The 2012 Twin Cities Marathon: Pharmie's 13th, Ben's 2nd, and Angela's 1st!

Yesterday was my wife's 13 STRAIGHT TWIN CITIES MARATHON!!!!!! (And it was the 3rd time the race fell on HER BIRTHDAY!) And my brother-in-law's girlfriend Angela did her FIRST marathon!! (Angela was the one who we cheered on to her first triathlon this past summer.) And Pharmie's cousin Ben was going to be doing his second ever marathon, and his first attempt at Twin Cities.

Angela, Pharmie, and Ben!


Dad, Mom, and Aunt Nancy getting a photo.


Matt and Angela pre-race. Aaaaaadorable.

We had to keep warm at the start - it was 29 degrees! Great for running, but maybe not for cheering.

We cheered the "wheelers" on when they started their race, and then soon the runners were on their way!!

Lydia and Chris!


Angela in the mix!


This awesome remote controlled mini-helicopter kept zipping around 20 feet up while taking
video of the runners. The "pilots" were just behind us. Looked like a fun toy!


Pharmie getting ready to throw her pants at me! (A common occurrence in my life.)


Pharmie and running buddy Laura starting the race.

We missed Ben at the start - he blended in to the other 11,999 runners there. So Matt, Mom, Dad, Nancy, and I made our way back to the car. Matt said something like "Steve, I don't think Angela understands all the clothes that get left behind at the start. Get a photo of this." So I did:

There was a solid block that looked like this. These get picked up and donated.


Using an empty porta-potty at the start once the 12,000 runners had ran away.
(My tummy was a bit upset all weekend.)

So our cheering section of 5 hopped in the car and headed towards mile 15. We first stopped at a gas station for some caffeine. When we got to mile 15, we saw the lead wheelers go zipping by. I stopped off in a porta-potty AGAIN, and I noticed the beautiful leaves on the roof as I was doing my business inside:

Speedy Ben Merchant going by on his way to a 2:38 and 73rd overall finish!
(And 1,000 Grand Prix points.)


Buff tattooed topless dudes. (It was 32 degrees at this point.)


COUSIN BEN!!

Ben ran up to his Mom to grab a gel, and he did this sweet 360 spin without hardly slowing down:

Off he goes!


Angela running past!


My parents keeping warm while cheering!

I changed into my grim reaper costume for a bit at mile 15. It was the same grim reaper outfit I wore in a Half Ironman 4 years ago:

Most runners gave me a sideways smile. The ones that reacted strongly were the best: "Oh no!! It's TOO SOON to see you!!" was one of my favorite quotes. Most people just pointed and laughed. I patted a lot of people on my butt with my (plastic) sickle, but I made sure those were people who would find it funny and not get too freaked out. I even chased a guy with a jack-o-lantern on his shirt for a while because I thought we'd make a good pair.

Soon we spotted Pharmie and her training buddy Laura. I was happy to see them still running together!

Pharmie's Mom had to work during the race, but she got it off, so she surprised Pharmie by being up there with us! Her Mom held out her gels to give to her as a big birthday / marathon surprise!

Spotting her Mom holding the gels!


Stopping for a hug!


Running back to catch up with Laura (who just was hovering there....)

After seeing our 3 runners at mile 15, we made a mad dash to mile 25.5 near the finish line. There was some horrible race-related traffic around Lake Street, but we still managed to get there. First we stopped at home to pick up Annie and Henry - we figured it be great if someone could stay home with Henry for the coldest part of the day, and Auntie Annie was a great babysitter!

We knew we'd miss speedy cousin Ben, and we did because he finished in 3:23! Congrats Ben!! (And that was with a stop in a porta-potty to strip his tights under his running shorts! Ha!) But we got there and started cheering for the rest of the runners. I changed into the grim reaper costume for a few minutes again:

Matt cheering in the background.

(It was more fun to be death at mile 15 vs mile 25. At mile 25, everyone was really hurting and just looking for the finish. At mile 15, people saw me and had a good laugh.)

Death, Mom / Grandma, and Henry! (Kind of a weird family photo...)

Angela came running by looking GREAT on her way to the finish!

Yay Angela!


Running off with Matt

I think she was shooting for sub-4 if possible, but she managed to finish her first marathon in 4:10! That's GREAT!!! I hope you're proud of that, Angela!

Here was our crew near the finish:

Christine, Sauce, Matt, Nancy, Jon, Monica, Baby Evie, Annie, Mom, and Baby Henry.


My Dad was back there too, but he was catching a little snooze.
(I have a lot of photos of my father-in-law doing this over the past years too. Ha!)


Auntie Annie and Henry.


Henry cheering in his "old man sweater!"

Less than 15 minutes after Angela went running past, I spotted the birthday girl! And she was STILL running with her training buddy Laura!

Yay Ladies!

I mentioned it was Angela's first marathon, but it was Laura's first marathon too! Congrats to the BOTH of you!!

We also spotted Sven Sundgaard running past and gave him a big cheer. He's a meteorologist for Kare 11 TV here in the Cities. He gave us a wave as he went by:

"Sven: the meteorologist who's not as fast as my wife."
I kid! I kid! :)

Pharmie made it back up the hill to where we were cheering, and she got a big hug from Henry to celebrate her 4:23 marathon!

Two marathoners and one boy who's stealing his Mom's potato chips.

Matt or Sauce asked if I saw Angela's foot. I became giddy and said, "No! WHY?!?" She took off her UGGs (yes, she changed out of her running shoes and into UGGs ASAP) and showed me this:

Sweet Lord! That's a nice battle wound after 26.2 miles!! Wear that thing with pride, Angela....

So everyone had a pretty successful day. Angela and Ben mentioned that it got pretty rough in the final miles, but that's kinda to be expected at a marathon, right?

Congrats to all the racers yesterday!!