The final edition of the Mother Road 100 ultramarathon finished Sunday afternoon at Catoosa High School in Catoosa.
Starting Saturday morning, the 100-mile footrace went on old Route 66 from the Kansas border town of Baxter Springs to Catoosa, Okla., just outside of Tulsa. Runners trudged for up to 30 hours without sleep; several aid stations supplied fluids, food and medicine in several towns along the course.
According to the Miami (Okla.) News-Record, Thomas Whalen of St. Louis won the race in 15 hours, 34 minutes, 32 seconds, edging runner-up Scott Hill of Wichita, Kan., by just under 12 minutes.
Whalen completed the whole course in less than 9 1/2 minutes per mile. It’s even more impressive when you consider Whalen had to stop for at least a few minutes at three mandatory weigh-in stations along the course.
Below, you can see at least one weary runner after crossing the finish line at Catoosa High’s running track, a few minutes short of the 30-hour mark.
Complete results still hadn’t been posted as of Monday night. Nearly 200 runners competed from 32 states, plus Canada and Germany.
The inaugural Mother Road 100 in 2006 went from Arcadia to Sapulpa, and the second in 2008 went from Elk City to El Reno.
Laurel Kane, co-owner of Afton Station, posted photos and musings on two blog entries after she and other volunteers ran an aid station for runners at Afton. She wrote on Day 2 of the race:
Prior to this, I must admit I was thinking that these long-distance runners must be a little crazy to want to indulge in this strenuous sport — a very different breed from lazy me. But seeing them plod along in the cold, dense fog, strung out for miles, still running after 12 hours while I’ve been indulging my own comfort-based activities, moved me to tears. Whatever their motivation for doing this, they deserve nothing but my admiration and respect. Each and every runner got a headlight blink and a thumbs-up from me as I passed them, and surprisingly, almost all of them waved back!
Todd Christell also posted dozens of photos from the race on his Flickr account, along with images from the Mother Road 100 in western Oklahoma in 2008.
Coincidentally, when we went to Catoosa High School on Sunday afternoon to see the finish line, a motorcycle club congregated for a Christmas toy drive in an adjacent parking lot at the school. It turned into a pleasant surprise to see all the custom motorcycles on the Mother Road. I’m sure the late-straggling runners got a bit of a visual treat once they caught their breath:
UPDATE: Full results can be found here.
(Photos by Emily Priddy)