Kevin Kirk Places 10th out of 6788 Finishers at Medtronic Marathon in Twin Cities

First, thank you all again for the support it means so much!

The build went well and I knew I was pretty fit but really did not know what to expect time wise. My A goal was to run faster than 2:17. My B goal was to run faster than 2:20. My C goal was to run faster than I did in LA, so 2:23. On Wednesday night before we left for Minnesota I could not sleep and felt so achy and anxious. Not gonna lie I was kinda scared about racing. On mine and Billie’s shakeout I threw up my lunch and was once again pretty scared knowing I had a marathon in 3 days. Woke up Friday after 11 hours of sleep and never felt better.

On race day Billie got to ride the bus with me to the start line and that for sure eased my nerves. I warmed up with habs and Kevin Lynch and getting to warm up with people you know eases the nerves a little.

Off the start there was the lead pack of 15 and then my group of three. We talked a little about pace and I decided I was gonna lock in with them and ride the wave. We kept reassuring each other that the 5:15 early pace was going to pay off and that we were going to catch people the whole race. I didn’t have bottles (I had to carry gels) so when they would go grab bottles I’d lead to help block the wind. I would tuck in to take my gels. I learned a lot from LA about nutrition in particular. I needed up using amacx liquid gels (you can find them on the feed) and I took 3.5 total. I took one at mile 4, 10, and 16. I also took ketones at halfway. Learned my lesson about not drinking water as well so early on I was grabbing water every aid station. I missed a couple grabs but got over early enough to have plenty of other ones to grab. We caught a pack of 3 around mile 10 and they ran with us for about 5ish miles. One was Kevin Lewis a Minnesota local so everyone was yelling go Kevin (loved that). At half we were 68:09 which scared me a bit knowing we had a head wind and some hills coming up, but I knew I had to hold onto Ben and Dillon going into the wind. We then hit the headwind from 16-19 and the three of us switched leads every mile. It got pretty tough crossing the bridge into St. Paul, and I started losing touch with Ben and Dillon just slightly, but I used the downhill to close back in. When we rounded the corner onto summit we had 4ish miles, and aerobically I was still fine, my legs were just getting tired. At mile 23 ben told us if he ran 5:08 the last 3 miles he was gonna pr. I knew a lot could still happen in the last 3 miles so I decided to stay where I was pace wise and let them send it. I saw Billie around 23.5 and still felt really good to be honest. I thought based on where the 40k mark was I was gonna run somewhere in the 2:17, and knew I just had to finish. I knew the last mile was pretty downhill to the finish and when I could see the capital building I knew I was so close. As I got closer I could see the clock change to 2:16 and I was pretty shocked. As I crossed the finish I went straight to Ben and Dillon and told them how much I appreciated their help literally wouldn’t have done it without them. Pretty awesome feeling it’s been a long journey to get to where I am in running and races like this make it worth it. In case you didn’t know my 2 mile time in high school was 10:28 so 5:14 per mile, my average pace for 26.2 was 5:13. Literally anything is possible if you stay consistent.