Weekend Wrap-up: OKC Marathon

I can’t believe the weekend is over. It flew by, and now it’s time for us to move. Moving is such a bittersweet thing. I will share all about moving tomorrow, because I want today’s post to focus on my race recap!

Jake ended up not going to California. He has been battling some knee pain and wanted to make sure everything was good to go with our current house since we close on it Tuesday as well. He was bummed to miss his race, but I think it’ll be good to let his knee heal up.

Let’s rewind to Friday, then I’ll fill you in on my race. Had another delicious bowl of oats for breakfast.

I honestly can’t remember what I did Friday morning, but I had leftovers for lunch.

I was starving all day Friday, so I felt like I was constantly eating. I added a little honey to my PB on-the-go and it was delicious.

The girls and I relaxed outside in the sunshine for a little bit. Rhea’s face cracked me up in this picture. She looks so serious.

For dinner Friday, we headed to Pappo’s and met Alex to get some pizza. I had a flight and got to try some new beers.

We devoured this pizza. It was so good.

I left for Oklahoma Saturday morning, but before I hit the road, Jake and I hit up a new coffee place by us, Springtown Coffee Co. It’s adorable and their coffee is really good.

After coffee, I knocked out a 20 minute shake-out run, showered, packed up my car, and was on my way! I packed lunch so I wouldn’t have to stop and could have something healthy. I had a wrap with turkey, ham, and spinach with chips on the side.

When I got to OKC, I headed straight to packet pick-up. How pretty is this underpass? I didn’t hang around the expo very long because I wanted to stay off of my feet, so I was in and out pretty quickly.

I stayed with my coach, Carlee, and her husband, Bryce. How we met is crazy and I’m SO glad we did! Two years ago, Jake and I were working the Go Girl race in OKC. I had an Altra shirt on and Carlee was on the Altra Red Team (like Jake). She mentioned my shirt and I told her that Jake was on the team, too. We all took a picture together and have just stayed in touch ever since! I’m so thankful for her friendship. She and Bryce have the two cutest little girls and I had a blast with them. Carlee had me use her NormaTec the second I got to her house. Jake and I want a pair of these so badly. They’re awesome. They basically compress your legs with air, which helps with recovery and circulation. 

I brought some fun things for their girls and a couple of six packs for the adults. I wanted Carlee and Bryce to try some beer from Springfield.

Carlee and Bryce even cooked dinner for me! Check out this deliciousness. Salmon, sweet potatoes, and salad. Everything was amazing. They’re the best hosts!

After dinner, Carlee and I got all of our race stuff ready, then we sat down on the couch and relaxed.

The weather was going to be perfect. The temperature dropped way down, so we were stoked it wasn’t going to be crazy hot like we originally thought.

This popped up on TimeHop! 1 year ago we were in Nashville for races. You can find that post HERE.

I feel so blessed to have such amazing people in my life. You guys are the best! I received so many messages, texts, and calls wishing me luck, and when my race didn’t go the way I wanted, you guys were there to make me feel better. Thank you for being the best people in the world! I have been missing my Trail Sisters – can’t wait to be back on the trail with them!

This is one of Carlee’s kiddos. Here’s our cheesy smiling picture. Ha! They called me Sheshee. I loved it.

We went to bed about 8:30 Saturday night. I slept decently. My alarm went off at 4AM and scared the crap out of me. I jumped out of bed, which resulted in a Charlie Horse in my calf. I knew that would come back to haunt me around mile 20. HA! I had a bagel with almond butter and honey for breakfast.

Carlee and I were twinning! We even had on the same shoes – Altra all the way!

Here’s some of the Wahoo crew that ran yesterday!

Okay, now for the things that didn’t work. My legs. Well, actually, just my right leg. The whole thing gave out. It was very strange. I was hitting paces and feeling good until about mile 17/18. My plan was to start slow (9:00s), drop down into 8:45s, then finish with 8:30s. I just couldn’t hit that low 8:30 pace. I felt SUPER great until mile 15. At 15, my right leg started acting up. The first things to go in a race are my glutes. Always. Which tells me I HAVE to work on strengthening them. Have to. You can see by looking at my splits that I totally fell off at 20. At mile 18, my right leg stopped working. It felt like my muscles were so fatigued, they just wouldn’t move. It was seriously so weird and it was only the right side. Eventually, that feeling moved into my joints. Again, only on the right side. My knee and ankle wouldn’t bend, which made running pretty difficult. I sat down on a curb a few times and basically slammed my right glute into it, trying to get something to loosen up. I’m sure I looked like a real weirdo. From mile 20 until the end, I wasn’t able to run more than a quarter mile at a time and I contemplated quitting about every 5 minutes. I knew at mile 18 I wasn’t going to finish in 3:45. At mile 20, I didn’t know if I’d be able to even pull off 3:50. By the time I got to mile 23, I was just done. I knew I wasn’t going to even be able to pull off a 4:00, so I got pretty pissed/annoyed/frustrated. I wanted to just sit down and cry, but I knew that wouldn’t get me to the finish line any sooner and I just wanted to be finished. I think I stopped to pee at mile 24, so that shows I had given up. I would never stop in the last two miles of a race to go to the bathroom if I have a time goal. I kept up my run/walk method until I hit mile 25, then I forced myself to run the last mile. It wasn’t pretty, it hurt, and my form was awful because of my right leg, but I crossed the finish line running. So, definitely NOT the day I wanted, but I am focusing on the lessons I learned and the fun I had (before mile 17). I respect the marathon distance, that’s for sure. It’s no joke. If you have any tips for me, I’d LOVE to hear them! I could go into more detail about all of this, but I decided not to – I finished and that’s what matters! Goals will always be there. Each race, we learn new tips and tricks to meet those goals. As of right now, I don’t want to even think about running another road marathon, but I know I will. I’m not okay with this race’s ending. And that’s okay! It’ll be good motivation. I am not a super competitive person, so sometimes I have a hard time finding motivation for pushing myself when I need to. I’ve always been that way. The one thing that motivates me is ME. I am usually able to use a past experience as motivation to make the next one better. I am always my biggest competitor and I’ll be back! But in the meantime, I’ve got some trail races to gear up for. : ) I took about 20 minutes to feel sorry for myself and get a good cry in yesterday, but now I am ready to move on and grow from that experience. 

Here’s something that’s funny now, but wasn’t funny at the time. I followed Carlee in my car on the morning of the race to park by the race start. It was still dark when we got there and we walked to the start, so I had no clue where we parked. I didn’t even think about it. Well, OKC is such a big race
, there was no way I was going to find Carlee when I finished. I also didn’t have my phone. I use a Spotify music player when I run long (I’ll share this later this week). Soooo, I crossed the finish line, wanted to die, didn’t know where Carlee was, didn’t have my phone, and didn’t know where my car was parked to get my phone. I realized all of this at once, so I walked a little past the finish line and just sat down. I was done for. I finally managed to find some motivation to get to my car. I remembered the name of one of the streets we had parked by, so I asked one of my volunteers where that street was. They told me how to get there, so I took off walking on that direction. My legs hurt so bad and I didn’t know which way on the street we were parked, so I guessed and just went for it. I knew I’d be pissed if I had to retrace my steps and go the other way. It was about a 15 minute walk, which doesn’t feel great post-marathon, but I had chosen the right direction, because I found our cars! I’ve never been so happy. I grabbed my phone, walked back and met Carlee, then sat on the grass and drank a beer.

We finished! I hung out with everyone for a little bit, then hit the road for home. It’s about a 4 hour drive, so I knew I needed to get started before I got too sleepy.

I met some friends in Tulsa for a beer on my way home. It broke up my trip and I always love spending time with Mike and Liz. I wasn’t hungry when I finished, but I started craving McDonald’s a few hours after. I went through the drive-thru and took my food with me into the brewery where I met Mike and Liz. It was okay. I don’t know that I’ll be craving McDonald’s again, but it did the trick yesterday. 

I couldn’t believe they wanted to get this close to me after my race, but I’m glad they did! Mike and I went to high school together and his wife, Liz, is the bomb! Jake was so jealous I got to see them.

I got home about 6:45 and we headed to dinner. I love eating out, but I am ready to cook again! I miss it.

I had a veggie quesadilla and it was amazing. I couldn’t eat much of it, but I can’t wait for the leftovers. I’m never hungry the day of a race. I’m sure I’ll be starving today and Tuesday.

So happy to be back home with my babies.

We are going to lunch with my sister and our niece today, then we have our final walk-through at the new house this afternoon! I’m excited. Oh, and I am SO sore. I’ve got some spots I need to foam roll, but I can’t do that just yet. I am taking some time off from running to let my body recover, so we will see how that goes. Maybe two weeks? I’m not sure yet. I’m going to just listen to my body and see how things go. 

Happy Monday, friends!