Tulsa Run

I didn't get much running in this week, because I'm still dealing with some pain in my right leg. And then I started having a sharp pain in my lower back Thursday evening. As of Friday, I wasn't even sure if I would run the race. So, Friday night I took some muscle relaxer before going to bed, and I felt good enough this morning to run in the Tulsa Run 15k.

I showed up early because my daughter, Becky, and her friend, Molly, were doing the 5k. They had a good time. It was Becky's first race ever, and I think it may have been Molly's first too.

At the start I lined up just behind the elites. Brian had me put on a yellow vest, and my job, along with several other people, was to keep the regular runners from crowding the elites. Just before the start, we removed our vests, and then the gun sounded, and we were off. Kendal was with me at the start, and his plan was to follow me, but I think I took off too fast for him. My goal had been 70 minutes, but I figured with all the leg trouble I have had lately, that I would be happy with 72 minutes, or even just beating last year's time of 73 minutes. Here are my splits, with some running commentary:

2k: 8:31 - this is an average of 4:15 per k, which is faster than my goal, but not bad considering that it was mostly downhill.
3k: 5:02 (13:33 total) - this was an uphill portion, so 5:02 wasn't bad.
4k: 4:35 (18:08 total) - this split also was uphill - along Utica.
5k: 4:39 (22:47 total) - this was mostly downhill. I was thinking about my quads, and made sure I wasn't going too fast down the hill by Woodward Park. I was only 20 seconds slower than my 5k PR at this point.
6k: 4:28 (27:15 total) - still downhill on this portion. The 6k mark was right at Vetern's Park, where we start our Saturday morning runs. I felt good.
7k: 4:44 (31:59 total) - mostly flat. My knee was starting to feel funny, and I had some tightness in my right leg, but I told myself that I wasn't going to use that as an excuse to slow down, so I kept the pace strong.
8k: 4:48 (36:47 total) - flat. During this portion I was starting to slow just a bit and was passed by a woman who seemed to be laboring with her breathing quite a bit more than me. I thought to myself that I can keep going fast. I'm not breathing that hard. So, I kept the pace pretty steady.
9k: 4:48 (41:35 total) - flat. I was looking forward to hitting the turnaround.
10k: 4:51 (46:26 total) - flat. This is the section where we hit the turnaround on Riverside.
11k: 4:44 (51:10 total) - flat.
12k: 4:53 (56:03 total) - flat. In this portion I took a drink of water at an aid station. I tried to drink while I was running, and it went down the wrong pipe. For about 500 meters I slowed down and was coughing. I felt terrible and almost decided to stop and walk.
13k: 4:58 (1:01:01 total) - flat. I ran this portion a little slow, partly because I was recovering from my coughing fit, and partially because I knew the hill was coming up. Still, I'm happy that I kept the pace I did.
14k: 5:08 (1:06:09 total) - uphill. I felt pretty good going up the hill. I didn't kill myself, but I did increase the effort a bit.
15k: 4:10 (1:10:19 total) - pretty flat. I picked up the pace and thought I was going to hit the finish line at 3rd Street, but I actually had another block to go. It was hard, but I kept up my pace and finished strong. I PRed by almost three minutes!

I was very happy with the race. At the end Becky and Molly were cheering me on. That felt good! Then, I got a super massage from the OU physical therapy students. I have gotten massages at the end of races before, but they never seemed to do much for me. This massage was great. The guy and two girls seemed to know what they were doing. I volunteered to be a subject for their classes during the week, but they are near the end of the semester, so I was turned down.

32 out of 233 in my age group
356 out of 3362 overall