The Twin Cities Marathon course has been quite busy this summer, just like every summer (actually year round). This is because the course takes in some of the coolest recreation spots in the metro – or at least Minneapolis. Beginning in downtown Minneapolis the 26.2 mile course makes a big circle before ending up in downtown St Paul. Leaving the sports capital of Minnesota (the Metrodome) runners take in some amazing views before arriving at the state capital of Minnesota. What a course. Here’s last year’s course preview.
Below are 26 pictures from the course itself (though they don’t come from all 26 miles of the course).
A random wall downtown along Hennepin Ave. I know some of the symbols are Adrinka symbols of West Africa, but I don’t know their history here.
The Basillica of St Mary is on Hennepin as well. Don’t let the old architecture fool you, they are on Twitter.
This is WAC, the Walker Art Center. On the right is the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. I’ve heard tell that some people use it as a quick potty stop. (I don’t recommend it) Watch this hill. If we ran on the sidewalks we’d actually get to run under the Walker.
TCM isn’t called “The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in American” for nothing. This is Lake of the Isles, the first among several lakes we’ll travel around. We won’t run by the most expensive house in Minneapolis, but it is located on the Isles.
Running under the Niollet Ave bridge (I think). A local marching band stands under one of these bridges and plays.
The 7ft bronze rabbit at the intersection of Portland and Minnehaha Parkway. I can’t figure out where it came from.
We run a long ways on this parkway. Here is wikipedia’s take on who Minnehaha was…
The Grand Rounds is a great way to see the major sites in the city. A road, trail system, and scenic destination itself, much of the marathon is actually run along the Grand Rounds.
West River Parkway has been under construction all summer, but it won’t affect the race. This is where I started to fall apart during the 2008 marathon.
The Mississippi River is a national park. This is crossing the Franklin Ave bridge.
A bad shot of the river!
This is now on East River Road getting ready to go under a rail bridge which will one day connect to the Greenway.
A cool church on the corner of Lexington Parkway and Summit Ave.
One of many cool houses. If you aren’t in complete agony, be sure to check them out! They are on both sides.
This is a great sign!! You are atop the hill and getting ready to turn left into the final stretch. I always felt a little let down that we turn here instead of just going down the hill!
Listen to the audio of Nathan’s presentation here.
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Marty and Mike talked about the training philosophy of this year’s class (I guess it varies slightly with each year’s coaches) and what we might expect. Marty mentions that he isn’t a huge proponent of using lots of fancy terminology or wasting money on expensive tests for things like VO2 Max or Lactic Threshold. He subscribes to a more “old school” mentality of getting the miles in and alternating between hard and easy runs. With a diverse group of athletes in the room, he said that we won’t work much on specific speed workouts but getting the long runs in and doing some hill training. We are hitting the hills much earlier this year than last and knowing these guys we’ll be doing some long runs on hills as well. Their goal, as stated later by Mike is to make sure we have fun and cross the finish line.
Feel free to listen to their sometimes humorous discussion here.
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For some reason I can’t get this to work. Any suggestions? It is the same exact link as the one above… You can scroll to the bottom and listen to the full audio – this section begins about 16 minutes in.
Mike continued the evening’s discussion with a talk about goal setting. He used a simple pyramid diagram to show what the most important goals are. The three main goals of a training program are to
1) Have fun/good experience in the training program
2) Get to the starting line healthy
3) Finish (this is then split into 3 subcategories)
a) Finish
b) Target Pace – Double your 1/2 marathon time and add 10 minutes (similar to McMillian Calculator)
c) Dream time – This is a stretch goal that you shouldn’t even think about on race day until after the 1/2 way point and really start going for it after 20 miles.
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You can listen the complete audio (about an hour long from this first session here)
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Yes, I am a little biased, but I do think that Minneapolis is one of the greatest places in the United States. I would say it ranks pretty high on the world stage too, but there might be some other places I’d rather live. Nonetheless Travel and Leisure Magazine recently named Minneapolis one of the best biking cities in the world.
Minneapolis actually ranks number 2 in the US falling behind Portland as far as bike commuting goes. One of the reasons Minneapolis was ranked so high is the
infrastructure that promotes bicycling on many fronts. From bike lockers and designated street lanes to recreational trails and snowplows dedicated to clearing off-street paths, a system exists to make transportation on a bike efficient, safe, and hassle-free.
This same infrastructure makes Minneapolis a great place to run. Many of my runs use existing bike infrastructure. The Midtown Greenway is a biking thorough-fare. Running on downtown’s Riverfront uses part of the Grand Rounds Trail. Of course all of the lakes have bike and running trails.
Minneapolis has a ton of paved trails, I wish it had more dirt trails within the city that I could easily use from my house. But I will take the ease of off-road running and the mostly suburb job of plowing that occurs in winter.
This is a Map My Run Map of the course provided by the race directors.
And their elevation chart – which is kind of weird looking. It says there is a total elevation gain of 17 feet over the entire course. With a minimum elevation of 912 and a maximum of 1,004feet. My driving of the course and the picture makes them seem like at most rolling.
Awhile back I drove the course with my video camera. You can watch a high-speed version (13 minutes) of the video below or a longer (26 minutes) video here.
Below are a couple of pictures from taken along the course (click to enlarge).
Updated: In a pre-race e-mail from the director, there are a few course changes:
Race Course Modification
Just so you are all aware, there are three course changes this year that you should be aware of and pay attention to:
1. START LINE: Moved 300 feet toward Rice Street, away from Wayzata Blvd.
2. 10K MARK: Please follow the arrows and cones as you approach the 10K mark on the course. As you come off of Northview Drive, instead of turning onto Lake Rd where the 3rd Water Stop is located, proceed onto the trail and follow the signs on the course.
3. FINISH LINE: The Finish line has moved 300 feet closer to the LRT Trail exit in Excelsior. Instead of heading across Water Street over to the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot, everything is going to be staged in the main parking lot near the finish line. The school buses will be waiting on George Street after the race to return you to Wayzata.
I would take a nice trail run any day over running the roads. Trails are my friend as this picture so elegantly shows! It is a little hard for me to hit the trails very often since we only have 1 car and I prefer to run in the mornings. However, Pike Island is easy to get to via public transportation and even via bike.
Part of Fort Snelling State Park, Pike Island sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers just south of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. On Pike Island itself you have a variety of options for running. See the maps here. The easiest is a 5k loop around the outer edge of the Island – but there are little cut through trails to make 1 and 2 mile loops.
It is pretty scenic as you run along the rivers. I think every time I’ve run there I’ve seen some wild animals – deers, squirrels, rabbits, but no pine martens! The trail is very flat and actually pretty wide too. It might narrow down in places but is wide enough to mostly run 3-4 wide throughout. The trail is a mix of soft surfaces but is pretty safe for the ankles and has no technical elements to it.
Another great thing about this run is that it can easily be extended. Want to go really long? You can head north up to Minnehaha Falls and connect into a variety of trails from there, although this is a paved trail. More of a mid-distance run, you can run around Picnic Island and Snelling Lake. Part of this segment is on pavement, but most is still trails and Picnic Island has grass stretches. You can also connect with bridges (with pedestrian lanes) that cross either river and connect with trails on the other side.
I enjoy running at Pike Island and have used it in the past to recover and reconnect with my reasons for running. The worst thing about running here is that it is so close the MSP Airport, with almost continual flights over-head.
Parking Note: You must pay to park if you enter through Fort Snelling State Park. It costs $5 to enter the park or a valid State Park Permit. Then follow the main road to the Visitor’s Center. However, if you enter from Historic Fort Snelling on top of the bluff there is no charge for parking. Park in the main lot and run towards the fort and then follow the trail down the hill to Pike Island.
There is also some interesting history associated with this area:
To the Dakota [Native American tribe], Pike Island in Fort Snelling State Park was and is a sacred place. It is where the waters of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet and the Dakota believe it is the very center of the earth and arguably the place where Minnesota began. WCCO
During this time[Dakota War of 1862], more than 1600 Dakota women, children, and old men were held in an internment camp on Pike Island. Living conditions were poor, and disease struck the camp, killing more than three hundred. Wikipedia
Despite the mixed history I enjoy running here, what do you think?
One of my newer favorite places to run is along the Minneapolis Riverfront. It is about 1.5 miles from my house which makes it a good place to run for any distance run, plenty of scenery with the Mississippi River, cobblestone streets, dirt trails, mill ruins, and much more. From my house I also get to run by the Metrodome – where the Vikings and Twins play.
The official riverfront website describes the area:
The Minneapolis Riverfront District is many things to many people. To some, it’s a giant archaeological dig. To others, its a playground of dining and nightlife. And to yet others, it is a maze of beautiful parks and trails.
The picture is from a recent 10 mile run and you can see a more detailed map of the area. I often run this route in the other direction crossing over the Stone Arch Bridge first. On this particular run I never actually crossed the bridge since I extended it and ran through the University of Minnesota.
Surface Type Before I take you on a tour of the above route a quick note about running surface. Most of the run is on some type of hard surface – road or sidewalk. Along much of the West River Parkway you can find a single track cow path that has been worn into the dirt between the walking and biking trails. There is a section on the west side of the river there is a short section of dirt trail that follows a small cove. Crossing the bridges provides some elevation change, otherwise it is mostly flat. After crossing over the river you can run on grass and dirt trails for awhile as you jump onto Boom Island and cross over onto Nicollet Island. After a short period of dirt trails at the beginning and end of the Island the rest of the run is on sidewalks or roads. This might be one of the best runs from my house for getting off the hard surfaces.
Step-by-Step Guide to the Sights and Trails There are a ton of things to see along the way. The downtown skyline is always present in your view. But my route mostly skirts the downtown area running by the Metrodome, before turning onto West River Parkway. From here the trail splits, you can go straight down to the river (and come back up later) or stay up on the top of the bluff. Either way you see the Guthrie Theater and Mill City Museum. You can cross the pedestrian/bicycle only Stone Arch Bridge or continue on the West side as we will do here. You are now running along the St Anthony Falls Heritage Trail, which takes you into First Bridge Park before the trail crosses the Hennepin Ave Bridge. We’ll stay on the West River Parkway and run past the Federal Reserve Building and through a stretch of turtle trail. Lots of turtles are scored into the sidewalk on this stretch. From here you begin to run under a lot of trees and a more natural scenery. You can stay on the paved trail or take a short detour on a dirt trail that follows the little inlet with two bridge to choose from (I prefer the shorter one because it makes a better loop) and can continue along the trail until it forces you back up into a little park area. A nice benefit of running the Riverfront is the ample supply of water and occasional port-a-potties! Both have come in handy. Finally, we get to cross the river via the Plymouth Ave Bridge which drops you onto Boom Island.
Unfortunately, Boom Island is no longer an island, but hosts a nice park which includes a lighthouse and access to several riverboats. There is a paved trail that cuts through the park, but I prefer running in the grass along the river, this adds distance and also keeps you on softer surfaces longer. You’ll eventually get to the Boom-Nicollet Island Pedestrian Bridge which is a cool old-school bridge onto Nicollet Island. Follow this dirt trail until it comes out on the road. Here you can complete the short side of the island or double backon the road to get a longer and more scenic section. Running along Island Ave will take you along the river but also through some very nice residential sections before going under the Hennepin Ave Bridge and into Nicollet Island Park. I recommend continuing along the river’s edge around the tip of the island and crossing over the wooden Merriam St Bridge. As you cross over this bridge you almost enter another time period as you enter the cobblestone streets of Historic St Anthony Main. Running along this bridge also puts you back onto the St Anthony Falls Heritage Trail. If you want you can go explore the Hennepin Island Hydro-electric plant, but I’d save it for another day. I’ve never noticed signs for Pillsbury Park, but it is on the map, Father Hennepin Park is well marked and takes you back away from the road. Somewhere along this stretch you have the option of following the “Lower Trail” section which takes a lot of stairs down to the river. (I wouldn’t recommend taking the lower trail, it is a bunch of steps that lead down to the river – it is neat, but not really worth the effort on a run). As you come up to the Bandstand grab a quick drink of water and make an important decision. You can cross over the Stone Arch Bridge and complete the loop or head up 6th Ave SE and do some other running. I’ve seen runners do multiple loops along the Riverfront so give that a thought too. As of this writing you can see the finishing touches being put on the new 35W Bridge from the Stone Arch Bridge or by running up to the 10th Ave Bridge which is just south of where you are currently contemplating.
Whatever you end up deciding this is a fun run to do and gives you a good taste of Minneapolis. The route as I’ve described it is approximately 4.5 miles long starting at 11th Ave S and W River Parkway and ending at the parking lot on the West end of the Stone Arch Bridge.
The first 20 miler maybe the toughest. That was the topic of discussion at the end of the run as we all stood around recovering from a nice 21 mile run. I was the novice in the group as this was my longest run ever and everyone else has several marathons already under their belt (with some impressive times to boot!) I think we decided that the first one might be the hardest, but they never really get easier. Not overly encouraging as we have 2 more 20 mile runs in the upcoming weeks. But their points were well taken At this distance it is easy to have a bad day and feel it. Runs of this distance require a little more thought and preparation than an easy 10 miler. I plan to prepare well for all of my upcoming long runs!
Preparation – We spent a pretty quiet evening at home on Friday night, eating Pasta and watching the Olympics. I can’t say I hydrated excessively, but felt pretty hydrated. I actually woke up Saturday morning with “pre-race jitters.” I hit the bathroom several times and ate a bagel with peanut butter and half a bowl of oatmeal. Then I hopped on my bike and rode the 2.75 miles to where we were meeting. It was a nice easy ride on a cool (low 60’s morning).
The Route
Run Time – I loaded up my shorts with a package of cola flavoredClif Shot Blok and off we went. The plan was to take a Shot Blok every 5K. I managed to do that and felt like that was a good mixture for most of the run. We actually did take the pace nice and slow as we started out. We had a group of about 10 runners which was a nice size. We started approximately at the 1.5 mile mark of the Twin Cities Marathon. We followed the course pretty accurately hitting the official water-stop around mile 3 where I picked up some CLIF SHOT Energy Gel of the Chocolate persuasion – they offered both Chocolate and Double Expresso. They did this for all the runners about a month ago.
We made some course deviations to throw in some soft trails but hit the hills along Minnehaha Parkway so we wouldn’t be surprised by them during the race. That was actually a good thing because I didn’t realize there would be any on that part of the course, so now I can plan for them. We hit them about 7 miles into our run which places them approximately in the 8-9 mile range.
Pace Chart
Coming back from the turn around point I noticed on my Garmin that we were in my Marathon pace range (my goal is 7:15 so Marathon Pace runs would be between 7:30 and 7:00). The pace chart shows us hitting 7-flat for a brief moment of time in the 9 mile range. I wanted to stay with the group but also knew we had a long way to go still so I was willing to let them go, knowing eventually we’d catch up. I never really got gapped by the group and had someone to run with for most of the run, which was nice!
The trails were quite crowded on our return run as many training groups were out there hitting the roads. On the return we “closed” the lakes – running around them on the opposite side so that we essentially ran around the entire thing. I started feeling bad when we got to Lake Calhoun, it had been about 5 miles since the last water stop and I was tired. I stopped to pee real quick and caught back up to the group at a water fountain.
We then swung by the Marathon Water Stop at 17.25 already 1.25 miles farther than my longest run. I grabbed 2 cups of water, a cup of Powerade, and ate a Chocolate Gu (I didn’t eat the first one). I had gotten a little hungry somewhere in the early teen miles, but not the hunger that can really be satisifed while running. I over did it at the last stop and felt it within the next mile. I was still moving along fairly well but could feel my hip flexors getting tight, my toes getting blisters, and my stomach was a little off.
I hung in there and finished at the consistent pace we had been going. I ran the last mile pretty much by myself, with a group right in front of me and a guy behind me who later said, “My GI tract finished the run before I did.”
Reflections – Those are my thoughts from my first 20+ mile run. Here are my take-aways:
Eat a bigger breakfast,
Don’t try to “cram” for the final miles,
Be consistent with nutrition on the run,
Steady pace throughout the run, try to avoid spiking the pace,
Relax and have fun!
Here is a list of my mile splits if you care! Oh, I guess I should note that my Garmin had the run at 20.5 miles but pretty much everyone agreed that it was at least 21.
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