Last night, Matt and I did the Midnight Madness 5k run in Ames (home of Iowa State U). Ames is about a half hour north of Des Moines. We dropped Alex off at Grandma's and drove up to get our bibs, t-shirts, chips and bands. The 5k started at 7:30, the 10k at 8:30. The weather was great, it was about 75 when we ran, so you couldn't ask for better weather.
The view before the start of the race.
Matt's got his game face on.
Some of the Ames firefighters did the 5k in their full gear - one or two of them also carried a hose. Matt said it was about 80 extra pounds they were hauling around. The photo is a bit fuzzy because I was running by when I took it.
We started out and I realized at mile 1 that I did not obey the cardinal rule of running: hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I got a huge stitch in my side and had to slow it down and try to work it out. I did manage to drop my time from the Dam to Dam 5k by 68 seconds, so at least there was a little improvement. I saw the finish line and the time, so I sped up and ran as fast as I could for the last bit.
I crossed the line, was in a lot of pain, and one of the race organizers started hassling me about my timing chip. I told him I just need to walk around for a minute and I would get it off. I really thought I was going to ralph all over because I literally busted my gut running at the end! Finally, after about a minute, I got the darn chip off and gave it to him. They were just trying to get the final times posted (which they were doing right as the runners were coming in), so I don't grudge them for that.
Next time I will have to do a better job of preparing, because I was really dumb about not having enough water before. I had a big protein shake about two hours before, but other than a few sips of water, no other liquids.
Post race - what is the reddest object here? My face, hair or popsicle?
Matt, on the other hand, was a stud (and he finished before me)! He did great, especially since he prefers running on the treadmill instead of on pavement. I'm totally proud of him!
Midnight Madness is a lot of fun, they have an outside party afterwards with a pasta dinner, all the beer you would want (see photo above) and a live band. It runs until 1 a.m. and I highly recommend it if you want to do a fun run/walk event.
We'd definitely do it again!
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