My Wife's 20th TC Marathon!!

Saturday was a fun morning. My wife woke up and headed out on a little run with her friend Megan. They planned on doing the (virtual) TC Marathon together from our front steps. It would be my wife's 20th TC Marathon in the last 21 years!

Charlie stepped outside with his bare feet and in his robe on the 40 degree morning, and he gave them a countdown to start:

GOOOOO!!!

My sister-in-law and her kids met up with us at our first cheering point. We went around Bde Maka Ska which was near their 10 mile point:

Steph made some signs.


The cousins being goofy.


Here come Megan and Mama!


Sarah stopped to shed a layer, and then they kept going.

We saw so many people out there "racing" the marathon or the 10 Mile. Both of those races would have been the next morning (Sunday), and that's when I got a group together to do an unofficial 10 mile. My wife's one complaint about the virtual race is that it would have been nice to have been mailed race numbers. They were mailed medals, finish lines, and shirts, but it would have added to the camaraderie of "racers" had they been able to pick out who was "racing."

We were off to the next point to cheer. FYI: here was their planned route:

CLICK HERE for a larger version. (They tacked on more north
of Nokomis, so they ended about 0.6 miles before the finish marked here.)


Just before mile 13.


Go ladies!

We also kept seeing Kelly D. She was someone I worked with through Lifetime when I helped promote some of their events. I think we saw her about 3 or 4 times:

Me shouting to Kelly (left) "I swear I'm not here just to cheer YOU on!"


Mile 16!


The cousins playing near Lake Nokomis as we waited for the runners.


Around the lake at mile 18!


This was their big stop: they refilled waters and had a snack.
Megan is talking to someone who's asking about their race to the right.

Steph and her kids played a little more, and then took off. The boys and I grabbed a bite, and then headed along River Road to cheer a few more times in the final miles. Here we found them around mile 21:

We collected acorns for a while after they left.


Stripping hydration vests around mile 23.


We got to mile 25-ish and found this woman who just finished the 10 mile!


Megan and Sarah on the "St. Paul side" of the river with JUST over a mile to go!

We clocked out about where we figured they'd finish. Unfortunately, it was an area of River Road where there were NO areas to park. So we parked about 3-4 blocks away and ran to the (suspected) finish line with their finish line tape in hand! And it turns out we were about right: my wife clocked in a 26.22 mile run on Saturday!!

Nice job, ladies!!


Looking good post-marathon!


Back at our house with their medals!


A burrito bowl and a cozy cat later that afternoon. Nice.

One of Steph's signs said something like "20 before 40" because TODAY MY WIFE TURNS 40!!! Happy birthday cutie!!

Her and Megan ran it in just over 5 hours. But they both did it casually. She figures she would have easily taken 30 minutes off if it were an "actual" race, and she kinda wished they would have picked it up a BIT in the last few miles to break 5. But she's just happy to keep her streak alive: every TC Marathon since 2000 except for when she was pregnant with Charlie and had some minor pregnancy complications.

If you missed it, here's my last post where I ran my first "race" in 14 months. It was a fun weekend!!