My Favorite Race in Minnesota – Twin Cities 10 Mile

After living in Minnesota for four years now, I’ve done several different races, and I have decided that the Twin Cities 10 Mile is my favorite one.

I love the distance, the views and scenery are great, there’s a lot of people to run with, the crowd support is great, and there’s something magical about getting to the start when it is pitch-dark and starting the race just as the sun is rising.

I have done this race all four years since moving back to Minnesota, and I plan to continue having it in my race lineup.

My sister and I have the logistics nailed down for this race. It is an early alarm at 3:30 a.m. and then we’re heading to the start at 5:00 a.m. We do drive about 30 minutes to park near the finish (the capitol) and then catch the free train ride to US Bank stadium. We arrive right around 6:00 a.m., which is the perfect amount of time to use the bathroom, do my warm-ups, and then hop in the start corral.

I really wanted to be intentional about going on conservative for this race. I knew I wasn’t in PR shape, so it was my chance to practice running a little slower out of the gate and actually save something for the last three miles which have a gradual downhill into the finish with the last mile dropping 85 feet.

I found my friend Lindsey in the start corral, which is always nice to see a familiar face. She asked me what I was going to start out at, and I said 6:40 min/mi pace. She said that’s what she wanted to run as well, so we decided to run together as much as we could.

As soon as the gun went off, I tried to dial in that 6:40 pace. Lindsey started getting a little hot about half a mile into the race, and I told her to dial it back a bit. The first few miles have quite a few rollers, so I also really focused on effort and kept an eye on my average lap time.

Mile 1 – 6:36
Mile 2 – 6:38
Mile 3 – 6:49
Mile 4 – 6:34

Mile three has 98 feet of gain and my least favorite mile of the race, but I was feeling really good, and I thought, “Wow, this doesn’t feel that hard.” (Usually I go out too fast, and it is already starting to feel hard a few miles in.) I considered picking up the pace a bit, but then I let my rational brain convince myself that this was the smart thing to do.

Lindsey and I continued to click off pretty consistent splits considering the hills on the course. (My watch had a total elevation gain of 367 feet.) I grabbed water at a couple of the aid stations, did my best to run the tangents, but it was pretty crowded at the beginning, and soak up the vibes of the race.

Mile 5 – 6:44
Mile 6 – 6:48
Mile 7 – 6:43

Mile five is when you hit the hill everyone talks about–hill going up to Summit. Honestly, every time I run this race, I never realize I am running up it because there are several rollers before it. It isn’t until I make the right onto Summit that I realize I just got over the last biggest hill. From here the course profile makes it seem like it continues to climb until mile seven, but I don’t really notice it.

My plan was that once I hit mile eight I was going to pick up the pace. I really wanted to have something left so I could crank the pace down during those last few miles since there is a nice gradual downhill. My plan actually worked, and I started dropping the hammer at mile eight.

I was feeling so good and so strong–often seeing 6:15 pace pop up on my watch. I will say the cool weather with temps in the low-50s helped tremendously! Three out of the other four years I’ve run this race it has been warm/hot. Next year this race is happening on October 17th, which could mean it might be cold!

Mile 8 – 6:18
Mile 9 – 6:29
Mile 10 – 6:09

I peeked at my watch as I crossed mile 9 to see if I could beat my time from 2022. I attempted some math and realized it would be really close. I knew I had some significant downhill into the finish, but I still didn’t know if I could make it.

Since I ended up running a 6:09 for my last mile, I was able to secure my second-fastest time on this course. I crossed the finish line in 1:06:15–twenty-five seconds faster than I ran in 2022 and happy with my result. My PR is from 2024 when I ran 1:03:06, which once again proves how much fitness I have lost since running Boston this year. (No Boston for me in 2027 if anyone was wondering. I have two qualifying times, but Boston ruined my year of running, so I don’t have plans of doing it anytime soon.)