Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon (Oklahoma)

April 25, 2004	Marathon 29, State #23 (Age 35)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	3:48:18

https://okcmarathon.com/

I committed to running this marathon only about 3 week prior to the race.  I got a call from my friend John and he wondered if I would like to go with him to Oklahoma.  Timing was fairly good and airfare was reasonable, so I said, "yes"

I flew in Friday night for the Sunday race.  Saturday headed down to the expo which was held at the downtown convention center.  Very nice facility with plenty of room for a nice sized race expo with venders.  After packet pickup I headed down to Bricktown, which is the "hip" renovated area of downtown with lots of restaurants.  I found a great Italian Bistro called Zio's.

After lunch I walked around the National Memorial.  Ends up we free tickets for entry into the museum in our race packet, but didn't have them with me to go through the exhibit.  The whole downtown area seemed to be having a celebration or festival which I think is some kind of anniversary for the bombing.  Also the biggest Bass Pro Shop is located in the area which I got to walk through.

For dinner I found a steakhouse by the hotel and a nice relaxing dinner.  Live entertainment was a surprise at 7:30 on the stage with an old timer band.  Race morning everything went as planned.  We got to the start line in time to take care of all morning activities and jumped in the line for the start.   
I tried a new strategy by changing the limits of my heart rate monitor from about 169 to 161 and managed to stay under the limit the first half of the marathon.  Those dreadful miles from 18-23 seemed to be less painful!  Lots of yummy goodies and massage at the finish line!

Each runner had the option to run in honor of someone who died in the Oklahoma City Bombing.  I got to wear two bibs, one on the front with my name, but more importantly "Patricia Nix' on my 2nd bib which I also wore.