Des Moines Marathon - RunMarathon

I had decided to give the race my best. I figured I might as well, since I had trained so much for TCM. Even if I blew up at mile 10, it would be nice to try for a BQ. So I started right away running a pace that put some time in the bank. It felt great to hold 8:10ish miles. I got ahead of the 3:40 pace group around mile 2 and didn't look back.

The weather was great. Nice and cool, and mostly overcast. The sun peaked through occasionally, but we were in the shade for most of it. The first ten miles of the race wound through really nice neighborhoods. It was much hillier than I was expecting, but I do well on hills.

Mile 6 I passed a guy who was barefoot and wearing a leopard print loincloth. Hahaha. Apparently Tarzan can run marathons.

Mile 11 we ran into a stadium and did a lap around the track. I loved that. They had a band at the entrance and the music was blasting over the PA system. I was feeling great and just got even more stoked to be racing. My splits were looking good, nutrition was right on, and it was a gorgeous day. As I was leaving the stadium I saw the 3:40 pace group entering. I tried to pick it up a bit to keep some distance between us.

Just after the half way mark I had to pull off to pee. It only cost me 20 seconds or so. Got right back into my groove afterwards. I was taking 100 calories of sports bean or shot bloks every 5 miles and water when I felt like it. The water stations were great. They had SO many! I was running through them, trying to take a little drink at each one, but I was careful to not drink too much to avoid having to make pee stops.

Mile 14 I had to stop to poop. Lost a minute or so there, but picked up when I left off and felt great. That was the last bathroom break I had to take.

We came into a park and ran through trails for a bit. It was really pretty. Around mile 16, after I had eaten a bag of sports beans, I got an awful cramp in the pit of my stomach. It came out of nowhere! I tried running through it but it hurt so badly that it was forcing me to change my stride. So I thought "you've got some time, you can walk for a bit." So I did. I slowed to a walk and tried to calm down and just deep-breath it away. I only had to walk for a minute or so before it went away. I started back up on an 8:20ish pace and felt fine.

This is when I started thinking that I could really BQ. I was thinking about how great it would be post my time on BT so you guys could all see that I did it. I thought about being able to call my mom and say "I qualified for Boston!!!" I thought about calling Scott and telling him and how proud of me he'd be. I got really excited that it could happen. I was feeling great! I just kept thnking, only a couple miles and then a 10k. I was thinking it over and over like a mantra in my head.

Mile 20 (only a 10k left!) we started a big loop around a lake, and were exposed to the wind and sun. That made things a little tough. My legs felt great but my joints were starting to complain a bit. I did some math and decided that I could afford to stop to strech out. That felt great and I went on my way again.

The next couple miles is when I started to lose the time I had built up. I got way too lazy. I was counting on really pushing myself through the end, thinking "you've gone this far, what's another half hour of pain?" But I didn't get up to the pain level. I stayed at the comfortable level for waaay too long. My cushion was rapidly falling away. I walked through water stops. I streched a bit. I thought "you have time, you have time." I was factoring that extra 59 seconds in with every calculation I made. Ha!

With two miles to go I did the math and realized that no, I did not have time. And I thought about how terrible it would be to have such a great race and then just let BQing slip through my fingers at the end. We came up a slight incline and then ran over a bridge, and from there it was the home stretch. I got to that bridge and took off like a bat out of hell. Every minute that passed I checked my distance against the clock. Pretty soon I had 5 minutes left to make it to the finish line. I was really busting my ass. Everyone around me was walking or jogging really slowly. Those last 2 miles I must have passed 300 people. I was a woman on a mission.

I made the final turn and could see the finish line. My garmin clock clicked over to 3:39, and the finish line looked soooo far away. I was going as fast as I possibly could. My lungs were burning and I was sucking wind like you wouldn't believe, but my legs kept it up. Those fat little stumps of my mine were MOVING! I don't know how they had it in them. It was a full out sprint. My garmin changed to 3:40. I had to make it past the finish line before 3:40 was up.

I ran across the finish line and nearly fell over. I looked at my garmin and lo and behold, it was still on 3:40. I couldn't believe it. I did it! It had taken everything I had at the end, but I did it! I don't think I would have lasted another quarter of a mile at that pace.

Not a damn thing.

I plopped down in a chair and let a lady take my chip off. I was still sucking wind and wanted to just sit there forever. But I got myself up and hobbled over to get my medal. I was SO happy and wished I had someone there to jump around with. All these people around me and no one knew just how big of a deal it was!!!

My hips felt terrrrrible. Sitting down felt better, but as all of you that have run a marathon know, sitting down and stretching doesn't make it go away. I sat on a curb with my foil blanket and saw a lady that I had been leap frogging with for awhile. We talked for a bit but then she had to go off and find her family. There were bands playing and stuff, but I just wanted to go somewhere and put my feet up. So I hobbled back to my car. Ahhh, cushion. I put the seat back, my feet up on the dashboard, and proceeded to call everyone to tell them how great of a day I had.

On my way back to my room I picked up a big bag of ice for the hotel tub. Ice baths really are the best thing ever. It's amazing what they do for me. I had some hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup as I soaked, and felt SO much better afterwards. Packed all my shit up and headed back to Minnesota.


Not much. I put on a bit of weight between Twin Cities and this race, so that didn't help me out at all. But basically everything fell right into place for this. I won't complain about anything!


This was a GREAT race. I would totally reccommend this to anyone. The volunteers were wonderful, the course is great, and there is a surprising amount of crowd support. I think the Des Moines marathon organizers put on a class act.

I'd like to thank everyone here on BT for all your encouragement and support in this little journey I've been on to BQ. I thought about all of you when I was out there running, and that was such a great motivator for me. I know that I wouldn;t be anywhere near where I'm at right now if it wasn't for BT. Thanks everyone!!!