Race Recap and Review: Minneapolis Marathon, June 2, 2013, Marathon State #3 - Minnesota

I ran the Minneapolis Marathon on June 2, 2013.  My family and I were in downtown Minneapolis on this weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding.  As a happy coincidence, the Minneapolis Marathon was being run the same weekend, with shuttle buses to the start leaving mere blocks from my hotel and with the finishing line being about a mile from our hotel.

My goal on this one was simple: There was a strict 6 hour gun time cut-off and I needed to beat it to check Minnesota off of my list.  I did with about 5 minutes to spare, finishing in about 5:50 chip time.

Packet pick-up/Expo: Grade B. If you are a fan of going to the expo for exhibitors, you'll probably find this a little on the small side.  However, packet pickup was quick and painless, and if I remember correctly, they handed you the shirt and the packet at the same time.

Shirt/Swag: Grade: B. The shirt was on the nice side.  My one complaint is that it said "Finisher" on the back, despite the fact that I hadn't finished anything when they handed it to me.

Starting line: Grade: C. The starting line was in a park a distance from downtown Minneapolis. There was a last minute change in the starting line. It previously was supposed to start and finish in downtown Minneapolis.  The park was nice enough, my criticisms are that:

1. They made you pay $5 (or so) for the shuttle bus to the start.  It seems that should be included in the price of the registration.  It was an unanticipated expense for them, but since they made such a big change in the course after registration opened, I think they should have ate the expense. 



View of downtown from the starting area.




2. The portable toilets were located a good quarter mile down hill from the start line.  They were outside the boundaries of the park in the parking lot of an office building, suggesting some kind of snafu with the permitting.

Support:  Grade B+. I do remember being quite thirsty at times, but I was running a marathon in the Midwest in June.  There were enough aid stations. The course was well marked. Even when I was running alone, I didn't have a hard time following it.

The pacer I followed for about half the race.

There were plenty of pace teams. I fell in behind the 5:15 pacer, since that was about my PR pace, but I lost him at about the halfway mark.  Incidentally, it was his first marathon. I checked his time and he was dead on at 5:15.

Course: Grade: B+.  The course showed off Minneapolis's best feature: The Mississippi River. From the start the course makes its way to the river, follows it, eventually hairpins and returns you to the finish. (The finish incidentally was directly across the river from the park that I would finish the Great River Ragnar in a few months later.)

I don't care for the markings on that bridge.

My biggest gripe was that the half marathon course diverged from the marathon course about 0.1 miles before it ended. For me watching half marathoners finish as I started digging in for the second half of the marathon was a little demoralizing. 

Since it is an along the river course, it was pretty flat. There were a few Midwesterners calling it hilly, especially near the start, but for me it seemed quite flat. (Ah, I remember the days when I thought we had big hills in Wisconsin.) 

Medal: Grade B-. I will grant that by not living in the area, I am missing out on one of the "features" of the medal. If you do the other races put on by Team Ortho, the medals from this race and all of the races fit together and create some kind of super medal.
However, as it stands for me, the medal is just OK. The metal that the medal is made from feels kind of cheapish compared to some others I have, and I feel like the plastic in the medal detracts from it. I like the Minneapolis skyline, but they could have done it differently.
It is kind of pointy, though, and could probably be used as a weapon in a pinch.

Finish Area: Grade: B. Like I mentioned above, I came in right before the cutoff, so they were packing it up when I got there. However, they had a medal for me. They had bottles of water, fruit, and power bars out as well.  Even though I was a late finisher, they gave me the support they promised.
It looked like they were having fun there when the half marathoners (and first marathoners) were finishing, but it was kind of blah, when I got there.


Miscellaneous observations: 

• For a marathon named after a major city, it was on the small side. Only about 750 marathoners, and 2500 half marathoners.  I gather that the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall is the main event around there.  Come to think of it I'm kind of surprised that the Rock 'n' Roll series hasn't tried to make an incursion into the area.
• I highly recommend

  

  At first glance I thought it said "Mills Runs Park" which   would have been appropriate.

  the bike cab back to downtown hotels from the finish line. I did not feel like walking the mile and a half back, and was thankful when I came across one of them.

Overall Grade:B.  A fine enough marathon, but nothing spectacular.  It certainly got the job done for me, though, as I didn't have to go out of my way or spend one extra dollar (besides the entry fee) to run it.  From what I hear, if you are going to travel to run one marathon in Minnesota, you might want to opt for the Twin Cities Marathon, or, if you are looking for a PR, Grandmas Marathon in Duluth. But if you are in town anyway, this one will get the job done.