Personally, I love Medal Mondays. Runners around the world know what it means: you accomplished something amazing over the weekend. For me, it was running the Twin Cities Marathon Ultra Loony challenge. This challenge meant running both days of the marathon weekend: the 10k followed by the 5k on Saturday, and the full marathon on Sunday. This was not an easy task. Still, completing this challenge was a highlight of the weekend; it’s only a small part of what made it special.
The first thing that made it so special: a few months ago, my youngest decided they wanted a challenge. They’ve run plenty of 5ks, but this time they wanted to run the 10k with me. Leading up to race day, they were incredibly nervous. I kept reassuring them that I would never push them to run it if I didn’t think they had it in them. In the end, they crushed their first 10k in 54:30. That is an amazing time, and I can’t wait to see where they go from there. Their older sibling joined us for the 5k that day and set a new PR of 26:25, so it was a weekend of personal bests all around. Proud of both of them!
In addition, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) started a new project called Indigefit to empower Indigenous youth in Minnesota to get out, run, move, and be more active. It was amazing to see all the Indigenous youth at the Twin Cities 5k on Saturday taking part in the event. Many of them had never run a 5k before, and the Indigefit instructors helped them reach that goal over the summer. A huge thank you to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and Twin Cities in Motion for putting this together. I can’t wait to see where this program goes in the future.
Thank you to Twin Cities in Motion for putting on such a spectacular event. It’s one of America’s best urban marathons, and I look forward to running it again.
