From the Race Director
The Inaugural Spirit of Survival Marathon was considered a huge success! Despite the lightning which delayed the start of Sunday’s races and the torrential downpour throughout the entirety of that day, participants ran, records were set and a legend was born—The Spirit of Survival Marathon!
The big surprise to many was the recorded times for the events even through the wettest, most sluggish conditions. Even with heavy wet shoes, and slippery road conditions that ended a summer’s drought all in the span of a few hours, the time for Corey DuQuette, a rookie marathoner, was 2:30:57! Compared with the course record for the OKC Memorial Marathon of 2:22:54 and for the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa of 2:44:29, this route is not only beautiful and breathtaking, it has the potential to be very fast! The fact that the last few miles of the course are at a slight decline doesn’t hurt either, offering a little push to make it to the roar of the Finish Line in the heart of historic Medicine Park.
The times for the other races were just as impressive. The run up Mount Scott exceeded all expectations with a field of 136 and a course record of 21:06 recorded by Kenyan Gilbert Limo. The top female, Ana Basora recorded a time of 29:37 and youngsters Cameron Keys, 15 and Andrew Poindexter, 12 flexed their winged feet by recording times of 26:17 and 27:54 respectively! Not to be shown up by the boys, Kaitlin Pontikes, 12, the youngest female to complete the race recorded a time of 35:35! No worries Mom and Dad, the boys won’t catch that girl.
We were hopeful for a larger turnout, especially with the novelty of this racing experience, but given the very short timeline for planning and executing the event, we were pleased to have the turnout we did and are grateful for the opportunity to offer the second running of the Spirit of Survival Marathon.
This year’s event will have its challenges. Receiving official notice of approval for the race on June 4, 2007, we’re playing a bit of catch-up again, but with no guarantees of a Third SOS, we encourage runners to take advantage of this rare running experience while they can. But don’t take it from a rookie Race Director, hear for yourself from the real experts—the participants!
Run Tough!
Lori Cummins
Spirit of Survival Race Director
