Hot and Bothered

As I'm sure most of you know Sunday was the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The weather made the race very difficult, not that it's an easy course otherwise. The TCM is a great but challenging marathon, and Sunday it more than lived up to the billing.

Prior to the marathon was the TNT Pasta Party on Saturday night. Everyone came, enjoyed some good food, shared their nervousness, and heard from our two fall-season honorees, which reminded us all why we're doing this - for the cause. Coach Mike gave some last minute advice and everyone left to try and get some sleep.

Sunday morning was hot and humid. Just standing around you were starting to sweat, and meeting inside the Dome where it seemed to be even hotter made it all the more interesting.

Julie and I left as the team headed to the start line. Mile 4.5 was our first stop and we got there just as the first elite runners were passing by. As everyone passed us they all looked good and seemed to be doing ok, just some minor issues with the heat.

Once all the TNT folks passed by we headed over to Snelling and Summit which was right before the 23-mile mark. We knew it was going to be an interesting day when the first elite runner went by and he had at least a 5-minute lead on the rest of the pack - very unusual.

Most of the people who were on a 3-hour or less pace seemed to be handling the heat ok and were still running when they went by. But after that it changed considerably.

We had already heard this was the hottest race day in TCM history and the humidity was stifling. After the 3-hour marathoners went by it seemed like everything slowed down. I would guess 80-90% of the runners from then on where walking - understandable considering the heat and the fact that where we were was near the end of a long up-hill stretch.

Nearly all the TNT runners were quite a bit off their anticipated pace and a few ended up dropping due to the heat. I did some looking on-line and only 31% of the registered runners finished the race and the average pace compared to last year was about a minute per mile slower. Everyone was being affected by the weather.

Our TNT cheer station at mile 23 was our official TCM-judged cheer station. We had a great turnout of nearly 30 people and we made a TON of noise non-stop. When the judges rode up on their bikes they said they heard us quite a ways down the street and that we were probably the loudest ones there. All-in-all I think we put a great face on the TNT program.

Congrats to everyone on the TNT TCM team as well as the many TNT alumni who were out running. It had to be about the worst conditions you could imagine and they left everything out there on the course. We're so proud of all of you!