Alex Parkel's Staging Area

The middle of October has led to some great running weather in recent years, and that trend continues. I did not start to feel dehydrated until mile 18, even though it was my first marathon. I was perfectly comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts, even though it was supposed to be in the low 40s at the start: winds were extremely low too. This is the biggest race of Des Moines of the year, and the volunteers showed why. In what’s not known as the biggest city, there were still plenty of aided water stations scattered throughout the track at the right times, in addition to the nutritionals (Gatorade energy Gel, sometimes fruit, sometimes trail mix or even gummy bears) except mile 16-17, where the course gets narrow and you cannot see much in front of you. The volunteers and fans were frequently around the track in many areas. My medal has a few scratches on it I later noticed, and in photos, it was clear that it had scratches when it was handed to me, but I can’t complain much since it was my first marathon medal. The medal designs were fun (State Capitol) and I can argue the half marathon and 5K medals were cooler looking. The IMT Des Moines Marathon Group provided a few training sessions that were somewhat valuable in the preceding months of the marathon, whether it was a free hill training program, or physical therapy/recovery. This year, the marathon was on the same day as the half marathon and 5K races, which didn’t enable some to start with their desired pace group, but since the race is so long, you will still be able to run your best at the pace you’re comfortable with (for at least the first 20 miles). There were some opportunities for runners to get action photos, including the Blue Oval at Drake, where the 20K checkpoint was, and it is always a fun run on the track as a Drake alumni myself. Photos were also taken at the finish line, by Gray’s Lake, so you could see how tired out you were around mile 23, and of course, the start line!