I Ran the Des Moines 2008 IMT Marathon!

I’m not as excited as I should be but that’s because I didn’t finish in the time I wanted… whomp whomp. I finished, and that’s a pretty damn great accomplishment!

Here’s the play-by-play of my marathon run.

I started out running pretty decent: 9-9:30 minute miles.

… then about three-quarters of the way through my knee pretty much blew out. So I hobbled for about 8 miles. Then I got a blister the size of Texas on my foot, so I walked for about 3 quarters of a mile. Then I ran hard for the last 800 meters or so and finished strong.

It was really fun until about the 16th mile or so when I really started hurting.

I tried to stay ahead of 4:30. I was successful until mile 16. Then the 4:30 pace group passed me. About 20 minutes later the 4:45 pace group passed me. THEN about a half hour later the 5:00 pace guy passed me but told me he was quite a bit ahead. I tried to keep him in site, but it just didn’t happen.

With about 4 miles left, I ran into a guy who was walking that told me to keep going. I said I didn’t want to have to walk, so he walked along side my super slow jog for the rest of the way. He was about 50 and had a daughter my age and had been running for about 5 years for his health. He had a lot of friends and family there to cheer him on. I’m glad I ran into him or I might not have finished. I felt bad because he couldn’t run the last part and I wanted to finish strong so it looked like I ran the whole thing (most of it at least).

Thanks to everybody that came to cheer me on!!

My boss and co-worker were about at the halfway point with a big sign–which was really helpful. My girlfriends and my dad were at mile marker 23. If it wasn’t for them being there I might have quit.