Monday, April 11, 2016

Loop the Lake 8k

I ran the Loop the Lake 8k in Des Moines on Saturday with my little brother Larry.  Initially we were a little concerned with how the weather would turn out, we knew it would be chilly and probably windy.  The course went around beautiful Gray's Lake on the paved trails around the lake.

When we picked up our race packets it was funny to find out we were numbers 7 and 8, not sure how that happened when we signed up on different days :)  It was 29 degrees and the winds by the lake were about 16mph, so a bit less windy than my previous runs.  My nerves were settled and I was excited to run, I love the atmosphere of races!  


My brother is one that can just go out and run with minimal training.  It takes me a couple of months just to get my base built up so I can feel somewhat good on long runs.  He did run the first two miles with me, then I told him to just take off and go his own pace :)


Even though we were on trail paths it wasn't bad because this race didn't have a ton of runners so I never felt crowded.  There were some small hills spread throughout but overall it was a flat course.  My goal was to come in under 55 minutes on the clock.  This was my first run in two months that I actually felt good, how perfect to finally have that on race day!

My official time was 51:34, 10:22/mile :)  I am very happy with how I did and feel like I got some confidence back after this race.  They happened to have the BEST post race drink ever.........chocolate milk!  We plan on adding this race in each year to kick off the season.


After showering we headed out for some lunch at Jethro's in West Des Moines.  I love this place, they have some of the best BBQ and they had Summer Shandy on tap, it was a great post race celebration :)


The drive home was tiring but everyone was happy to see me and hear about my run.  Kyle and Bella had a Kick Out Cancer event at Kosama and they had a blast!  Here is a Bella holding a side plank :)


All in all it was a wonderful weekend for all of us.  Yesterday we had thunderstorms so we all enjoyed a movie/game day.  My handsome boy Hurley was happy to have his momma home and didn't leave my side the rest of the weekend :)  He's ready to get in on some of the running action with me!


9 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun race! Congrats on your finish!

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  2. I never was one of those that could just go out and run a race without training! How do they do it? I love an 8k distance looks like a fun race

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  3. I have wanted to do this race, but it seems I always have a conflict. Grays Lake is such a great course...I think almost every DSM race includes a loop around it ;-) Congrats on the great finish time!

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  4. Congratulations on coming in under your goal! Amazing! And I'm jealous of people like your brother- I wish I had those kinds of skills!

    Fun race!

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  5. This sounds like a great race! I love the distance. And chocolate milk is my jam after a race.

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  6. Congrats on running a strong race. Your smile in your post race picture really shows how great you felt about this race. :)

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  7. This race looks super fun! And I love that your gym has that for the kids!

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  8. Is that chocolate milk? any race with chocolate milk at the end, I will do!

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  9. Nice job on the race! Sounds like you had a lovely weekend.

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