Twin Cities Marathon Weekend

Well I took my two best friends from MI: Kristen and Jen to meet and stay with my best friend in MN: Winnie. What a great weekend we had. Winnie's husband was out-of-town for the weekend so we had a true girls weekend.

Jen and Kristen came to spend the night on Thurs, Sep 30th so we could leave super early on Friday morning. We realized I should get some gas the night before because of the hour we were leaving in the morning. So at 11pm we ran out and filled the gas tank. Then it was home and off to sleep. We got up at about 3:45am and grabbed our pillows and loaded the car. We were off on the long road trip.

We arrived after lunch on Friday, Oct 1. And unloaded our goods and relaxed for a bit. Winnie set up and appt with her trainer for some relaxing yoga and stretching. WOW! That was the best thing! Thanks so much Winnie! We also took a trip to Kowalski's grocery where we got to wine taste. Well, Kristen didn't because she did not have her i.d. and they did not think she was old enough--since when is 40 not old enough to drink alcohol.

On Saturday, we headed to downtown Saint Paul for the Marathon Expo and packet pickup. Then to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in St. Paul, Cafe Latte! Everyone had the same idea because it was very crowded. Yummy Spaghetti dinner with yummy turkey meatballs, salad with Diane's lemon garlic dressing, and Great Harvest bread! It was a great pre-race meal.

We were up at 4:30 so that we could head to the Light Rail pickup at the Mall of America. We parked at MOA and then rode the light rail to the start at the HHH Metrodome. We arrived there early so that we could head a block away for a pre-race church service. It was amazing! Then it was back to the starting line for one more bathroom stop.

The starting line was packed. THe guns went off and we shuffled across the stating line. We were at a decent pace and just past mile 1 a group of walkers were taking up the whole road and we can to a stand still. This was very frustrating.

Overall this was a great race. Except for bathroom issues at mile 11 which prolonged by stop more than I wanted. But when nature calls there is not a whole lot you can do about it. The weather was perfect; around 40 at start and 55-60 at finish. The lakes were beautiful! The crowd support was grand! And running beside Jen was of great support and fun.

The down side was Kristen was stopped by the race vehicle. She refused to stop and moved to the sidewalk. She finished her own race. The bad part is the did not give her a medal or race shirt. They are classified as finisher medals/shirts. I think she finished so she should have gotten a shirt. But they did not give her one because she did not finish in the allotted 6 hrs. Poor, poor system!

Now it's transition to being a barefoot runner!