Last Sunday was the 8th running of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. The day dawned cold and wet with a light but consistent drizzle falling on the runners as they gathered before sunrise. The traditional Sunrise Service at the Survivor Tree was emotional and honoring to both those who lost their lives on April 19th 1995 and to the thousands of runners who came to honor their memories and celebrate life.
Since t3, kimo, goose, maverick, big and weeble are all part of the race organization, they were all at the start early. This year t3, kimo (and his 13 yr old son) and mav were running the full marathon. PIT “A-train” Hill was the captain of a relay team and the Pirañas were planning to run with each youngster as they completed their respective legs. Goose was running the Half marathon with two of his sons. Weeble was in charge of logistics on the race course, so he decided to sit it out this year.
The race start was stirring and emotional with 168 seconds of silence followed by Jami Smith singing her new song, “Faith”. After a few final rousing words, the horns sounded and they were off!
The rain had let up and they faced a steady north wind as they headed out to the lake. Crowd support was good considering the poor spectating weather and they were running well and enjoying the morning. They made the first relay exchange (at 5K) with all parties intact, only to find that their next runner had gone to the bathroom and not been seen since. After a short but nervous wait, they decided to go on without him and let him run a later leg with another team member. They were getting warmed up and the day was shaping up nicely as they headed toward the second exchange (10K to go, 15K total).
At 7.5 miles goose and his boys made the turn to finish the half marathon. The sun began to show itself as they finally climbed the hill on Classen and approached the second exchange. t3 and mav had pulled away from kimo and son after the first exchange, so they were going to run the middle leg (12K to go, 27K total) alone. The day continued to improve as the sun warmed them and the cool north breeze kept them from overheating. Just past the half way point they got to the lake and began the return trip back to downtown.
They circled around the south end of the lake and after going through Stars and Stripes Park, picked up their 4th relay runner (but only the second to actually run!) and the second relay runner (who had been found) and made their way into Nichol Hills. T3 was getting a little low on energy at this point, but they continued on. The day was still beautiful and even though it had warmed up a bit, the cool north breeze kept them comfortable. They made it to the next exchange intact and picked up PIT “A-Train” Hill and started out for the final 10K.
T3 has a tradition of going into Dunkin Donuts on Classen just past the 23 mile point and buying a double chocolate donut. Every year (he has run all 7, now 8, Memorial Marathons) he offers to buy anyone with him (that means anywhere near him!) a donut if they will go in with him. In 7 years only one guy has taken him up on the offer. This year was to be different! With Mav and A-Train he had a built in donut group. They ran into Dunkin and got in line. After purchasing their donuts, the team ran back out onto the course and started began the 3 mile push to the finish. By this time, t3 was fairly worn slick and was struggling to maintain pace, so mav and a-train ran on ahead while t3 ground out the final miles with the other runners he found himself with.
Mav, goose and a-train came back out on Broadway to run in with t3. A perfect end to a perfect day!
