Twin Cities Marathon organizers eye Boston

Explosion
A survivor after the explosion at the 2013 Boston Marathon in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts.
AP Photo/The Daily Free Press, Kenshin Okubo

The people who run Minnesota's largest marathon say they're watching events unfold in Boston with an eye on what it might mean for their race, scheduled for this fall.

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The Twin Cities Marathon will be run Oct. 6, and will have a field of about 12,000 runners.

Executive director Virginia Brophy Achman says the organization's first thoughts are with the runners and race organizers in Boston, and that it's too early to know what additional precautions might be necessary in Minnesota.

"You know, safety is always first for us, it always has been, and we do have crisis planning, and we practice that. And obviously, if there's things to learn from this, we'll work with the city agencies and make any modifications we need to to our planning," he said.

The Twin Cities Marathon finishes on the Capitol Mall in St. Paul, and draws thousands of spectators all along the route. Minnesota's other major marathon, Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, will include about 10,000 participants when the race is run June 22.

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