Twin Cities Marathon

Race: Twin Cities Marathon

Date: 6 Oct 2013

Location: Minneapolis - St Paul, MN

Distance: 26.2 Miles

Time: 4:15:34

Female: 1581/3931

30-34F Age Group: 290/721

Marathon # 17
Garmin Links: Twin Cities Marathon

One of my favorite hobbies is photography and I realized that I have pictures from almost everything Mark and I did while in Minnesota for the Twin Cities Marathon.  The pictures seem to tell a better story than my writing, so for the Twin Cities Marathon blog, I'm going to let the photos do the talking. 

Yay!  Another vacation to Minnesota for a marathon.  This is my 3rd marathon in MN and Mark's 2nd.

 

Obligatory dorky picture at the expo in St. Paul on Friday.  Mark said he didn't realize what I was asking him to pose for when I said do something silly.  I think its funny :)

 

Twin Cities Expo in St. Paul.  Caribou Coffee was a sponsor and gave us all the coffee we could handle!!  I wish more marathons had free coffee.

Sushi happy hour near the expo, too good to be true :)  Anyone that knows Mark knows he could not pass this up.

Pre-race beer at Great Waters.  These wonderful people gave runners $2.50 beers all weekend.

Beer list at Great Waters Brewery.  My favorite was the Blackwatch Oat Stout served from a Cask.

Breakfast the day before the marathon.  Thanks to this yummy food, I was able to top off my caloric needs for the next few days!!



Yummy!  Even Gordon Ramsey would approve.  Too bad this is not his restaurant.

On the walk back to the hotel, we passed the Mary Tyler Moore stature.  This is the street corner in Minneapolis that MTM tossed her hat in the air to "You're going to make it after all".  MTM was one of my favorite shows as a kid.

One of my favorite things about downtown Minneapolis are the skywalks that connect 70 blocks.  This must be AWESOME in winter, you can spend the entire day inside, away from the cold.

After recovering from our delicious breakfast, Mark and I went for a short run.  We found the starting area near the Vikings stadium.  On race morning, we were able to go inside to use the bathroom and stay warm.  For the first time in my life, I saw lines for the women's bathroom that were shorter than the men's line.  I knew I liked this marathon for a reason!!

After leaving the stadium, we jogged to the Mississippi River.  After growing up near the mouth of the Mississippi, it was nice to see the start.  It is calm and clean, a strong contrast to what I grew up seeing.  In the distance, you can see the only "rapids" along the Mississippi, if you can't see it, don't worry, Mark and I ran right past it and didn't notice.
 



Race number

My new Hokas!  So far I love them!

Mark and I are ready to run!  I'm always excited at the start and this race was no different.  My endurance is still strong from all the Ironman training, but my speed has suffered.  I wasn't expecting to run fast, I was only expecting to have fun.  The weather was perfect and the course was very scenic.  The race starts near downtown Minneapolis at the Vikings stadium and heads toward a few lakes outside of town.  The entire route had wonderful crowd support, I can't remember any portion without cheering spectators.  The course was also flat and the autumn leaves provided a scenic backdrop.  The only difficult part of the course was negotiate the crowds of runners.  The streets were narrow and I often found myself bumping into other runners.  It was also a bit difficult to stay with Mark at times.

We made it!  Mark and I managed to finish together.

A well earned beer!

Our hotel was in an old bank.  The vault is now a conference room.

Aren't we cute :)

The course was so pretty we decided to drive the first half again.  This was my favorite view from the race.  Downtown Minneapolis is in the background.

 

The finishers medals are perfect for fall.

Mickey's is a tasty little dinner near the state capital in St. Paul.  Mark and I treated ourselves to a greasy breakfast the day after the marathon.  The pancakes were AWESOME!!

No trip to Minneapolis is complete without a trip to the Mall of America.  I didn't get much shopping done, but Mark and I did spend hours on the rides.  I felt like a kid again.

Finally we stopped at the Happy Gnome on the way back to the airport.  We had one more beer and a snack before saying goodbye to Twin Cities.