So here is a more traditional race review.  It won’t be as long since I’ve already talked about most of the race yesterday: Grading the Race Plan.

Pre-Race

I was going to jog/walk the mile to the start but when I awoke to rain, I scratched that idea and had Christy drop me off at the Metrodome. I dropped my bag and hung out with my fellow MDRA classmates.  Nathan and I did a short jog before getting into the corrals.  I would agree with his assessment that the corral was really narrow and oddly laid out.  The Star Spangled Banner started playing as we were walking through the narrow area.  Some people had stopped to respect the song while others barged past.  I think there was a little confusion because I heard several people ask what was happening.  I don’t think people realized that the wheelchair event started 10 minutes before the marathon.

Race

I won’t go over too much more since I covered most of it yesterday.  But here are my splits.

Here is the official data:

Now here are my splits from my Garmin uploaded into various software Sportstracks on the left Motion Based in the middle and Garmin Training Center on the right (more on this at a later date):

I’m sure some disparities jumped out at you.But overall it gives you a good idea of how things went.  I’m not sure if I missed the mile markers or if I pushed the button, but not hard enough.  It was cold enough that I had trouble getting my hands to function!

I was amazed at the crowd support all morning – even through the torrential downpours.  I caught up to the 3:10 pace group right around the mile 7 water stop.  This was a narrow area on the trail and it was a huge walls of people cheering and lining the course and then bam into the back of the pace group.  It felt really crowded and almost claustrophobic. This was the only time that I really felt the largeness of the marathon.

I think the loneliest parts were around Nokomis, which is around the 1/2 point.  I think that is also the point that I started realizing that I was in a little pain.  Summit Ave was agony, but I expected that! I also wasn’t expecting how much pain I would be in at the very end. I thought the adrenaline rush of the final hill and straight stretch would carry me… everything hurt and every inch of me wanted to stop running – except for the finish banner up ahead.

A friend suggested that I say a prayer at every mile and since I am running in honor of my African friends that I say a prayer for them.  It was a good idea and I did pray off and on at different mile markers.  I should have done more in the second half when I was in pain and hurting – but that didn’t come to mind then.  It may have helped some, if nothing else it would have reminded me that my pain is temporary and in a few days I’ll feel no ill effects of the marathon.  But the pain that my friends feel each day is real with no end in sight.  An interesting thought…

Post Race

After crossing the finish line I remember getting my medal and foil blanket before shuffling around towards the food.  I grabbed a bunch of the random and good food that they had.  I talked with Steve who had finished 20 minutes before me but was still standing around talking to people in the finish chute.  He recommended the hot chicken broth to reheat and re-salt me a little bit.  I felt pretty terrible but was pleased that I must have looked good enough that the thousands of medical staff weren’t that interested in me! Many people looked a lot worse than I felt.  I kept wanting to sit down but knew that was bad and kept shuffling… got my finisher’s shirt and picked up my clothes.

Changing into a dry shirt and getting pants on was a little bit of a chore, but it felt oh so good.  I wore my Teva sandels after struggling to get my shoes and socks off!  I finally got everything together and meandered out to find my wife and friends.  They were all excited to see me and we slowly made our way to the cars – which were in the Sears lot.  That seemed like a pretty long little journey as I shuffled around trying not to make any sudden moves!

So I guess that is the review.  TCM did a great job all around making sure there was plenty of support along the course and at the finish line.  The people of the Twin Cities really came out in full force to make sure we felt the love.  I missed much of the beauty of the course due to rain or tiredness, but it is pretty dang pretty!

[tags] Minneapolis, Twin Cities, St Paul, Twin Cities Marathon, Marathon, Race Review[/tags]