Come Friday at 7:30pm, my parents, Helen, Lindsey and me piled into the minivan and headed off toward Tulsa. We arrived early enough for me to have a long sit where I found myself unable to rest to run through the night. Packet pickup had already started at the crowded QT Plaza where the race organizers were setting up the aid station and early arrivals like me were dropping off bags and perusing the area. My crew set up camp under a giant tree of a species I am sure Helen is aware of and had their evening meal while I chugged down my 32 oz pre-race drink of my own making. I went back to the van and tried to get some sleep but found the van a bit suffocating with the mid-80s temperatures outside. I decided to go ahead and do my pre-race prep and went down and found the crew in the middle of a game of Phase 10.
I was lucky to have some friends around for the start of the race: Jenny, Stacey, Steven and Cliff. We waited in the large group of people for the final countdown by taking pictures and visiting and in no time we were off. To Tulsa's credit, the River Park trails are mostly exquisite in design featuring separate trails for pedestrians and cyclists as well as a crushed rock lane which came in handy for some tired feet. I spent a good amount of time in this lane when it was available. The race began smoothly taking us to a large wooden walking bridge to cross the river and on to the other side. The sign for the power plant greeted us to a pretty nice view but was sadly turned off by the time we had made it underneath. The trail continued on much like the Little Rock River Trail leading up to what is referred to as the hills of the course. "Hills" is a relative term, a sentiment I shared with Presto on the way up. At the crest of the hill was the 6 mile "Turkey Mountain" fully manned aid station. I was delighted to see that they had provided Endurolytes so that I could save my precious pills for another day. I filled up water and went to the next section which includes a long downhill section that then rejoins the pancaked river path.Lap 2 began some of the mental games I got to play with myself this whole night. My body felt fine; I was trained well enough, hydrated, fed...I just didn't want to run tonight. I began to overanalyze things going on in life as well and by mile 18 or so. I found myself trotting along at a slow pace and already beginning to walk. Stacey caught up with me at this point and we made the rest of lap 2 mostly together. As I approached my crew, I pulled over to their camping spot and sat down. I just sat there and told them that I didn't want to run, that it wasn't fun today. My parents being good protective people were ready to let me stop. Helen didn't know what to do and Lindsey just looked at the ground. This continued for about 20 minutes but in the end I couldn't live with the idea of not finishing a race, for any reason. I filled my bottle up with Mtn Dew and ice and took off again having to work out the stiffness of sitting for 20 mins after already running 20 miles. Lap 3 finished quickly with me feeling quite spirited at the end passing several people who had taken me over during my down turn. I refilled with soda and continued trudging along. I continued to walk more and more until the beating of the pavement and my delicate mental outlook summed together to make a complete pedestrian out of me. I finished lap 4, 40 miles, in about 7 hours but told my crew that it was going to be a lap of walking and to expect to wait awhile. They decided to meet me at Turkey Mtn with my dad trudging down the path about 1.5 miles to meet me and walk me up to that point.
On the way out to start lap 5, I saw Jason Auer, a fellow AURA member, and told him to catch up so we could do the death march together. I finally did just as we began the climb and he agreed to finish the race together. This more than overjoyed Helen and Lindsey who had been pumping themselves up for a hot 4 miles they thought they were going to have to do with me. Jason and I grabbed our last bit of aid station fare and started off on the last 4.3 miles of a torturous day for both of us. Talking with Jason helped the miles and time pass by at this point and made me wish that I had had someone to run with the whole time. At some point someone walking opposite of us said "Looking Good!" Jason remarked, "What about us can look good right now?" I said, "Speak for yourself."
I picked it up a bit the last half mile to make an attempt at a strong finish. I crossed the line in a disappointing 10:29, or, about a 2 hour improvement from last year. I was giving my medal, a right foot with reversed color scheme to compliment the left foot from last year, a sponge and a Mtn Dew. I jumped into one of the cold tubs that the race provided and enjoyed a few minutes with some fellow runners until my feet went numb. Me and my crew spent some time sitting around watching other people and I took a few minutes to visit with my friends. It was unbelievable to watch people just starting their final lap, especially considering it was already 90 degrees when I finished. We piled back in the van, stopped for a dozen cupcakes as a treat and I was once again whisked away from Tulsa in a magical pumpkin (Toyota).
This was the first time I have not wanted to run a race and I sure hope it doesn't happen again. I expect it may have to do with traveling or Tulsa or such a long taper that I took that week. Maybe it was running the expected laps over and over. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again anytime soon. I might look into marathons for the rest of the year, those sound shorter.
Great Report Josh. I was really hoping you weren't going to quit when I saw you because I knew you would be upset with that decision later. I am proud of you for pushing through it.
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