We prepared for the TC 10 mile race, enjoyed a historic show at a historic theater and ran 10 miles...here are the details.
Friday afternon my older sister and I went to the River Centre in downtown St. Paul to pick up our race packets for the Twin Cities 10 mile, the race was on Sunday morning. We ventured into runner's paradise (race expo) to get our packets, buy some Gu (energy gel to eat during the race) and some new socks! We really enjoyed browsing all of the running gear and became pretty excited about the race even though we had not trained as much as we should have. Life happens!
Friday evening Mr. G made a delicious fall dinner; we enjoyed a roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms. We had Mr. G's brother and sister in law (B&M) over along with their son C, our active and fun 6 year old nephew. Dinner was great as was our company!
Saturday morning I was able to sleep in a little and once awake I made us breakfast and just relaxed at home...it was lovely. Around 11am I had the pleasure of meeting both of my sisters at the local bridal shop to pick up my baby sister's wedding dress. She is getting married on May 17, 2014 and her dress fit perfectly and looked beautiful. The dress looks like it was made for her! Sorry I can't post a picture of the dress just in case her fiance Sara decided to stop in to read the blog.
Saturday afternoon Mr. G and I met his parents in downtown St. Paul for some appetizers and drinks (sparkling water for me, no alcohol before a race) prior to enjoying Garrison Keillor's live radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" at the historic Fitzgerald Theater. If you don't know what "A Prairie Home Companion" is, check out this link: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/about/
Here is some information about the Fitzgerald Theater:
http://fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org/about/history.shtml
Mr. G loves this radio show and tries to listen to it every Saturday evening if possible, I have really come to enjoy listening as well. To be completely honest I wasn't sure what to expect seeing & listening to the radio show live. I didn't know if I would be bored, fall asleep or love it.
I LOVED IT!! It was incredible to watch this LIVE radio show; it was funny, had beautiful music and incredible sound effects. There is a man who creates all of the sound effects with his voice or little props, no computer whatsoever! The two hour show went by in the blink of an eye and I cannot wait to go back again, I'm hoping we can purchase tickets again before Garrison Keillor retires.
After the show we went home to get ready for the TC 10 Mile race the next morning. My older sister stayed with us so she could take the bus to the start with us. Here is a picture of our running shoes, race chips on (this is how they track a runner's time) and all ready to go!
Sunday morning our alarms went off at 5am, with a 7am race start we needed to be on the 5:55am bus. The start of the Twin Cities 10 mile and full marathon is downtown Minneapolis near the Metrodome. We arrived at the sweat bag drop (each runner is issued a clear plastic bag for extra clothing, etc that is transported to the finish line from the start line) at 6:45am. That gave us enough time to drop our bags, use the facilities, stretch and find our starting corral. Not all runners start at the same time, it avoids a traffic jam of runners if the race officials start the runners in 4 increments. The elite runners start first as they will be in contention to win the race. We started in corral 4 which is the final corral to start; we crossed the start line at 7:15am.
The Twin Cities marathon and 10 mile courses are known as the most beautiful urban marathon due to the gorgeous views along the route. The participants run from Minneapolis to St. Paul through some of the most beautiful parts of the cities. I will focus on the 10 mile course since that is what I participated in. The 10 mile participants enjoy the scenes on both the west and east river parkways, these roads travel along the edge of the mighty Mississippi River. The fall foliage during early October is stunning and with the early morning start the fog is slowly lifting off the river. After following the river parkways the runners begin the long, and exhausting, run up Summit Avenue in St. Paul. The 5 miles of the course that are on Summit Avenue are a steady incline until the runners get to about mile 9, in my opinion it is a brutal part of the course. It is nearing the end of the race and exhaustion has or is beginning to set in. At least for me it did. Summit Avenue is a beautiful area of St. Paul with lovely old Victorian homes, the Govenor's mansion and the historic James J. Hill house.
The spectators are GREAT! People come out to cheer on all of the participants and it makes the run so much more fun. We had a variety of people cheering us on.
At mile 4 we had AL cheering us on, AL is an avid marathon runner and recently completed his first Iron Man competition. He actually ran along with us for a little bit so he was like a traveling cheerleader.
At mile 5 we had my younger sister, brother in law (my older sister and running partners husband), my niece and her roommate. They had water, gu and vitamin chews ready for us to pick up and give us the boost we needed.
At mile 7 we had Mr. G's parents, sister in law M, nephew C and great family friend Larry. C decided to try running along with us for a bit but was very distracted when he discovered the bouncy house about a block down Summit.
Mr. G crossed the finish line about 20 minutes before me and was greeted by his brother and sister in law M&L, once he crossed he was able to join them at the finish line to cheer on me and my sister. It was wonderful to see my loving husband holding up a sign that said "Go Mrs. Granberg!"
Thanks to all of the spectators along the way, your encouragement is wonderful!
Here are some great photos from the race, I need to get the pictures of Mr. G during the race from his mom...as soon as I have those I will add them.
After the race about 13 of us enjoyed some yummy food and drinks at Billy's on Grand Ave and watched some football. It was fun to spend time with both sides of our families and celebrate a great accomplishment! By 2pm...I was ready for a shower and a nap! So Mr. G and I headed home and enjoyed some rest and relaxation before indulging in very tasty Chinese food for dinner. It's not something we have often but it sure tasted great.
We hope you all had as great of a weekend as we did!
With love,
Mrs. G
No comments:
Post a Comment