the oklahoma city national memorial museum: why your bib is also a ticket

By PaceKit Team · Updated April 2026

Every OKC Memorial Marathon participant receives free admission to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum with their race bib. The museum sits at the starting line, next to the 9:03 Gate. You run past it in the dark on Sunday morning. You should go back after you've recovered.

The Memorial & Museum tells the story of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building: what happened, who was killed, who survived, and how the city responded. The outdoor memorial includes the Field of Empty Chairs (168 bronze and stone chairs, one for each victim, arranged in rows corresponding to the floor of the building where each person was located), the Reflecting Pool, the Survivor Tree (an American elm that survived the blast and has become a symbol of resilience), and the Gates of Time (marking 9:01 and 9:03, the minutes before and after the bomb).

Runners who visit the museum after the race describe it as essential to understanding what the marathon means. One reviewer wrote: "Do yourself a favor: Visit the memorial museum after the race. Don't skip it. Be present in that day and the days that followed." Another noted that the museum experience retroactively deepened the meaning of the race they'd just run, because they now understood the names on the banners they'd passed for 26.2 miles.

The marathon is a fundraiser for the museum. When you register, you're not just paying a race fee. You're supporting the preservation of a story that matters to the country. When you run past the banners, you're carrying that story through the neighborhoods of Oklahoma City. And when you visit the museum afterward, you close the loop between the race and the reason it exists.