First Training Run for Oklahoma City Marathon

This morning we had our first training run for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and Half Marathon. The Ethiopian Elites was represented today by Dave, Holly, and Sam, who are training for the half and by Jill, Andy, and me, who are training for the full marathon.

Above is a picture of   Dave, Holly, Sam, and Jill before we began. We started right at 8 a.m. at about an 8:45 per mile pace. The temperature was mid 30s with a south wind of 9 mph with gusts to 18. Our course (which is displayed on the map at right) started south along Riverside into the wind. At 31st we headed east to Cincinnati, south to 34th and then east to Peoria. The Jingle Bell Run 5k was today, and we passed the start/finish line about an hour before the race began. Because it was the Jingle Bell Run day, I ran with a green and red elf hat with bells that jingled as I ran. Dave and Holly peeled off from the rest of us at about 45th Street and headed back to the Jingle Bell Run to see Holly's husband run. The rest of us headed back to Riverside, south to about 61st, and then back to Veterans Park.

Sam has just recently started running, and his longest run before today was about 6 miles. He would like to run the half marathon at an 8 minute pace. Judging from how he did today, he will have no problem doing that. We covered 9.3 miles with an average pace of 8:41, and Sam seemed like he was cruising along comfortably the whole way.

The picture above is the group that finished the 9.3 miles together - Jill, me, Andy, and Sam.

I hope to have more people with our group in the coming weeks. We have at least three from our group that missed today's run because they are doing the White Rock Marathon tomorrow. Good luck to Curtis, Kaci, and Rachel! It will be Kaci's first marathon. After that, she will train for a half marathon in the spring.