The runners who didn’t run and other scenes from the Twin Cities Marathon

Twin Cities Marathon volunteer John Cage knows what it feels like to rush from the corral to start a race. He has run five of the world’s major marathons this year.

But Cage, 37, who was resting to participate in next weekend’s marathon in Chicago, stood on the other side of the metal barriers at the start of the Twin Cities Marathon, looking on as thousands of others set out for a few hours of heat, sweat and adrenaline.

“Half the reason I’m here is to get the runners’ contact high,” Cage said, smiling.

Thousands took part in the Twin Cities Marathon this weekend, snaking past the Chain of Lakes and the Mississippi River before climbing their way to the Capitol in St. Paul. But plenty of other runners, like Cage, sat on the sidelines.

Rhys Walsh, a sprinter for Two Rivers High School, held her mother’s hand over the race barriers as her mother walked toward the starting line. The 17-year-old had homework to do and wasn’t running Sunday. Her mom, who was celebrating her birthday, had thought she was running a 10k, which is a little more than six miles, only to find out Sunday morning she had signed up for 10 miles.

Walsh said she’s usually the panicked one before races, and her mom is the one to soothe her. Sunday gave Walsh a chance to repay the favor.

“It was special because it was a chance to do what she does for me,” Walsh said.

His goal had been to run this year’s marathon. But Lannerd said he got engaged in March, broken up with in April and fell off his training regimen. By the time he was running again, signups were closed and he wasn’t in shape anymore.

“If I’m going to do it, if I’m going to put myself through that pain, I want to run under four hours,” Lannerd said.

A balmy start to October stirred anxious memories of 2023’s marathon, when forecasts jumped into the 90s and organizers shut down the race just hours before it began. Frustrated runners, as many as 30% of the field, ran the course anyway that day.

But Sunday gave cooler conditions than predicted, cloudy with some well-timed sprinkles of rain. Without the clouds and wind, Cage said the runners would have been in real “trouble” since conditions were just cool enough to tempt runners at the starting line to go out fast only to be winded farther down the stretch.

Cage said he faced similar starting temperatures two weeks ago in Berlin, a marathon in which he had to make several full stops to hydrate.

Halfway into the Twin Cities Marathon, the heat started to show its fangs.

One runner, already shirtless, stumbled off course just past the halfway mark of the race. He reached a nearby tree before puking into the flowers around its trunk.

Just minutes before, an EMS vehicle picked its way through an onrushing stream of racers to tend to another runner who had collapsed near that same tree. He had started stumbling as he came up Lake Nokomis Parkway and fell into the arms of a racer, said Lisa Barth, a nearby spectator.

“Good job! He’ll be fine,” shouted Barth, a former nurse, assuring runners who eyed their stricken competitor on the way by.

“I’m sure that it’s not the only collapsed runner we’ll see,” Barth added.

But just as the exhaustion mounted midway through the race, raindrops began dotting runners’ foreheads and the breeze chilled.

The rain would help with runners’ exhaustion, Barth predicted, as she ran for cover under the infamous tree.

A spry Yorkie named Winston pranced around a sign promising “Free Pets” on the shore of Bde Maka Ska.

He earned about 50 of them in the hour he spent there, according to his handler, Kelcey McKean.

In one hand, McKean managed Winston’s leash. The other controlled a livestream of the Vikings, who for the second straight year were playing an early morning game in London during the marathon.

“I was like, ‘That’s a downer,’” McKean said.

Ultimately, McKean decided against the score updates and used the “Free Pets” sign instead, much to Winston’s benefit.

Despite McKean’s lack of marathon signage, the Vikings won 21-17.

Battling the heat, some runners turned to carbs in the form of beer or just decided to celebrate the race early.

Either way, Kayla Cameron ran out of beer early in the afternoon from her spot near the race’s 24th mile on Summit Avenue. She moved to the Twin Cities just Thursday and already ingratiated herself to the community Sunday with a cardboard sign reading “Free Beers” in bold, black lettering.

“If you let the intrusive thoughts win, you end up with a beer in your hand,” joked Evan Rye, who sat with Cameron on Summit Avenue.

The sun was out on Summit Avenue when the amateurs began filing past. Gov. Tim Walz sat outside his home after finishing the 10-mile in the morning, giving out pictures and handshakes to runners as they raced toward the Capitol.

“Right now, these folks coming through, that’s where the heart and soul is,” Walz said. “The inspiration is the back of the marathon.”

Back by the starting line, Lannerd was already plotting his redemption story for next year. After his breakup, he has run a half marathon in July.