Photos from the TC 10 Mile and TC Marathon!

Sunday was my wife's 19th Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in 20 years! I was hoping to run the 10 Mile for my team (and because I LOVE that race), but I pulled up injured 2 months ago. We had lots of family out there to cheer on! Here are some photos.

The boys and I got to our cheering spot about 0.45 miles from the finish shortly after the 10 mile started. We were ready to settle in for a long day:

I tweeted this Sunday morning with the caption:
"When’s this lame-ass candy-less parade gonna start?"


Our cheering signs (in my anticipated finishing order; I only had 2 of them flip-flopped).


The lead pack of 5 guys in the 10 mile, and the lead 2 women behind them!

There's an "equalizer" format at this race where the women start in front of the men by a few minutes, and then it's a TRUE race to the finish. The guys had just caught the women a minute before this photo. The top 4 men ended up within 4 seconds! And Sara Hall ended up kicking to a win by 6 seconds.

Hall (left) pulled away down the hill.


Meghan Roth (a local who I raced at the Square Lake Half Iron in 2013) was near the
back of the "championship" wave, finishing just a few seconds slower than an hour.


Former student Jeremy turned in a 55 minute 10 mile!


Fellow dad Jared finished in 1:04.

Then the course started filling up with more runners, so the kids gave LOTS of high-fives. My boys were there with their cousins:

Starting off in full costume: Black Panther, 2 Spider-Mans ("Spider-Men?"), and Wonder Woman!


The state capitol off in the distance, just beyond the finish line.




Gym buddy Leah ran a 1:14! (In the gray.)




So many smiles from people getting high-fives. We LOVED it
when people cut all the way across the course to get a high-five.


Running royalty! :)

First in our family was Angela! She started behind her hubby Matt, and she passed him as he was in a bad mood around mile 8:

Angela! (With a woman in a Wonder Woman shirt cutting
across the course to get a high-five from Wonder Woman.)


Nice job, Angela!


Next was Steph!...


... and little brother Matt was RIGHT NEXT TO HER! Nice job Matt and Steph!


Here comes Annie!


A final high-five from Henry! (He chased the wrong woman just ahead in the
gray shorts yelling "ANNIE!" before realizing that wasn't Annie. Oops.)

Steph started 7 minutes behind Matt, and they finished together, so in my 2nd photo with my "predictions," I just needed to flip-flop Steph and Old Matt. Angela ran 1:30, Steph ran 1:34, Matt ran 1:41, and Annie ran 1:53. Matt had a rough last half as his stats showed that he PASSED 7 people and WAS PASSED by 1506. Ouch. Steph and Annie positive split it a bit less (Steph by about 1.5 minutes and Annie by about 2.5 minutes), and Angela nearly evenly split it (with a 45:37 first half and 45:19 second half - in the last half, she PASSED 176 and WAS PASSED by 209 [much more even]).

The boys and I were chatting with "favorite trainer Laurie" from our gym across the street from where we "set up camp" when the lead marathon runners came by:

It's rare to see NO ONE behind the leader!! (2:12:23)


Second place had NO ONE behind him either! There's a "wheeler" barely visible back there. (2:13:50)


And 3rd is a St. Paul native who is an alumni of my boys' school! Nice job Danny Docherty! (2:15:55)


Pile-o-cousins.


The lead female was paced by a teammate. (2:31:29)


2nd was from the south metro! (2:32:49)


And 3rd had a smile on her face. (2:34:07)


Tri-buddy Sean! (Who I've really only talked to a few times,
but we tried to get him to buy the house next door a few years back.)


Former Olympian Carrie Tollefson turning in a 2:51 (good for 17th place female)!
(That's favorite trainer Laurie and her hubby Tom back there.)


Charlie gave Angela a back-rub, and Angela MAY HAVE promised Charlie a puppy.


Cozy cousins.


Someone was dressed as Cookie Monster and was handing out cookies.
Here, he popped into the race to run with a buddy for a block.


That sign on the right is awesome/brutal.


YWCA Teammate Jennifer (in the red) heading down the hill to finish just sub-3:30!


Henry's new trick.

Before too long, we saw "New Matt" coming to the finish!! Goooooo Matt!

#BeardOnPoint

And then came my wife! She got a BAD cold (like REALLY bad) around Monday of last week, and she just BARELY started to feel better on Sunday morning just a few hours before the race. So she wasn't too concerned about any specific finishing time - she just wanted to finish.

A pre-race Facebook post.


I love this: Charlie's sprinting down the course to give Mama a hug.


Running through her cheering section, on her way to
TC Marathon finish #19 (total marathon count #21, plus 2 more IMs).


"Blisters are braille for 'awesome'!"

Nice job family! I hope everyone is recovering well!

And a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wife! She had the day off yesterday (the day after the marathon), and we got a "day date" for lunch at Cafe Latte! I love you, cutie!