Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon - RunMarathon

The race started off great. I knew from my training and previous races that I like to jet out of the starting gate, so I held back to a snail's pace out of the gate. After the first mile, I had run an 8:08 mile. WHAT? I felt like I was running slower than I have ever run in my life. Fine... I turned it back another notch and soon settled in to an even 9:00 pace. Because I started towards the front of the pack, I had lots of people flying by me. It was hard to let my ego go and maintain my pace instead of trying to chase everyone down like I would a 5k. In the end, it helped immensely. I eventually settled in with a group of 3 and we knocked out 8:57 miles for the first hour. It was great having a mini pace group and enjoying the crowd. At the half-marathon turnaround, I lost my pace group and settled into my mental zone. I was feeling great and knew it was all about keeping my pace. Without much effort, I continued the exact same pace, hitting the half way point just as the official 3:50 official pace group passed me. As tempted as I was, I again kept my ego in check and let them go by. By this point I had taken in one Gu and a couple of sips of water.

Just after the halfway point, we emerge onto lake hefner and make a turn south. I hit mile 14, knowing full well that was the longest I had trained. I was still feeling good though, so I reveled in the accomplishment and kept trucking. No less than a mile later and it was at about this point that things started to go downhill. I started feeling a cramp on both sides of my groin area (goodbye goal #1). Determined to at least meet my second goal, I slowed my pace to a near shuffle, and powered through the annoying, but not entirely debilitating pain. I managed this until mile 19.5, then things became impossible. First my hamstring cramped up. I was forced to walk (goodbye goal #2). After a minute or two of walking, I was able to get it to go away, so I jogged some more. 30 seconds later it was my quad. Repeat the process again, only to have my calf cramp. Then the sole of my foot. Then my shin (I didn't even know shins could cramp!?!).

At this point, I was so mad at myself for not training, that I could do nothing but fester as I walked/shuffled the last 6 miles or so of the race. I watched as pace groups for the 3:55, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, and 4:45 groups all passed me. My nemesis had gotten to me once again. I eventually hobbled my way across the finish line, just barely missing the 5:00 cutoff. The only consolations I could give myself were that I finished (goal #3 complete!) and that it was a PR. My wife, surprised that I had come in so late after having such awesome splits was extremely supportive and did a good job keeping my spirits up. I have no idea what I'd do without her!

So let me start by saying my training was not up to par. Because I committed to this later than I should have, I only got up to 14 miles in my training plan. I hoped I would be able to power through with will power and determination. Obviously that was not to be. I had no idea how to handle liquids and nutrition beyond 14 miles, and that was likely what led to the cramps and eventual downfall. There was also some unexpected humidity that slowed me down around the same time, but I attribute the majority of it to my cramps.

Definitely will be training much better for this next year. I plan to be training through the winter this go around, which will put me in prime position to destroy this race next year.

Downed a bottle of powerade, went to 7-eleven and downed a slurpee, then went home and stretched.


Humidity, poor training, poor nutrition (started with minimal intake, then overdid it on liquid intake once it was too late... that just bogged me down more).


I noticed they changed their finisher medals this year. While I like the new medals, I will be honest and say that the medals from years prior were much more unique and stunning... just a little nitpick.