PHOTOS BY PAUL PHILLIPS
A TALE OF TWO CITIES Minneapolis + St. Paul = A gimmick for success by Candy Patrin This year marked the thirtieth running of the Twin Cities Marathon (TCM)*. Thanks to the vision of its founder, Jack Moran, as well as the help he received from a variety of community leaders and runners, the Twin Cities avoided a marathon war of sorts. The birth of TCM took place at 7:30 a.m. on October 3, 1982, on what was a crisp and sunny fall day. Moran described the event as a great success. “As the start approached, the sky brightened as if stage lights were being turned on. It was a moment filled with magic,” wrote Moran in a post run article. In 1982, the field of 4,563 entrants was a record number of runners for an inaugural marathon. With the National Football League on strike, the media was hungry for news. The inaugural runners did not disappoint. Allan Zachariasen, from Denmark, ran 2:11:49, one of the fastest times of the year. Sally Brent, a mother of three from Sioux City, Iowa, ran a 2:43:50 to place first place among the women. In addition, there were four men in the wheelchair division, which was won by Stillwater, Minnesota, resident David Ekstrom, with a 2:29:09. After putting in the effort to get TCM to this point, Moran says he had hoped to run the inaugural event. There was too much to be done before that morning, and Moran spent the night before the race doing a major overhaul on the computer results program. He was needed at the start and didn’t get to run TCM until after his tenure with the race ended, some five years later. It’s been said that the hardest part of doing a marathon is getting to the start without any
injury. The same held true for TCM.
Getting to the start It took a great deal of creativity and old fashioned “politicking” to get to where the TCM is today. For almost 20 years, MDRA had been putting on a race in Minneapolis that was known as the Land of Lakes Marathon and renamed to the City of Lakes after moving to a four lap course around Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet. With the City of Lakes event filling to its capacity of 1,700 runners and unable to expand due to the confined course, St. Paul decided to host its first marathon in 1981 on a loop route that started and ended in downtown. The St. Paul organizers wanted their event to become a national mega race, much like the New York City model, and they were determined to make it work. Amid the atmosphere of what was certain to be a marathon competition between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Moran saw an opportunity for both venues to come together and make an impact on the national running scene. The new marathon had the potential to
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