In an effort to prepare for the upcoming Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, Team OC is asking the community to pick a running distance for the inaugural Choose Your K event.
Choose Your K starts Saturday at 7 a.m. along the Eagle Trail. Participants are given the choice of 6 options to run: 5 km, 10 km, 15 km, 20 km, 25 km, and 30 km.
Each year Team OC creates a group of students, alumni and friends of the university to run the Memorial Marathon at the end of April. This is the 10 year the university has sponsored a group.
Director of Wellness Darci Thompson created the event with the help of Dean of Students Neil Arter, after realizing the trail was where most participants would train for the marathon.
“We already make such a big impact in the marathon every year,” Thompson said. “Neil Arter and I realized that a lot of people want to have some kind of event to test their ability and test how far they can go, and we have a 3 mile course so it kind of made sense.”
Typically, Team OC brings in about 500 participant to the marathon.
Thompson said she has personally run two marathons in the past.
“Long runs are just hard and take up a lot of time, so most people try to get those long runs in on the weekend,” Thompson said. “Most people who are training will get up to 22 or 21 miles prior to running the half marathon to make sure there bodies are ready to do it.”
President John deSteiguer will be running the 20 km, about a half marathon distance. Thompson said Team OC will be giving out wristbands to give people who support the president doing the half marathon.
Junior Amanda Cooper and sophomore Kaila Anderson plan on participating in the run.
“My first experience with the marathon was doing the marathon relay with my soccer team… so I decided that I want to challenge myself more and so that is why I decided to do the marathon this year,” Cooper said.
Cooper said her goal this year while running the marathon with Team OC is to finish it without stopping.
“I don’t have any goal that is time related, I try to get a run in every day and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” Cooper said.
Anderson said she has never participated in a marathon before, but has had family do it in the past.
“My mom ran the marathon last year, slowly, but she did run the whole thing,” Anderson said. “I am just doing the half, which is 13.1 miles, and a full is 26.2. I am excited, I think it will be awesome to accomplish running that much at one time.”
Cooper and Anderson said they both look forward to accomplishing their individual goals in the upcoming marathon.
Online sign-ups for Choose Your K are here and end Thursday. Participants can still register in the Student Life office on Friday from 12-6 p.m. Registration for Team OC and the Oklahoma City Marathon are still available here.
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