As race officials offered commentary on the USA Women's 10 Mile Championship over loudspeakers near the finish line Sunday, many spectators sighed when they learned that Minnesota's Katie McGregor, a six-time winner of the event, had dropped to sixth in the field.
She finished fourth in 55 minutes flat.
McGregor didn't make any excuses about her final position.
"I didn't really have the race that I wanted to, but it was still a solid race," she said. "When you race against the best women in the country, you have to be ready, really ready, if you want to win the race. I have a lot of work to do."
She said she wasn't upset about the result because she vied for her seventh championship against so many elite runners. It was a solid barometer, she said, and another step toward the Olympic trials.
"It just shows that I'm doing decent right now, but I just have kind of a ways to go but not that far off from where I need to be," said McGregor, an Edina resident. "I just need to tweak some things and hopefully I'll be where I need to be pretty soon."
Mendoza wins his eighthSaul Mendoza, winner of the men's wheelchair division of the Twin Cities Marathon, said he doesn't train as much as he used to because his motivational speaking engagements in Mexico demand a chunk of his time.
Still, the 44-year-old has managed to stay at the elite level of the sport. Mendoza, of Wemberley, Texas, won his eighth Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday with a time of 1:42:33. He said he's surprised he continues to top his younger competitors.
"I feel at this stage in my career, I think it's great since I've been racing for a long time, 25 years of career. Just to be able to finish and keep up with guys half of my age," he said. "It's exciting. I love to train, I love to race. And this is a good day for me."
Tracy Tabaka of Rogers, Minn., won the women's wheelchair division in 2:47:10.
Man finishes race while carrying sonWith a few feet remaining in the men's 10 Mile race, Matt Schmidgall, who ran next to his wife, Kelly, grabbed his 3-year-old son, Carsen, and carried him across the finish line.
The Morris, Minn., residents said they ran to honor their son, who has cerebral palsy, and raise awareness about the disease.
The gesture violated rules of the race, so Matt Schmidgall was escorted briefly off the course with his son after he finished.
"I was crying actually [when we finished]. I didn't think I'd cry," Kelly Schmidgall said. "I told my husband not to finish with [our son] because we're going to get in trouble, and he got escorted out."
Matt said he understood the risk but wasn't worried about it.
"She did [warn me], and I said that was the only reason that I was doing this race and if I got in trouble for that, I'd deal with it," he said.
Etc.• Tracy Lokken, of Marquette, Mich., won the Masters division of the Twin Cities Marathon. The 46-year-old's time of 2:24:44 topped his division. Lokken won this year's Masters division of the Boston Marathon in April.
• Sheri Piers, 40, won the women's master's division of the marathon. She finished in 2:37:42.
• St. Paul Saints mascot Mudonna T. Pig (Seigo Masubuchi, the team's director of international relations) completed the marathon in 4:05:23, a world record for mascots. He broke the previous record of 4:16:43 established by Jefferson the Dog in Canada last year.
• Leane Guerrero, a recovering meth addict profiled by the Star Tribune last week, finished the Twin Cities Marathon, her first, in 5:01:47.
