Because all races had been canceled in 2020, I had not done an in-person race in over a year. My friend Jeanette had found a race in Tulsa, Oklahoma called the Golden Driller Marathon that appeared to be moving forward with an in-person run at the end of April. I was reluctant to sign up because at that time, races were still getting canceled at the last minute and deferred to 2022. I finally took the plunge and signed up at the last minute, only to just make the cut-off before the race was sold-out!
Last on Thursday, April 15, I flew out of Grand Rapids headed to Tulsa. Per usual, because our flight stopped in Chicago first, we were delayed. Thanks Chicago....
Anyway, it was late and I was super tired on the plane. As I sit there waiting for our flight to take off, there was this couple a row or 2 in front of me that FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WOULD NOT SHUT UP! They were a beautiful couple too. He was handsome and she was a pretty blonde. Anyway, apparently they had to make friends with everyone on the plane. They were talking to everyone around them and asking personal questions and being loud. I got to hear all about some guy's fiance from Portugal and how they were going to get married but she had to renew her visa and blah blah blah. As soon as we landed in Chicago, I was relieved because I figured that I had gotten rid of the loud couple. But wouldn't you know it, just as I sat down on the plane in Chicago, I see the loud, beautiful couple boarding. I thought, "oh for cripes sake, what are the odds?!?!" Then I overhear someone say, "They must be attending the Freedom Conference". As soon as I heard that, it dawned on me that both of them were all decked out in American Flag clothing, so I quickly started googling "freedom rally in Tulsa". As luck would have it, there was a HUGE anti-mask, freedom rally being held the same weekend the race was being held. And since a good majority of Grand Rapids is a bunch of anti-mask, conservative Christians, then I guess it shouldn't be shocking that a flock of them would be heading from the Michigan Bible belt down to the Oklahoma bible belt. I honestly could care less what these people did, I just didn't want them 1) screwing up any of my flights by arguing about wearing a mask 2) same thing, but in regards to the race.
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| The big rally that was happening the same weekend the race was. Lucky for me, they were only rallying on Friday and Saturday, not Sunday of course.... |
Anyway, the flight went off without a hitch. I landed around 11pm and got an Uber to the hotel where Jeanette and I would be staying.
The next day, we slept in a little, but got up early enough to go to breakfast on the first floor of the hotel. The rules/law at the time was that if you were inside of a building walking around in a public space then you had to wear your mask. Jeanette and I wore our masks to breakfast, but you better believe that almost everyone there was not wearing a mask AND they all looked to be headed to the big freedom rally. There seemed to be quite a few large, loud Southern women with big blonde hairdos that were draped head to toe in flowy red, white and blue fabrics. Arguing about whether or not to wear a mask isn't really the hill I want to die on NOR is it what I want to waste my time "fighting" for, but more power to them I guess.
After breakfast, we decided to do a practice run around town, just a short 4ish mile run for a warm up to Saturday's big marathon.
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| Running in the rain the day before the race to warm up and get a practice run in. Route 66 goes right through Tulsa |
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After our run, we walked around to odd ball places in Tulsa. Behind us is the Bank of OK building. It was designed by the same people who created the Twin Towers. It's an exact replica, just not as large.
One odd thing is: the black sculpture with the weird cloud shaped top has people engraved on one side and airplanes engraved on another. I find that very strange that it is right next to a building that is a replica of one of the buildings that got bombed on 9/11. Maybe it's supposed to be a tribute sculpture, but if it is, it's not a very good representation. |
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| Sadly, we had no packet pick-up party like there normally is, so we just picked up our numbers at the Fleet Feet store. |
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| Colorful murals around Tulsa during our practice run |
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| Lots of churches in Tulsa too...almost more then Holland I think! |
After the run and walking around for a bit, we ate and just headed back to the hotel to chill before the next day's big run.
The next day we got up super early to prepare for our run. Jeanette has a very specific regiment she follows. She does stretches, she does warm up exercises, she eats specific food, she gets all her electronics synchronized and then there's me.....I get up, eat some random granola bar and put my running clothes on. She's very organized and meticulous and I'm like Forrest Gump preparing for a run!
I was a little nervous about the bathroom situation. I never know when #2 will hit me! She suggested that I go downstairs and run on the treadmill for 5-10 minutes to help things move along. I took her suggestion and Bingo! it worked! I will have to do that from now on for every race!
After we took care of business, we went downstairs to catch our Uber to the race. The lobby was already filled with maskless protesters heading to the big convention.
We got to the race just fine. Since it was still within the boundaries of the pandemic, they had capped the race at 500 people. They also didn't have much of a before and after race party because of Covid rules. They didn't do food on the course. They did have small bottles of water, but I had my backpack and so did Jeanette so we were able to carry all of our own nutrition.
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| Me just loving beer, gluten free or not! |
I think Jeanette and I were at that brewery for almost 4 hours! We had a great time laughing, drinking and talking. We were close to the hotel, so we just walked home. As we walked home, we passed by this arcade / bar and there were people inside drinking and having fun. Michigan had been on lock down for so long at that point, that we stared in the window marveling at people actually out of their house and having fun and wondering if Michigan was every going to open up again.
The next morning, Jeanette's flight left super early. She got up and around, we said our "until next times", and she took an Uber back to the airport. My flight wasn't leaving until around 3pm that day. My plan was to get up, rent a city bike and ride around Tulsa seeing some weird and odd stuff.
My first stop was the house where they filmed the 1980's movie The Outsiders. In normal times, I think you can tour the inside, but this was a Sunday morning during a pandemic, so I could just take pictures of the outside. The funny...or maybe not so funny...thing about this house is that it's the best house in the neighborhood. All the homes in this area looked exactly like this, but a LOT of them were burned out or in disrepair. It just seemed like a very poor neighborhood which matched exactly how it was in the movie.
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| Tulsa uses the This Machine bike rental. It's electric assist, so it really came in handy during my few hours of riding around. |
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| After the Outsider's house, I headed towards the North side of town. On my way, I saw this 1960s onion shaped church. |
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| Back in the day before airports had radar, some cities had the name of the city with a giant arrow pointing towards the airport, so that you could see where you were headed from the air. Tulsa still has one of these signs. I rode the electric bike to the giant Tulsa. I thought it would be cooler to see in person, but since I am on the ground this is the best picture I could get. If you do satellite view over Tulsa you can see how cool this sign really looks. |
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| After the Tulsa sign, I rode past this strange cave house. Again, I think in normal times you can tour the inside of the house, but I just did a drive-by and took a few pictures. |
After the cave house, I headed to the Philbrook Museum of Art. This place did not disappoint. Long story short, eccentric rich guy builds a huge house, buys expensive art, leaves the entire property to be a museum after he dies. Isn't that how all museums start?
This house was in a very very nice area of Tulsa. When I got there, the first thing I did was explore the huge and beautiful gardens.
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| After wandering around the gardens, I headed inside to look at the art. I'm not a super huge fan of art, but some of the pieces were really interesting and old. |
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| This is one of the reasons I don't get art. In the artist's defense, that is not cardboard. They used fabric or some other media to create art that looked just like a real cardboard box. But still.....I don't get it. |
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| After spending several hours at the museum, I had to get back to the hotel so I could make it to the airport in time. On the way, I passed by this park that looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. |
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| The last stop before I turned in my bike was Black Wall Street. I had no idea that my hotel was 2 blocks from the Tulsa Massacre. AND I didn't even realize that when I was visiting Tulsa, I was there almost on the 100 year anniversary. The area has been built back up since the fires. The main street that was destroyed looks like a cute, little downtown area with shops. |
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| I think this lone building was one of the only buildings that didn't get burned to the ground completely. The strange thing is, all around this church it's still not built up. There are many city lots that are just grown over with grass. |
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| Large mural celebrating and honoring the area. |
That was my last stop in Tulsa. I turned in my bike, walked back to the hotel and waited for my Uber to pick me up and take me back to the airport. I got home without incident late Sunday night.
I always have so much fun with Jeanette and I can't wait to do another marathon with her!
