This was my fourth year running this race, and I am always impressed by how well this race is run. As opposed to previous years, this race wasn't too hot or too cold/rainy.

I love that this race is going eco-friendly, requiring racers to provide their own cups/bladders/bottles for water, and the only thing I wish it had more of was Nuun at the main exchanges, like it used to.

We did get flooded out at the race packet pick-up, but this was not something they could control. It was still better than a few years ago when a chunk of the race course got washed out by flooding!

I was going to call it, hanging up my Ragnar racing shoes, after this one, but then they announced they were changing the course, running it in 2019 up to Duluth from St. Paul, and I couldn't pass it up! I cannot wait!

After having a PR at this race last year, I had my eyes set upon finally getting that sub-2 hour finishing time. But man was it hot and humid! I started the race with the 2 hour pacer, and was keeping pace nicely with them. However, at about mile 4, our group was stopped by a train for almost 5 minutes!

Once the train passed, the pacer picked up pace to get back on track to finish at 2 hours (since the main clock hadn't stopped for us). At that point, I had to mentally adjust to the realization that a sub-2 was not going to happen. I was able to find a running friend and we stayed together much of the rest of the race. She had no race expectations, since she had already run 8 prior to the race (training for the Berlin Marathon). I ran the final 5 miles with all heart (the night before having gotten bad news) and I learned so much about my ability to push through adversity.

It was not my best time, but given how hot and humid it was, I enjoyed this race, although not as much as the previous year. Medical staff was top notch, though!