Race Recap
The weekend of April 23-24 I ran the Oklahoma City Memorial Race. I took the race series challenge which for me included the 5k on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. This race is so memorable because we are running to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing where 168 innocent lives were lost. One of the most memorable moments at this race is the 168 seconds of silence at the start to honor the 168 lives that were lost. There’s nothing like having thousands of people in complete silence in a busy city honoring those lives.
Personally, I try to race different distances year round and, so therefore I train year round. I run 7 days a week and I try to get 3 strength training sessions a week. I don’t ever take days completely off. On my rest days I run my easy runs. Keep in mind training is different for everyone. This is what I like and the way it works for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s what you should do. Always find your sweet spot and work with that.
The same goes for nutrition. Nutrition always seems to be a controversial topic, and everyone has an opinion. My advice to you is to try different things while your training and find what works for you. I have a sensitive stomach, so I train and race with liquids only. During a race I will take water every few miles in the first half of the race and water and Gatorade as needed in the second half. This is the best way that works for me which many people will disagree with, but I truly believe there is no one right way. You need to evaluate your body, how you feel, and where you’re at and go from there.
There are so many race activities going on all weekend, starting on Friday. There are concerts, fireworks, an arts festival, race parties, and an awesome race expo that starts on Friday. The expo was awesome and easy to get through. There were multiple panels to listen to, stores to go in, and even a course video so you could see the course all the way through before running it. I also love the Memorial Marathon Podcast on Spotify that they do months leading up to the race. It’s full of stories, tips, and all the information you could need for the race.
The 5k was on Saturday and while the temperature was great, there were 28 mph winds so this upgraded the difficulty of the race for me. The course itself was flat for the most part, but there were a couple big hills to fight up. What I always remember is that if I have to run up then I’m going to also have to run back down. I ended up finishing 6th for this race and will definitely be returning next year.
The half marathon was on Sunday. It started at 7:30 a.m. The weather was great today for the half marathon in my opinion. It wasn’t very windy at all, which is incredible since we are in Oklahoma. It was around 60 degrees during the race and it misted on and off throughout. I enjoyed the random sprinkles of rain because it was a nice way to cool off a bit during the race. I would not consider this race hilly, but there are 3 or 4 hills you have to fight your way up, but remember like before where there’s and up there is always a down. These hills include the very famous gorilla hill, which is a difficult hill around mile 7, but it makes it a lot easier with all the people dressed as gorillas and bananas cheering you on. After gorilla hill the hardest part of the race for me was the couple mile stretch down Classen. It is a slight uphill running down Classen for almost the entire way, but the good news is that after that the last 2 miles of the race are almost completely down hill to the finish.
This race has some of the best course support and some of the most course support I’ve had at a race. I absolutely loved this race and I will be back.
