Twin Cities Marathon Recap

Over the weekend, we went up to Minneapolis for the Twin Cities Marathon. We left Thursday afternoon to drive up to Des Moines, and then finished up the travel on Friday. This is a great way to travel prior to a race in order to help with any fatigue or tightness that comes from being in a car for 9 hours. Friday, we stopped at an outlet mall and go figure, I would be the one to actually have the most fun while shopping. I found myself some sweet athletic pants and a running vest which I had been wanting for a while.

This trip was a blast. Kathy Carroll joined us on the trip which made the trip that much more interesting. She was in pursuit of a Boston Qualifier so that made for a lot of excitement and nervousness for race day. As we were planning the trip, Kimi received an email from the Twin Cities marathon stating that they had a block of tickets for the Twins vs Royals baseball game for Friday night. I couldn't believe it. We quickly purchased tickets to the game since the Royals are most definitely my favorite team. Plus, this was an opportunity to see them play in an opposing clubs ballpark!  I'd never been to another stadium so I was like a kid in a candy store for the entire night.

Kimi made a sign! Unfortunately, we sat a little too high I think! Second Row from the top!!

Saturday was meant to be a more relaxing day. We went to Kimi's professional athlete technical meeting for about an hour so she could get all of her race details. Then we went to the marathon expo to get my packet.  We finished off the day with a nice dinner at Olive Garden so we would be well nourished on race morning.  After that, we went back to the hotel to just chill for a few hours prior to bed.


Beep! Beep! Beep! Race morning!!!  4:30 came around all too quick. I didn't hesitate to jump out of bed however. Kimi had to be on the bus outside the hotel @ 5:00 to get transported over to the start of her race. She was running the USATF 10 mile Road Championships so we were in two completely different races.

I had to go pick up Kathy from her hotel about 4 miles away and bring her back to ours to catch the bus to our race. Fortunately, everything went off without any trouble. Kathy and I boarded the bus at about 6:30 or so and were at the starting area just about 7:00. We got our final restroom breaks completed, shoes changed, and gear checked. The rest was all about covering 26.2 miles in as quick a time as our little legs would let us do.

The weather was perfect this morning which gave me all the more confidence that I was going to have a great race. The starters counted down and off we went!  I was a little lost for the first mile in regards to pace as my Garmin was having difficulty getting strong signal. Fortunately, I can feel pace pretty well. I came through the first mile in about 6:00 and things were already starting to thin out some at the front. I found myself around mile 2 next to one other guy. I decided to ask him what his goal was and he said he was shooting for a 2:35. I knew this was a few minutes faster than my goal but I was hopeful that he would be able to help pull me through. For the majority of the race, I just kept rolling along with my new found running partner. I had a few thoughts that I might be running too fast early in the race, but it just felt so incredibly easy that I just went with it. We came through the half in 1:16:52 and I felt great. Over the next 7 miles however, I could slowly start to feel some fatigue setting in. It didn't stop me from rolling though. I came through 20 feeling pretty good still and was mentally preparing for the final 4 miles of the race since I knew they were the up hill miles of the race.

I made it to 22 and was still rolling 6:20's and was pleased with that because I had plenty of cushion built in.  That's when the wheels fell off. I just couldn't quite keep it going. I had to walk a bit, stretch some, and then force myself to get going again. It was mentally brutal as I watched the clock tick up and saw my sub 6 min marathon avg slip out of reach. Then I had to set my sights on keeping my time under 2:40. This was no small task as the muscles in my legs were starting to tighten significantly at this point. I put my head down, and started pushing forward. It was interesting that each time I stopped to gather myself, and then started running again, the crowd would open up with an encouraging roar of cheers for me. This helped keep me going.

I finally reached the finish line with mixed emotions. Some joy and some disappointment. I was happy to see that Kimi was able to get to me pretty quickly after the finish. She helped me walk along through the finish line festivities to get my gear and get dressed.

Then we walked up to the 26 mile mark to hang out and wait for Kathy to come rolling down the hill to the finish. When she came rolling by, you could see all the joy on her face as she was running the best marathon she's ever done! Kathy had a huge personal best today and qualified for the Boston Marathon by almost 25 minutes!!!  I was very impressed and happy for her as she crushed her goal.

On the way home, I had plenty of time to think about what had transpired during the race. It didn't take me long to set my mind towards going for my goal again next year. In fact, I've already signed up for the 40th anniversary of the Grandma's Marathon.  Perhaps the 4th time is the charm!