For a first-time event, the Tulsa World Route 66 Marathon on Sunday in Tulsa, Okla., seemed pretty polished.
More than 3,000 people participated in the 26.2-mile run and half-marathon footraces, which is an unusually high number for a first-year marathon event. And you know next year’s Route 66 Marathon will be even better, because organizers will have discarded the bad ideas and kept the good ones.
You couldn’t have asked for much better weather for the runners — brisk but not freezing at start time, with sunny skies. In the above photo, here are the runners streaming down Southwest Boulevard, aka Route 66.
The national interest in this event was astounding — I heard many states and a few foreign countries when the runners’ names were announced as they approached the finish line.
The top men’s runner in the marathon was Chris McClure of Oklahoma City in a time of 2 hours, 44 minutes, 29 seconds. That’s a pace of 6:17 per mile. The top women’s finisher was Jessica Tranchina of Tulsa in 3:07:03.
In the half-marathon, the top men’s runner was Dan Uskert of Bentonville, Ark., in 1:18.03. The first-place women’s finisher was Emily Corbett of Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1:28:19.
Complete results from the races can be found here.
As a bonus, there were about 50 swell-looking classic and custom cars that were part of the proceedings.
Here’s are Tulsa World stories about the event, which was part of the weekend’s state centennial celebrations.
KOTV in Tulsa has more coverage of the race.
A couple bloggers already have chimed in about the race. Redforkhippiechick has some photos of friends who competed in the races. Bumpkin enjoyed the “Run Happy” sign.
UPDATE: More bloggers chime in. Michael Seidel of Running Crazy of Winfield, Kan., participated. Tim of the Twentysixtwo Running Journal has a rather detailed accounting of his run.