Meet the coach who literally runs the state
Edmond North's Strahorn completes his border-to-border Oklahoma run
Edmond North cross count ry coach J ames Strahorn finished his border-to-border run across Oklahoma late Thursday.
Strahorn, an ultrarunner, ran 75 miles Thursday from Pauls Valley to the Texas border on SH-77 to complete his four-day run. He began his road journey at 6 a.m. Monday at the Kansas border north of Blackwell on SH-177.
Over the next four days, he logged 265 miles and lived primarily on high-carb snacks such as honey buns and nuts from gas stations. He is the first person to run across Oklahoma from Kansas to Texas and his time will be established as a record by Fastest Known Times, a website which keeps running records for routes across the world.
Strahorn said his run will be considered as a second “Trans Oklahoma” record, joining Tulsa ultra runner Justin Walker who ran across Oklahoma two years ago but from west to east. Walker ran 511 miles in eight days from the New Mexico border in the Oklahoma Panhandle to the Arkansas border at West Siloam Springs.
St ra horn ,27, said he reached the Texas border at 9:47 p.m. on Thursday, completing the longest leg of his four-day run.
“I had almost a 17- hour day,” Strahorn said.
Strahorn said he received a lot of encouragement on the
road Thursday after The Oklahoman published an article on his endeavor.
“That gave me a boost,” he said. “I was getting a lot of texts. I hit Davis at 9 a.m. From Davis on, I had someone in every town I went through who spotted me that either had a poster that said ` Go James' or they just kind of rolled down t he window and honked or j ust clapped their hands for me.”
A former Falls Creek Youth Camp colleague even met him on the road in Ardmore with a Dr. Pepper and snacks after reading the story.
“Man, it was awesome,” Strahorn said of the public support. “It helped me power through it.”