We started on our “Dam Tour” today….going to all of the Lock and Dams along the Mississippi to the last one in Missouri. Today, we did L&D’s from 1-5 and then stopped in Winona to have dinner with Lucas and Erin….but first I want to write about the Twin Cities Marathon!
Jackie ran the full Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday…this was her first full marathon (26.2 miles) having run the half-marathon in Duluth at Grandma’s in June. Can you imagine running for a little over 5 hours!?!?!?
When some of us decided that we wanted to watch her run, she requested that we not all just meet at the finish line but to be on the route in various places to help keep her motivation high. It was a beautiful day for the Marathon. I believe someone told me that they used to run it in September but they had to cancel a couple of times because of the heat so the thought was move to October to hopefully stay away from the high heat days. And Sunday was definitely a perfect day for the race. It starts in downtown Minneapolis, by the US Bank Stadium, goes around the lakes and goes across the Mississippi River in to St. Paul, ending at the Capitol off of Summit.
Dori, Jackie’s neighbor decided to be at Mile 8, which was a good “keep it going” for Jackie. Caley and Darcee first went near Minnehaha Creek (around Mile 15) and we (David, I, Jason and Jen) were at Mile 23.5. It was such a great experience. In fact both Jen and I brought books with us to read, and even though we waited about 90 minutes for Jackie to run by, we never opened our books. We had so much fun cheering racers on. We are the very top of the last tall hill, with only one small hill left to get to the finish line. We often told the runners that they were at the top of the hill, which reallly helped them with more motive to keep going. Some of the runners have their names on their bibs so we would cheer them on with their name and so many smiled as we did or waved.
We knew where Jackie was by following her on the TC Motion app…and knew when she was about a block away. We both made signs and also had heavy duty cow bells….pink of course. Wearing a bright pink shirt we quickly spotted her over a block away and started ringing the bells and waving the signs. She actually had a smile on her face, we told her she made it to the peak of the hill and she knew the finish line was so close.
(I will add a picture here of her running by us….photos not accessible now…)
She did make it across the finish line with about 1000 runners behind her. She thought it would be 5-1/2 hours, but she was just over 5 hours.
As we were leaving the viewing area, there was a young woman in one of the “toe ATV’s” and she was crying. I just had to go over to her and give her a hug…I told her she did great, but she said she never finished but got injured…I said you did great. Felt so bad for her and that she was crying…but I understand with the training Jackie did to run a full marathon that I am sure that young lady also did and such a disappointment to get hurt. I know she will be back never year.
After we went to Jackie and Jermar’s….Jackie wanted everyone to come over and watch the game and we insisted that she just sit in her chair. Caley said she needed to take an ice bath, which she did for about 10 minutes. From how she felt the next 2 days, I think the ice bath really helped. Jackie googled what she should eat after a marathon and the suggestion was that you eat whatever sounds fantastic…so we ordered Benihana’s!!! Great celebration meal.
If you ever get a chance to cheer on marathon runners do it….it is really fulfilling. We really noticed those final runners really appreciated the cheers of encouragement.
Ok, tomorrow I will review our first day of our Dam Tour.
Have a great day…whatever day it is!
