The Icebreaker Indoor Marathon consists of several events. A 5K on Friday, 2 half marathons and a marathon relay on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday.

 

As the weekend approached, I started to get nervous.  There was a lot of hype.  I felt some pressure.  Would all the hours of hard work pay off? Would people be disappointed? Would expectations be met?

 

I am happy to report, I successfully made and delivered 60 dozen Running in the USA cookies to the Pettit National Ice Center, for the Icebreaker participants, and they were a big hit.

 

I love baking. I love sharing something that makes people happy. Thanks, everyone, for your nice compliments about my cookies!

 

The recipe can be found at: Cream Cheese Cut Out Cookies

 

One batch makes about 6 to 7 dozen.  I bag up 6 dozen for the event, and the rest are for 'quality control', handled by myself, family, and sometimes, my training partner. Quality control is the only part of the process where I let anyone help.

 

Each batch takes about 3 1/2 hours, over about a 2 day period.  It takes about 30 min to make the dough, which has to chill for about 6 hours.  Rolling out, baking and frosting them takes about 3 hours. Last, I freeze them overnight before bagging them up.

 

They freeze great, and actually freezing sets the frosting so that they don't stick together as much.  And for some reason, they seem to taste better after they have been frozen.  Leftover cookies can also be refrozen.

 

Frosting the maps takes a bit of strategy. I start with a little dab in New England, then a tiny dab for Florida. Then a big pile gets plunked down in the great plains and plowed to the east, then Texas and finally the west coast. Florida is definitely the trickiest part, requiring a delicate touch that I haven't quite mastered yet.

 

Frosting the shoes is pretty straight forward - a simply out and back gets most of the job done.  I little wrist action is needed for the top of the shoe where the laces go.

 

After baking every day for nearly 2 weeks, I have it down to a complete science, though by the time next year's Icebreaker comes around, I will be quite rusty in my technique.

 

Fortunately, there will be a Heatbreaker Half Marathon  on July 28th at the Pettit, allowing me to keep my cookie making skills tuned up.

After finishing the White River Marathon for Kenya in Cotter, AR, we headed to Tulsa, OK for the Route 66 Marathon.  (White River Marathon Recap).

As we made the 4 hour drive to Tulsa, my legs got pretty stiff.  We arrived at packet pickup, and wandered around the expo a bit.  Though the walking loosened my legs a bit, I was REALLY looking forward to getting to our hotel and taking an ice bath. I absolutely swear by the ice bath.

The expo was nice. Race perks included a cotton short sleeved shirt that is too big.  Nice blue color, but it will only be used as jammies.

We decided to stay downtown at the Courtyard by Marriott, about 2 blocks from the start.  Fancier than what we normally do, but reasonably priced and very convenient.  And NO bathtub. Yikes.  No ice bath. Oh no! My legs need an ice bath. Hmmm.

We had scored a free parking spot right in front of the hotel, thanks to the Marriott staff who held it for us as we circled the block.  With such a prized spot, we decided we didn't want to give it up, and we'd walk any place we needed to go until it was time to leave.

We headed out to find some dinner.  Tulsa must be the world's quietest city on a Saturday night.  It was about 7pm, and most things were closed. As we walked, we felt like we had to whisper to each other, as not to disturb the silence.  We found a nice restaurant, about 2 blocks away, that was open.  It was attached to the Hyatt, which was one of the marathon's host hotels.

Dinner at the Daily Grille was pricier than what we normally do, but affordable, and very delicious.  I had the Tuscan brick chicken and Bill had chicken parmesan.

After dinner, with my legs begging for an ice bath, I attempted to do something that would pass for an ice bath.  I filled the laundry garment bag with ice, sat in the shower, placed the bag on my quads, and ran cold water on my calves.  Not quite as effective as my beloved ice bath, but this will have to do.

The race start was 8:00 am.  The start was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  The finish is about a mile away.  At 7am, we took some warm clothes to the gear drop truck, and came back to the hotel.  Though the forecast for this day called for 50 degrees at the start, and 52 for the finish, mother nature had her own ideas.  How about 36 degrees for the start instead? And some wind too.  Unfortunately, I had packed running clothes for 50 degrees.

The course winds through many areas of Tulsa.  Downtown, parks, residential, industrial, commercial, a bit of everything.  It was hillier than I expected.  From about mile 10 to 14, we run a flat section along the Arkansas River.  We were dead into a stiff headwind the whole time, which took a bit of a toll on me.  I was freezing, and the wind tired me out a bit.

My goal was again, to run steady, and slightly uncomfortably.  Like yesterday, I wanted a good workout.  But I also need to take into consideration that I just did one of these yesterday, and hoped that today's finish time would be a little slower, and within about 10 minutes of yesterday's.

The headwinds of miles 10 to 14 slowed me a bit, but I picked up the pace a bit after that.  I continued to run steady, and felt fairly good the whole time, except for being cold.  With a couple miles to go, I still felt like I had enough in the tank, and I sped up a bit. I finished in 3:31, which was second in my division out of 91.

The finish line perks were disappointing.  We got a short sleeve technical t-shirt, unisex, and the smallest size offered was WAY too big.  The post-race food was absolutely lame.  Oranges, bananas and bagels. That was it.  For the price we paid, I would have expected something a lot more substantial: subs or pizza at least, and more snacks like cookies and chips.  The finisher medal was pretty nice though.

We took the shuttle back to the start area.  Our hotel granted us a late checkout that allowed me to get a shower before heading out.  

We went to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa.  This museum features art and artifacts of the American West.  It was a nice relaxing look at life in the American west in the 1800s. We opted for the guided tour which took about an hour.  Our guide told us about Thomas Gilcrease, and pointed out things in the artwork that I would not have noticed otherwise.  I am not an art buff by any means, but enjoyed this short visit.

By the time we got back to Kansas City, it was 8pm on Sunday night.  We found a hotel near the airport, and had very limited choices for dinner.  We ended up at Cracker Barrel.  We had skipped lunch, and with such weak offerings at the finish line, I was STARVING.  I opted for the pecan pancakes, and bacon... and eggs.  Wow, that REALLY hit the spot.

Once again, our hotel did not have a bathtub, and I had to skip my much needed ice batch, again.  Exhausted, I went right to bed as soon as we got back from our breakfast-dinner.

Route 66 was a nice marathon.  I was very happy with how I ran this marathon.  I enjoyed the expo and the course.  It was well organized.  Though the finish line food left a lot to be desired, I would still recommend this marathon.

For those keeping score: marathon #42, and state #19. 

Many people might wonder why someone would travel over 600 miles for a small town marathon that has around 150 finishers.

White River Marathon for Kenya is a great example of why I love these small town marathons.

Webmaster Bill and I flew into Kansas City on Friday morning.  Flights between Milwaukee and Kansas City are dirt cheap, and Cotter, AR is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Kansas City.

We made a brief stop at the Steamboat Arabia Museum in downtown Kansas City.  If you are ever in the Kansas City area, I highly recommend this excursion. Its one of those things however, that if I described it, it wouldn't sound nearly as interesting as it is in person.  Just trust me.  Go there.  You need about $14 per person, and an hour and a half.

As recommended by running partner Dennis' son Andrew who now lives in Kansas City, we had lunch at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Kansas City.  It has won all kinds of awards, is on Anthony Bourdain's list of places you have to eat before you die, and is in a gas station.  Yes.  Its in a gas station.  The place was packed, the line almost went out the door.  Things moved quickly, and we got the house special pulled pork, and dove into the yummy yummy goodness.

With full tummies, we headed to Cotter, AR.  Passing through towns with funny names like Flippin and Yellville, we arrived at the Cotter High School for packet pickup.

Race perks included a purple cotton long sleeve shirt, that is actually small enough for me to wear, and an insulated lunch bag thing that will definitely come in handy.

We chatted briefly with the race director, and then headed to Mountain Home, AR and checked into our hotel.

The race started at 7:00 am at the high school.  There is also a half marathon and a 5K.  A few hundred participants total.  150 in the full marathon.  The course is a 13.1 mile out-and-back.  The half marathoners do it once, the marathoners do it twice.  It finishes at the RV park one mile away from the high school.

I like this type of course.  I don't mind going past the same stuff 4 times. And for some reason, it seems easier.  I just tell my legs that I am not running a marathon, I am just doing four 6.55 mile runs, and they fall for it.  (OK, if you want to get picky, this course is actually a 7 mile run, a 6 mile run, and then two 6.55 mile runs.)

With the double-out-and-back, and also early starters, there was a constant thin stream of runners on the course.  There was never a huge clump, but I could always see other runners.  The route took us along the White River, which is known for trout fishing. There were homes of various sizes and conditions along the way, all with lots of land.  One home, had a large dog at the edge of their property, tied to his dog house.  He enthusiastically barked at all runners, as they ran by in view of his territory.  So, I had to say to him "Doggie, you are going to get TIRED".  This poor guy was going to have several hours of runners to address. I bet he will be sleeping this off for a week.

Because this is the first of 2 marathons for me this weekend, my goal is to run steady and slightly uncomfortably.  I want a good workout, but I need to save something for Tulsa the next day.

The course was pretty flat.  There was a strong and constant wind.  The course had enough turns to it that we were never dead into the wind for more than a mile at a time.  It was cloudy, and temperatures were in the upper 40s.

I accomplished my goal, running steady, and finished in 3:24, which earned me second female out of about 50.  We rode the shuttle back to the high school, and I enjoyed some enchilada soup, served by the local women, in the school's cafigymatorium.  I chatted with the soup servers for a few minutes.  A sweet and charming grandmotherly bunch, they asked me how far ran.  Before I could get to the 'point 2' part of the distance, they were audibly in disbelief.

After a quick shower in the school's locker room, it was time to head to Tulsa for the Route 66 Marathon. (Route 66 Recap)

I really love these small marathons.  I like bigger ones also, but there is just such an inviting feeling to the low-key community marathons.  They do a very nice job of making you feel welcome in their community. 

For those keeping score, this was marathon #41, and state #18.