Final Recap of Twin Cities Marathon

              After missing the Olympic Standard by sixty-five seconds at the 118^th Boston Marathon, I set a goal to go after the Olympic standard of 2:18 at the Twin Cities Marathon. Why Twin Cities? The weather is consistently ideal, the course is fast and being a US Championship was an extra bonus.

(un) Lucky bib no. 13

               With this year’s race being a U.S. Championship, the hospitality was superb. The Twin Cities in Motion people sure know how to host runners! With the race being on Sunday,  I arrived on Thursday in order to give me time to relax before all other athletes arrived Friday. I followed though the same tapering phase I had done for Boston. I felt pretty relaxed on the days leading up to the race.  With the way my training had gone, I believed anything was possible on race day. I believed I was capable of not just running under 2:18, but also competing for a top 10 spot. 

             After a traditional pre marathon four-day caffeine depletion, waking up at 4:55am for Caribou coffee was greeted with such excitement. At 6:00am, I joined some three dozen other runners on the elite bus headed towards the Renaissance Hotel, where we would stay until the race. At 7:30am, we made a half mile walk from the hotel to the bag drop-off location which was adjacent to the starting line.  The warm up was short and quick. By 7:55am, I was on the starting line finishing up my last minute strides. Five minutes later the gun went off and it was all business.

8 bottles and Gu (5 water, 3 mixed)

Leading the pack at mile 7 (5:10)

          Unlike Boston, this race was a tightly bunched pack from the start. We went through the 5k at a “pedestrian” 16:27 – maybe the 35 degree start had something to do with it. Soon after, the next 5k was hit in 16:03. I stayed near the back of the pack and several times found myself near the front by accident. The pace varied from as slow as 5:17 to as fast as 5:04 as the pack began to thin out. After hitting the halfway point in 68:08, I made a decision to slightly back off as to not get caught up in the fast pace too early. I worked with another athlete told him “Let’s work together and we will reel them in later”. I found out that athlete was Nathan Martin, who would later go on to finish 5^th.
                 We worked together from miles 13 to 16 and were hitting our paces right on. At about 16.5 miles, I felt a sharp pain come from behind my left leg. I stopped immediately as I completely lost my leg turnover. Knowing that the pain felt very sharp, I didn’t mind stopping and taking the time to stretch. It certainly didn’t feel good even after the stretching. I tried to restart the motor one more time and my left leg didn't cooperate. I put my hands on my face and sat down on the grass in disbelief about what had just happened in matter of seconds. Soon I walked to the medical area at mile 17 and was transported to the finish. A day later I would eventually find out that I tore my left adductor muscle. At the time I dropped out from the race, I was still on 2:15:57 pace.  Even without being able to finish the race, there are some positives I will take form this training block: the training program. This was the fittest I've ever been for a marathon and I'm excited to rebuild for the next one. The chase for 2:18 will have to wait until spring 2015...