The Mac Weekly interviewed Lucas Nelson ’25, Ramier Villarama ’25, Adley Schwartz ’25, Lila Schisgal ’25, Georgia Barnes ’25 and Rylan Mueller ’25*, all of whom participated in the Oct. 6 Twin Cities Marathon.
TMW: How did you decide to do a marathon, and what was your preparation?
LN: My friends and I were like, maybe I want to run a marathon. So we all signed up and decided to run it. And my younger brother ran a marathon before I did, so I was like, now I have to run two … This training block went super smoothly; I got up to 60 miles a week for three weeks, and then got a little bit sick, so I had it down to 50. But, super well.
AS: Lucas [Nelson], he was like, ‘Adley, you should do a marathon.’ And I was like, Okay. I started training, like, six months ago. I did a really bad job training. I probably ran a little too fast at the beginning [and probably didn’t run enough] …and I injured my leg really bad over the summer, so I didn’t run for, two months. So then I had, a month and a half material training … But I got into it because [Lucas] was like, You should do it. And I was kind of like, yeah, that sounds cool. And then I’ll be able to say I ran a marathon, so I was pretty into that idea.
GB: I didn’t train or prepare at all. Some of my friends were running it and I thought it could be fun. So two weeks ago, I went to sign up for the marathon and it was full and I was super devastated. So I reached out to a bunch of charities and found one that still had some bibs available. So I ended up running for Wildflyer Coffee, which is a nonprofit coffee shop that does housing stability work in the Twin Cities, so I raised some money for them.
LS: I told Lucas [Nelson] I would run a marathon with him when we’re seniors, when we were freshmen or sophomores, kind of in the hopes that he forget it, or in the hopes that when I was a senior I would be stronger than I was as a freshman or sophomore… And then I had to follow through. But yeah, I like running, so it could have been worse. And, Georgia [Barnes] was talking about it, and she said something that was kind of smart; at the end of the day I get to take five hours out of my Sunday to do something that I really like.
RM: This was my second marathon. I ran Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth in 2023 … I saw this marathon, thought it would be super fun to do … but last summer, I wasn’t happy with the time I had, so I then registered for the Twin Cities Marathon.
RV: I decided to run the marathon because I was inspired by one of my friends who ran one. We had dinner one night while I was abroad in Copenhagen, and she was talking about how she was going to run a race in Paris this past summer. I also noticed how in Copenhagen there were a lot of people who ran outside, even in the cold weather. So I was influenced to start running because of that but also as a form of being active while I was abroad.
TMW: How did the race go for you? What was your favorite moment? Your most difficult?
LN: I thought the atmosphere was pretty great. There were people everywhere, which was awesome. There wasn’t quite the same atmosphere [at my first marathon in Lisbon], because it was just a point to point, and we didn’t really start in the city, so it was running through nothing for a little while, which has its pros and cons. One of the cons was that there weren’t as many people out cheering us on [in Lisbon]. So that was definitely a highlight [in the Twin Cities]. I honestly felt super great for pretty much the whole thing. I had planned to go out between 7:50s to 7:40s, then was running a little bit faster than that, but feeling good the whole time. Around mile 18, I caught up with the 3:20 pacer, and was able to stick with him for most of the rest of the way. At mile 24.5, my left hamstring cramped up real bad, so I had to stop and stretch it out so my leg would keep working, but I was able to sneak under the 3:20 barrier.
AS: My favorite part happened three times where someone looked up my number and would share my name, which was really sweet, because the first time it happened I thought I knew them and I just didn’t recognize them. And the second, I was like, How does everyone know me? I don’t know if they were like, picking out numbers and tracking them and waiting for them to come or if they just looked me up right when I was running by them. That was probably my favorite part … The first half marathon was great. I was cruising on like nobody’s business … then at mile 15 my knees just were done. I got injured over the summer, so they were just actually cooked. So I slowed down a lot, and I think I walked a couple times, and then at mile 20, I fully re-injured my knees, so I was kind of limping along for the last six miles.
GB: I would say the first, like, 15-16 miles were a blast. I was having a lot of fun. I was trying to catch up to my friends the whole time. It turns out that I passed one of them early on, and thought I was still catching up to them. So I was really trying to get with my friends. After mile 16, my knee started hurting so bad, so I was run-walking, but running around the lakes was really good. That was enjoyable. Since I didn’t train … it was kind of just for fun. It didn’t feel worth it to me to run the last 11 miles and injure myself … But it was so fun, seeing the Capitol, that was such a rewarding thing, that was, like, the only thing that got me through that day. It was a good race.
LS: I had a really fun time. I was not expecting there to be that many people out cheering, and I thought that made it so much more fun. I just loved reading all the signs and having distractions. The race didn’t go quite as I expected for me, just because all of my splits were progressively faster. I was kind of really scared at the beginning of just burning out, because the furthest that I ran in training was, like 16.5 miles, so I wasn’t quite sure how the full 26 would go. And the 16.5 also felt awful, but yeah, I just kept being like, “I think I can run a little faster than this” and then running a little faster, a little faster. I think a lot of it was adrenaline and drinking straight energy.
RM: The first 14, 15, miles of the race, I had a blast, some of the most fun I’ve had in my life. Then we turned north, right into the wind, and that was brutal. The sun wasn’t out that much. The wind hurt. It was not a good time after that, but it was awesome having all of the people along the course. I had friends in the Mac cheer zone that was here. That was super fun, even though [in] the pictures they have of me I’m clearly dying, but that was one of my favorite parts of the race.
RV: The race went very well for me. I think it was better than I expected. I had a goal of under four hours … It felt fine until like around 20 miles. That’s when I started feeling it in my legs. I kept a steady heart rate throughout the whole race. But then the last few miles, definitely I felt it more on the bottom of my feet and on my legs and quads. But my favorite part was definitely seeing my boyfriend at the halfway point, and at the end he came to cheer me on. It was nice seeing him and just seeing a loved one cheer you on and support you. It was also my first time running a marathon, so it was nice to see how many people showed up, all the signs that they made. At the end crossing the finish line, I definitely had some emotions running through, like I finished it. Obviously, I was in a little bit of pain, but I was glad that I was able to do it. All that hard work of running paid off, and it was awesome to finish something that was so hard.
TMW: Do you have future marathon plans and/or running goals in general?
LN: I’d like to do another marathon. The big goal in the future might be to get a Boston qualifying time. I’m a ways away from that at the moment, but I think it’s super doable.
AS: Afterwards, I’m like, I’m never doing it again. Now I’m like, I have a weird want to do it again for some reason! But it was so traumatizing on my body, I don’t know why I have that feeling.
GB: I would love to run another marathon in the next year or two, but train for it. I think right now, maybe I’m more inclined to run a half, do sub-two hours in a half, just because I also felt so good for those miles [in the marathon].
LS: I would run another similar thing. I think I would want to train more or prepare more if I were to do it again. I think it would also be fun to try out some other events and see what it’s like to train for something shorter and train for time instead.
RM: The one race I have on my mind that I’m 50/50 on at the moment, there’s an ultra marathon in the spring. It’s running 4.16 miles every hour for as long as you can. The math works in such a way that it’s then 100 miles in 24 hours.
RV: I definitely want to run the Twin Cities Marathon next year, or maybe the New York City one when I’m back home in New Jersey. In terms of my wider running goals, I’m influenced by TikTokers who run and train, and I think definitely one day I would love to qualify for the Boston Marathon and see how much faster I can run a marathon in the next year.
*Rylan Mueller is a Staff Writer for The Mac Weekly.
