The Tulsa Run and a Feminist Rally

Brittany and I went to Tulsa this weekend to participate/compete in the 30th Annual Tulsa Run. The short version of how that happened is that one of her brothers decided he wanted to run it and asked if we would. A few days after we registered for the race (at my wife's insistence) Gavin called to say he had hurt his knee and couldn't go. Not unlike buying discount commercial airline tickets, race registration fees are non-refundable, non-transferable, non-anything-you-might-want-to-do-with-them-so-either-come-and-run-the-race-or-we're-keeping-your-money-anyway!

So we went.

The race itself went well. Brittany ran it in just under 1 hour and 20 minutes, some 6 minutes faster than she ran it 2 years ago (this is a 15km or 9.25 mile race by the way). That's almost 40 seconds/mile faster, which in running is a very significant improvement. She did well in 2005, she did really well this time, I'm very proud of her (and would have been proud of her regardless of her finishing time).

I ran my fastest time on this iteration of the Tulsa Run course (before 2002 the course was different - same length, different path - and much faster, so it's hard to compare the two, because the old course had virtually no hills, this one does) at 57:03 (net, 57:11 off the gun). I was fairly satisfied with that. I just missed placing in the Clydesdale's division (any guy over 170 is eligible, I figured why not). Though I was the 3rd Clydesdale to cross the finish line, they use age-graded times to determine places, so some older steeds who actually finished behind me got all the hardware because it's somehow harder to run fast when you're older or something. Not bitter. I was 12th in my open age group, they give out trophies to the top 10, so I just missed that as well. I did come home 45th overall, which is the highest I've ever finished in the Tulsa Run field overall - including years where I got an age-group award. The only hardware I came away with was the finisher's medal and the 60/70 cup. The cup is the real perk of doing the Tulsa Run, it's a coffee cup they give to all the guys who finish under 60 minutes and the ladies who finish under 70 minutes.

Now, the best story of the race was this. Very late in the race (like 500m from the finish line) I started coming up behind a young woman. Experience told me she was probably in the top 5 overall women in the field and then with 200m or so left we passed a picture op checkpoint (they set up this archway and stage photographers to take pics of all the runners). As we did, I heard one guy with a camera say to the other, "2nd woman?" Translated, she was the 2nd overall among the women. I eased up next to her (at this point, there are no sudden movements), spoke to her (encouraged her that she'd run a good race, this isn't uncommon, though it can result in hyper-ventilation at that stage of the race).

As I started to move past her I start to hear it. Women in the crowd started screaming at her not to let "him" (that would be me) pass her. Great, I'm sucking wind as hard as I can, trying not to fall down in the last 150m of the race and suddenly I've become the object of ire for every woman in the crowd, I'm that guy who is trying to keep their sister down or something crazy. Thoughts at this point in a race aren't very coherent, but mine went something like this, "Crap, now I have to beat her to the finish line, I can't let a girl outrun me in the home stretch. Man, I hope she doesn't have anything left, cause I'm out." So with that I took off for all I was worth, thankfully I had just enough of a burst to convince her it wasn't worth the effort. The guy just in front of us heard me coming and accelerated just enough to keep me behind him, but I did outlast the girl. I was half expecting to be beaten by a mob of angry women after the race, but thankfully the finishing area is protected. I think the lesson here is don't be near any of the top 10 women in the field near the finish or you become the bad guy.