25th Annual Twin Cities Marathon

For my first post, I thought it would be most fitting to start with my first marathon.  At the beginning of each October, the Twin Cities Marathon is run through the beautiful urban areas of Minneapolis & St. Paul.  The race begins at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis and ends at the state capitol in St. Paul.  Along the way we run around some gorgeous lakes, neighborhoods, and other natural attractions.  Check out the course:

Ironically, this is the best marathon I've run to date and it was also the most painful.  Hopefully with some heart rate training I'll be able to run much more solid races.  But until then I'll have to keep a tight leash on myself and keep that heart rate down.