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Route 66 Marathon: A good time was had by all... or at least by me
Published: 11/21/2012 8:02 PM
Last Modified: 11/21/2012 8:02 PM

I started running about six years ago.

It was a lark, really.

A friend wanted to join a running club to help lose weight. She asked my wife. My wife asked me.

I hadn't run since eighth grade, and at the time, wasn't that active. The running group claimed it could take you from the couch to a half marathon in six months. I figured I was the perfect guinea pig to prove their point.

Six months later I crossed the finish line of the Houston Half Marathon. I never missed a Saturday training run and never felt better.

Not before or since have I ever experienced anything as positive as that six-month stretch of serious training.

Tall or short, fat or skinny, fast or slow -- it didn't matter. The only thing you heard from fellow runners were cheers and words of encouragement. Failure wasn't finishing at the back of the pack. Failure was staying in bed.

Maybe that's why, more than six years later, I'm still with it. On Sunday, I completed my 12th half marathon at the Route 66.

I would describe myself as an avid runner -- which is to say I do it a lot, but not that well.

With that in mind, I can only give a back-of-the-pack analysis of the weekend's festivities.

A good example -- complaints about long bathroom waits at the start line. I don't doubt the problem. But for those who staged several blocks north of the start, the line for bathrooms close to race time was almost non-existent.

Large races separate the fast runners from those who are slower, asking slower runners to line up in corrals that are several blocks behind the start.

The Route 66 did the same thing, but did it in a way I hadn't seen -- it had individual starts for each corral. I was in the third corral, but I got a countdown, shotgun start and confetti blast just like the race's fastest runners.

As for the course itself, it did what I think a good course should -- showcase interesting parts of the city.

You got to see downtown, Cherry Street, Utica Square, Brookside and the river front. In that regard, I thought it was a better course than the Tulsa Run.

My favorite part might have been the detour through the Cascia Hall High School parking lot.

Packet pickup at the Convention Center was pleasant (please take notes Tulsa Run) although I didn't go until late Friday evening. But those designated to answer questions at the help desk weren't all that helpful.

I can't speak to the finish line party, because I never really feel like a party after running 13.1 miles.

I picked up a water, a banana and headed to the shuttle line. The shuttles ran efficiently, a concern given this was my first big race where the start and finish weren't together.

But the last thing I want to do after running a long distance is wait for a shuttle, something the Route 66 folks might want to consider if, as they've said, they would like to expand the race to 20,000 participants.

The course will need some thought as well, because, at certain points, it appears too narrow to comfortably accommodate a much larger race field.

For the Route 66 to truly become a big-time race, it will need more community support. The volunteers were great, but there were only a smattering of friends and family cheering along the route.

Which does beg the question -- can Tulsa support two focal-point runs?

Houston has dozens of long-distance runs. But everything before January builds to the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon and everything after is a culmination of the local running season.

In Tulsa, everything seems to build to the Tulsa Run. The Route 66 is a nice event, but doesn't have the same buzz.

Can the two events co-exist as centerpieces of the Tulsa racing calendar? That will be interesting to track.

But as long as the events are held and I'm able, I'll be out there. I just can't shake it.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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