Choctaw Land Run

April 19th, 2014

As I'm sure most of you have read about, or studied in school at one time or another, the Great Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 was when the United States Government opened up part of the "Indian Lands" for settlement by offering free 160 acre homesteads on a one day rush to claim and stake the land holdings out. Chaos was a good word to describe it, but by the end of the day, virtually all of the available land was staked out and claimed. There were a few that snuck into the "promised land" the day before to seek out the more desirable pieces, then at the start time the following day ......drove in their stakes, claiming their land well before anyone else could get there. These "Sooners" had established a name for themselves, and with it, established a nickname for the population of the entire area, that held up to this day. Oklahoma is still called "The Sooner State".  Many accused them of cheating, but the letter of the law was upheld, in that they did not claim their land until the start time.

So now, we have a bike ride with the "Land Run" name. Actually two .....there is the Land Run 100 up in Stillwater that is all gravel, and this one here in Choctaw that is all paved. This is the Tee for the ride......

The ride organizers said they named the ride for the fact that we travelled on the "Indian Meridian" road for a while during the ride. I had assumed that the name had to do then with dividing the "Indian Lands" to the east, and the "open settlement lands" to the west. I'd have been wrong. The Indian Meridian was an arbitrary north-south line that intersected with an east west line called the "Indian baseline" and between the two, all land measurements were drawn for the State of Oklahoma. The only reason for the "Indian" part of the name is because all of Oklahoma was called "Indian Territory" at the time land measurements were initiated. So, I guess, in that way, the Land Run could not have happened if a land survey was not done first. And so, enough history, .....here we all are at the start. There were around 150 or so riders this year, the biggest turnout they've ever had.

My good friend and riding buddy from last year, Crystal wanted to get back on the bike, and decided that this would be a good one to start on. She runs long distance marathon runs during the winter running season, but that ended for her early this year with a severely sprained ankle. This is our first organized ride of the year ..... at least the first I've attended.

It was cool enough at the start to warrant the use of light jackets, but with a promise of a good warm up later, most wore shorts. My useful little trunk bag not only carried my ride number, but also held our excess clothing when we "undressed "a little later. I'm not really sure why we needed numbers at all. Two rest stops and no food, only a little water and a few bottles of Gatorade at each of the two rest stops were hardly enough to worry about needing numbers for.

The countryside and the little farms and ranches were very picturesque.

This course was very, very hilly, plus ...... they saved them all for the last half, along with the 20mph headwinds. I took this picture for the Lil' Abner house on the hillside to the left. You could almost see "Grannie" sittin' out on the front porch with her corncob pipe in her mouth. This was near the top of one of the long, steep rollers that persisted throughout most of the ride.

Empty roads, and pretty scenery was the order of the day.

By the time we got here, we were both getting a bit tired. Crystal had put on two brand new Conti tires just before the ride, and she had two flats within the first ten miles. Both pinch flats. It's a good thing she had two tubes, because my huge touring tire tubes wouldn't have fit in her tires. To be fair. her rims make installing tires very, very difficult. I can usually install Conti folding tires on my rims without a tire lever, just using my thumbs. With hers, it's a struggle even with two tire levers. But, I used all the care I could installing them, and after we had changed both, there were no more flats. Good thing too, or I'd have had to break out my patch kit which I carry on my touring bike. My trusty Topeak Road Morph pump got a good workout this day. The time spent changing tires just gave the wind that much more time to gain strength, and it took it's cue, and did just that.

The countryside was very pretty, however, and kept us trudging up and down the rollers, and struggling into the wind. Then we got to a point where the map had us retrace our route for one mile, turn around and come back ...... three times over the same piece of road, so we wouldn't be shorted on miles. About this time, I didn't care. We finished the ride ..... not the fifty we had started out to do, but cut it short to forty-one miles. We were tired, it took longer than we anticipated, muscles getting a bit sore, and Crystal's ankle was bothering her. Ah yes ...... Crystal's ankle...... seems she fell while trail running 6 weeks ago and severely sprained her ankle. Not 100% yet, and she did this ride anyway. Never complained once. Except like me ...... I'm sure hungry!!!! I didn't take any bars or Gu along because there is usually an abundance of food on these rides. However, I talked to several riders after the ride, and they all voiced the same thought ..... "Why wasn't there any food?" So we quickly put our bikes on the carrier and headed for Braums and FOOD!!! Seems like after my weight gain this winter, I want to eat more. It was a pretty ride, and a challenging ride, and I have a little more understanding of some of the hardships that confronted the early Land Run settlers that pioneered this country.