Center of the Universe Detour

Presented by

The Center of the Universe Detour will be back again in 2011. This free and optional detour to Tulsa’s special place…The Center of the Universe will add .3 miles to your run and is only for participants in the marathon. You do not have to pre-register for the detour. You just decide when you get there. Participants who take the detour will receive a very nice color inlaid medallion when they get to the Center of the Universe. 30% of last year’s marathon participants took the detour in 2010.

The Center of the Universe detour offered runners a unique opportunity to run an extra 0.3 mile to visit Tulsa’s historic Center of the Universe. The distinctive quality of the landmark is an eerie echo that is heard by someone standing in the center of the circle. Participants who stand at the center of the brick circle and talk will hear themselves echo, but others outside the circle can hear no such echo.

Karen Nienhaus, a runner on the Michelob Ultra team from St. Louis, wasn’t originally going to take the detour. Her coach then talked her into it.

“He told me ‘we live life to the ultra – why not take the detour?’” she Nienhaus said. “So I took it and it was really cool. The music was nice, the people were nice, and the coin was really cool.”

Rebecca Hicks from Del City, Okla., also enjoyed the detour. “I felt it towards the end, but it made me realize I could run farther than I thought I could,” she said.

Bands from Riverfield Country Day School and Undercroft Montessori School played at the Center of the Universe. Spectators applauded and shouted encouragement to the runners who voluntarily took the 0.3 mile detour. More than a third of the marathon participants took the detour in 2010 and about half are expected to take the detour in 2011.