What is Stormy Talking about Now?: Still on the catch-up game. (a proud Post Oak Tradition)

So a few weeks ago was the Post Oak Challenge. This is one of my special races every year. On Saturday they host a 10k, 25k, and 50k and Sunday has a quarter, half, or full marathon on tap. Now crazy runners have the option to do both (the doublers) and more than a few do. The race is in a beautiful part of Tulsa and the course in difficult, which I think is a great thing. This race began in 2010 as a very different style race with a quarter, half, and full marathon on Saturday taking place on the road, and all of the other events taking place on the trail on Sunday. Over the years the race has changed and grown, and all the directors have put their hearts and souls into the race making it the two-day trail party it is today.

I ran the very first Post Oak 50k in February of 2010 as my very first ultra. I had only began running in October of 2009, so this was a pretty big deal for me and 2010 would end up being one of the most important years of my life. However, we will save the recap of 2010 for the next blog post. Let’s focus on Post Oak. After running it I decided that I wanted to give back to this race, so in 2011 I teamed up with TZ to help run one of the aid stations at the base of the biggest climb of the race, Holm’s peak. It was awesome. And I don’t just mean that our aid station was awesome, in fact that year it was pretty basic just us and some music. But the runners were the best, they were as excited to see us out there as we were to see them. So I decided that we needed to bring this up a notch. I vowed from that day on that every year I would return to Post Oak to have the best aid station I could and do my part to make it a party for the runners.

Me Pre-Beard with My Mother at the end of 2010 Post Oak

Me at 2011 Post Oak working the aid station explaining running to Mitch

In 2012 TZ and Ed made the mistake of inviting me to be part of their aid station team, and I unloaded my scheme. So rather than having a normal aid station with all the supplies and what not that the race provided (which was all great stuff) we made breakfast burritos, had beer, and just for good measure decided that the station would have a disco theme. Why disco? Because my awesome friend Ame made me this sweet ass Disco Stu jacket for Christmas and I needed more reasons to wear it. So we went into this not really knowing how the people would react, and of course because they are runners and runners are awesome they went nuts. It was a big hit. And, thanks to Susan Westmoreland and Brynna who cooked all the food and what not; Ed, TZ, and I were able to just run around like idiots the whole time. But of course there was a downside. What could we do to top this and make it even bigger next year. I didn’t want this to be a one and done type of deal, I had made that stupid promise to myself that we would keep this thing going to make it the place to be, so we needed a plan for the next year.

Team Disco

Disco Stu does not advertise?

Mitch said this burrito was better than my pep talk last year

So in 2013 Ed and I hit the aid station again with a sketchy plan of two different themes for the two days. On Saturday we elected for 80’s glam rock, and Sunday would be the Mexican Fiesta. We had a blast with this, finding that there is a surprising amount of 80’s memorabilia at the local party supply store. So manned with plastic inflatable guitars we attached Saturday’s aid station with more music and crazier food. Now people knew we were coming so I was happy to find that we did not disappoint. The other benefit to us running an aid station (the first being that we are crazy) is that almost everyone that we had at our aid station was an accomplish ultra runner. So not only did we bring the party to help lift spirits, but we also had our own aid station supplies to help get people through low spots and knew when to push on people to eat more, or whatever else it took to get them through the race. We would all laugh hysterically when someone said they wanted to drop, because we knew that they came to the wrong aid station to do that. It is always a little rough being a runner at a race you are not getting to take part in, but if you have not spent time working an aid station at a race you need to get on it. It is one of the best ways to spend a weekend, and you quickly find those volunteers are working much harder than the runners. (No offence to runners). Sunday we had a Mexican Fiesta on tap, with the now infamous salsa challenge. See on Sunday they placed us at the bottom of the “Hill from Hell” it is a 0.7 mile climb straight up to the finish line. So we decided that was too easy and encouraged people to take a shot of salsa before running up the hill. And thanks to Danielle as a reward they got tiny plastic sombreros to wear up the hill. It is amazing what people will do for tiny hats, and we quickly ran out. Totally underestimating the number of people that would do this stupid challenge.

Rocking with Ed

Just what runners need

So classy

Notice the Sombrero

Ok, by 2014 this had become a thing. So we really had to step up the game, luckily we had some new recruits for the craziness. Adding to the normal gang of Ed, Brynna, Wes, and I we had Philip and Sarah. Plus, a gang of other friends and people that wanted in on this action. So to keep with the Saturday theme we went for 90’s grunge rock. In those days the aid station was at the Pole Barn (the starting line for the race back in 2010) which was really nice, because it has electrical power. We needed that power by this point as we had several radios and even more griddles going to keep the music and food hot. During the race that day Shannon was with me at the aid station when a guy who had been way out front came in after just having twisted his ankle. He really felt like he was going to have to hang it up and drop out of the race. Luckily Shannon and I were able to talk him into letting us wrap his ankle up and told him to promise us that he would at least try and finish the race. Having been so far in the front of the race he had plenty of time. He hoped off and I really didn’t think much of it after that, just continued my craziness for the next group of runners. A few months after the race I received a letter in the mail from the US Airforce Base in OKC, which seemed strange. I opened it to find a letter from Captain David Temple who was the runner we helped. He thanked me for my assistance and included a challenge coin from his unit that he carried into Afghanistan during his tour. I have to say this was one of the most touching things I have ever seen, Captain Temple could have never sent that letter and I would have still been happy to help him and never really given it another thought, but he did take the time to send the letter and it is one of the few items that I have framed and hanging in my office. And every time someone comes in and looks at it I get to think of that day and tell that story, it is amazing what happens when you are grateful and take the step to let someone know. I am grateful for that letter and love sharing that story.

For Sunday we had to pull an all-nighter. We kind of forgot to make a plan for Sunday and did not want to do more 90’s rock. There was a lot going on with our friend Wes at the time so we had a little excuse for being distracted. However, thanks to the Wal-Mart in Sand Springs and a lot of felt we came up with a plan. And as the sun rose over the course on that day the Monty Python’s Holy Grail aid station was born. Complete with coconuts for horse noises for the runners (a suitable alternative to cowbell if you ask me). It was a blast and by the end of the day we had the surprise of Wes joining us out at the aid station. So we had a lot to cheer about. Also, we may or may not have convinced a running legend (I mean a for real running legend) to do a keg stand from a keg we stole from another aid station. But there is no way to confirm this, other than the photos. To this day I am not sure why Johnny has not kick us out of his race, but I am sure glad he hasn’t.

Pip and Sarah (she is the evil bunny)

Me knighting Eddy James

We really class up any race

For 2015 we did a mashup with the LMFAO v. Michael Jackson aid stations. This quickly just devolved into a be as crazy as possible aid station. That year someone made the mistake of not only allowing us to bring a much more powerful sound system, but allowing me to have a microphone. So you can imagine how that went. But our crew keeps growing and if anyone questions the dedication of this aid station group just take a look at Sarah’s fingers by the end of the day. She will have worn all the skin off her hands from shaking the cow bell of every person coming through. I mean come on people you have to love this group.

We somehow got on the website (pretty sure it was hackers)

The man, the myth, the legend

This year we decided to do an Oktoberfest theme, complete with costumes, polka music, brats, potato pancakes, and homemade pretzels. Not so German but totally awesome were the electrolyte cookies Pip and Sarah made and the just badass cookies that Danielle made. To add to that Johnny (the race director) brought us a for-real professional sound system, and the brew master Frank made us two kegs of beer. You heard that right friends, he brewed us beer just for our ridiculous aid station. And as awesome as this all was, we had some real competition from the other TATUR aid station down the hill where TZ had set up a Cantina (or as most would call it just a full bar). All in all, a great couple of days, and just the best people all around. The runners, the other volunteers, the race directors, and the spectators. If you have not taken part in this race in the past do yourself a favor and put it on your calendar right now. I will promise you, if you come out and run it we will offer you a beer. What more do you need? Now Go Run Tulsa.