Notes
BIB # 2411
2012 TCM Race Report
With this being the eight consecutive year that I've done the Twin Cities Marathon, I followed the routine that I have followed now for the past few years. Woke up at 4:30 AM and proceeded to eat my customary breakfast of toast and drank water and powerade. Because I’m the team captain, I always have to get to the Metrodome early to rally the troops for the TC10 Mile race in addition to the Marathon. As I drove over to the Light Rail station this year, I got to have some company on the ride over as I picked up fellow teammate Steve Pitts from his son’s house in South Minneapolis. We caught the light rail train just after 6AM and arrived at the Metrodome right at 6:30AM just in time for when I had scheduled the TC10 Mile members to meet. Went right over to Gate G and realized that this year it seemed the concourse in the Metrodome was more crowded than in previous year with the Ten Mile participants. First, it was definitely colder outside than it had been in previous year and second I knew they had increased the number of participants in the ten mile race. Gate G is supposed to be reserved for the Corporate Team Challenge members to meet but there was just so many 10 Mile participants taking up all the space. Part of problem is that Gate G sits on the West side which is somewhat close to the start of the 10 Mile Race on Portland Ave. After getting team pictures of the Ten Mile participants, it seemed as if the number of people in our area dramatically decreased once the Ten Mile race had started. All of our Marathon participants for the IR Corporate Team showed up so we had pictures taken and then the waiting game until it was time to head out to the start line. 7:40 AM and it was time to head out to the start line. Back in 2008, I had made the mistake of staying in the Concourse and walking around to Gate A, B, or C to exit since it was cold that year. Everyone had the same idea and because the exit is through a turnstile door, there was a major backup causing me to be late to the start line. In that year, I practically started in the back of Corral 1. Since then, I have never made that mistake again and I always exit out Gate G and practically have to walk to the other side of the Metrodome outside to get to the bag drop area. It actually wasn’t that bad of an idea as it allowed me to start to get acclimated to the cold temperature that morning (28F). Entering the starting corral, there seemed to be a massive pile up of participants at the Corral 1/2 entrance. The volunteer did a great job of checking everyone's bib and definitely prevented many Corral 2/3 participants from entering the Corral 1 entrance. Had the long walk up where I got to pass all the Corral 2 participants and then made my way up towards the front of Corral 1. Saw the 3:05 pacer and decided to plant myself behind him but just in front of the “Under 3:10” sign. Standing there in the starting Corral, I actually didn’t feel too cold. With 8,000 runners all dissipating about 100W each, there was quite a bit of heat in the area to keep us warm. It helped that the sun was out also. At the front of the start line, there was a cool motorized helicopter which I think had a camera attached to it taking video of the start. Did anyone else see this? After the National Anthem and the start of the Wheelchair division, it was time for our Marathon to Start. The gun goes off and we're off and running.
First 5K
From my start position, it took me about 18 seconds to cross the start line and per the results, I was the 468th person to cross. For the race, I knew my goal was to keep my heart rate at around 168 bpm or lower but I knew it takes some time for me to get into a groove for my HR to stable out. I saw the 3:05 pacer right up ahead of me and decide to just hold back and stay behind him for the first few miles. As we passed through the streets of Downtown Minneapolis and got out into the open, the warmth that I was feeling at the start line quickly went away and I started to wonder to myself if I had made the right decision to go with just the Team Shirt and Arm Warmers. As I hit the first little hill going up from the Sculpture Garden and then the bigger hill when making the right turn onto Douglas Avenue, I forced myself to slow down and keep the effort even to prevent my Heart Rate from spiking too high. I’ve been known in the past to take these hills too fast when trying to follow a pacer and having my heart rate spike too high. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again this year. As I reached the first water stop along Douglas Avenue, I decided that the best plan of attack for the water stations was to take off my glove, drink the water/powerade, and then put my glove back on. The last thing I wanted to do was get my glove all wet and have to run the race with wet hands. Overall till now, I’ve done a good job with my heart rate and the 3:05 pacer is still ahead of me by about 20 seconds. I knew at this point that Sub 3:00 wasn’t going to be happening today but I was ok with that. I told myself to just keep running and enjoy the race.
Splits:
Mile 1 – 7:09
Mile 2 – 7:02
Mile 3 – 7:09
Official 5K:
5K – 21:45 / 7:01 pace
Place – 517 / 8764
From the Overall Place, 49 people had passed me from the Start to the 5K
5K to 10K
As I ran through Lake of the Isle, a lady spectating yells at us that we're almost there. Ok, really. We still have 20+ miles to go. I think she was just trying to be encouraging but she made herself look really dumb to all the runners around me and we all made comments amongst ourselves about her. I still felt good at this point and had my heart rate in check. The 3:05 pacer was still in front of me but now by maybe 30 seconds. As we got to the water stop at Mile 5, I decided to pop 2 salt tablets in me. Along the climb between Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet, I get my first shoutout from Katie Gryskiewicz (former TK employee and Marathon Runner).
Splits:
Mile 4 – 6:55
Mile 5 – 6:49
Mile 6 – 7:11
Official 10K:
10K – 43:42 / 7:03 pace
Place – 501 / 8753
Ok, overall I passed back about 16 people in this stretch
10k to Half Marathon
As I ran around Lake Harriet and started to approach the water stop at Mile 7, I immediately prepared myself to get some water. So far all the water stations up to this point had been setup where I can get water or powerade on my right side. I took off my right glove as i got to the water station but then realized that they were handing out water and powerade on the left side of the road. Damn it. I had to quickly put my right glove back on and pull my left glove off as I didn’t want to get any of my gloves wet with water. In my haste to get my glove situation straightened out and move over to the left to get some water, I accidentally stepped in front of another fellow runner effectively cutting him off. I apologized later to him but I don’t think he acknowledged me. He was just focused on the road ahead. After crossing over Lyndale and starting the descent down the hill to the Mile 9 water station, I decide it was probably a good time to go ahead as take a gel. As we cross under the Nicollet Ave bridge, a small band was playing a familiar tune which for whatever reason I couldn’t identify the name of the song. Now I’ve already forgotten how the tune even went. As I continued on the run, I began to notice a slight stomach pain from the gel. Oh no, I thought hoping that this wasn’t going to cause any further issues, which it didn’t. As i made my way down Cedar Avenue and then the left turn onto Lake Nokomis Parkway, I finally got to see my family for the first time and my son and oldest daughter had brought out their Angry Birds to have them cheer for me also. Not more than 25 feet away after passing my family, there’s Musich cheering me on. I felt bad that Matt didn’t make it to the start line but general race statistics show that about 25-30% of people registered do not make it to the start line for a variety of reason with most being injury. As I made my way up towards the Half Marathon, I got a glimpse of the clock to see that I am about 30 seconds ahead of pace for a 3:05. The pacer however is about 30 seconds ahead of me now so he has effectively banked 1 minute of time.
Splits:
Mile 7 – 7:05
Mile 8 – 6:50
Mile 9 – 7:07
Mile 10 - 6:56
Mile 11 – 7:00
Mile 12 – 7:02
Mile 13 – 7:04
Official Half Marathon:
Half Marathon – 1:32:05 / 7:02 pace
Place – 499 / 8769
I passed back a measly 2 people in this stretch in the overall standing.
Half to 30K
After passing the half, I saw the first casualty of the race as one guy is already walking after passing the mat. It never fails that I always see the first causality of this race after the halfway point. What are these guys thinking? Coming out of Lake Nokomis and back on Minnehaha Parkway, I'm greeted by a spectator calling me out by my name. I took a close look and waved and wonder to myself who the hell was that. They knew my name so it's someone I must know. At the time, I thought it kind of look like Jeff Fischer and I later confirmed from him that indeed it was him at around Mile 14. Thanks for the shout out. As I continued to push on, I could still see the 3:05 pacer ahead of me by about the same 30 seconds. I started to wonder if I was basically going to be seeing him the entire race. After taking the Mile 14 split, I was a little disappointed to see that my split time was at 7:20. It didn’t feel like I had slowed down so I was hoping that it was just a misplaced Mile flag. When Mile 15 came in at 6:44, I was a little relieved and knew the Mile 14 flag was too long. After passing Minnehaha Park, I started up the Mississippi River where I’m greeted again by another spectator Steve Gleeson who yells at me to go on up and get up with the pacer. Ha Ha, I think to myself. I know what I am doing. Somewhere along here I also see Duncan Lasley who yells out my name. I make it to the Clif Shot Gel station and I’m always amused each year that they don’t have better organization of how they hand out gels. I’m always looking for Vanilla but they don’t advertise ahead of time what it is that they are handing out. The volunteers sit there yelling out to the runners what they have in their hand. As I pass the first volunteer, I couldn’t hear what they were saying but then realize after passing them that they had Vanilla. Oh crap I thought. I hope that’s not the only volunteer with vanilla. Next I hear people saying Chocolate with Caffeine which I don’t care too much for. As I start running past the other volunteers, I hear the one yelling strawberry. I thought to myself that I can take a strawberry if I can’t get a vanilla so I grabbed one. As I continued running down the road and listened to different flavors being yelled out to me, I finally hear one volunteer yell out vanilla again. Great, I can get vanilla as I sat there holding the strawberry gel in my hand. I had thoughts first of just chucking the strawberry gel next to the volunteer to get the vanilla but then decided to just put the strawberry in my pocket as I grabbed the vanilla. I often wonder to myself though how many people sit there chucking the different flavors along the road as they hear other flavors that sounds more interesting to them along the race. As I continued running, I noticed that the 3:05 pacer has slowed up a little as I’m starting to gain some ground on him. I pondered to myself for some time thinking maybe I should just push up ahead and catch up with the 3:05 pace group but as I thought more about the upcoming Summit Hill climb, I decided I needed to conserve as much energy as possible. Somewhere after Lake Street, my boss Jeff is out spectating on the course with his daughter Claire. They cheered me on as I gave them a wave.
Splits:
Mile 14 – 7:20
Mile 15 – 6:44
Mile 16 – 6:59
Mile 17 – 7:02
Mile 18 – 7:05
Official 30K:
30K – 2:11:19 / 7:04 pace
Place – 458 / 8773
Ok, people are starting to fall apart. 41 people are passed overall from the half way point.
30K to 35K
As I pushed up the hill towards the Franklin Bridge and then crossed over it, I could see that the pacer was starting to gain more distance on me. It was probably a good idea not to run up ahead with him earlier. The Medtronic tent and water stop awaited me after Mike 19 and after this I decided to take the gel that I had gotten at Mile 17. After I had taken the first gel at Mile 9, my stomach had acted up but then the pain went away. I was a little concerned whether taking the second gel would cause the same issue and it did but overall it didn’t affect my performance. After the second gel, I decided that I wasn’t going to be taking a third gel during the race. As I pushed further ahead, I know the Summit Hill was near and I knew that l still had quite a bit of energy left in my legs. As I pass through be ALARC wall and the Team Ortho Monster Dash decorations, I entered into St. Paul and made the first small hill climb to reach the Lake Street Bridge. I always use this first small hill as a test. If I feel like it was hard work getting up this first small hill, then I know I'm screwed for the Summit Hill. I knew I had run a smart race and the climb up and over to get under the Lake Street Bridge didn’t seem like it was so hard. As I prepared myself to run up the hill to Summit, I focused on taking small steps to concur the hill. I stayed close behind another runner and slow and steadily we continued to run and get up the hill. I knew the first bad part was over. Now I needed to deal with the gradual climb of Summit to get past Snelling Avenue. Somewhere along this area is where the 35K mat was located. As I was getting tired, my memory of the later portion of the marathon is pretty fuzzy in my mind.
Splits:
Mile 19 – 7:13
Mile 20 – 7:04
Mile 21 – 7:14
Official 35K:
35K – 2:33:54 / 7:06 pace
Place – 428 / 8776
More people falling apart. Another 30 more people overall were passed by me from the 30K mark.
35K to Mile 24
As I continued to run up Summit, I was starting to pass quite a lot of people but these people were not walking. They were running too, but just slower than me. It felt good to be passing all these runners but it was also starting to get tiring for me also to be going uphill. I knew the course flattens after Snelling and all the while I could see the stop light for where Snelling Avenue was located. I got up to the Mile 23 mark to see that I had run only a 7:25 pace for that mile. I hoped again that this was because of the gradual incline on Summit from Cretin to Snelling and was happy again to see the Mile 24 split at 6:57. Somewhere along here I must have taken some more salt tablets. I don’t really have a memory of it, but I know I did take some. Also, I had previously studied the TC10K map for our 10K participants and I knew that the turn around point for them was at Albert Street. As I got to Albert Street, I knew there was only roughly 5K left of distance. Just need to hold on to get to the finish.
Splits:
Mile 22 – 7:25
Mile 23 – 7:25
Mile 24 – 6:57
Official 35K:
24 – 2:49:56 / 7:05 pace
Place – 388 / 8778
Wow, in just 1.3 miles, I passed 40 runners overall. Majority of them were on the initial incline on Summit.
Mile 24 to Finish
Mile 24 to the Finish, there’s not much that I can remember. After crossing the river on Franklin Avenue, I had lost sight of the 3:05 pacer group but as I sat at Mile 25, I could again see the pace group up ahead not more than 0.2 of a mile ahead of me. Here, many people are struggling. I know there’s just over 1 mile left in the race and I’m doing everything I can to keep the pace up. We make the slight left turn on Summit and at some point here I could hear the bells ringing on the Cathedral. As we make it to the Cathedral and have the final climb down to the finish line, I can see the banner and know that the end is near. I easily ran the downhill and then gave it everything I had across the I-94 Bridge and into the finish line. During the last 0.2 of a mile, I see a runner with the Global Medtronic Hero shirt and I know I definitely want to finish before this girl.
Splits:
Mile 25 – 7:07
Mile 26 – 7:06
Mile 26.2 – 1:28
Official Marathon:
26.2 – 3:05:34 / 7:05 pace
Place – 357 / 8782
I passed 31 people in the last 2 miles of the race. From my starting position of 468th at the start line, I finished 357th overall. Considering I started right at the “Under 3:10” sign and finished at 3:05, I would probably say I started at about the correct position for this race.
Heart Rate: Average: 167 / Max: 178
My goal was to keep my heart rate at 168 or less. I finished with an average heart rate of 167 bpm. The max 178 bpm heart rate occurred in the last 0.2 miles as I pushed into the finish line.
Final Thoughts
This definitely wasn’t my fastest marathon as I ran 3:02 at last year’s Twin Cities but I can definitely say it was more enjoyable than last year. I knew with the training miles that I had put in that my Sub 3:00 stretch goal was probably not realistic, and I’m glad that I didn’t make the mistake of trying to run out at the Sub 3:00 pace and having a miserable second half. In looking at the 2 halfs of the race, I ran 1:32:05 for the first half marathon and then 1:33:29 for the second half marathon. A positive split of 1:24 which I think is not too bad. Twin Cities is such a hard course to negative split as the Summit Hill sits late in the second half after Mile 20 of the race.