ROUTE 66 HALF; FOR WALKERS TOO

Springtime coming to a Gulf beach. Taken by PKSenagore March 2017. All rights reserved.

100 HALF MARATHON CLUB SURVEY + Registration Opens for WINNER
The Williams ROUTE 66 2017 Marathon/Half Marathon opens registration on March 31 for its races on November 19, 2017.
 
RunningUSA.org recently featured this half marathon in its newsletter, noting that it swept the 100 Half Marathon Club survey awards. Included were top votes for Overall Best Top Rated Individual Events, best half marathon in the US, best medal, race shirt, volunteers, and more.
 
RunningUSA.com says “each year club members are encouraged” to complete a survey “recognizing their favorite half by state, theme, price, value and other criteria.”
 
According to the 100 Half Marathons Club website, the organization was “established to recognize and celebrate athletes that have completed 100 lifetime half marathon (or more), and to encourage and help others reach this goal.”
 
Haven’t yet finished 100 races of this distance? No worries. The club welcomes all persons worldwide who have completed at least 10 half marathons. Better yet, the Club doesn’t mind if you ran or walked them, where you competed, or how long it took you to cross the finish line.
 
The ground rules of membership may explain part of the popularity of the Williams Route 66 race in Tulsa OK amongst its voting members.  Checking out the very informative website shows that marathon (and potentially and half marathon?)  participants have 7.5 hours to finish and have their time recorded. There’s a caution that if moving at a pace slower than 15 minutes/mile participants could be asked by safety officers to use the sidewalk, as roads which the course uses will re-open after 6.5 hours.
 
Also interesting are awards called “Clydesdale” and “Athena”. These “weight class awards will be based on age-graded times following USAT guidelines” says the very complete race brochure. If you’d like to learn more about this award class there’s an article in RunnersWorld.com, “Why Do Athena/Clydesdale Categories Exist” by Susan Paul.
 
This race weekend seems perfect for nearly everyone wishing to compete in a longer distance race. Not considering the entertainment, support, and atmosphere, etc, the races themselves welcome runners and walkers of varying capabilities and go to an extreme to reward top efforts. In addition, this race occurs at the last part of the running year, just before Thanksgiving. There’s plenty of time to train in cool-ish, non-snowy weather.
 
Possibly Tulsa OK earned the Number 3 spot in ACTIVE’s Most Popular Cities Per Capita for Extremely Active Millennials in 2016, because of hosting this weekend of racing. There was a Facebook and BLOG post on this topic January 31, 2017.
 
This award-winning event seems to be worth a closer look and strong consideration if you’re in the market for a well-organized half marathon later this year.
 
RUN HAPPY!
 
http://route66marathon.com/races/half-marathon/
 
http://www.runningusa.org/route-66-recognition
 
http://100halfmarathonsclub.com
 
http://www.runnersworld.com/for-beginners-only/why-do-athenaclydesdale-categories-exist
 
http://www.endurancesportswire.com/2016s-ten-most-popular-us-cities-for-extremely-active-millennials/​