Overall: Overall I thought the Route 66 Marathon was a good race. I will say that this would be a great race to run if it is your first marathon because they give you a personalized bib and a “my first marathon” medal. That is such a neat feature of this race. Another neat perk is that I am a member of the Marathon Maniacs and my dad who also ran is a 50 Stater so we each earned medals that were different from the regular marathon finisher that represented our club. We also received a VIP tent with private restrooms, gear check, food and refreshments after the race. It was so nice to have a couch to sit on for a few minutes and recover after the race. One thing that I will mention is that if you stay downtown most of the restaurants are closed on Saturday so if you are looking for a place to carbo load you might want to check out the options before hand. My party ate at the local Jimmy Johns as well as many other runners.

T-Shirt/Swag: 2015 marked the 10th anniversary for the Route 66 Marathon and boy did they deliver on the goods. All races received a jacket to commemorate this milestone and they brought back one of their beautiful medals, the Flying Lady. The medal was beautiful.

Aid Stations: The aid stations were nicely stocked. I run with Tailwind, but I stopped periodically for water. I believe they were handing out GU at several of the locations as well.

Course Scenery: The scenery of RT66 was very neat. I saw lots of beautiful houses and buildings. Even running on the University of Tulsa’s campus was really beautiful. Many of the streets were having parties and handing out things like Jello shots, pretzels, bananas, beer and so much more. Big props to Cincinnati Street they really know how to throw a block party. Their enthusiasm and support really helped power runners on. I did the additional .3 mile detour called the Center of the Universe where I was given a special nice sized coin to remember it. This was also such a neat feature.

Expo: I was a little disappointed with the expo for this race. Online I heard people were waiting quite awhile to pick up their packet so I wanted to make sure I arrived with plenty of time to get my bib and browse the expo. Their packet pickup was nothing like I have experienced before. They had participants in a single file line in a turn style that reminded me of an amusement park waiting for my turn to ride a ride. I waited about 25 minutes to pick up my bib. I am not sure why the lines were so long, but I have been to bigger races and felt like RT66 might want to relook at the way they approach packet pickup. I was lucky too because soon after I picked up my packet and started to make my way into the expo I heard on the overhead speaker that they were experiencing computer problems that was delaying the bib pickup now. They did have some other races there promoting, local running stores selling the typical gels and gear. I did notice several of the booths were unoccupied so I am not sure if they already ran out of their product or if they were never occupied to begin with. Once you finally filtered through the expo you were able to pick up your jacket and exchange them for a different size if needed.

Elevation Difficulty: I am not sure why I found this course to be difficult, but I did. If you look at the elevation chart you will see that there were just a lot of rolling hills and my legs started to feel them after several miles of them. I felt like every time I looked up I was headed up another hill.

Parking/Access: We had no trouble getting to the start line. We stayed at the Countyard Marriott on Boston Street and literally walked just a short way to the corrals. Actually our hotel was so close that when we exited the elevator on the way to the start we were blow away by the number of runners hanging out in the lobby trying to stay warm before making their way to the start.

Race Management: Race was well organized. People were not allowed to enter into corrals that they weren’t assigned do, which helped. Since I was in a corral that was in the middle of the pack I couldn’t really here the speakers at the beginning of the race. They do a nice job of staggering the corrals at the beginning of the race.

MM#11726