Last Sunday I ran the Twin Cities Marathon--"The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America"--and if you are wondering, yes, it lives up to it's billing!

The weather at the end of September can be anything. We were very lucky and had a perfect day for running. Actually, those slower runners would probably disagree as by the time they finished temps were in the 80s! It went from 50 degrees at the start to about low 70s when I finished.

I would definitely recommend this marathon. It was a big city event on a smaller scale. They had everything you'd expect in New York or Chicago, except 40,000 runners. The race is limited to a manageable size, about 9000-which means plan early if you want to run this one.

There's no lottery, but you do have only a few days to register once the books open at the end of April. It takes about 10 days for the race to close, so check the Twin Cities Marathon website for the day and mark your calendar.

One other thing to note is the 6 hour cut off. If you think you'll take longer don't bother signing up. There was no early start and runners who fall behind the final bus are picked up off the course and not allowed to continue.

As Minneapolis is one of the major hubs for Northwest Airlines its easy to reach from anywhere. From the airport into the city there is a light railroad which takes you from the airport to the city for $1.50. If you schlep too much luggage like I do, Super Shuttle (a shared ride service) is available for $15. And of course there are plenty of cabs.

The downtown hotels are all within a mile of the start at the Metrodome.

We chose the Hilton as they had a shuttle to the start (we took it, although we could have easily walked) and back from the finish line which is in St. Paul about a 1/2 hour away.

As it is the "Twin Cities" Marathon, they try to split it between both cities. One example was the packet pick up. It was held at the River Centre in St Paul, about 10 miles from our hotel. As there were no shuttles running on Sat. for the expo we were lucky to have a ride from a friend of a friend, otherwise it would have been an expensive cab ride!

The expo was great. Lots of beautiful (as well as expensive) official merchandise, plus the usual sale running items, future race info, etc.

As I was with one of my friends from NYC who is a bad influence, I did lots of shopping. I finally bought The Stick and found some very cute and practical running apparel at One More Mile.

I got the "Sorry, I've got to run" shirt and a 26.2 necklace.

There was a pasta dinner however we opted for one of the many downtown Italian restaurants for pre-race carbo-loading -or dinner as its know to "normal" people.

Sunday morning I was up at a very reasonable 5:30am for the race which began at 8am.

Again, the weather was perfect. I even saved everyone's throw clothes to wear for the next race. We really didn't need any-I was comfortable in a singlet!

The race start was divided in two waves. The second wave started about 5 minutes after the first. As we began running I noticed that I was near the 4 hour pace group so I hung with them for a while. I met a gal I recognized from the Fargo Marathon who was trying for a pr and Boston qualifying time. (I saw her again at the finish -she had 3:53-pr and qualifying time.)

I think these pace groups go a bit too fast at the beginning so it wasn't long until I dropped back. The roads are also on the small size so there was constantly a crowd around you throughout the entire race. I began to see why the race was so limited in size. There are no major boulevards or highways on this course. Its run on small neighborhood roads which circled around the lakes, through parks and beautiful old neighborhoods. The leaves were changing color and just beginning to fall. It was so picturesque, however there was hardly enough room for the number of runners they had. The course would have to be reconfigured to accomodate any more than they currently have.

Spectators lined the entire course. I've run mostly small marathons lately with very few spectators so it was great to have all that support and energy along the way.

The course is relatively flat until you get to mile 20 then its uphill from there until the last 1/2, which is straight downhill to the finish line. Good thing! Those hills were killing me! All I can say is know your course and train accordingly. Running some hills at the end of a training run when you're tired would be good training for this race!!

My finishing time was 4:22, not bad but not what I wanted-oh, well there's always next time!

At the finish line there was a ton of food-broth-chicken and vegetable (nice that the recognize that there are some people who don't eat meat) and chips, yogurt smoothies, etc. All very good.

We walked around at the finish line for about an hour after the race waiting for our friends to finish. We never found them so we took the 1/2 hour ride back to the hotel one of the last shuttles which ran continuously back and forth from the finish to the start (or Hotel).

All in all, a very beautiful course, great weather and a fair amount of hills made for an exceptional 94th marathon!!

Next stop: 2 weeks from now I'm off to my 46th state, Rhode Island!

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