Actually, it was better than OK. It was great!
Because Blair is a girl after my own heart, we had scheduled two Outlook appointments prior to our trip to plan and revise the itinerary.
A little background...
Blair is a fellow
Marketeer with me at JES Holdings. She moved to Columbia about two years ago when her husband started residency at Mizzou. She was born in raised in Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City, and I have never known a person to be more passionate, positive and dedicated to a state as she is to hers. So, for the last two years, I've listened to her rant and rave about how great Oklahoma is and tell stories of her friends and family there. Next thing I know, she's talked me into running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and the plane tickets are already booked.
We left work a little early to take the 2:40 p.m. flight to Dallas, then Dallas to Oklahoma City where we landed at about 6:30 p.m. Her sweet mother picked us up and was a spitting image of the Blair I've come to know and love here in Columbia. Friday night we spend grilling and sitting around the bonfire in their
beautiful backyard. This is Blair's favorite thing to do when she's home and I can definitely see why. Their family was kind and welcoming, I felt like I had been sitting around that firepit every Friday night for the last 25 years.
Saturday morning the Oklahoma City tour began. We drove into downtown and have breakfast at an adorable little place called Kitchen 324 near where Blair used to work. Then we walked down through the small city towards the expo center where we do out packet pick-up. Along the way, we toured/walked through the Devon building, Colcord Hotel and Myriad Gardens. The city was so clean and well maintained with beautiful landscaping and sculptures on every corner. The Myriad Gardens was a little park right off the city with delicate flowers, trees, walking paths and a small pond - so quaint! Our last stop downtown was the art festival. It was early and we had already eaten, so we just wandered through and looked around a bit before walking to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. As upsetting as it was to be here, I am so grateful we went. There is so much hype and excitement to running a marathon, but this particular race means so much more, not only to the individuals who were directly affected by the lives lost in the bombing, but to everyone in Oklahoma and in attendance this weekend. The memorial was beautiful and heartbreaking.
After our tour, we picked up our packets and headed over to Classen Curve for some shopping. Little did I know this strange word "Classen" would be my WORST NIGHTMARE by mile 22 of the following day's marathon. We got (matching) running tops from Lululemon and stocked up on
Clif Blok Energy Chews in preparation for the run. For lunch we at Republic Gastropub...where we enjoyed painfully cool views of all the beers they had on tap, which we couldn't have pending the marathon. After lunch we popped over to Whole Foods (my first time) and bought Nana some flowers. We drove out of the city and into the suburb of Edmund, where Blair grew up. It was a cute little town and she had a story for every corner we passed.
When we arrived at Nana's house, we walked in to find her at the computer watching
Purple Rain! She laughed at everything and sweetly asked all about our day, travels and on-goings back in Columbia. Being as that most of Blair's stories involve Nana, it was good to finally meet her.
A rest was much needed at this point in the day and we were ready to recover before a bit before gussying up to pop by a bridal shower her parents were helping to host. Here, at this party, I am fairly certain that I met everyone in Oklahoma. But we were in and out and off to dinner at Pizzeria Gusto where we allowed ourselves ONE beer and then headed home to bed.
We woke bright and early, got dressed, pinned on our numbers and had a filling breakfast before Blair's dad drove us off to the race. Although our timing for drop was perfectly planned...there were some unexpected road closing that resulted in our jogging three blocks to arrive at our corral as the first corral took off. We had plenty of time (about ten minutes) to recover as we walked along the other 25,000 people to the start line. And then we were off!
Here's a play-by-play...
Mile 1: Basically retraced our steps Saturday morning by the Devon building, Myriad Gardens and the expo center.
Mile 2: Here we entered Bricktown, which was a really cool part of the city with brick streets, fun restaurants, renovated buildings and the neatest little river running right through the middle. Firefighters are walk/running the half marathon and if you think about it too much you start to get a lump in your throat.
Mile 3: Boring...this was kind of through the OU Medical School. Hilarious signs from spectators: "If Trump can run, so can you!" "Remember, you paid to do this!" "I trained all week to hold this sign!"
Mile 4: Bathroom break! The lines were long early on, so this cut us back on our pace a bit
Mile 5: Mmmm, smells like bread...
Mile 6: We are feeling soooo good! This part is a neat little neighborhood with small, old houses and a nice little park centrally located. Definitely the most fun spectators: serving beer, jello shots, donuts and gummy bears.
Mile 7: Gorilla Hill! Not actually that difficult as far as hills go, but they've erected an inflatable blue gorilla and the route is lined with people in banana costumes handing out bananas.
Mile 8: *Photo Op* See ya, half marathoners! It is scary how strong the wind is at our back, knowing we'll be running into it on the return route...
Mile 9: Blair's parents meet us with high-energy spirit, Blok Energy Chews, ibuprofen and encouragement.
Mile 10: We turn into Nichols Hills, a little tiny town surrounded by Oklahoma City - beautiful houses and big trees, lots of spectators who've wandered out of the homes looking very comfy and glad not to running.
Mile 11: Nichols Hill still, we're feeling great!
Mile 12: Still Nichols Hill.
Mile 13: HALWAY!! Blair's parents are waiting for us again with a couple of her friends and stop quickly to refuel and take pictures.
Mile 14: Now...we're on the Lake Hefner: beautiful view, WINDY AS HELL. I see Hannah finally! It is impossibly hard to find anyone when there are so many people on the course.
Mile 15: Still on the lake. Still windy as hell.
Mile 16: We turn away and follow the edge of the lake through some trees and by some baseball/soccer fields. *Photo Op* At this point, I say out loud, "10 more miles. 10 miles is easy," but I'm breathing pretty heavily.
Mile 17: Ok, we're feeling less great than the first half of the marathon. It's clear we'll be running into the wind from here on out and the runners around us have started walking.
Mile 18: Back into Nichols Hills, lovely houses and we're along the prettiest road through a little park. Someone handing out water says, "Thank you for running..." and I think I'm gonna cry. But it hurts too much to breath when you're throat closes up for crying, so I just keep running.
Mile 19: Still along the park road. We stop for our final bathroom break and the lines are much shorter. I have to start talking myself down through the miles now...
Seven more miles. Just seven more miles...
Mile 20: This is the last time I can remember what happiness feels like, because now we're on Classen Boulevard: long, straight road; boring, commercial storefronts; slight incline and that mother...loving WIND. S
ix more miles.
Mile 21: Five more miles. Five miles is so easy...you run this all the time. Why are we on this road? When can we turn and run on any other road in this whole damn city??
Mile 22: THAT WAS THE LONGEST MILE OF MY ENTIRE LIVE. HOW CAN THERE BE FOUR MORE MILES?!
Mile 23: I think I just turned off my brain at this point. We're running through "The Village," which is really cute and people all have their signs and are cheering really spiritedly, but I HATE THEM. No. I don't. I just don't appreciate them as much as I did in miles 1 through 14.
Mile 24: Blair is like killin' it. I don't know what drafting is really...but I think I might be drafting off her for the remainder of the race.
Mile 25: THERE IS ONLY ONE MORE MILE. HOW IS THIS SO HARD?? DON'T TELL ME IT'S THE "HALF MILE AISLE," JUST SHOW ME THE FINISH LINE!!
Mile 26: And there's the finish line...just let your legs fly, just like when you're little and you run the last 100 meters of a mile... *Photo Op*
Mile 26.2: Are the green finisher shirts for the marathon or the half marathon? I really want a green shirt. I'm gonna cry if they hand me a gray shirt...
I got a green shirt and a pretty green medal, which I wore all day and to work on Monday. Blair's parents and friends were there at the end to hold our things (like ziplock bags of ibuprofen covered in butt sweat) and take our pictures and generally help us recover enough to walk to the car.
When we got home, we showered and assembled ourselves best we could to milk another day out of this sweet city. Blair's mom took us to The Garage Burgers & Beer for some delightful burgers and much needed beer. We met up with a group of Blair's high school friends there and then made our way over to The Bleu Garten: a cool open-air patio/bar surrounded by food trucks and yard games. From here, we went straight to the airport, hopped from OKC to Dallas and then landed in Columbia at about 9:45 p.m. I came home and crashed so hard, like 26.2 miles hard.
