Maybe I Should Go Buy a Lottery Ticket!

I got up early this morning and headed to Des Moines with Team Satisfied (and a potential Team Satisfied "pledge" hoping for initiation into next year's team) for the Living History Farms race. It was pretty cool out, so we were well-layered for the race in our "finest" running gear. Sparkle pulled out her Ames High School Golf sweatshirt and I grabbed an old Kappa Alpha Theta sweatshirt. Between the "old school" sweats and my blaze orange railroad-issue knit gloves, I looked good! Last night in the basement I found a really old pair of running shoes that looked like they had one last race left in them.

The trip to DM was more like a trip down memory lane, packed with reminiscing of RAGBRAI 2005 and lots of laughter. We are not sure whether our stories will make Janel want to join us next year or whether it will turn her off of the idea completely!

There were 4500 other people who decided that playing in the mud on a cold Saturday morning in November was a good idea. We joined them all in the starting area and had a chance to look around at our competition. I would guess that at least 50% of the racers are high school cross country runners from all over Iowa and the midwest, ready to burn off some steam since their season ended a few short weeks ago. There were lots of theme costumes - cows, 80's aerobics instructors, the band KISS, you name it. But the guy that takes the cake at every race in the area is the guy who runs barefoot - every race! I've seen him run the Des Moines marathon barefoot, in a skirt, all while dragging a stuffed monkey on a string behind him. Today he was barefoot, in a native American outfit, carrying a bow and arrow. However, his "outfit" was no more than a simple loin cloth. I'm sure there was something under his skimpy loin cloth, but if you were, say, standing behind him at the awards ceremony, you got a straight shot of his buttocks. The dude was shivering so bad that one older woman offered him her gloves. I had to think to myself at that point that a pair of gloves was not going to make ANY difference to the strange guy who ran basically naked in 40 degree weather up and down muddy hills and through numerous waist-deep creek crossings for the last 90 minutes. But, she was great to offer.

The race was allegedly giving away 6 free pairs of Adidas shoes from Fitness Sports at the awards ceremony - just bring a canned good and they'd give you a raffle ticket to be drawn at the end of the awards. Since I wear only Adidas, and Fitness Sports is one of only a handful of stores in the US that sells my favorite model, I was willing to wait in cold temps and breezy conditions to see if I could win. The awards took so long that we figured we might be able to win by simply outlasting all the other participants, as you had to be present to win.

They went through (VERY slowly) and gave away the awards for the overall winners and the age groups. First place got a frozen turkey, second place got a frozen duck, third place took home a frozen chicken, and fourth place got a cornish hen. They all also got handmade pottery plates. However, the overall first through third place winners got gift certificates ($100, $50, and $25) to Fitness Sports. Since they took so long to give out the awards, I took some time to look around. Standing right in front of us was the overall winner and his buddy, the third place winner. I think the announcer said they were from Madison or somewhere else out of state. They compared their poultry and plates for quite some time, then looked in the envelopes they were handed at the podium. They looked in the envelope and then at each other and kinda chuckled. For some reason, I was watching them do all this (and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were kinda cute...), but then they looked up at us and asked, "Are you guys from Des Moines?" No one else in my group had been paying attention to all the details of their situation as well as I had, so no one really said anything, except me! "Yes! I'm from Des Moines!" I said. I knew exactly what was going to happen, so I wasn't really all that surprised when he handed me their two gift certificates. "Well, here's $125 worth of gift certificates to Fitness Sports. Enjoy!" Yipee! No more waiting in the cold to see if I won the free shoes! Since these guys didn't live anywhere close to Des Moines, they were never gonna use 'em, but I will!!

This just topped off a crazy week for me. Earlier in the week, I won a $200 gift certificate to a jewelry store in Marshalltown off a radio contest. And I'm still in the running for a diamond pendant necklace from that same radio deal. Maybe I should go by a lottery ticket...

Oh yeah, the race itself was great, too! Everything was pretty wet from all the melting snow from earlier in the week. Team Satisfied ran the whole thing together because it's not really the type of race where you can even try for a PR. The course was so crowded that there were LOTS of sections where you couldn't run even if you wanted to, everything just got so bottle-necked that running was not an option. I felt great the whole race - far, far better than I have in my two previous attempts at this race. I felt strong through all the hills. I think the most remarkable part for me was how good I felt at mile 5 and mile 6. In years previous, I was pretty much done at mile 5. I attribute the strength training I've been more regular with this year. Off to a good start!