Twin Cities Marathon

This first weekend in October, I was supposed to run a marathon, no not Twin Cities but the Porcupine Mountain Trail marathon and then the plan was to volunteer at TCM. I decided against Porcupine even though the money was paid, as between the drive to Michigan, my training, my work, it just wasn't meant to be.

But I did make the TCM, I was a course marshal at the Franklin street bridge and really enjoyed myself. I was truly inspired by all of the runners in both races from those that led the race and those that kept going even after the cutoff vehicle had gone by.

It was fun watching the energy of the 10 milers, I was amazed at the density of runners which meant that I was able to only find a few runners that I knew were running but I did see a few runners that I didn't know were running. Nicely done, Bob, Todd, Kelly, Edie and Tracy to name a few (sorry to any that I missed). I have to admit I was surprised at how many of them that there were. Granted we were at mile 3 for them, another volunteer said that they did wave starts which probably explained that there seemed to be denser bursts of runners but they were packed in for quite a while. A fun event for both runners, volunteers and fans.

Anyway, back to the marathon, I kept thinking to myself as they all went by, how do they do it, I can never do what they were doing. Then I remembered oh yeah I have done a few marathons but I thought to myself that I had never looked as good as these runners. So as I thought about it more and decided that the last few injury years have taken their toll and my confidence as a runner. I then started getting excited to run this event again as I remembered the energy you get from the race especially as you cross the Franklin bridge and head over into St. Paul.

A funny note about St. Paul, I always thought that once I crossed the Franklin bridge I was in St. Paul, so as runners came across the bridge one of things I said was "welcome to St. Paul, you are looking great, the best miles of the race are ahead". Of course when another volunteer pointed out the sign that said St. Paul 2 miles, I had to say oops. So instead I started saying, "St. Paul is ahead and enjoy the greatest 7 miles of your life".

I did see a few marathoners I knew and I know I missed a few too. It was great seeing Les and he looked really good, turned out he finished in 5 hours, not bad for a 69 year old. I hope to be running like Les when I am 69. Heck I would like to be running like Les now. I saw a runner from our running club at church, she was running her first marathon and looked great, she was really excited when she saw me on the bridge and gave me a big hug. I was just happy to see her smiling so I knew she was doing just fine, she finished around 5 hours and 40 minutes. Nicely done Mindy, now she is thinking Fargo, Med City and Grandmas, a maniac in training. I did see Joe from the Marathon Show but didn't pick him up in time to chat. You can find his podcast in Itunes, or just search for the Marathon Show, the twin cities show is a little over an hour long. Check out his website, The Marathon Show or enjoy his video highlights of TCM below. And of course he is on facebook too at The Marathon Show.



All in all, volunteering was a great reminder for me of how much fun Twin Cities is, what a fabulous and fun event, I just may have to do it next year as it would be a perfect year for my 10th TCM, on the 20th anniversary of my first TCM.