Tag Archives: Marathon

Stillwater Marathon A Go

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The Stillwater Marathon was given approval by the Stillwater City Council yesterday, according to the Star-Tribune. In a previous post I talked about some of the problems the event faced, including 15 other marathon races within a month (either way) in the local area.  Many thanks to the commenters who added and subtracted some races for me.

The article didn’t give many details except that

… the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize St. Croix Events Inc. to conduct the first Stillwater Marathon on May 24. Organizers there also plan to offer a 20-mile race, a half marathon and a 12K run. The total number of participants would be capped at 5,750 runners.

The Stillwater race is set for the same day as the Med-City Marathon in Rochester.

The Team Ortho and Stillwater marathons will make the metro area home to three such races, joining the annual fall Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, which winds through Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It will be interesting to watch how these races do this spring.  One of the commenters indicated that the perception of the event’s quality will have a huge impact.  On this front, as of writing this post the marathon’s website is still “under construction.”

I want to be clear, I have no ill-feelings toward the marathon, I just know a lot of people where hurt and disappointed after the Indy Classic Marathon debacle of last year.  I wish the event directors much success with this.  I hope that this quote from the Star-Tribune pans out well for all the races:

Despite the idea that Minnesota is now expected to be home to four marathons within a month of each another, race organizers aren’t flinching about the crowded field.

“There are so many runners out there, I don’t think this will matter,” said John Larson, executive director of Team Ortho Foundation, which is organizing the Minneapolis Marathon. “Each race has unique features, whether it’s different pasta parties or the unique flavor of the city.”

[tags] Marathon, Stillwater, Minneapolis [/tags]

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Twin Cities Running Jackpot

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The Twin Cities Marathon organization has been given 13 years worth of USATF Championships.

At the recent USATF Annual Convention the race organization was awarded championships in 6 different events, including a first ever 1 mile championship.

Here is the complete list provided by The Final Sprint:

  • USA Road Mile Championships (Men & Women): 2009 – 2012
  • USA Women’s Marathon Championship: 2009
  • USA Men’s 10 Mile Championship: 2009
  • USA Men’s Marathon Championship: 2010
  • USA Women’s 10 Mile Championship: 2010
  • USA Masters Marathon Championships (Men & Women): 09-15

This is great news both for the organization but also for the Twin Cities in general and our strong running communtiy. This will continue to bring in high quality competitors, sponsorship dollars, and a lot of added fun to the events.

You can read the official press release from Twin Cities Marathon here (pdf)

[tags] Twin Cities, Marathon, USATF, Championships [/tags]

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Stillwater Marathon has Problems

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According to the Stillwater Courier the inaugural Stillwater Marathon has an uphill battle to come into existence.

When creating a new event there are usually a lot of hoops to jump through.  I’ve previously highlighted some of the problems that the Indy Classic Marathon had last year. So far the Stillwater Marathon has a different set of problems.  First, they need to get approval from city council. The organizers are hoping to have a marathon distance event over Memorial Day weekend in 2009.  But this week, the Stillwater City Council took the item off their agenda, delaying any decision indefinitely.

A group of Stillwater businesses developed a petition containing 39 signatures which is the likely cause for the council’s action.  The petition requested that the marathon meet the following conditions:

  1. that the marathon should not start or end in the downtown historic district or within one mile;
  2. that it not occur any weekend between and including Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend;
  3. that if an approved route runs through downtown Stillwater, a user fee be assessed toward a “Beautification and Bathrooms” fund for the historic district;
  4. that all runners be through the district by 9 a.m.; and
  5. that alternate, adequate parking and transportation be enforced and spectators and participants be prohibited from parking in the city’s parking lots in the historic district.

From my understanding, this takes away much of the context that the event’s planners were hoping to do with the event.  In previous discussions with my running buddies we had talked about the event’s viability even if it gained approval.

It seems that there has been a huge influx of marathons in Minnesota (and surrounding states) in the spring-time.  Here is a list:

Updated: I just found another marathon… Team Ortho’s Minneapolis Marathon on May 31.  And also the Brookings Marathon in Brookings, SD.

Updated 12-17 The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Stillwater Marathon was given unanimous approval for their May 24th race date. Read more here.

Despite the idea that Minnesota is now expected to be home to four marathons within a month of each another, race organizers aren’t flinching about the crowded field.

“There are so many runners out there, I don’t think this will matter,” said John Larson, executive director of Team Ortho Foundation, which is organizing the Minneapolis Marathon. “Each race has unique features, whether it’s different pasta parties or the unique flavor of the city.”

That is 13 15 marathons within a month of Memorial Day Weekend and note that there are 2 marathons within a few hours drive of Stillwater during Memorial Day weekend. Oh and previous reports indicate that it won’t be an easy course, with lots of hills interspersed throughout.

Just some thoughts.  What are your thoughts?

[tags] Marathon, Stillwater [/tags]

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Thank You From Zambia

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I know I have thanked you several times for helping me raise over $2,000 for Team World Vision while running my first marathon. But I can’t say thank you enough!

This video was created by Team World Vision to thank all of the runners and supporters who help make this year’s “event” so successful:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5yA6etuuk4

Through the fundraising efforts of 1,000 runners (like me), we raised enough money to build 170 clean water wells and 2,500 sanitary latrines which will create a 75% reduction of waterborne diseases among children in Southern Zamiba.

Isn’t that exciting? I thought so and wanted to say thank you again for your support of my goals, but also for the children in Zambia.

[tags] Team World Vision, World Vision, Zambia, Wells [/tags]

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November Highlights

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Sign at hotel in Wynne, AK

It is a little hard to believe that I am recapping November already.  Last year at this time we were finalizing our decision to move to Minneapolis and beginning the process of saying goodbye.  This year we are enjoying our life in Minneapolis, wondering what the next year will bring – but it doesn’t seem like a year has passed.

Last Year I traveled with friends to Arkansas for the Midsouth Marathon.  I ran the 1/2 and they did the full. After the race getting ready to head home we saw the recap of the Men’s Olympic Marathon trials and the roller coaster of emotions that day brought as Ryan Hall had an amazing performace while his friend Ryan Shay had run his last miles.

Later I ran the last of the year’s DINO 15K trail races and it was quite cold! It was a lot of fun though running through the hills and creeks of Fort Harrison State Park.   I also ran in my first Thanksgiving Day race – the Drumstick Dash. Wray Jean, one of the friends I went to Arkansas with, went to Tennessee to knock off another state’s marathon and ran the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon.

With most of my racing out of the way for the year, I began to look back on analyze my training plans for the 3 major races.  First up was the Indianapolis Mini Marathon.  My second major race and analysis was for the Bears of the Blue River 10k.

I was also going through my RSS feeds and highlighting some of the blogs I read.  These included Martin Dugard’s Paper Kenyan, Cool Running’s blog, and the Phedipidations Blog.  Also at the end of November Dr Cade, the inventor of Gatorade passed away at 80 years old. I started a feature that continues today – Foto Friday!

For November 2007 my monthly mileage was 52 miles!

This year was a lot different my monthly mileage was double that of 113.6 miles.

I raced quite a few times this month, which helped keep my mileage up.  I ran in the USATF-MN XC Series.  Completing the Rocky’s Run 8k and the USATF-MN XC Championship 10k.  With those races out of the way I began contemplating what the off-season might have in store. It includes another round of the 100 push up challenge.

I finally finished a book called The Sacred Art of Running and started a series taking an in-depth look at the book. The first part was Foundations of a Spiritual Runner, which laid a lot of ground work for the rest of the book.  Next came Spirituality: A Running Definition,  which defined what spirituality means (to the author and the book) and what that had to do with running.

Of course November means Thanksgiving and offering thanks for the many blessings in our life. It also marks the anniversary of Foto Friday!

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