7 Minute Miles

2013 Twin Cities Marathon


Well, that was fun. Marathon number 22 is in the books (ninth TCM) and it was the fastest one for me yet. I’m terrible at calculating times, but Google says I actually ran my first reverse split in a marathon. Here are the main stats:

  • Official chip time: 3:43:32 (8:32 pace)
  • 13.1M split: 1:52:46
  • Overall: 1932/8849
  • Age group: 216/692
  • Garmin splits: 9:13, 8:46, 8:40, 8:46, 8:49, 8:44, 8:59, 8:00, 8:15, 8:14, 8:14, 8:10, 8:19, 8:11, 8:04, 8:17, 8:15, 8:33, 8:24, 8:26, 8:21, 8:32, 8:42, 8:33, 8:44, 8:34

I’m not entirely sure how accurate those watch splits are, as the Garmin was off at almost every mile marker. It also said I ran 26.38 miles – I know I’m sometimes bad at running the tangents, but that seemed like a lot.

This was a great social day. My former neighbor Tim stopped and visited at the Metrodome before the race, where I also met Megan and her dad. We walked with Yaniha to the start and I ran the first seven miles with Megan. She was diagnosed with asthma earlier in the week, but still finished under 4:15. Congrats to all of the people I knew running the full:

  • Megan – 4:14:55
  • Tom – 5:06:53
  • Yaniha – 4:06:36
  • Tim – 4:32:57
  • Deb – 4:01:25
  • Kris – 3:40:00
  • Elizabeth – 3:46:43

Congrats also to Twitter friends Kat (@kljwm) and Kristi (@lifeisfunner), who had great runs during the TC 10 Mile today too. And big shout outs to my only spectator Renee (@twindependent), as well as finish line security volunteer Marc (@WDWGolfer).

Overall, I felt pretty decent right after the race and walked down to United Hospital to get a ride back to my car at the Fort Snelling park and ride. Since I got home, the main pains have been my left ankle and (strangely enough), my neck. Not a big deal, though – should be fine by tomorrow.

While I’m very happy with the PR (which knocked nearly two and a half minutes off the old time), it still highlighted just how hard qualifying for Boston will be. Even with the extra time for getting older, I’m still more than 18 and a half minutes away.

Dang, now that’s fast.

Originally published by DK on October 6, 2013 at 3:41 pm in Friends, Longform, Marathons, Running


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