Race Recap: Des Moines Women's Half Marathon

Des Moines Women's Half Marathon 5/5/19 Des Moines, IA

Weather: 60 degrees, sunny
Terrain: roads and paved recreation trails

Distance: 13.1 miles

I decided to start my spring race season with a PR half marathon attempt. My main goal (besides a PR) was to run the entire thing. I had run most of this course in previous Des Moines half marathons that I'd done, so I knew the course would be flat, fast, and ideal for a continuous jog. But shin splints had derailed my running in the previous few weeks, so although I'd healed up and gotten new shoes (old shoes being the culprit behind the shin splints), I was a bit nervous that my run cardio wouldn't hold up.

Packet pickup on Saturday went smoothly and parking was surprisingly a breeze. The morning of the race, parking continued to be no problem and I was only a few minutes' walk from the start at Jasper Winery. The big problem that morning: the bathroom line. There were 21 port-a-potties at this event with thousands of runners. Big mistake. Huge. Thankfully I got back to the start corral at 7:59 for an 8 AM start. It seemed that people had seeded themselves pretty well for the most part, which was good. The first miles were crowded but not overly so. (Small mistake on race crew's part: the first mile marker was about 2/10ths short, but the second mile made up the difference.) Water stops were early and often, about every mile or so, which I appreciated. I had pockets in my shorts so I carried Fig Newtons and ate them at mile 4 and 8. There were the occasional musicians and DJs on the course as well.

For the first several miles I felt extremely strong. My cardio was excellent. My breathing was long and steady. My shins felt totally fine. Around mile 8-9 I started to feel somewhat tired, though. Not anything too specific, just run-down in general. The sun was beating down and the air was humid (by the end of the race it was about 70 degrees) so that didn't help. Miles 10-12 were in a pretty secluded area with hardly any spectators and no entertainment. That was a rough couple of miles for me. I forced myself to keep shuffling along at a jog because my number one goal was to get through the entire race without walking. Obviously I have nothing against walking, but I knew jogging the whole thing would push myself to a limit that I didn't know I could break, and I wanted to see if I could do it through sheer willpower. I even jogged through the water stops, which was tough when there were plastic cups (another small race mistake, in my opinion).

Near mile 12 we came out of the secluded area and saw more people, which helped. One last sadistic uphill portion and we were at the winery for the finish line. Set a new official PR of 2:34, which is 7 minutes faster than my previous half PR which I'd set in fall 2012. It felt good to finally PR in the half after nearly 7 years. Got my delicious finisher sangria and some food and basked in the glory.

Pros:

-Organization. Lots of volunteers, good staging area/parking, well-marked course, lots of aid stations.
-Post-race party. About 5 different wines to choose from, small but curated food selection, entertainment, and plenty of grass to sit on.
-Swag. Finisher medal, commemorative wine glass, and a shirt with actual long sleeves.

Cons:

-Port-a-potties. Come on, we need more. This is a women's event, we can't just pee in the bushes.
-Race photos. Finish photos should have timestamp categories at the very least to make searching easier. Course photos seemed to prioritize "photographic artistry" over customer satisfaction.

Race Grade: A-. Great event with only a couple hiccups.