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I love my Saturday group runs.  It is the one day each week that I run without my iPod.  Visiting with the other members in the group always makes the time fly by.  But it didn’t work out this week, as my group was running 12 miles and I had 20 miles planned.  This happens when my marathon is 3 weeks earlier than the date everyone else is training for.

In late April, I am going to be going on a bike ride on the Osage Prairie Trail with some co-workers.  It dawned on me this week that this would be a great route to take on my Saturday long run.  It is built on the path of an old railroad, so it is relatively flat and it would also be something new.  Two attributes that excite me.

I arrived shortly after 7:00 am at the OSU-Tulsa campus.  The trailhead is hidden away in the northeast corner of the parking lot.  I had never seen it before, but I had a pretty good idea of where it was.

Trailhead with the Tulsa skyline.

The weather was not what you would consider “ideal” for a 20 mile run.  The temperature sat around 35 degrees with a strong wind from the North.  I wore my running pants, long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker.  I warm up fast, and this turned out to be a great selection for me.

My plan was to run 10 miles North on the trail, then run this same trail back.  It was pretty uneventful.  2 of the 3 available water fountains worked.  I saw a white-tailed deer running through a field.  I also saw some wild dogs roaming around, but none of them bothered me.

I ran the first half straight through, except for stopping for a few drinks.  On the way back, I stopped to take pictures with my phone whenever something interested me.  I am not a big fan of stopping & starting, so this actually added to the degree of difficulty for me.

I thought these mile markers were great. An image of a locomotive. I turned around here at Mile 10.

Between miles 9 and 10 is the town of Sperry.  I have never been to Sperry in my life.  It was a quiet little town.  As the trail crossed Main Street and I ran through their small downtown area, I wondered how many runners had done this before me?  Probably not many.

An old drugstore on Main Street, with the Sperry water tower in the background.

As I was running the first 10 miles, I made mental notes of interesting things with the intention of stopping to take pictures on the way back.  One of those things was an oversized nest built on a power line tower.  I suspect that this was an eagle’s nest.  We have eagles in northeast Oklahoma and I have no idea what other bird could make a nest this large.

Large nest on the tower’s middle support – right side.

The trail did not pass too many cow pastures, but there were a couple.  This particular cow pasture intrigued me because the cows were sharing it with a boat.  On the other side of the trail was a pasture that had 3 boats!  As it turns out, Sperry is only a few miles from Skiatook Lake, which explains the pasture boat storage.

Surf and Turf - Oklahoma Style!

Not to be outdone, another mile down the trail, somebody was keeping several horses and goats in their backyard.  My daughter, Mallory, would want to move here in a heartbeat.

Note the goats hamming it up in the background.

At this point, I was really enjoying myself.  It is very unlike me to stop a dozen times during a run to take pictures, but this was fun.  The constant change of scenery and never knowing what was around the next bend really gave some punch to my run.

One thing that North Tulsa seems to have a monopoly on is salvage yards.  I passed two of them, located right next to the trail.

Sanford & Son's. (Not really, but it's the only salvage yard name I know.)

At several points on the trail, I noticed hoof prints in the soft gravel to the side of the trail.  I never saw anybody riding their horses this morning, but I wish I had.  Maybe we could have raced?

Hoofprints.

On the first half of the run, I noticed a teddy bear lying in the middle of the trail.  It struck me as sad for some reason.  On the way back, it was still there, of course.  I stopped to take this picture.

There is a story for how this bear got here, and I'm sure it's not a happy one.

There were several bridges that the trail crossed on my route.  This was the longest one.

A bridge with some very interesting shadows.

Several miles from downtown.  Yes, I’m getting close!  Seeing the skyline provided me encouragement to keep trucking.

Running for the Skyline.

Less than a mile to go.  The trail actually detours off the railroad track bed.  The picture below illustrates this pretty well.

Leaving the Tracks.

The last 3 miles were difficult.  I had not run more than 16 miles in the past 3 months.  For me, the knowledge that my marathon is in 5 weeks is all the motivation I needed to keep going.   To make my life more interesting, I had to run the last 1/4 mile around the parking lot so I could get my full 20 miles.

The trail was very well maintained.  But for such a beautiful trail, it was not heavily used.  I saw exactly 4 other people during my run, and I think that I actually saw one guy twice as he walked to the Indian smoke shop and back.  Another of the 4 was just sitting on a fence next to the trail.  I saw way more stray dogs, horses, goats, cows and boats than I did people.  I would guess that most people are not even aware this trail is here.  I did not know of it until a friend had mentioned it to me earlier this year.

I completed my run in 3 hours, 23 minutes, for a 10:08 pace.  My goal was a 10:10 pace, so I was right on target.  I passed the time by listening to podcasts from Stuff You Missed In History Class, Stuff You Should Know, and This Week In Tech.

Two weeks from now, I am scheduled to run 22 miles.  I think I might be back on the  Osage Prairie Trail.

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