On October 4th, I ran the
Twin Cities Marathon. This was the 17th
time I’ve run this race. It starts in
downtown Minneapolis, and the finish is in front of the state capitol in St.
Paul.
Last year, this race was
a reunion for the 50Sub4 Marathon Club.
I knew I wouldn’t have time to go home before going to our post-race
gathering, so I spent the night in a downtown St. Paul hotel, so I could shower
after the race.
Before last year, I
always parked in a lot near the capitol that had event parking on race
day. That property has had a change in
ownership, so I didn’t know if I could park there this year. With that in mind, I considered staying in a
downtown hotel again.
The hotel I stayed at
last year was in a really convenient location, but when I checked for
availability, they were sold out. There
were other downtown hotels with rooms available, but there were either too
expensive or had a two-night minimum.
I checked again on
Thursday, and a room had opened up at the downtown Doubletree. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too expensive, and I
could get a late checkout. With that in
mind, I made a last-minute reservation to stay there again this year.
The expo was at
RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul. After
checking in at my hotel, I walked over to RiverCentre to pick up my race
packet. I like the design on the race
T-shirt.
While I was at the expo,
I saw a few local runners I know. I also
stopped by the booth for the pace team, to see which pace groups would be
starting in my corral.
As usual, I went to
Cossetta’s for my pre-race dinner. This
year, the Minnesota Wild had a home game on Saturday. On game days, Cossetta’s gets really busy
before the game. The line for ordering
pasta was insanely long, but the line for pizza wasn’t too bad.
I went to bed early, but
I only slept for about four hours. Then
I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.
I eventually nodded off again, but woke up from a bad dream. After that I never got back to sleep again. I didn’t worry too much about the lack of
sleep. I had the same experience last
year, and I had a good race.
Staying downtown meant I
didn’t have to get up as early, and I didn’t need to worry about finding a
place to park. My car was already in the
ramp connected to my hotel. I just
needed to walk over to the Intercontinental, where I could catch a bus to the
start.
I could board a bus
anytime between 5:00 and 6:45. The
earlier buses are mostly for people running the 10-mile race, which starts an
hour before the marathon. I waited until
6:00 before leaving my hotel to walk over to the Intercontinental.
I got dropped off in the
start area about 90 minutes before the marathon started, so I had a long time
to sit around. The temperature was about
50 degrees, but it would warm up to 60 by the time I finished the race. To stay warm in the start area, I wore a pair
of wind pants that I was willing to discard and a Tyvek jacket that I could tie
around my waist. There was a gear check
in the start area, but I didn’t want to have to take the time to retrieve a
gear bag after the race.
The start corrals are
next to the football stadium. Outside
the stadium, there’s a mock-up of a Viking ship. I discovered two years ago that there are
benches inside the “ship.” It’s the only
place I know where you sit down and be somewhat sheltered from the wind. I sat there until it was time to get into a
bathroom line.
Before the race, I wasn’t
sure what my goal should be. I had two
goals in mind. The more ambitious goal
was 4:05, which would give me a Boston qualifier. This was my first opportunity to qualify for
2028, and this is a relatively flat course.
Qualifying today would be ideal,
but I had serious doubts about whether I was in good enough shape to run that
fast.
The more conservative
goal was to simply make progress. My
fastest recent time was 4:22:53 in August at Humpy’s Marathon in Alaska. I was
pretty confident I’m in better shape than I was in August. At a minimum, I wanted to beat that time.
They had pace groups for 4:05,
4:10, 4:15, and 4:20, but those groups were all starting in corral two. I was assigned to corral one. I could have moved back, but starting later
would mean finishing later, and I worried about having time to get back to my
hotel after the race. I chose to start in
corral one and be on my own to find the right pace.
There was a half marathon
that started 20 minutes before the marathon.
Their start corral was in front of the marathon corrals. After the half marathon started, I saw
runners in corral one moving forward into the half marathon corral. I was still in a bathroom line.
Ideally, I wanted to line
up at the back of corral one, but I was no longer sure where that was. I thought everyone from corral one had moved
into the half marathon corral, so I lined up near the back of that corral. In retrospect, I think only about half of the
runners moved forward. As a result, I lined
up farther forward than I intended.
It was tough to gauge my
pace in the first mile. People around me
were going different paces. At times, I
felt like I might be going too fast, so I eased up a bit. I didn’t know my pace until I finished the
first mile.
For my more ambitious goal
of 4:05, I needed an average pace of 9:21 per mile. I ran the first mile in 8:39, which was
obviously too fast.
In the next mile, I
wanted to slow down, but that was easier said than done. It was still somewhat crowded, so the path of
least resistance was to go at the same pace as the people around me. They were all going fast, so I was still
getting pulled along at a faster pace than I wanted.
After turning onto
Lyndale and running past the sculpture garden, we started up a small hill in
front of the Walker Art Center. Here, I
finally unhitched myself from the people around me and eased up to a pace that
wouldn’t be too tiring going up the hill.
When I finished mile two,
I saw that I had slowed somewhat, but I was still going about 20 seconds faster
than my target pace. At this point, I
had chosen 4:05 as my goal.
In mile three, everybody
was passing me. That led me to believe I
had slowed down. In fact, I sped
up. Mile three was faster than either of
the previous miles. After only three
miles, I was already almost two minutes ahead of a Boston-qualifying pace.
The next four miles were
going south past the chain of lakes. This
is my favorite part of the course. It
has nice scenery and great crowd support.
Here, I settled into a pace that was still a little fast, but not crazy
fast. My pace was also more consistent
here. For the next six miles, my pace
was between 9:01 and 9:06.
The last of those lakes
was Lake Harriet. I was coming around the
east side of the lake when I noticed an aid station on the left side of the
street. I was all the way to the
right. Crossing the street without
bumping into other runners was difficult.
I had to stop for several seconds.
Despite that, my pace in that mile was the same as the previous mile. After that, I always looked for the blue
banners at the aid stations, so I would know which side of the street I should
be on.
After leaving the lakes,
we turned onto Minnehaha Parkway. The
first two miles along the parkway are rolling.
Despite running up and down a few hills, I still kept a consistent pace.
By now, I had been passed
by two different pace groups. Both of
them had target times of 3:50. Then I
heard people in the crowd cheering for a 3:55 group. They passed me on one of the hills. After passing me, they didn’t pull away from
me as quickly as the 3:50 groups did.
As I was approaching 10
miles, I asked myself how I was feeling.
Despite my faster than expected pace, I felt OK. I didn’t feel like this pace was going to
wear me down.
When I saw my split for
mile 10, it was almost 20 seconds faster than the previous mile. It’s possible that I was influenced by the
pace group that recently passed me. For
a long time, I was staying pretty close to them. In the next mile, I eased up.
Just before the 11-mile
mark, we left the parkway to turn onto Cedar Avenue, and we began a loop around
Lake Nokomis. Lake Nokomis used to be
the race venue for the FANS 24-Hour Race, so I always feel at home there. I’ve run hundreds of miles around this lake.
The halfway point was on
the east side of Lake Nokomis. When I
got there, I was almost four minutes ahead of schedule for a 4:05 finish. That gave me room to slow down in the second
half, if necessary.
By now, my pace was
taking more effort. With only half of
the race to go, however, I was more willing to put in the extra effort. I was gaining in confidence that I really was
in good enough shape to sustain this pace.
All of the aid stations had
water and Nuun. The one just past
halfway also had pickle juice. It doesn’t
taste great, but it’s an easy way to make sure you’re getting enough salt.
After running around Lake
Nokomis, we got back onto the Minnehaha Parkway. I had room to slow down in the second half of
the race, but for now, I wanted to keep running at the same pace. There’s a tough uphill section from 20 to
23. If I was going to give time back, I
wanted to do it there.
Somewhere around 14
miles, a runner on my left recognized a friend in the crowd and turned to run
over to them. When he realized he was
going to run into me, he grabbed me to keep me from falling. The next few seconds were surreal. I never left my feet, but I felt like I was
suspended in mid-air. He apologized, and
I quickly got back into the same rhythm as before.
In mile 15, I inadvertently
sped up again. I had been keeping my
pace close to nine minutes, but suddenly I ran a mile in 8:43. The fact that I could do that without trying
was a good sign that I wasn’t close to running out of gas.
After running through
Minnehaha Park, we turned onto the West River Parkway, which follows the west
bank of the Mississippi. My goal for the
next five miles was to keep up the same average pace until the 20-mile
mark. Then I could slow down as much as
necessary on the uphill section between 20 and 23.
I was at roughly 16
miles, when I saw someone in the crowd holding up a sign with an elevation chart. It had a “you are here” arrow. At the time, I thought his chart grossly exaggerated
the uphill section later in the race. In
fact, it was pretty accurate. It looked
just like the elevation chart created by my watch.
A short time later, I saw
another spectator who was handing out small bottles of Fireball. I’ve sometimes indulged in beer, Fireball, or
other adult drinks during a race, but not today. I wasn’t going to do anything that might jeopardize
my chances of breaking 4:05.
The West River Parkway is
mostly flat, but there are two noticeable hills. The first one is where you come back uphill
after crossing under the Lake Street Bridge.
The second one is a mile later, when we had to go up a ramp to get up to
the Franklin Avenue Bridge. When I
reached that ramp, I just followed the runners ahead of me. I didn’t worry if the hill slowed me down,
although I don’t think it did.
After crossing the river
on the Franklin bridge, we turned onto the East River Road. I had one more relatively easy mile before
reaching the uphill section I had been anticipating.
When I reached the
20-mile banners, I did a time check. To
break 4:05, I just needed to run the last 10K in 64 minutes. I could afford to slow down to a 10-minute pace,
not just on the uphill section, but for the rest of the race. Now I wondered if I could break four hours.
Mile 21 wasn’t all uphill.
There were a couple short hills, but
there were flat sections in between. I
didn’t slow down at all in that mile.
Early in mile 22, we
turned left and ran up a long gradual hill that took us away from the river and
up to the University of St. Thomas.
As I rounded the corner
to begin this hill, I saw some children handing out small cups of water. I think they were in front of their own
house. I could have used a drink of
water, but I didn’t want to slow down as I was starting up a hill.
I saw a lot of people
walking on this hill. I ran the whole
thing, but I wasn’t keeping up with other runners who were running the whole
thing. For the first time, I noticed soreness
in my quads.
After reaching the top of
that hill, we turned onto Cretin Avenue for one block before turning left onto
Summit Avenue. I heard multiple people
in the crown cheering, “Go, Banana!”
Sure enough, a guy in a banana suit ran by me. I was still too fatigued from the hill to
keep up with him.
When I turned onto Summit
Avenue, I could tell immediately that it was uphill. I couldn’t see the 22 banners yet, and I knew
this hill continued through mile 23.
My time for mile 22 was
9:20. That was my slowest mile so far,
but even that mile was fast enough for a Boston qualifier. I wasn’t giving any time back yet.
That changed in the next
mile. Mile 23 was all uphill, and my
quads were already fatigued from the previous two miles. Despite my best efforts, I slowed to 9:33 in
that mile.
After finally cresting
the hill, I wanted to pick up my pace, but first I had to recover from those
three uphill miles. They took a
cumulative toll on me. I had heavy legs
for the rest of the race.
Since crossing the river,
we had been following the same route as the 10-mile race. In addition to our mile markers, I was seeing
theirs. When I saw the “7” banner, I
knew I had exactly three miles to go. I
did another time check. At this point,
breaking 4:05 was in the bag. The only
question was whether I would break four hours.
That was my goal from this point on.
In the next mile, I managed
to pick up my pace. It wasn’t as fast as
the first 20 miles, but it was fast enough that it was now obvious that I would
break four hours. That didn’t mean it
would be easy. The last two miles were
one continuous gut check.
I kept up a similar pace
in mile 25, even though there are a couple of small hills there. Mile 26 is all either downhill or flat, but I
was running out of gas. I slowed to 9:32
in that mile.
Just before 26, we ran by
St. Paul’s Cathedral. They were ringing
the church bells for us.
I had my phone with me,
but up until now, I hadn’t taken any pictures.
I didn’t want to lose any time. Once
I knew I could stop to take a picture and still break four hours, I decided to
take a picture of the finish, which is in front of the state capitol. This is my favorite finish line approach of any
marathon I’ve done.
The approach to the
finish is downhill. Everyone else was
sprinting down that hill. I couldn’t
speed up at all, so everyone was passing me.
That’s OK. I finished in
3:58:59. That was beyond my wildest
expectation.
As usual, the finisher
medal includes a leaf. I can remember when
leaves were in peak color during this race.
In recent years, the leaves have been turning color later in the
month. Next year, the race will be a week
later. If they want peak colors, they should
probably make it two weeks later.
Not checking a gear bag
saved me time after the race. I needed
to check out from my hotel by 2:00, and it was already noon, so I didn’t want
to waste any time. I grabbed post-race
snacks that I could easily eat while walking to my hotel. I had to walk about a mile to get there.
I got back to my room by
12:30. I easily had time to take a bath
and do some post-race stretches before changing into clean clothes, packing up,
and checking out.
Four months ago, I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath, and I was frustrated with my slow race times. At the time, I wondered if my days of qualifying for Boston were over. After three months of taking an iron supplement, I feel like I’ve made a full recovery. I’m already registered for the 2027 Boston Marathon, and I’m now qualified for 2028.
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