It seems crazy to me that I ran 1,000 miles this year – that’s like running from Minneapolis to Bozeman, Montana. I’ve never tracked mileage for a whole year before now, though, so we’ll see what happens in 2010…

A friend of mine recently asked for a comprehensive listing of Minnesota races this summer and none of the sites I usually look at had everything in one spot. So here is a list of races I’m thinking about for next year, along with links:

Get in Gear 10K (or half) – April 24, 2010
http://www.getingear10k.com/

Stillwater Marathon/Half – May 30, 2010
http://www.stillwatermarathon.com/

Rochester Med-City Marathon/Half – May 30, 2010
http://www.medcitymarathon.com/

Heart of the City Half – June 5, 2010
http://www.safehavenmn.org/marathon.html

Minneapolis Marathon/Half – June 6, 2010
http://www.teamortho.us/Minneapolis_Marathon

Grandma’s Marathon/Half – June 19, 2010
http://www.grandmasmarathon.com/

Red, White and Boom TC Half – July 4, 2010
http://www.mtcmarathon.org/HalfMarathon/

Twin Cities Marathon/10 Mile – October 3, 2010
http://www.mtcmarathon.org/Marathon/

Monster Half – October 30, 2010
http://www.teamortho.us/Monster_Dash

I always do Get in Gear and the Heart of the City and will likely sign up for the new Fourth of July half (which opens for registration in a few days). I’ll probably pick one spring marathon (either Grandma’s or Minneapolis) and then run TCM with my brother. I was hoping to do one more winter marathon this year, but it doesn’t look like that will work out.

I was a little worried about the weather for this year’s Monster Dash half marathon in Minneapolis – it was near blizzard conditions the night before – but it turned out to be a decent day for a race. Temperatures were in the upper 30s at the start, with winds in the 14-17 mph range. The sun made an appearance and a lot of the course was sheltered from the wind.

The half marathon course was changed for 2009, starting on the north side of Lake Harriet and running the Lake Calhoun loop first, before following the west side of Harriet and the six or so miles out and back along Minnehaha Creek. The last mile was on the east side of Harriet, finishing right where we started.

Team Ortho provided pacers that were spread out at many intervals and I decided to sit between the 1:40 (7:38 pace) and 1:45 (8:01) runners, hoping to keep up with the 1:40 group. I ended up passing the 1:40 pacer after a few miles and stayed in front of him the whole race. He caught up to me at mile 12, but I had a little energy left and finished with a new PR time of 1:39:15 (7:35 pace).

Here are my splits:

• 7:45
• 7:33
• 7:29
• 7:29
• 7:24
• 7:41
• 7:42
• 7:13
• 7:31
• 8:08
• 7:23
• 7:38
• 7:27

There were 2,644 finishers (1,536 women, 1,108 men) and the average time was 2:06:29. The race won by Joseph Radosevich in 1:14:15 (5:41). The women’s champion was Nancy Buselmeier, who finished in 1:27:28 (6:41).

I actually placed 178th overall (17th in my division) and qualified for corral 1 at next year’s TCM. This was also my first half marathon run at a Boston Qualifying pace, so I’m trying to decide what to do next to meet that goal.

The confirmation cards arrived in the mail today for the 2009 Monster Dash events in Minneapolis. This year the races will actually be on Halloween morning – the half marathon I’m running starts at 8:30AM, followed by the 5K that Colleen and the kids are doing at 10:30AM. The plan is for me to finish in under two hours and join them for the 5K.

The field for the half and the 10 mile race is full, so parking will be interesting. The forecast looks good, though. More later…

Here’s what the 2009 editions of the Twin Cities Marathon finisher’s shirt and medal look like. I’ve added the medal to the background image here on the 7 Minute Miles home page (and also on my Twitter page).

Today was the big day – the 28th running of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. This was my sixth TCM (fourteenth total) and today I was running with my friend and neighbor Gina in her first ever marathon.

The weather was perfect (low 40s at the start, overcast skies and light wind) and the race went really well. Gina’s goal was 4:30 and we were on that pace until the last few miles, finishing in 4:36:19 (10:33 pace). I’m very proud of her – she went from her first 8K race last summer to a half marathon this spring to a full marathon today. Impressive!

There were 8,428 finishers today (3,539 women and 4,889 men), with an average time of 4:20:39. Jason Hartmann of Grand Rapids, Michigan, won the men’s title in 2:12:09 (5:03 pace), while Ilsa Paulson of New York won the women’s title in 2:31:49 (5:48 pace).

I’ll be back next year too – my brother will be visiting from Florida to run with me…

7MM 2009 Twin Cities Marathon Photo Gallery

UPDATE:
Link to KARE 11 finish line video (we cross around 30:50)