By Jared Janzen
Local Yokel Reporter
The past weekend, I paid my first-ever visit to Des Moines, Iowa, and spent all of Sunday morning exploring the city’s highways and byways and nooks and crannies. Except I wasn’t doing it in a car. I was doing it on foot as I ran the Des Moines Marathon.
During the late summer months, as I struggled through marathon training, I thought finishing in the range of 5 hours, 15 minutes, to 5 hours, 30 minutes, seemed pretty doable.
As I lined up at the start line that morning, however, I was feeling greedy. I started out in front of the 5-hour pace group and hoped to stay ahead of them as long as I could.
If you read my column two weeks ago, you’ll know this was folly, since I’ve been trying to overcome an ankle injury and was only able to put in half the training volume that I should have.
My idea, though, was that I had nothing to lose by pushing myself and that I just might be able to exceed my previous expectations.
Even though I was tracking the run on my phone, I paid zero attention to the pace I was running and just went off of how it felt.
The marathon field at Des Moines this year was more than 2,000 strong, and when you factor in all the athletes in the half marathon, 10K and 5K, there were more than 9,000 runners flooding the streets on Sunday.
It’s no wonder so many people come to this event, considering what a neat marathon course Des Moines has. We started downtown with views of the state capitol building, then worked our way through neighborhoods to Drake University, where we got to run a lap around their football stadium.
The second half of the race took us on a paved trail through some woods, and then we finished off with more great views along the Raccoon River.
The weather was cool but sunny, with a bit of a breeze, and it couldn’t have been more perfect for running a marathon.
Since I wasn’t taking this marathon very seriously, I indulged in some of the candy that people were handing out along the course. It was like Halloween came early.
I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to hand out Lifesavers during a marathon, but as soon as I put one in my mouth, it immediately became apparent that eating hard candy while running was a potential choking hazard. I stuck to Tootsie Rolls and Payday bars from then on.
I love reading the signs that spectators hold during marathons. One lady around mile eight had a sign that said, “Marathons are about courage, not speed.” I tried to take that to heart, but three hours later, as I was still painfully slogging my way toward the end, any thoughts of courage were far from my mind.
I made it to mile 18 before I had to stop for a walk break. From then on, I would walk for a couple minutes every time I hit a mile marker and then jog/shuffle/plod my way to the next mile marker.
Like any marathon, it was tough. I was aching all over. Even one of my armpits hurt from chafing, which was a new experience for me.
I was about a mile-and-a-half from the finish line when the five-hour pace group caught up with me. I tried to hang with them for a bit, but at that point, neither my willpower nor my leg power was strong enough.
I eventually crossed the finish line in 5 hours, 4 minutes. That’s 21 minutes slower than my first (and heretofore slowest) marathon and more than an hour slower than my fastest.
But at the end of the day, the finish time isn’t what’s important. There will always be future races to chase faster times. What mattered was that I earned my finisher’s medal and crossed another 26.2 miles off my list.
Now that a couple days have passed since the big race, my body is bouncing back. I can walk like a normal person again, and the soreness in my quads has subsided. Even my right ankle, which has bothered me off and on for the past five months, feels surprisingly good.
Naturally, that means it’s time to start planning the next race.
Jared Janzen is a reporter for the Hutchinson Tribune. He may be reached at jared@hutchtribune.com.