NORMAN, Okla. –<\/p>\n
Members of the University of Oklahoma Naval ROTC are hitting the road Wednesday morning for a nearly 200-mile journey to Dallas, carrying the game ball ahead of Saturday\u2019s Red River Rivalry.<\/p>\n
The 29th annual Run to Dallas began at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where midshipmen gathered before starting the three-day trek.<\/p>\n
The runners will travel in shifts, with groups of about four taking turns carrying the ball before handing it off to the next group.<\/p>\n
\n Midshipmen prepare for nearly 200-mile run<\/p>\n
The journey requires runners to manage their pace and recovery over the three-day trip carefully.<\/p>\n
Midshipman William Turner, one of the midshipmen participating in the run, said the group has four running shifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll run out of the stadium, run out of Norman altogether, and then we\u2019re gonna have to start taking turns because we can\u2019t all run at the same time,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of miles. So about a group of like four of us will run the ball, and then when we get tired after a couple of miles, we\u2019ll switch off with the next group.\u201d<\/p>\n
The midshipmen said preparing for the run means putting in miles during early morning workouts while also focusing on recovery and nutrition.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust putting in the work, running more than what you think you can go and just at a nice, easy pace where you\u2019re not injuring yourself,\u201d Midshipman Nicholas Oetinger said. \u201cI think it\u2019s also just good to recover and eat the right foods. I think that\u2019s just what we\u2019ve all been putting our effort towards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Run to Dallas is about teamwork and camaraderie<\/p>\n
For the midshipmen, the tradition is about more than carrying a football from Norman to Dallas.<\/p>\n
Turner said the run gives the group an opportunity to build camaraderie with fellow midshipmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun, and it\u2019s really great to kind of hang out with all our midshipmen and run together,\u201d Turner said. \u201cI mean, once you\u2019re running out there, you\u2019re kind of just on the road. You\u2019re just kind of talking to your buddies next to you, and it\u2019s so much fun. It\u2019s a lot of camaraderie we get. I just love the teamwork aspect of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The run also connects OU\u2019s ROTC program with its counterpart at the University of Texas, which holds a similar tradition ahead of the rivalry game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my favorite thing about this run is just honestly running alongside fellow mission men who you\u2019ll see in the fleet later on,\u201d Oetinger said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just also really nice to see the University of Texas come out and do the same thing as us. We all meet up and compete in some games later on. So I think it\u2019s fun to see them there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n OU ROTC carries game ball to Dallas<\/p>\n
The Run to Dallas has become an annual tradition surrounding the Red River Rivalry, celebrating service, teamwork and sportsmanship.<\/p>\n
The ceremony began at 8 a.m. Wednesday with a pre-run talk featuring OU head coach Brent Venables. The midshipmen were scheduled to begin their run around 8:15 a.m.<\/p>\n
The group will continue rotating runners throughout the three-day journey as they make their way from Norman to Dallas.<\/p>\n
The Sooners and Longhorns are scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORMAN, Okla. – Members of the University of Oklahoma Naval ROTC are hitting the road Wednesday morning for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-459105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}