My sister and I loved running the Des Moines half a few years ago, so when our plans for the Chicago Marathon didn't work out, we decided to sign up for Des Moines again. Both of us only plan to run 1 marathon since we both have pretty limited time for training and the beating it takes on your body can be rather rough, so we would like for it to be a memorable one, like Chicago. Taking that into consideration we decided to just do the half in Des Moines. Fingers crossed we'll get in to Chicago next year. After throwing my back out a few weeks prior to the race, Mark was gracious enough to come to Des Moines with me...and run! Have I mentioned how awesome he is?!
We headed to DM Saturday after soccer games (shout out to my older sister for keeping the girls) and grabbed our registration packets. We then met my cousin Kim and her family for a yummy carb load at Marinos. This little secret was a delicious find, and set us up for far more carbs than anyone could handle. We were so thankful Kim opened up her house to us for some great conversation and a peaceful sleep the night before the race.
It was a chilly 46 degrees at the start line, but the sun was shining, we scored great parking, and felt as prepared as we could be for the 8AM start time.
It was awesome to be with Mark when he ran his first half. Hopefully this is something we can keep doing together as it was great to cheer each other on and have a health goal we were both working towards. He finished his first half in 1:51:00!
Just hanging out with 8500 new friends waiting for the start gun. The first few miles were great. We started in the 9.30 pace time, and quickly told Mark to run ahead and leave us behind. Nisa and I stuck together the first mile, and then I quickly discovered I lost her by the 2 mile marker when I turned around and realized the bright yellow shirt to my right wasn't actually her. I settled in to my pace and felt good staying at a 9:26 pace until mile 6. My back started to hurt a bit, so I decided at the half way point to grab some Gatorade and stretch it out (as suggested by my PT) so as to not aggravate it more. After a good stretch I saw the 2:10:00 pace runner coming so I jumped back on the path and tried to stay in front of him. It worked well until I had to stop for a bathroom pit stop at mile 8 and discovered why I never stop to drink Gatorade/water during a race. :) I tried to keep him in my sights and stay with him, but mile 9 I got too far inside my head and was bummed that I let him pass me and slowed up a bit. Mile 10 I was angry that I was starting to lose him and sped up, but then going in to mile 11 I hit a hill and my back was hurting and I slowed back down. Mile 12.5 had a small turn around in it and I saw my sister and got my head straight again and pushed it to the finish. It was definitely a relief to hit the finish line not far being the pacer, but I was kicking myself for taking so long to stretch at mile 7. All-in-all it was a fun race, I was happy to finish with relatively little pain, and I was excited to keep my finish time to only 20 minutes behind Mark! :)
Post-race beverages were pretty awesome, but at that point we were so cold we skipped out of the post-race celebrations and headed for some Zombie burger to celebrate.
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