Twin Cities Marathon 2017

October 1st, 2017
4:09:35

If you would have asked me in August if I was going to run this race, I would tell you I was done with marathons for the year because of my knee.  A successful Ragnar was the spark I needed, though, and reevaluating my goals for the run was necessary.  There was no way I was going to break 3:30… shoot, breaking 4 wasn’t even on my radar.  It’s been a while since going into a marathon with no REAL goal.  It was kind of refreshing at the marathon expo, looking at the pace bands and thinking ‘who cares?’.

I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain and immediately questioned if I actually wanted to run a marathon that day.  Of course, my answer ended up being yes… so I rolled out of bed and ate some egss and toast and headed to the U of M to meet up with some awesome women from North Metro Women Run the Cities.  It was quite slick to be able to use a real bathroom before the race.  We headed out around 7:10 to hop on the light rail and arrived at the start line to more rain.  I found a few running club friends and wished them well as I went to find shelter from the rain.

I met up with Gene, who was running his first marathon, and I was so happy to have him to start with.  He was a great running buddy, and was nice to run a good pace the first half with him.  We took off a little fast (that always happens..) and I loved seeing so many people at the start line.  It was a little muggy, but thankfully it was cooler than the previous weekend.  I saw Joel around mile 5 and dropped my gloves and arm warmers off with him.  We saw Guy and Holly and her family cheering as we headed towards Harriet. Bruce and Tanya were volunteering as we headed towards Nokomis so I waved at them.  We took a potty break around mile 10ish and saw Greg on his bike.  My running club is so awesome with the way they give back!!

We saw Joel again by Lake Nokomis, around mile 12.  We stopped and ate some snacks and got cruising again.  Around the halfway mark, Gene saw his family and then I told him to leave me in the dust, I was ready to slow down and enjoy the day.  I was not trained to break 4.  I slowed down a bit and soaked in the crowd.  Brooks was doing this awesome deal that if you ran mile 21 to 22 faster than your average overall pace, you would get a free pair of Brooks Running Shoes, so I decided to cut back quite a bit to  ensure that those shoes would be mine!

My mom, Tucker and Cassie got stuck in traffic, so they headed down to the finish line; I called them a little after the halfway mark when I didn’t see them.  I saw Joel at Mile 17.5ish and stopped to say hello and chat, catch my breath and eat some snacks.  I didn’t mind standing around, because my average pace was getting slower so it would be that much easier to get those shoes at mile 21!

Nate was waiting at mile 18.5, so I  gave him a huge hug and met his wife.  Said hello for a couple seconds and told him how excited I was about getting those shoes.  I headed on toward the Medtronic waterstop over the Franklin bridge.  I walked through the stop – boy were those volunteers the best.  I felt so encouraged at that stop!

I was pleasantly surprised at mile 20 to hear my name being called – it was Maria!! I gave her a big hug and said hello and made sure to kill a couple more seconds since I would be sprinting up a hill soon after.  I went on, and mile 21 finally came up.  I hit the timing mat and took off. I passed so many people, weaving in and out, determined to get those shoes.  The unfortunate thing was the water stop was right before mile 22… so I had to weigh the decision on whether to stop or to get through the next timing mat.  The idea of winning shoes won, and I walked after I got passed that timing mat trying to catch my breath.  Not too long after that, Harren caught up to me.  His friend ended up dropping with an injury so he was enjoying the last half of the race.  I missed seeing my friends at mile 22.5 that were going to provide me a delicious, carb loaded beverage… bummer.

Mile 24, another Ragnar teammate was there with cheers!  I got a picture with him and a t-rex and then started heading towards the finish line.  I missed seeing Leslie at around mile 25 – she also was going to provide a yummy beverage; but the idea of getting my medal and getting out of the drizzle that had started sounded very enticing.

As I approached the finish line, I heard my family screaming for me.  Boy is that the  best feeing ever!  I got my medal and hobbled over to the corporate tent and changed into my dry clothes.  That tent is the best.  I ate some fruit and drank some coffee, then went to find the family so we could go get the celebratory piece of cheesecake.

I continue to be inspired the by the running community.  Twin Cities is easily one of my favorite marathons mainly due to the community support that it gets.  The 10 miler finishers that stick around to watch, the spectators that put up with crappy traffic so they can see sweaty people running passed them, the volunteers that help keep us safe – it is all so incredible. I’m glad my knee cooperated and helped me cover 26.2 miles for the 20^th time at Twin Cities.