Bob Mann: 2018 Des Moines Marathon

On Sun Jun 10 2018, I ran the Des Moines Marathon in Des Moines, Iowa. This would be state #44 for me. Once again, I didn't train very well for this marathon. At least it should be cool and flat, which would help. But it wasn't going to be speedy, which is par for the course for me these days.

I flew into Minneapolis on Saturday morning. I was able to take a nonstop to MSP, whereas I would have had to connect to fly to Des Moines. And I like driving through unfamiliar parts of the country, so I didn't mind going over 200 miles each way. There's not a heck of a lot to see between Minneapolis and Des Moines. But I did stop at the place where the music died on Feb 2, 1959: The crash site of the plane that held Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Basically it was just a cornfield in the middle of nowhere. But it's part of American history.

I arrived in Des Moines by early afternoon. I checked into my hotel and got my race gear at the expo. I had an early dinner and called it a night early in order to rest up.

On Sunday morning, I walked a few blocks from my hotel to the start line. It was a rather chilly morning, which meant nice running conditions. In fact, it was a beautiful Fall morning. As always, I prefer cloudy days for running marathons, but this weather was fine. The temps were in the upper 30s this early in the morning and would climb to the low 50s later in the day. Can't complain about that.

There wasn't much delay in getting up to the speed I wanted to move at. I covered the first mile in 9:42 and the second in 9:24. Surprisingly, there were some hills in the third mile. Nothing as steep as the ones I saw in my last marathon in Seattle, for example. But it wasn't pancake flat, like I was expecting. I suppose I could have checked the elevation profile ahead of time, but I never got around to that. Anyway, somebody over the weekend told me that Iowa is 99.99% flat, but this marathon course happened to find the 0.01% that wasn't. Whatever the case, I had some slower paces over the next few miles than I usually do this early in a marathon, including Miles 5 and 8, which were both slower than 10 minutes. So be it.

The Full/Half split occurred earlier in the race than I typically see. So early on, the crowd was thinned out considerably. Nonetheless, there were still quite a few spectators along the course. And many of them were holding homemade signs. I always appreciate a good creative sign.

Just before the halfway point, we ran to Drake University, and then did a lap around their running track. That was an interesting touch to add into the race. I then passed the halfway point at about 2:08 on my watch, which is right about what I have been doing for the last couple years, and thus right about what I was expecting here. It was looking like I'd be ending up right around 4:30 again, which is becoming quite typical for me.

After leaving Drake University, we ran back along the same path for a while, then went through some residential neighborhoods before entering a park and running along a bike path. At some point around Mile 18 or so, my right knee started to feel a little creaky. I wasn't as tired as I expected to be, considering my low level of training miles. But the knee was a little disconcerting. It wasn't too bad, so I continued on.

My pace, of course, was slipping, as it always does in the late stages of a marathon. 10:30, 11:00, 11:30... slower and slower. Mile 25 was 12:37, which is one of the slowest miles I've ever recorded in a marathon. The knee never really got any worse, thankfully. It was sore, but not injured. So I don't think it cost me very much time.

I managed to get in just over the four and a half hour mark. My official time was 4:30:21. Some of my recent ones have been slightly faster, some have been slightly slower. I will happily take it, since it means another state is checked off the list.

I thought the course was actually very nice. The only portion of it that was rather unappealing was a stretch on MLK Parkway just after the start and again just before the end. Everything in the middle was either in a nice park or through a nice residential area. The aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were very helpful and friendly. This was definitely an enjoyable way to knock Iowa off my list.

Later that day, I actually met up with a couple of guys that I used to know back when I was growing up in Connecticut. One was a guy I went to high school with, and another was my next door neighbor when we were little kids. They didn't know each other back when we were all in Connecticut, and different circumstances brought them to Iowa. But they are now friends in Des Moines and have both been living there for a number of years. So we all met up and hung out for a few hours on Sunday night. That in itself made this weekend a more interesting one than most of the weekends where I fly off to some random state by myself to run a race.

Monday morning I drove back to Minneapolis and then flew home. I very much enjoyed the Des Moines Marathon, and am happy to have used this one as my marathon in Iowa.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.