn't happen without your. I am very, very appreciative for the blessing you were during this run!
* The volunteers made it for me.....Especially that one guy at Turkey Mountain, "pushing" for us to eat the bacon.....That bacon was good. A Great bunch of people made me laugh and kept encouraging me to keep going......
5 hours ago · Like · 1
* Yes, yes, yes! Thanks so much to the volunteers and organizers. You made this a first class event! Well, you guys and the bacon...
* I always believe volunteering is more difficult than competing
* Great job by Taturs timing and All the volunteers! As a slow runner I never had any doubts that anything I needed would be found. The encouragement and positive words were timely. Thanks again from the caboose.
* Thanks to all the volunteers, especially the ones who made sure Brandon made it the last few miles to the finish!
* There are never enough Thank you's for volunteers. You guys make it happen for us crazy runners
* Thank you all very much!! y"all are what makes this event GREAT!
* Thank you volunteers, you were great as always!
* I had a great time yesterday. The TATUR's know how to put on a race. The volunteers were great. The t-shirt says it all.
* BACON???? Did someone say BACON????
The secretive sometimes-annual Barkley Book Fair was held Saturday night--and most of it Sunday morning. For a race that supposedly doesn't happen, it sure beat me up. For most years previous dating back to 2007, The race was "held" whenever I felt like buying a few books and devising a course. What is this about, you ask.
From Wikipedia: The Barkley Marathons is a 100 mile run and a 60 mile 'fun run' held annually in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee in late March or early April. The course itself, which has changed distance, route, and elevation many times since its inaugural run in 1986, currently consists of a 20-mile (32 km) loop with no aid stations except water at two points along the route and the runner's parked car at the beginning of the loop. Runners of the 100 Mile version run this loop five times, with loops three and four being run in the opposite direction and loop five being runner's choice. Runners of the 60 mile 'fun run' (considered to be harder than Hardrock) complete three circuits of the loop. With 54,200 feet (16,500 m) of accumulated vertical climb, the 100 mile run is considered to be one of the more challenging ultramarathons held in the United States, if not the world. In addition to running, competitors must find between nine and 11 books (varies per year) and remove a page from each book as proof of completion. The cut-off time for the 100 mile race is 12 hours per loop, and the cut-off for the 60 mile version of the race is 40 hours overall, which averages out to approximately 13 hours and 20 minutes per loop. Since the race's inception in 1986, only fourteen runners out of about 800 have completed the 100 mile race within the official 60 hour cut-off (Mark Williams 1995, David Horton and Blake Wood 2001, Ted "Cave Dog" Keizer 2003, Jim Nelson and Mike Tilden 2004, Brian Robinson 2008 (55:42:27), Andrew Thompson 2009, Jonathan Basham 2010, Brett Maune 2011, Brett Maune 52:03:08 (new course record), Jared Campbell 56:00:15, John Fegyveresi 59:41:21 for 2012, Nick Hollon 57:39:24, Travis Wildeboer 58:41:45 for 2013). In 2006 nobody finished even the 60 mile 'fun run' in under 40 hours. The best women's achievement is Sue Johnston's 66 miles (106 km) in 2001. More than 30 competitors failed to reach first book (two miles). [1] [2] The race is limited to 35 runners and usually fills up quickly the day registration opens. Potential entrants must complete an essay on "Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley." The race starts at different times each year and is signaled by the lighting of a cigarette. The course was designed by Gary Cantrell. His idea for the race was inspired upon hearing about Martin Luther King, Jr's assassin James Earl Ray escaping from prison, and making it only 8 miles (13 km) after running 55 hours in the woods. Cantrell said to himself "I could do at least 100 miles." Thus, the Barkley Marathons was born.
I thought we needed a race like this in Tulsa. So, back in 2007, I bought some used books with titles like Blood Trail, And Then You Die, Terror In The Night, etc., and hid them on a semi-marked trail through trailz on Turkey Mountain. I had a day run of 4.5 miles and a challenging but doable course. And then, I devised a course much more difficult and tried to take people to places on the mountain where no one had ever been. This involved visiting several caves, up rubbed creek banks, and on mysterious loops in the trail where it seemed like you were in the Bermuda Triangle. I never wanted the run to get very big--just TATURs and friends of TATURs. 
Over the years, the night tun has evolved. It has went from being a marked race, to one with sparse markings and a detailed course description, to a race with a poorly drawn map, and finally to a good map with the book locations marked but no route specified.
Last year, Stormy and I talked about him having a whack at designing the night course, and he did just that. While my usual night outings were 7-9 miles in a big serpentine loop, Stormy chose to do several smaller loops with returns back to the start/finish. It made for a more interesting event for those waiting around on their friends/spouses, and it gave a way for runners to refuel and refill water bottles. I could SWEAR I heard Stormy say "15 books/three laps/five books per lap." But it turned out to be five laps/three laps per book. No problem--do the math. But this meant running many more miles, a bit of deviousness conjured by Mr Philips himself.
Rule #1--Follow the rules.
Rule #2--Stormy makes all the rules.
Rule #3--Stormy reserves the right to change or make up new rules along the way.
Rule #4--No whining or stupid questions.
By now, I realized it was gonna be bitter medicine and I needed to be a big boy--drink it down and like it. Si at a little after 9:00, we were sent off. Seven teams with 2-4 members each took off. My team of Kathy, Mitch, Russell and I had studied our map, and decided to climb LipBuster and head west to the washing machine where the first book was. Book two was in or near the Pepsi trucks, and the last book was on the stairway between the Ridge Trailz. Although we were way behind everyone and seemingly deep in last place, I knew all the shortcuts in the dark rugged wilderness area. This was gonna be fun. We found the first book easily right in the washing machine and tore out the page which corresponded with our team number. On the way to the Pepsi trucks, we took a little-used trail that lopped off a 1/4 mile, we passed a glow stick just off the trail, which we knew was not on our map this time around. We were running like gazelles and quickly found the second book where we bagged another page.
We saw light as we neared our last book, and it was Matt and Jenny. We thought we were maybe 1/4 mile behind them, and taking another shortcut after our last find, I thought we'd catch them at the start/finish. But when we got there, they were gone. Our lap 4 sent us right back down the lower paved trail and onto a gravel road that crossed under 71st, and then we figured out that they were probably close to a mile ahead of us.
I am sure Stormy meant us to have to walk for miles on the railroad tracks, but we took the adjoining paved bike paths and I knew where holes in the chain link fence was so we passed through and endured a little tromping through weeds and saved a few minutes. From there, we ran along the service road on 1-44 and cut into the trailz across the old Pepsi Bridge. We had been here or near her twice already on previous loops, and it did seem like we used the same trailz a lot--the ones that made for faster running and that were straighter.
The next book was on the far north Pipeline trail, and we followed the map closely. I found the end of the trail, but it did not jive at all with the map. We stumbled around in a 1/4 mile circle, and it was starting to seem like we were stuck. My ability to reason was fading, and I was frustrated that we were burning time looking for a book that seemed to be deviously hid.
Then we followed a hunch to check out the glow stick we had seen earlier which was less than a 1/4 mile east. Eureka!! It was the book, and Stormy was guilty of a bad map marking. But who's complaining?
At this point, we were 80% of the way into the race, and wiped out. we had ran almost 20 miles, and I had a 50K on my legs for the day. Against my usual behavior, I took a couple of Ibuprofen and they kicked in quick. We were near Rock City, so we took the east side of the Snake Trail back to the upper parking lot, and then shuffled down Elwood instead of LipBuster.
Our last loop included a book hidden further west on 61st Street, and then in the stink plant parking lot and in the Petroglyph Cave. We were off. It seemed like this loop went fast. It was part of Stormy's rules that we had to be done before the sun came up. What a hoot, I thought. But if we walked the whole last loop, we might not make it in before sunup. We charged up LipBuster (actually walked very slowly up, and then jogged west to the far west side. From there, it was a well memorized cut-across to Pepsi Bridge, and a shuffle over to the stink plant. I know exactly where to slip through the fence to get up to the Petroglyphs. Book 15 found! We were done, and made our way the mile back to the finish line.
Edward was a finish line official, and Christy had bailed earlier in the race. They were both dead to the world.
Matt had kicked it up a notch when he and Jenny saw us earlier. They thought we were right on their heels, and ran like the wind to finish over an hour ahead of us. We took second, and Scott Smaligo's team finished with just a couple of minutes to spare. We received nice finisher's canes--a very practical award and I am thinking about using these in future races. How far was the run? It depended on how many shortcuts you took, and/or how many tiomes you opted for longer distances on easier trailz. I have heard as few as 22 miles, and as much as 25. I had 36.68 for the day including my miles marking the trail and doing the day run.
Candice won the day run easily, and Dana took second--her best finish in a race to date. Rachel and Lana tied for third.
Candice then competed in the night run, and broke her little toe and had to drop after a couple of loops. Dana drove to the YMCA and picked them up.
I had a lot of fun running this. The hardest thing about the race was the distance, but to people who are not as familiar with the trailz, it would seem quite difficult. Stormy did a great job, and will make a great race director. (hint hint)
I did this adventure race last year and said it would be on my to-do list for years to come--and I made good on that promise. I was on the Dream Team last year with Iron Horse and Mr. Rob Philip, and were it not for me being so pathetically slow thrashing through the water with an industrial ski vest, we might have snuck into the money. This year, there was a little jockeying for team members, and I wanted to ask my friend DJ to join my team, and it turned out that Channing was also looking for a team--so the team "Sexy and I Know It" was born.
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
Picture courtesy of Tom Love
Picture courtesy of Brian Smith
