National Marathon - RunMarathon

I had hoped to run with Dave W, but never saw him. Instead ran with Molly's friend Melissa. This turned out to be great. We stayed together for 15 miles. She was cute looking back trying to encourage me to stay with her, but finally I convinced her to just go.

Some people complained about not seeing mile markers. I just figured I didn't see them due to the crowds. I had my Garmin so I wasn't too worried. Plus we knew roughly where the aid stations were supposed to be so we could tell the mileage from that. Even so, my Garmin was not happy with the tunnels and ended up at 26.65. I seriously considered chucking it in the river somewhere in the 21 mile range. I will seriously consider running the next one with just a watch.

I had my own gels (did one at 7, 15, and 22), but saw plenty on the course. People complained that there weren't any in the first half, but I know we passed at least one spot where they had them (cause Melissa grabbed one), maybe more. There were a few stops early on, that might not have had enough water in the cups ahead of time, but we always got what we needed without having to wait.

One funny thing was just past Howard U, a woman said to Melissa and I, "I don't know you, but I just have to tell someone that I have no idea where my car is." We thought that was funny. She had just parked someplace on the street. I don't think Melissa was positive where her car was, but at least it was in one of the lots!

We were really happy when the half split off - it was much more enjoyable without the hoards of people. We happened to spot Molly just as we got back to the road heading away from the stadium. She was just coming up to where the half/full split was.

We saw my family at mile 6 and then I saw them again at ~16.

I liked having my name on my bib especially in the 2nd half. I was wearing my Twin Cities shirt so some people said things like "Go Twin Cities" in the first half. I got a kick out of that too.

The volunteers especially in the later miles were fantastic. They seemed to be primarily kids and they were so sweet. They'd hand me a cup and say "You can do it Courtney" or something like that. I made sure to thank them for being there!

There were fewer spectators on the 2nd half, but the ones that were there were enthusiastic. I paricularly remember a woman along Minnesota Ave sitting on the steps of her house by herself calling out encouraging things to everybody.

Run more miles in training!!! I probably should've tried to stay with Melissa a little bit longer.

Got my medal/space blanket and followed along to the food tent. Love the medal by the way! The spread was OK. Got water, a banana, a cookie, a pretzel (that turned out to be awful), a granola bar, and a cup of fruit. I only ate the cookie and banana right away. I found my mom and dropped stuff in her tote bag. I wanted to wait for Molly, but I was stiffening up so I needed to keep walking. Then, it was too cold to keep waiting for Molly so I went into the Armory to get my bag and change into dry clothes. Went back outside, called Chris and Chad, and then rejoined my family just as Molly was finishing. We waited for her to go get her stuff and then took pictures. Metro back to the hotel.


Lack of training miles this time around. For Twin Cities, my weekly mileage was consistentely in the high 30s/low 40 mpw range. This time I was down in the high 20s/30s and I could just tell I didn't have enough umph to hold the pace over the last 10 miles.


I put yes for organized, but I think they need to do a better job of organizing the start. If they are going to have corrals they need to enforce them (I think people didn't want to walk down to the end corrals so they just jumped in where they saw a place). We didn't have any trouble getting in, but we heard a lot people did.

Overall, I had a lot of fun at this race. I was slightly disappointed with my time, but when I look back at my training logs it's obvious why I ran what I did.