Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon - RunMarathon

What a run. Before the race my brother and I planned to run the marathon together unless it became evident that one of us was falling off our race pace. Simply, our goal was to qualify for Boston with a time under 3:10:59. The race started at the OKC Memorial and then wound through Bricktown, by the capitol building, through expensive neighborhoods and along Lake Hefner. This race had only a few “boring” stretches and most of the run was very enjoyable. The support was awesome from the crowd, and any excitement shown by my brother or myself evoked loud cheers and applauses from the onlookers. Of my three marathons, this was by far the best
The first 14 miles flew and we stayed at our dream race pace. We hit the halfway point at 1:33:36. Almost 2 minutes under our goal. We were real lucky to avoid any nasty winds, because from mile 14 to 17 were along the lake. Anyone from here knows that winds in excess of 20mph are common but instead the wind was non-existent (what a relief).. About mile 17 my brother began weakening physically but continued to push through the pain until the final 10K my brother lost all ability to keep our 7:12 pace and had to walk. We walked for about 100 feet and then started up again but it was obvious he had run out of energy. As a side note, he is stubborn and refused to take any gels besides the one they gave us at mile 16 for energy. I really believe that this limited his performance. Anyway, during this walk break I watched my overall pace climb up on the Garmin and realized I had to take off or risk not qualifying for Boston. At my brothers urging, I left him. It was at this time that I knew I needed to really bust out a good final four miles or risk narrowly missing my goal. My final four miles were (7:05, 7:16, 7:03, and 6:57) and I snuck in at 3:09:45. In those four miles I passed countless walkers and even passed the eventual women’s winner at mile 23 or 24. I crossed the finish line elated and waited around for my brother. He ran walked the final 5 miles and finished with a 17 minute PR in 3:18.
I think the difference for me was that I wore an OSU t-shirt and heard "Go Cowboys, or Go Pokes" continually.


In my next race I will not base all my decisions off the Garmin. Although it was over 99% accurate it could have beem the difference between qualifying and not. The watch said I ran 26.44 miles and according to it my average pace was 5 seconds faster a mile. If I had stumbled through those final 4 miles I would not have quailified

Gave my brother a big hug then went and lyed down in the grass. Ran across Danny (dww2) and a college buddy before driving back to Stillwater.


nothing. It was a dream race.

Race Nutrition:
6 Double Latte power gels (2x caffeine and 4x sodium)
2 cups of water at each station while running.


Great race with water stations every 1-2 miles. They had both powerade and water at all the stops. Volunteers cheered loud. Very flat course with a couple tough hills/overpasses. Great course layout and sponsorship!