Unabashedly Me: IMT Des Moines Principal 5K recap

I kind of gave up on doing my Sunday Sweats posts. Even though I loved the accountability factor of sharing my weekly workouts, I was just running out of new things to say. But rest assured I am still working out regularly and doing races and will just mix those updates in with my other posts.

This past Sunday I ran the IMT Des Moines Principal 5K. I signed up for the race in March, when they were offering a steep discount ($17). I did not do well in keeping up with my running over the summer, but I kicked it up the past month or so in preparation for the race.

The worst part of every race is standing in the chute, waiting for it to start. I arrived at the start line a little before 8 a.m., which is when the marathoners and half-marathoners started. I love watching those athletes take off. It's so inspiring to see people take on those distances, and the atmosphere is so uplifting and fun. Invariably, I always make a new friend at my races as well. On this day, I met Victoria, who was doing her first 5K ever. She was nervous and not at all sure if she would enjoy it. I couldn't find her afterwards, but I hope she did have fun and hopefully I'll see her at the Drake Road Races in April.

The temperature at the start was 30 degrees, so I wore long sleeves and long pants along with a band around my ears. That proved to be enough as I made my way through the route. The first mile is always my toughest. Always. I haven't yet figured out why I start out so slow, but I'm going to keep working to improve that. It doesn't help that most of the first mile is spent dodging participants who are walking or groups of four or more who are trying to stay together. I also had to stop for a few seconds during the second mile for a fire truck to go through. Overall, the run felt pretty good, and I was happy with my final time.