Running 168 for 168 April 26, 2008
Posted by regivizz Marathon, Motivation, Other Runners, Race, Run, Running
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Have you heard this amazing and inspirational story? A Senior Airman, Brenden Burstad is running 168 miles in memory of the 168 victims of the Murrah Building bombing. This Sunday is the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and there will be over 16,000 runners participating in this run which benefits the Oklahoma City National Memorial. If you’ve not taken the opportunity to come to Oklahoma and visit this outstanding memorial, the OKC Memorial Marathon is a perfect time to do so!
Brenden Burstad is doing more than his fair share to honor the memory of those whose lives were taken from them. He’s running 141.8 miles from where he is stationed at Altus Air Force Base and then the full marathon to equal 168 miles. Amazing.
Check out the article ( http://www.okrunner.com/airman-burstads-run-underway ), and really, come visit and I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the hospitality of our city, the professionalism of the marathon, the emotion of the Memorial and the great city of Oklahoma City!
April 19, 1995 is a day I’ll never forget. The sound of the blast, the news coverage afterward, the overwhelming accounts of charity and kindness, standing at the base of the Murrah building looking up at complete devastation and now the field of 168 empty chairs…those emotions, sights and sounds will keep me coming back to run year after year.
We will never forget.
Eeek. April 24, 2008
Posted by regivizz Marathon, Race, Running
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I’m looking forward to Sunday. Really, I am. There are some cool features for the OKC Memorial Marathon (and half marathon) that will make it different this year from last. Namely the 20 mph north wind we’re supposed to have. 
There are some other things, like the live updates available online or sent to your cell phone and the fact that the official time is the chip time instead of gun time. There’s also a couple more thousand participants this year compared to last!
Is it really 2 days, 15 hours, 7 minutes and 40 seconds until race time? Woo Hoo!
Live marathon updates! April 24, 2008
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For the first time, the OKC Memorial Marathon is providing LIVE updates online and to registered cell phones! Here’s the story from newsok.com:
Live marathon updates sent for the first time
By Blake Jackson
Staff Writer
Alison Cohen usually waits until mid-afternoon on Sunday to make the call.
For the past six years, her brother Adam has run the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. And for the past six years, she has dialed long-distance from her home in Cambridge, Mass., to find out how he finished.
“It can be really nerve-racking actually,” said Alison Cohen, a marathoner herself. “There’s always a piece of you that wants to be out there running. Normally, I have to go find out how he did an hour or two after (he runs).”
This year, Adam’s results are coming to her in real time.
And a Tulsa-based company is bringing them.
For the first time in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon’s eight-year history, live results and updates will be available online and via cell phone alerts during the race.
“It works like a Pikepass, only it’s miniaturized,” said Tim Dreiling, owner of Fleet Feet Sports and Fleet Feet Timing, the company charged to keep up with 16,000-plus runners Sunday morning. “It’s RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. They use it in all types of timing and tracking systems.”
Each runner is outfitted with a tiny microprocessor housed in plastic. The “ChampionChip” is attached to the shoe of single marathon runners with a zip-tie. Relay teams will be equipped with transferable anklets.
Radio receivers built into FieldTurf mats at five separate course check points activate as the runners pass through, sending an individual signal back to the results tent near the finish line, where the results are funneled in mass to OKCmarathon.com and — for an added fee — cell phones.
The technology prevents cheating.
“It’s important to know that people have run the entire course,” said co-founder and marathon president Thomas Hill. “You have to cross that mat with the chip or we know you cut the course.”
It aids the medical crew.
“There’s a database updated in real-time at the medical tent,” Hill continued. “They can find out where people are on the course and if someone is taken into medical care out on the course they can communicate it that way.”
It streamlines dissemination of the final results.
“We can make minor adjustments and clean it up and have it turned around and on the Web site in less than a minute,” Dreiling said. “It’s real-time and it will be faster and more accurate than we’ve ever had.”
And it’s cheaper, too.
The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon has implemented some form of “ChampionChip” technology each of its eight years. But out-sourcing the timing services to a company based in Georgia came at a high cost.
Hill says switching to Fleet Feet made sense from both a financial and communal standpoint.
“Because the marathon is about what happened here in Oklahoma City and the city and state’s response to that, we have tried very hard to utilize local companies to fill our needs,” Hill said. “(Fleet Feet Timing) is relatively new, but they’ve demonstrated in other races that they are extremely capable and have pushed the technology farther than a lot of other timing companies have.”
That push in the technology — the ability to follow runners live throughout the race with little or no delay — puts Oklahoma City in some very prestigious company.
Only the largest races in the world, like the Chicago, London, Boston, New York and Los Angeles marathons, have implemented the technology.
“It’s something that you would see at only a handful of the absolute top-notch marathons in the world,” said Adam Cohen, who lives in Norman but won’t be waiting for his sister’s call on Sunday. “In terms of races Oklahoma City’s size, you do not see this. This is a big, big plus for the marathon.”
Me, defined. August 23, 2007
Posted by regivizz Marathon, Motivation, Run
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While out for a jog this morning, I tried to make a list of things that keep me motivated. One of those things is the marathon I ran. I mean, come on, if I can run 26.2, I can finish out that next half mile, right?
It’s funny though, how often people that I know through other people will come up to me and say “You’re a runner, right?” Nobody ever did this pre-marathon. Now it happens all the time! Realizing this makes me understand that even though I’ve been a runner at heart for a long time, and have spent countless hours through the years running, my friends and family did not take me seriously until the marathon. I’m no longer introduced as “she’s a science person” or “she does microbiology stuff” but it’s now “meet my friend, she’s a runner.”
That motivates me.
What motivates you?
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 08/23/2007
- Time: 06:38:00
- Total Time: 00:28:20.00
- Distance: 2.5 miles
- Average Pace: 11:20.53/mile
Hiatus June 5, 2007
Posted by regivizz Injury, Marathon, Running
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I’m taking a brief hiatus from running and pretty much all other physical activity due to a back injury. Hopefully I’ll recover soon and be back out on the trails! I must say, I’m going STIR CRAZY! What do you do when you can’t run? Any suggestions? I do some weight lifting but (incredible as it is to comprehend) I don’t have a gym membership.
Plans (for now) are to run the St. Jude’s marathon in Memphis this December!
Have any of my readers run that one before? Any tips? Any rants or raves about it? (I’m sure hoping to hear some raves about it!)
Oklahoma Memorial Marathon April 30, 2007
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Yesterday I ran my first marathon.
Wow. An incredible experience.
The weather couldn’t have been better. It was cool in the morning as we arrived for our 6:30 start, and although it warmed up, it never got too hot. The announcer said that they estimated 5,000 people downtown for the event, so needless to say, it was crowded! We ended up parking about a mile away from the start, and as we hit more traffic than expected, RAN that mile. Consider it a warm-up I guess!
As we got closer to the start line, we lost sight of each other, and I just about panicked! There was no way we would be able to find each other again in the crowd! Luckily we were directed away from the main crowd of spectators in order to get to the starting line faster, so we were able to find each other in the smaller crowd.
You could feel the excitement in the air and after the starting gun went off, I was so eager to get started that I basically jumped up and down in place for the 3 minutes it took for us to finally get moving!
For the first half, we were staying pretty close to the 4:15 - 4:30 finish pace, and we felt extremely confident! (more…)
Day of Remembrance April 19, 2007
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If not for the events that happened between 9:01 AM and 9:03 AM, there would be no such thing as the Oklahoma City National Memorial Marathon. I’d have probably run the Redbud Classic (which took place last week), or some other marathon.
An insignificant change in my life compared to the events of that day which changed and destroyed other lives forever.
I sit here today, one mile from the site and remember with sadness, the loss of 168 lives. Today, there are not many people in Oklahoma City who won’t think back and remember exactly where they were when they heard what happened. For some of us, exactly where we were when we heard the blast. We remember what it felt like to look up at that building, gaping open with a wide wound. There are no words to explain it.
On April 29th we will run with joy.
Hello stranger! April 11, 2007
Posted by regivizz Marathon, Marathon training, Running, Shoes
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I know, I know…I’ve been a slacker when it comes to updating my blog recently. In the past several weeks I’ve spent very few days at home. A trip to Reno/Tahoe area to visit my sister, which included a lovely run at the Kirkwood ski resort as well as some good “working out” time spent on the treadmill and elliptical (I love those things!). It’s always fun to run in new places, see some new scenery and die from the lack of oxygen in the air! Who knew that running at 7,800 feet would be so hard! Okay, well I knew it would be harder, but man, I was sore for DAYS after a little 6 mile run!
After that trip, I headed out to Washington DC to see the cherry blossom trees in full bloom. The trees weren’t the only thing blooming, my new relationship was as well! ;-) Besides the miles and miles of walking to see the sights, Chris took me on a run along some of the trails there in DC.
Next stop was central Texas, and my friend Mark came along with me on a 4 mile run in the dark (it was 6 AM), cold (40 degrees) and wet (it was drizzling).
So although I haven’t been getting in my daily training runs, and even fewer long training runs, I’m still feeling fairly good about the upcoming marathon which takes place in 18 days. Eeek. Only 18 days?!?
Luckily my new shoes (Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 9) are broken in and feeling quite fine and I’m not having any problems with the top of my left foot anymore.
18 days and counting down!
Training update February 19, 2007
Posted by regivizz Fitness, Marathon, Motivation, Other Runners, Running
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Ten weeks to go and the miles are piling up!
Thirteen was the magic number on Saturday. Thirteen very windy and very cold miles. Twenty mile an hour winds with gusts up to double that and a chilly 34 degrees! As I heard someone comment, it didn’t seem to matter which way you turned, the wind was always against you, sometimes even blowing a lifted foot into a leg!
I’m fortunate in the fact that the OKC running club, OKC Landrunners, host free marathon training runs in preparation for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. “The Runner” so helpfully provides water stops, and the camaraderie is a great incentive to get out there and run a set mileage. They run on Saturday or Sunday mornings, Sundays if there is a major race on Saturday. I’ve been wanting to get in on the runs, but either because I was out of town, or because the runs were on Sunday, I have missed all of them prior to this last Saturday. As I was a new runner in the training group, I’m even in the picture on their website! :-)
At the finish line January 30, 2007
Posted by regivizz Fitness, Marathon, Motivation, Race, Running
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John’s blog today really struck a chord with me. On some of my longer runs, I try to imagine the thrill of crossing the finish line of my first marathon. The thrill isn’t from the victory of completion, it’s from envisioning my friends and family gathered there to cheer and scream wildly as they see me finish. Alas, besides my running partner NordicTwin, there will be nobody there at the end or even toward the end of the marathon.
I wish there was a way to convey how important running is to me. When people ask why I run, my response is generally “because it keeps me sane”. And it does. It makes me feel good. It’s a sense of accomplishment. It’s the feel of the pavement under my feet. I am a runner and it’s the rhythm of my life. It’s the struggle against the wind and the struggle against my own laziness. It’s the chance to grin (or grimmace!) and lift a finger in acknowledgment of other runners on the trail. There’s a sense of freedom, a release of my cares and stresses. It’s selfish. It’s so I can wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and say “I am a runner!” It’s “me time”.
So why do I imagine my friends and family at the finish line?
Like John said:
