With a pretty big half-marathon going on at the same time,
the course was pretty full the first half but was a ghost town the second half.
I ran with some guy from somewhere in the Dallas area from mile 3 to mile 25.5,
but I can’t remember his name. I learned his whole life story.
The temperature was in the mid-70s at the 6:30 am start and climbed
into the 80s by mid-morning. The whole day there was a strong wind from the
south and it gusted to probably 30-40mph regularly. There was hardly a cloud in
the sky the whole time and it was hot and miserable the whole way. This was
very likely the hottest and worst conditions for any marathon I’ve run, though
many ultras have been worse.
I was shooting for a sub 4 hour finish but it just wasn’t
happening with the heat and humidity and sun and wind. I finished just a few
minutes over 4 hours but wasn’t discouraged in the least. In fact, I was just relieved
to be done and glad it was over and glad that I didn’t experience any nausea
which often comes with the heat.
My ankle swelled a bit during the marathon but didn’t necessarily
hurt any more than before the race.
Sarah and the baby joined me on the trip there (leaving at 3am) and back
and rested in the shade while I ran. We were home in time for lunch at 1pm from
OKC!
