Sara Steward's Staging Area

I’ve fundraised for St. Jude as a hero before, but doing the actual race that you get to run through the grounds of the hospital is so emotional and worth seeing what you’re truly running for. The patients that are able come out and line the course along the path that leads through the grounds of the hospital. Most in wheel chairs, wearing face masks, some holding signs about being cancer free because of you… It’s hard not to feel connected to the cause.

The race, along with anything St. Jude does, is put together beautifully and well organized. This year the convention center was under construction so we had to go down to Landers Center in Mississippi to get our packets, but with the race shuttles provided it wasn’t too bad. The course has some tough hills over the bridges which provides some difficulty, but totally doable. The full marathoners got a nice finisher hat which I liked. The half finishers didn’t get anything extra than the medal. If you ever consider a charity run, THIS is the one to do!

We stayed at a hotel close enough to walk to the expo/finish area. My husband and I ran the 5k and I did the Great Grandmas Challenge which was the 5k and Marathon.

The expo was fun and they did their best to pack as many vendors in as possible. We went early on Friday to pick up packets and enjoy the expo. Then we went to the Pasta party which was great. There were so many tables and the volunteers were so helpful!!!! The pasta wasn’t bad considering how much they needed to make. When we came back later that afternoon before the 5k event it was PACKED and I think every table for the pasta dinner was seated.

The course is a point to point that runs the entire time along Lake Superior on your left and beautiful green trees on your right. The course is overall flat and has one small hill called Lemon Drop Hill, that really is easy around mile 22.

While in the starting shoot we had fighter planes overhead which was amazing! My small grip is that the entire group of almost 7000 marathon runners all started together. What this created was 2 big problems moving forward. 1. A very crowed start that led to over packed porta potties for the first 10 miles and 2. Massive congestion at the aid stations. People were spilling water, tripping, I saw 2 people fall trying to maneuver the crowd to get to the water. A wave start would have been really beneficial.

For being such a small town I was blown away by the crowd support. For the last 6 mile for so there are so many people I wasn’t expecting it. And it is true, there are some supporters out cooking bacon in their yard to give to you. Hopefully soon I’ll get my blog update to share with you all.

Overall, the race was great and this small town sure does its absolute best to cater to the mass amount of people who come through.

I ran this half marathon back in 2016 and can only tell you it’s gotten better. They changed the route for the full but this was my first time running the full. It was IMMACULATE and beautiful the entire course! Lots of porta potties along the course.

While the tragic events that caused this marathon to take place are hard to absorb, the tribute this race provides is incredible. The memorial is open before the race and you can pay your respects and join the morning prayer. Before the race starts there is a 168 second moment of silence to honor each of the victims that were killed in the bombing.

As the race begins it’s as the sun is rising and you enjoy downtown OKC. As you progress along the course the streetlights have banners with the names of the victims on them.

It’s extremely emotional. I just fell in love with the kind reminder this race holds. I’m honored I was able to participate and defiantly recommend this one!

The only downfall is it gets hot and humid as the day progresses. I finished in just under 4 hours but was definitely starting to feel the heat.

Overall, this was a great race. It was organized well. Email communications leading up to the race had everything explained clearly. Coming from out of town I had no problems.

Dont underestimate the hills. Especially, mile 10 for the half when you only got 5k left to go. It was intense and challenging.

Here are my only 2 real peeves with this race. For the half marathoners on the way back the course becomes flooded with walkers from the 10k and 5k. I LOVE everyone being out there, but they block the path and the runners are forced to move to the traffic lane or zoom between walkers which takes a lot of energy especially with the hills and extra miles. Maybe the volunteers could remind them to move over and not walk spread out along the course.

My 2nd peeve is all the race medals were the same. I don’t want to sound like an elitist, but most races identify with the medal lanyard the difference in distance. I feel putting in the effort for the different distances should be identified.

The host of the event does multiple races over New Mexico and Arizona so it was put together well. I love the cute reindeer medals. The problem with Albuquerque is almost all of our local races take place in the Bosque. It is so boring and nothing to look at. I get it, it’s easy to stage a race on and not worry about road closures, etc… but it’s just terrible to run I. All the time.