Minneapolis Marathon 2009
May 31, 2009

Photo-History of the Marathon Course
by Dr. Rodney Chang, the Running Photographer 

10 miles

"Banana, anyone?"

Cute cheerleader.

One of the full marathon leaders heading back.  Check out the fast stride!

But slow pokes like me keep heading south along the river, far away yet from the turn around point.

A historical landmark

Thanks, now I know where I am.

Parking meters?

Passing close to the airport; also note there's a Bloomington, Minn. (right highway sign) 
besides Bloomington, Indiana where U. Indiana main campus is located. 
 It's the suburban area where Mall of America is located.  The Mall has its own zip code
 and over 500 stores.  It would take  84 hours to visit each store for 10 minutes. 
 But in this economy, how far could one stretch one's spending money?

Ol' Miss - must be nice in the Fall with all the colors.

Another cute spectator

Ah, surprise to me, the course takes us to the historic Ft. Snelling, built in the 1820s to protect the 
Mississippi River against those loyal to the British, travelers from criminals, and feuding Indian tribes.
The fort was first established in 1819 and kept expanding over the decades.

This building constructed  in 1880.

Watch tower for the river behind.

The Ft. served for the Civil War, American-Spanish, WWI and WWII.

Was hoping you could read this.....

My typical scenic course memory for the Minneapolis Marathon

Another historic structure of the original Ft. Snelling, now on the U.S. national historical site register.

-which is at the 14 mile mark of the marathon course

This time of year, these floating seeds take wind and it's always in the air as we trangress the wooded areas of the course; note the white
stuff on the side of trails in upcoming photos.  If anyone knows the name of this plant, please write me.  Also interested in linking to other
marathon course photo Web pages or receiving them to post on this web site for runners.  I'd of course give photo credit to the photographer.

Lots of shade from the heat during this long stretch of the course - but no crowd support.  Glad I had on my I-pod.
If you look closely, there's piles of white fluff that carry seeds of the cottonwood tree. 'Tis the season because as
we ran through the woods, so much was floating in the air.

Keep on Running

Back to MarathonCoursePhotos.com