Jeff's Play-by-Play of the 1999 Twin Cities Marathon

Going into it, I knew damn well I hadn't trained as much as I should've, but oh well.  My last 20-mile training run was in August, a week before the Woodbury Country Mile. Can't move my anniversary (September 17th...JoAnn and I took a vacation, which made it hard to do a long run that weekend). Based on my Country Mile half-marathon time (1:34:29), I should've been able to complete the marathon in about 3:25 to 3:30, if I had trained properly for the remaining three weeks.  However, I realized about three weeks before the marathon that setting some artificial time goal for a first marathon was kinda silly (especially when the training gets in the way of more important things). Just do the marathon and enjoy it.

...Started out running with Bill (my neighbor) for the first two miles or so. It took us 3 minutes to get to the starting line...

Mile 1: 8:51.8
Mile 2: 8:47.3
Mile 3: 8:45.3

...Still really crowded. Lost Bill in the crowd. First water stop was nuts. Started picking up the pace...

Mile 4: 8:16.2
Mile 5: 8:14.2
Mile 6: 8:11.8
Mile 7: 8:20.7

...Ate my first goo. Feeling great...

Mile 8: 7:54.1
Mile 9: 8:04.1
Mile 10: 8:22.0

...Still feeling great.  Had tons of energy at the 10 mile mark when I saw JoAnn...

Mile 11: 8:15.1 (estimated)

...Started to get scared.  My time for this mile was originally 8:55!!!  Didn't feel like I was running any slower. Turns out (according to Gergen) that the mile marker was in the wrong spot...

Mile 12: 8:17.4
Mile 13: 8:17.4

...#12 and #13 are averaged because I never saw mile marker #12. Half-way through the race and my time was about 1:50. Since I hadn't really been pushing too hard, I felt I could realistically finish the marathon in 3:45 at this point. Started feeling a bit of pain in my hamstrings.

Mile 14: 8:30.0
Mile 15: 8.30.0

...Had goo #2. Once again, these times are averaged because I never saw mile marker #14...  Arg.  At mile marker #15, my hamstrings were really starting to hurt.

Mile 16: 8:59.0
Mile 17: 9:03.1

...Ouch. Had to stop and stretch for the first time. Okay, maybe 3:40 isn't in the cards for today. So what. I'm going to finish, and probably in under 4 hours if I can just keep running at a slow jog.

Mile 18: 9:29.5
Mile 19: 9:52.5

...Ouch!! Stopped to walk/stretch for a little in each mile now. Feet are beginning to hurt also.

Mile 20: 10:34.2

...This was disappointing because I lost track of the mile markers and thought for the whole mile that this was mile #21...Legs and feet hurting pretty bad now.  Walking up hills.

Mile 21: 12:19.5
Mile 22: 10:49.2
Mile 23: 11:47.5
Mile 24: 10:36.2

...Kept trying to run it out, but I was having a really hard time. My feet were killing me now. I just wanted it to be over with. Saw Jesse the Body in front of his house, but I was in too much pain to scream, "Butthead!!". 4 hours was still possible, if I could run 10 minute miles for the last two.  They were downhill after all.  I just ran 24 miles...certainly I can endure 22 more minutes of pain.

Mile 25: 14:47.6
Mile 26.2: 16:43.0

...Started running mile #25 for about two minutes, but realized I couldn't keep it up and my hope for a sub-4 hour marathon was shot. Who cares. Just finish. It'll be over soon. The pain was tremendous now.  Legs, feet, abs, back.  I wondered how the Vikings were doing. People were passing me like olestra. The crowd was great. "Come on 1100! only two more miles! Keep it up!" I literally felt like crying with every step. I looked back for Bill a few times, hoping he'd come flying by me and grab his sub-4 hour goal. A few women were bawling and walking, which was pretty depressing. When I saw the finish line, I decided I would run the rest of the way. I did.

Of 7,500 entrants and 6,001 finishers, I finished in 3,263rd place. My time was 4:10:38.

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