It's doubtful that anyone running the TC 10 Mile had a busier weekend than Danny Docherty. He competed in the TC 10K and TC 5K on Saturday morning, served as an usher at his sister's wedding Saturday afternoon and returned to the streets for the 10 Mile on Sunday morning.
As if that wasn't memorable enough, Docherty topped it off with three victories. The St. Paul native won the 10K and the 5K in a two-hour span Saturday, then added the 10 Mile title less than 24 hours later. Docherty won Sunday's race in 49 minutes, 19 seconds, a 41-second margin over second-place Nadir Yusuf of Willmar.
About 400 runners participated in all three races, a feat dubbed the TC Loony Challenge by Twin Cities Marathon organizers. Docherty is the first person to win more than one race on the Twin Cities Marathon weekend program in a single year.
"The goal was to win all three,'' said Docherty, 31, who finished third in the Twin Cities Marathon in 2019. "The door was open to win them all, and I thought I might as well go for it.
"[The 10 Mile] was definitely the one I was worried about the most. There's a lot of great competition in the local running scene. And it felt like a marathon at the end.''
Docherty's time in the 2019 Twin Cities Marathon qualified him for the 2020 Olympic trials, where he finished 88th. Early this year, he was injured while training for Grandma's Marathon. He took a break to recover, then resumed competition in shorter races.
Saturday, Docherty's day began with the 10K at 7:15 a.m., followed by the 5K at 8:45 a.m. He was cleaned up and ready for the wedding of his sister Laura — a former all-Big Ten runner for the Gophers — by 12:45 p.m.
Docherty was no less efficient in Sunday's 10 Mile, taking the lead about a mile into the race and never yielding. Yusuf, an NCAA Division II All-America runner at Minnesota State Moorhead, was second in a time of 50 minutes, with Patrick Larson of Minneapolis third in 50:24.
