My First Twin Cities Marathon - October 7, 2007

I did it!  Many of you have inquired about my marathon escapades so I thought I would fill you in on my day with a long, drawn out summary (after all it was 26.2 miles)  It went amazingly well considering the challenges I had this summer with injury setbacks - primarily my knees. In August I gave up trying to gradually increase my distance runs and simply ran 4-5 miles every other day. This seemed to help my knees but I haven't run more than 5 miles since July and even then my longest run was only 10 miles.  Hardly the type of preparation needed to run a marathon.  On Sunday, I figured I could go 10 but wasn't sure what to expect after that. I filled my body with Aleve over the weekend and hoped for the best.

The weather was less than ideal. All week they were forecasting rain and thunderstorms with temps in the 60-70 range. I had been hoping for a crisp, cool morning in the 40-50 degree range, but it looked like it would be wet and moderate on Sunday. However, when I woke up the morning, the temp was already 72 and clear with no clouds in site. This was great for the first 5 miles or so, but by 9am, the sun began to warm things up and each water station (about every 2 miles) became very critical to stay hydrated and cool.

Despite the rising temps, I reached the 10 mile mark feeling great. I had no pain in my knees or anywhere else for that matter, but I was also heading into unchartered waters for me but had my fingers crossed. Gail, Emily and Andrew did an outstanding job navigating the course and provided me lots of encouragement along the way. They made about 14 different stops along the course, and if you haven't attended the TC marathon before you don't realize how tough that can be. There were approximately 300,000 spectators lining the course from start to finish. The encouragement of the spectators as well as many side shows along the way made the run very fun and interesting.

Once I passed the 15 mile mark, I knew I was over half way and felt for the first time that I could finish this thing. I had been averaging just under 10 minutes per mile. Then we passed Minnehaha Park and began following the Mississippi River north to the Franklin Avenue Bridge. During this stretch, the temp climbed into the low 80's with high humidity and direct sunlight that was unavoidable as the leaves were starting to fall from the trees. I began to feel my thighs and hamstrings object. Mile 17 was my last sub 10 minute mile.

We crossed the Franklin Bridge (20 mile mark) and headed into St Paul! I heard Sunday evening that marathon officials came very close to stopping the race around this time because of the dangerous temp, sun and humidity. Fortunately the clouds rolled in as we crossed the bridge which kept temps from continuing to climb. Apparently we were just a degree or two away from race officials forcing runners off the course, but at this point I saw many runners on the ground receiving medical attention. The clouds didn't help my thighs and hamstrings though, and my mile splits began to climb into the 11-12 minute range. I now can attest to what marathon runners say about "hitting the wall" at mile 20. You feel close to the end yet every mile seems like 5.

The only thing left was the long steady climb up Summit Avenue. All I can say is it was long and steady climb. I got a last wind on mile 23 and ran a 10:35 mile, but miles 24-26 were well into the 12 minute range. As we came over the final crest I could see the State Capitol about a half mile away and decided it was time to use whatever I had left, which wasn't much. With the warm temps, I was really surprised I didn't suffer any cramping along the way and with less than a half mile to go, I didn't care anymore.

I crossed the finish line at 4 hours 36 minutes - good for 3,021 place out of a field of 10,500 runners. With the tough running conditions, only 7,215 were actually able to finish the race - a very low percentage for TCM standards. I also finished 173rd in my age class of 50-55.

The day after I was a little stiff and sore today - okay, very stiff and sore! I took a vacation day today and am glad I did!

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=6487&relist_record_type=result&lower_bound=0&upper_bound=7154&use_previous_sql=1&group_by=default#racetop