Route 66 Marathon

Tulsa is an interesting city and definitely worth coming to for the marathon. Well organized with a decent little expo, good course (although roads can be in rough condition in places)... appreciate that we didn't have to run two loops, as I've run into that a lot lately. Water stops well placed but a little unpredicatble in placement, a lot of enthusiastic spectators, which was a surprise honestly. Ran through some really beautiful neighborhoods and along the Arkansas River, lovely paved running trail alongside the river. This was my OK race for my 50 states and I'm glad I did it.

Corrals to start separate the crowd by times. But an additional 5 minutes between corrals is NOT necessary. With a cut off time, the delay only hurts the slower runners. Why should the slower runners start as much as 30 minutes after the fast runners.

From the Expo to the Finish Line, this was a well-run, fun event! It was a super COLD start, sub 30s. The earlier water stops provided slushies bc of the freezing temps- that was first for me and made me laugh. :D I had to layer up well bc the last hour was in the mid- low 40s. I wore shorts and calf sleeves- perfect choice- and 3 layers of long sleeves on top, which became 1 layer for the last 9mi. The course was SO great- I feared I would get bored on the long out-back x2, but it was AWESOME: on road then sidewalk/path, only a little repetitive, but seeing the other runners were a great distraction. We hardly ran on Route 66, but no loss there. I had heard that the hills at the end were removed- but THEY WERE NOT. I was quite hill-trained, and was not so happy on the up up up that seemed never-ending on tired legs! Miles 18-23 were the toughest, but then it flattened out again for a nice finish to the end. Crowd support was amazing, awesome finish line with plenty of BEER. My only complaint was there was no Gatorade to be found at the finish!!! :( Water stops were well stocked, but not the finish line. All in all, I highly recommend this race! Maniac support was so amazing, and the city of Tulsa offered such great views, nice people, and such a well organized event! I smiled SO much in this one! Just don't believe if you hear there aren't hills in this one....you will DEFINITELY feel those suckers towards the end!