Sunday, October 30, 2016

TCM Marathon 2016 - Race Recap - Part 1

My bucket list Marathon is complete now ! And I have been humbled by it !

I have spectated TCM Marathon for the last 2 years. It's actually all the marketing pitch and social media updates of past TCM that piped my interest in races, which in turn excited Running as a form of sport. I pushed it away as a race I would run, because Fall Marathon would mean training in Summer. Ah a big no, I told myself, because running in summer heat (or anything above 70F) is torture and summer is full of distracting vacations. But peer pressure is a strong thing. The Run club I ran with, convinced me I could do it. Finally after training for 16 weeks, here I was.

Smooth packet pickup on Fri evening at River Center, St Paul, after hassle free parking in Science Museum parking. The expo was filled with many small business stalls. I managed to buy the sport beans & Clif Block I had forgotten to buy (in-spite of so much advance notice).


The sky-walk between the parking ramp and River Center, gives a great view of St Paul.
 

Pre-race days invovled a guessing game on what the temps are going to be and what is the right outfit ? With 38F predicted, I was wondering if I need gloves, which is pretty drastic. But every online advice was to dress in warm throwaways, because it will warm up after the start time and definitely be hot in a few hours. As usual I over-dressed for the race. I thought it was manageable, because I ran the WRTC 10 miler in a rain jacket without getting warm.

And finally on the race morning, Hubby dropped me at Minneapolis downtown, outside the brand new US Bank Stadium. Stadium photo is from Facebook, because I did not carry my phone with me.


I found my way to Corral 3 and checked-in my packet in my corresponding truck, along with the warm sweater I had. I did not carry my phone, so I don't have any photos till the very end. The Start line was out of stadium - this being the day of Football match too, in the stadium. Port-potties were many and spread out. I managed to use it twice without a long wait. And patiently wait for 8 AM for the race to start. It was pretty packed in Corral 3 and I did not meet any of my training group friends. Absolute electric atmosphere everywhere and jazzy music at the start line. The wait seemed never ending.

Continued in TCM Marathon 2016 - Race Recap - Part 2.

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