TIMELINE: March 14, Stillwater Wildfire through the eyes of a 50K runner and a volunteer who saved her home with aid station water

March 14, 2025, was supposed to be the beginning of a weekend of celebration and achievement for thousands of runners and cyclists in Stillwater, but as the day unfolded, a wildfire forced the cancellation of the Mid-South races and a rush to get the remaining runners off the course.

>>> Stillwater shares new data on wildfire destruction and recovery efforts

Here is a timeline of events from a 50K participant who was forced off the course because of the fires and a volunteer who used the aid station water to save her barn and home from burning.

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7:56 A.M.

Just before runners took off racing the half and ultra marathon in Stillwater, Oklahoma, there was dancing at the starting line. The King Cabbage Brass Band played and race director Bobby Wintle gave a speech to inspire. Clayton Payne was one of the racers, although he felt a bit out of place with a construction backpack on looking around at the other athletes who had trained for months for this day. He signed up for the 50K on a whim the week before.

“They never said you had a time limit, they just said if you can do it you can do it,” said Payne.

>>> Community remains strong as residents face damage from Stillwater wildfires

8:00 A.M.

Payne and a friend took off with the crowd, running for the first few blocks through Main Street, but as the crowd thinned, and the course gave way to the rural roads ahead, Payne did as he planned, and slowed to a walk.

9:30 A.M.

“The only thing that happened is it started to get windy,” said Payne.

Not even two hours into the race, dirt from the gravel roads blew in the air and the wind rattled the dry tall grass. The fastest half-marathoners were already done, but others were just turning around, glad to have the wind at their backs. Payne and his friend had hours to go. They knew they wouldn’t finish until dark.

>>> Wildfires ravage Stillwater, leaving homes destroyed and residents in shock

12:30 P.M.

At the aid station at mile 20.8 near Bovine Pass, Tammy Nixon was volunteering. She lives nearby and captured just how windy it was as gravel and leaves pounded the runners as they passed. Around this time, Clayton Payne was around mile 17. His legs started to bleed from the sand and gravel pelting them.

2:27 P.M.

Two hours later, Clayton took a picture of a cross at Marena Cemetery. He felt like God was walking with him and wasn’t worried.

2:40 P.M.

Just 10 minutes after he saw the cross, Payne captured a giant plume of smoke behind him and realized the path he was walking was burning in his wake. A driver in a jeep was behind him and his friend, making sure they were ok. Minutes later, they saw a field on fire and realized no one was at the aid station at mile 20.8.

2:42PM

“I turned back around and looked at that cross, looked at the burning field, I looked at the fire 30 yards from us, I looked at the guy in the jeep behind us I said this is as far as we’re supposed to go," said Payne. "So we’re not quitting, but this is as far as we’re supposed to go.”

Payne and his friend got in the jeep.

“I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, got in the car, then we got a little bit scared.”

But they got out safely as smoke began to blanket the town and the wildfire, now known as the Cottonwood fire, began to burn down homes.

3:30PM

For more than an hour the aid station at mile 20.8 had been abandoned and Tammy Nixon and her family were now worried about their nearby home burning because a fire had started at 44th and Cottonwood in Payne County. They stayed to fight the flames, and her husband drove around on a four-wheeler to check out what was burning and try to keep the fire from getting closer to their barn and home.

Nixon said the Coyle Fire Department ran out of water.

“Our electric went off and we’re on well water so we had no water,” she said.

As her husband was driving around, their barn caught fire. That’s when he thought of the water and electrolytes at the aid station. There were gallons of it and they used it to put out the fire in their barn, saving their house as well because it is only 50 yards away.

“It was very emotional,” said Nixon. “I was just emotional thinking that we had that water here.”

HOW TO HELP: Resources, How you can help Oklahomans affected by wildfires

8:22 P.M.

Nixon and her family stayed at home, continued to fight the fire with the aid station's water late into the night. Several of their neighbors just down the street on 44th lost their homes.

“I was grateful I stayed here and fought because I would have been without a home and everything,” said Nixon.

More than 220 homes were damaged by the fires in Payne County, and 180 of them burned down.