Race Report! Twin Cities Marathon (settle in)

[katyintx]

As evidenced by the past couple of threads, we have people racing again! And since I’m really hoping to read some race reports, I figured I’d put one up to try and jump-start it. ☺️ So here goes:

Backstory: We moved back to MN in early 2020, and I decided to sign up for Grandma’s Marathon. Obviously that was cancelled, so I signed up for 2021 as soon as it opened. My mom was trying to run her first marathon and I was signing up in support, and was hoping to sub-4. Well come April when registration for Twin Cities (TC) Marathon opened, we still didn’t know if June’s Grandma’s was a go so I signed up for TC just in case. Turns out both happened. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And also, my mom finished her first and last marathon at 67. Rockstar. 

Training for Grandma’s was a bit of a mess. My hamstring STILL hasn’t forgiven me completely for tweaking it a number of years ago, so I had to alter my training plan to include more days on the bike. I couldn’t complete a handful of my long runs, probably close to 1/3 actually, so I knew I was under-trained there and my goal went from sub-4, to just finishing. Grandma‘s HURT and I finished in 4:35 (I think). Luckily I had it mostly figured out for TC training and was able to do all but 2 of my long runs. I knew my fitness coming into TC wasn’t there for a sub-4 either, but was hoping to maintain a 10/mile pace overall, figuring I’d be walking toward the end a few times. 
A goal - sub-4:15
B goal - sub-4:20
C goal - beat Grandma’s time

Race day showed up and we had beautiful weather. I want to say it was around 55 at the start. It was pretty humid in the beginning, but because it was so cool it didn’t get to me too much. We got decent cloud coverage and I believe it only got up to maybe 70°, so I didn’t feel hot the entire race.

I started with the strategy to run the first 4 miles at 10:00 so as not to go out to fast, and then pick it up closer to 9:35-9:45 from there, holding on as long as I could. For maybe the second race ever, I actually executed that well (my 5k split was 31:20). Unfortunately though, I must have been so focused on going slow that I didn’t notice I was weaving.  An excessive amount. I crossed the first mile with my Garmin saying 1.07 miles. Fuuuuuuck. 

Around 4 miles I settled in to a comfortable pace, and tried to run the tangents. Until 35k I was between 9:28-9:43/mile. It didn’t feel too hard and my nutrition and breathing were on point. Overall the race was going quite well. Except, tangents - not so happy with. Anyway, I set a goal not to walk until mile 16, was feeling good so revised it to 18, and finally walked for the first time at 19.5. From that point on I knew I would be walking a few times, but just tried to stretch it as long as I could between “breaks.”  My strategy was to walk for about 45 seconds, run for 1.5-2 miles. I think I walked 3 times and hit 25 miles. At that point, I knew I’d be running it in and just tried to encourage others on the way to take away from focusing on my own pain. *Side note: I don’t usually listen to a lot of music on my runs, but made a marathon playlist. It wasn’t working the first time I tried but I finally was able to get it going around 22 miles. It just so happened when I rounded the corner and saw the finish line, my favorite song ever started playing, giving me the extra boost I needed to kick it in.* The finish is a bit of a downhill for a bit, so between that, my music, the crowds, and my own relief at being close to done, I kicked it in and crossed at 4:16:55. I even had a little tear for the first time ever! 

Final thoughts: It went about as planned and I’m happy. I knew I was under-trained (I don’t typically plan to walk…) so I knew a sub-4 was definitely out of my reach, but I’m content. My nutrition at Grandma’s was horrible. I felt like I was going to vomit starting about mile 12 and that didn’t really go away, so scrapped all plans and suffered. After that race I switched from Gu to Honey Stinger chews with a few pieces of bagel mixed in, and it made a world of difference. I also cramped pretty bad at Grandma’s so at TC I took Gatorade and water at every single station. Still got a bit crampy for about a mile, but overall good. Ummmm… I ran 26.56 miles yesterday. What the actual fuck? I take comfort in knowing that I did break 4:15 for the actual 26.2 miles distance. 😂  Gotta do better at the tangents next race, for sure. Lastly, my H, my Mom, and my BFF were all there, and the boost I got each time I saw them was so awesome. I’ve never had spectators like that and it was amazing. 

I’m planning to take this next 365+ days to focus on shorter races, building up both endurance and speed, and hopefully running Chicago in 2022. In a sub-4 time. And if anyone has ever considered running TC Marathon, OMG DO IT!  It was a beautiful course with absolutely incredible crowd support, and wasn’t too difficult. 10/10 recommend. 

Thanks for reading my book! ☺️ 

[breezy8407]

I love this! Congrats! I've only done the TC 10 mile and really enjoyed the entire experience.

[theoriginalbean]

Yay, congratulations on both finishes!

[katyintx]

Oct 4, 2021 10:24:42 GMT -5 breezy8407 said:

I love this! Congrats! I've only done the TC 10 mile and really enjoyed the entire experience.

That’s good to hear!  I’m hoping I can get in to that one next year. Bonus points if it’s the week before Chicago! 

[lilypad1126]

Congrats on TWO amazing races! It's so much fun to see/hear about people racing again! I'm also planning on Chicago 2022   but highly doubt I'll be in the sub-4 crowd. So I'll be cheering you on from farther back in the pack!

[thedutchgirl]

I don't usually go here, but I saw the subject line on the main page and wanted to pop in. Congratulations!! We live on the Twin Cities course between miles 10 and 11 and cheer every year for the runners. It was such a beautiful day yesterday!

[reginaphalange72]

Congratulations!! So glad you had a great day and enjoyed your race. You did fantastic!!

[Wines Not Whines]

Congratulations!

Tangents for a big race always get me. My mileage on my Garmin for Marine Corps is usually around 26.7. I think you did pretty well with only 26.5!

[sadlebred]

Congratulations on both marathons!!!!

[katyintx]

Oct 4, 2021 12:49:45 GMT -5 thedutchgirl said:

I don't usually go here, but I saw the subject line on the main page and wanted to pop in. Congratulations!! We live on the Twin Cities course between miles 10 and 11 and cheer every year for the runners. It was such a beautiful day yesterday!

It was!  And thank you for cheering! I had such a good time looking at people’s signs (and dogs - so many cute dogs!) and hearing people’s cheers yesterday. It definitely helps! 

[katyintx]

Oct 4, 2021 13:34:49 GMT -5 Wines Not Whines said:

Congratulations!

Tangents for a big race always get me. My mileage on my Garmin for Marine Corps is usually around 26.7. I think you did pretty well with only 26.5!

I feel like each .01 mile gets progressively worse after about 25 miles. I think there’s some science behind that. Has to be. 

[minzy]

Congrats on a great run! Thanks for sharing!

[sassystace]

Congrats! So good to read a race recap again!

[wawa]

Congrats! That's a fantastic recap! Amazing job crushing those goals and holding steady with the nutrition.

[melmel48]

WOW! I am so excited for you! You are so impressive and congrats to your Mom as well!

[moreace01]

Yay! 2 marathons in one year? Amazing!! So glad you were able to follow your plan, and get your music going towards the end. And congrats to your mom too!

I'm hoping to be sub-4 at Chicago next year too. That's my plan anyway. If I don't get in - based on your report, I'll look at TC - it sounds like you had a great race!