Oklahoma -- Check

Oklahoma 

I have now completed 2 races in two states.  Not too difficult (for me) to see that this is not going to be easy.  Oklahoma was much more difficult than Florida -- for several reasons.

1.  I live in Florida and did not have to travel to another state
2.  I stayed at my mom's house in Cocoa Beach -- I have no family in Oklahoma
3.  Travel was much easier to drive to my mom's
4.  I had family support in Florida
5.  It was much less expensive to drive than to fly
6.  There are no hills in Florida
7.  It was 32 degrees in Oklahoma

I think you get the picture.  Let me focus here on points 7 and 8, because those were the real killers.  The race was scheduled to start at 8:00am.  I ended up getting moved into corral A based on my estimated finish time, so I would actually start at 8:00am.  I walked over to the start from my airbnb rental, not exactly sure how long it would take me to get there.  I was 30 minutes early, wearing a pair of shorts and a wicking shirt, little tiny socks and my running shoes.  It was 32 degrees.

I have lived in Florida since I was 3 years old.  I do not like the cold.  I know people want seasons and want to be able to wear their sweaters and drink hot chocolate and see their breath and build a fire.  I don't need any of that.  I am perfectly content in a pair of shorts and flip-flops.  I can travel to Colorado and go snow skiing for a week or two and that will give me all of the cold that I need.  Needless to say, I was freezing.  Waiting for a half an hour for the race to start.  I was afraid of being penalized because my nose started running before I did.

As you can see, there were not many people there.  They were all much smarter than me apparently.  They all filled in relatively quickly and the corral was filled up and we were ready to go.  We stood for the National Anthem and a couple of other local traditions, no prayer though.  They let the wheel chair athletes go 2 minutes prior to the gun, and then we are off... finally.  I just remember thanking God that we were finally moving, then wondering why I could not feel my hands or my toes.  The very start ran into the rising sun, then a left turn downhill.  Most, if not all of mile one was downhill -- steeply.  Now that SOUNDS great, but if you start downhill, guess what is gonna happen the rest of the race???  Yup... you guessed it -- UPHILL.  It sure seemed like the entire race was uphill.  I kept thinking that it is not possible for the entire race to be uphill, there must be some downhill portion coming.  Well, upon reflection, there were some downhill sections, but they were much smaller than the uphill sections.  It was uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill, downhill, uphill, uphill, uphill, uphill, downhill, uphill.... You get the idea.  

Not being accustomed to running hills, I was dying.  I kept watching all of these people pass me on the uphill sections and thinking, "How in the heck can you get up these hills so fast?"  My legs just would not move any faster.  My first half was much faster than my second half.  I was gassing out.  I just did not have anything left.  Even the finish was uphill.

In all, I am happy with my performance.  I was REALLY shooting for 1:45:00 and I really thought I was gonna make it, but my last few miles killed me.  

This race did not come without its consequences though.  When the race was over, I sat down for a minute,  When I got up to walk back to my room, I noticed that the back of my left knee was "on fire".  I was unable to bend it without significant pain.  I limped back to my room 1.5 miles.  I do not remember hurting this much after the first one.  Even my left deltoid was hurting.  I guess I was tense struggling up those hills as everyone was passing me.  Today, my left Iliotibial band is painful and I have a sharp pain on my right knee that I have not figured out yet, my quads hurt and I am just plain tired.  I am starting to wonder if I am going to be able to pull this off without injury.  Time will tell.