Route 66 Half Marathon

My whole plan for this fall season was to get my bone spur pain under control and earn my 60/70 mug at the Tulsa Run. When all went well with the Tulsa Run, I toyed with tacking the Route 66 Half-Marathon onto the end of my training cycle. My priority was recovering from the Tulsa Run and ensuring I didn't have a flare up of heel/foot pain related to my bone spurs, so it would mean just easy running between the races. I decided to go for it and signed up for the half-marathon tapering my expectations. As I've entered this era of slower race times, seeing my half-marathon times slide has been the hardest for me. I would love to run sub-1:35 again but I haven't been able to get back there and I knew this one wasn't going to be it. In the past when I was training for the half as my goal race and did the Tulsa Run in training without a taper, I was able to run the same pace or a smidge faster in the half than what I had run at the Tulsa Run. I knew with a taper before the Tulsa Run and just easy running between the races, that wouldn't be the case this year. I was thinking realistically I could expect to go from a 7:20 pace at the Tulsa run to a 7:30 pace for the half. I really wanted to run a 1:37 half, but figured I'd start at 7:30 pace and then try to work my way down from there. My friend April thought that sounded like a good plan so we decided to meet in the corral by the 1:40 pacer and start the race together. 

Picture taken by Elise at the expo.

I got up at 6:15, ate overnight oats, did yoga, and stressed about the rain. It was upper 40's and raining and at the last minute I grabbed my rain jacket as we walked out the door. On the drive to the race I moved my bib from my tank to my shorts since I wasn't sure how long I would race in my rain jacket. Ty dropped me right at the start area, I took a last minute porta potty break, and stood under trees to stay a bit drier. Normally we park and walk to the start so I was there much earlier than usual. I waited a while to enter the corral and then found the pacer to stand with so April and I could find each other. I was very calm, but enjoying the quiet. Then came April with her crazy energy and I was excited to see her. There was a native drum circle before the start of the wheelchair race which was awesome and then the National Anthem was played by a guy on saxophone. My favorite part of the start is always the confetti that rains down when they shoot the gun. We were off and I wasn't feeling awesome from the start. The pace didn't feel fluid, but I wanted to stay with April so I kept chugging along. There's a lot of downhill during the first mile so I think some of feeling off was all that pounding on my legs as we went down. We went through the first mile in 7:21. April was concerned, but I told her that was likely right where we wanted to be with all the downhill.

Taking off at the start in my rain jacket. You can see half of April!

It didn't feel like the pace slowed at all and we went through mile 2 in 7:37. During mile 3 April moved over so I could grab water at a water stop and when I looked back, she had fallen off pace. She had made a comment during the first couple miles that she didn't think she'd be able to hang so I decided not to pull back to run with her. After the race, seeing that she was only 30 seconds behind me, I wish I'd pulled back with her so we could run together for longer. I thought she would be falling significantly off pace, but she didn't at all! I had already taken my jacket off during the 2nd mile and tied it around my waist. It had been full on raining before the race but for the first few miles it slowed to a drizzle and I was optimistic it would stop all together. I saw Ty and the kids during the 4th mile and was able to toss them my jacket. I was so excited to see them because Ty wasn't planning on seeing me until mile 8 so I was resigned to running with my jacket for that long. It was very exciting to toss it off earlier! I went through the 4th mile in 7:10 and figured my watch was struggling with mile splits due to the rain because I definitely didn't feel like I had run a 7:10 mile.

Mile 5 went through Woodward Park. I spent most of the race around the 3:15 marathon pacer and assumed that meant I was on pace for a 1:37:30 which I was excited about. I was calculating my time at the race clocks at the mile marks and was right on pace to run around that time. Mile 5 has some decent hills and my split was 7:32. I was exciting to still be hitting 7:30 miles on the hillier parts of the course. I never felt fluid and effortless, but I didn't feel rough by any means. We went down Peoria during mile 6 and I was excited to be nearing Runner's World on Peoria since Ty was planning on being there with the kids and I always get a ton of cheers as I go past the running store since I'm on the race team. Mile 6 was 7:09 and I again felt like that wasn't accurate. I went through the 10k in 46:26, which was only 26 seconds slower than I went through the 10k at the Tulsa Run. I was really excited about that, but also didn't feel as strong as I had at the 10k point in the Tulsa Run and I had further to go. My original plan had been to push the pace on the 2nd half of the race, but based on how I was feeling I decided to see how I was feeling at the 10 mile mark and try to pick it up there. I saw Ty and the kids and was so excited to high five them. I was bummed I missed Elise's hand, but I got Ty and Carter.

I went through mile 7 in 7:16 and I started feeling a little bit rough. I wasn't hurting per se, but I was struggling a bit. It also started raining harder once we made it to Riverside which reminded me of the Tulsa Run because it rained the most during our stretch on Riverside during that race as well. I started feeling a little bit cold as it started raining harder. My headband was soaked, so I had shoved it in my back pocket miles ago. I tossed my jacket at mile 3 and had shoved my gloves in the pockets of my jacket while it was tied around my waist. I focused on trying to catch up to the people running in front of me. I'm listing my mile splits here, but I don't remember seeing most of them. I was focusing more on the clocks at the mile markers and calculating my estimated finish time. Mile 8 was 7:20 and then we had a couple miles down Riverside. I was so bumped to see my friend, Alicia, and her husband, Joey, at 33rd street and that was a HUGE pick me up! I felt like I was pushing the pace, but I wasn't gaining any ground on the runners ahead of me which was discouraging. Mile 9 was 7:26 and mile 10 was 7:29. I saw the clock at the 10 mile mark was at 1:14 and I told myself if I could run a sub-23 minute 5k, I could run under 1:37. I was super excited about that because I did not expect to be under 1:37 at this race. I felt like I could definitely do that. During the later miles on Riverside I could see the top marathon runners running on the trail going the opposite direction and I was really confused. They shouldn't have even been on the trail system. When I quickly looked at the course map that morning, it looked like the same course I've run so many times and I didn't look closely and notice that change. 

There's an out and back on Southwest Boulevard and getting onto it from Riverside you go up a little hill. In years I've had really good finishes, I felt great going up that hill. On years with rough finishes, I struggled going up the hill. This year I felt fine going up the hill and passed a few runners. I like the out and back because it's nice to get a chance to see the people ahead of you and behind you and cheer for each other. I cheered for friends as we crossed paths and I saw April and realized she hadn't fallen that much off pace. I was excited for her. Her PR is a 1:37 or 1:38 so I knew she was having a good day! At the end of Southwest Boulevard the marathon went under the road and followed the trail so they split off from the half earlier than normal which I was bummed about. As we neared downtown we went up a big hill and I started really struggling. I was also confused about where we were because this portion of the course had changed, I'm guessing due to construction. My main goal was to run around 7:30 for the final miles, but I was shocked when my mile 12 split popped up as 7:52. I didn't feel like I had slowed that much. I was really proud of how much I rallied in the last mile and pulled it back down to a 7:33 mile. That whole mile was a struggle and I was hurting a lot. It wasn't my legs hurting, it was my head going fuzzy and I was feeling really weird. I pulled out a 7:16 pace for the last 0.25 miles of the race. When I ran past the 26 mile mark for the marathon I knew I had 0.2 to go and I was already at 13 miles. At that point I knew a sub-1:37 for sure wasn't happening. I didn't have a great idea of what my time would be, but I looked at my watch and realized I wouldn't be able to finish fast enough to be under 1:38 either. 

I was hurting enough toward the end of the race, that I was telling myself things like "10 minutes to go, you can do anything for 10 minutes." Then sub that for 5 minutes and 2 minutes, etc. I saw the clock click over to 1:38 as I was sprinting to the finish line and I remember thinking in my head, there will be cameras at the finish line, smile, but as you can see from my finish line photos, that absolutely did not happen. I crossed the finish line and walked a little bit before stopping my watch. Then I kept walking and looked down in confusion, realizing my time was still running. I had hit the lap button instead of the stop button on my watch which I have never done in a race ever. I was so out of it, my eyelids kept flickering shut and I started feeling like I was going to pass out. It was the weirdest feeling and it was more what I've experienced after finishing a rough marathon rather than finishing a half-marathon. A few volunteers recommended I go to the med tent, but I just wanted to get out of there and get to Ty. One of them actually chased me down and tried to direct me there and I just thanked her and kept walking. She kept following me and directing me to the med tent, but I didn't go. Ty said maybe I should have gone, but what were they going to do, make me eat pretzels? I guess my one experience with the med tent tainted my view of going there and I felt like if I was with it enough to walk and decline the med tent, I was with it enough to not need to go. The kids were at the end of the chute and super excited to see me. I told them it was a rough one and they went running to tell Ty, he told them he knew just from looking at me.

I'm cracking up over this series of finish line photos. I swear I look worse than I did finishing Grandma's Marathon!

My finishing time was 1:38:20 which I was initially disappointed with. I really thought I was in shape to run a 1:37 something. Then I looked at my average pace which was 7:26 per mile. I was excited about that because I was only 6 seconds per mile slower than I had been at the Tulsa Run! Normally my watch reads 13.18 for this race, but this year it read 13.25. I think the changes to the course, they had to make due to construction, caused the course to be a bit longer than in the past. Had the race been 13.18 like it usually is, I would have been just under 1:38! So I decided it was silly to get too focused on my time. I was 114th out of 2,899 overall, 19th out of 1,682 women, and 6th out of 236 in my age group! Last year 3rd female ran just under 1:33 and this year 3rd female was 1:24! My time would have put me 2nd in my age group last year, so this year there were just a lot of fast runners who showed up! The weather was even better last year than this year, along with the course being a smidge shorter. I'm not a huge fan of cold rain, but I was thankful I wasn't in the marathon because I for sure would have ended up with some kind of chaffing or blisters and I didn't end up with either since I ran the half! Now that I've had more time to process my race, I'm really proud of what I was able to do after a summer of super low mileage and lots of cross training dealing with my bone spurs. I think this spring I can get my half-marathon time closer to where I'd like to be. All things considered, being under 1:40 was a great time for me right now! I may run another half-marathon in December because I get free entry with my race team, but it will depend on my recovery. Next up is a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving which I will either race or run easy with the kids, I'm leaning toward racing it!

Route 66 Race History, post here:

1:32:39 Half in 2007

3:40:05 Marathon in 2008

3:58:04 Marathon in 2009

1:51:40 Half in 2011

2:19:57 Half in 2012 (32 weeks pregnant)

1:35:43 Half in 2015

1:31:49 Half in 2016

3:38:58 Marathon in 2017

3:25:27 Marathon in 2018

1:32:32 Half in 2019

3:52:57 Virtual Marathon Relay in 2020 with mom, dad, Ty, and Thomas

1:38:20 Half in 2023