Twin Cities Marathon Expo

We made our way to the expo, and I was so excited to spend all the monies. It's been a long time (4 years!) since I've run a marathon and I gave myself a little budget to purchase some fun things to commemorate the occasion. We went to the official race gear first so we didn't miss out on sizing of things.

I fell in love with a super cute vest but the $130 price tag had me second guessing that purchase. I have an amazing winter coat from 605 Running Co. that costs less than that. And I've wore that in -10+ degrees. Uff da. Eventually I talked myself out of it, as well as a $100 light jacket. INSANE. I did snag a cute short sleeved shirt, and a pint glass, of course. 

We picked up our race packets and I took note of their words of encouragement for the race.

We made our way through the booths and took some time for some photo ops. I couldn't believe that I didn't heavily stimulate the economy at this expo. CRAZY. I talked myself out of everything.

BRF jackets!

Before too long we were ready to leave. With almost as much money in our pockets as when we started. sigh. It's the law of marathons. When you have money and want to spend it, there's nothing. When you're poor poor poor there will be all the cute gear and you'll be sad you can't have it. Harumph.

Twin Cities Race Weekend

Friday around lunch time, Toni was off work so I went to pick her up and head to the cities! A pre-road trip car wash and selfie felt necessary at the time.

The drive there felt like it flew by. I think we had two bathroom stops, and we were there. Whoa. We arrived at our hotel and received this visual reminder of just how close we were to the finish line. yessssssss!!

Our hotel has a shuttle to take you within a few miles of the hotel for food/shopping/whatever, but we opted to walk to dinner since we'd spent a few hours in the car. On the way to our dinner destination, I found FALL!.

St. Paul is so adorable, I can't even handle it. I was starving, so I only let myself stop every once in awhile for photos.

We tried to eat at the Red Cow, but they were at an hour wait. Kyle and I ate there after the Monster Dash Half and it was GOOD. We wondered up the road, and The Happy Gnome had immediate seating, but only outdoors, on their super adorable patio, on a gorgeous fall night. Uh.... yes.

Toni and I couldn't decide on our meals, so like good travel partners, we split two: a burger and a veggie/cheesy melty sandwich. So freaking good.

Also, a beer, obviously. 

Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early to head out on our shake out run. The plan was to run 3 miles, ending at a coffee/breakfast place near our hotel and walk back after eating and retrieving breakfast. Except I somehow picked a breakfast place in a hotel, and we had to walk quite a ways to find a caribou. Just what you want the day before your race: unplanned time on your feet. Oops!

We headed back to our hotel and headed out to the expo. We were about a third of a mile from the expo so we walked there as well. Despite bringing all the monies to spend at the race expo, I walked out having only purchased GUs (several toasted marshmallow), and a TCM pint glass. There were some really cute things at Mill City Running but nothing in my size. Bummer.

We stayed close to the expo for lunch and had a decent meal.

Then we headed back to the hotel for some r&r, including a nap. Traveling with Toni is my favorite. Mid-day nap? Yes please. 

When we woke up, it was time to head to dinner. I love that this race weekend was all about food and running, because those are two of my favorite things! We took a ride this time, to Pizza Luce and again split a couple of pizzas. I still have dreams about this mashed potato pizza. It tastes like happiness.

After the race, I grabbed a beer, we showered up and headed back outside into the rain to cheer on all of our running friends!! Such a great race weekend, and I can't wait for next year when it's our turn to tackle 26.2! eeps!

1000 miles + Twin Cities Marathon Expo

My ideal start to a weekend is a Friday off, and cool morning temps for a tempo run.  Ok, just kidding, I will probably dread tempo runs until the day I die, but the cool temps make it not quite so terrible.  Plus, I knew as soon as I was done, it was off to see SUSAN in the Cities!  Yippee!!


I had 7 miles with 5 at goal tempo pace of 8:15.
1. 9:39
2. 8:15
3. 8:11
4. 8:13
5. 8:15
6. 8:04
7. 9:15


7 miles in 59:54 for an average pace of 8:34.  Average tempo pace was 8:11!


Yes, I do think that would be the definition of "killed it."  :)  Usually I lose my mind on tempo runs, so I gave myself a free pass to "pat myself on the back."  According to DailyMile, apparently I had side stitches during miles 2 and 4 but I've already long since forgotten about that, I guess.  Hmm....

When I got home and was logging my run I realized that I had hit 1000 miles for the year.  That’s like icing on top of an already delicious and decadent cake (ie:  right up my alley…..mmm).  Of course I had to google stalk myself to see when I hit it last year….. 8 days sooner.  S.O.B……

After I was showered up and packed it was off to the Cities.  I’m known for getting lost while traveling, and assumed this adventure would be no different.  Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Erika’s doorstep without having to use a single minute of my “30 minute I’m bound to get lost” cushion! 

I finally got to meet Susan, and she’s just as nice/fun/goofy as she seems on her blog, aka she’s a big fun dork like me!  (I mean that as the highest level of complement, Susan, promise!)  We went to find some foooooooooooood and then hit up the Twin Cities Marathon Expo.

When we got to the expo, Susan had wrangled us some VIP passes for the weekend along with invitations to the reception on Friday night.  Race/run with Susan and you become a big deal, good to know!  We grabbed Susan’s bib and were immediately reminded of her running blogger celebrity status when the volunteer asked her if she was Nurse on the Run.  Seriously… it was too awesome.  Not to be outdone, 2 or 3 other readers came up to her while we were at the expo to introduce themselves.  It was seriously so cool.

photo borrowed from Susan, taken by me, so I figure it evens out. :)

After not depleting my bank account (I have no idea who I was this weekend, I didn’t spend $$$$$$$$ it was crazy), we hit up the reception and realized that it was primarily for vendors partnered with the marathon events and elite runners.  I’m willing to bet I have the slowest marathon time of the group…. FYI.  While there we ran in to Hannah who handles the social media for Twin Cities in Motion and asked to take a pic with us “big time running bloggers.”  Thanks for the ego stroke Hannah!  Also, thanks for the new blog to add to my reader!

quick! who has longer hippie hair?  me or susan?!? :)

Saturday we had planned to lounge around to rest up for the big event, so the only thing on our agenda was Susan’s shake out run.  Yikes.  Susan’s “easy” run  = my 5k race pace.  Should be interesting….. :/  She hooked me up with this sweet I <3 Sweat shirt, but secretly I think mine should say I = sweat, so naturally we had to match during our run.

We started off the run and I realized she wasn’t going to kill me, thankfully, and we chatted away.  Until I hit a speed bump.  Literally.  No denying that I’m a klutz.  FYI this is why I’ll never be a trail runner.  I wish I would’ve had the fall on video because I’m guessing it was INTENSE (=hilarious).  We continued on, but I think Susan was afraid I was trying to kill myself to get out of running with her, because our pace slowed a bit.  Ha.

uh...oops.  ouch.

We did 3.06 miles in 27:54 for a pace of 9:08.  Thanks for hanging with me!