Race day is almost here!

This Sunday I'll be run/walk/running through town, Water Works Park and Gray's Lake then back into downtown. I'm really looking forward to it. Here's the map of both the marathon and the half. They connect into each other, so I will be on the course when the runners fighting for the prize pass by. That's always a big deal and it's the only time I get within shouting distance of an elite athlete. 

Don't tell anyone from out of town, but the course, although apparently considered to be flat & fast, has hills. Nice long killer hills. For those of you who don't know, I love hills. However, the half route is, in point of fact, flat. 

You can click on the map to embiggen it. 

If you don't know Des Moines, you don't realize what a beautiful course it is. 

Please come visit and I will show you around. Free offer. 

My goals for this race stand from the last post with the exception that my time will be around 2:40:00. If I run the entire distance with my running friend from the club, I may be at this or later. If I break away or (heaven forbid!) she hurts a lot, I may be in sooner.

Either way, I'd better not be crying again. 

Here is an article that was published in today's Des Moines Register (local section). They included this photo of me and my co-worker from last year's run. He didn't know I had submitted it. Oops. He has a good sense of humor...

Why do I run with my chin in the air? 

When Caron Osberg of Urbandale lines up at the start of the IMT Des Moines Marathon on Sunday, she’ll be on familiar territory. This will be her fourth time taking part in the event.

Osberg, 46, a recruiter for technology firm QCI, walked the 26.2-mile full marathon route in 2008, then walked the 13.1-mile half in 2009 and ran the half last year. She’s running the half again this year.

Although her 2010 time of 2 hours and 12 minutes easily landed her in the top half of her age division, Osberg said she felt hesitation at first.

“It took me a year to stop being intimidated by other runners,” Osberg said. “I know now that everyone who crosses the finish line is a winner.”

That’s an attitude race director Chris Burch hopes is contagious.

“Our race isn’t just about the elite runners who take home the prize money,” Burch said. “The vast majority of our athletes are people like Caron, who work hard to get to race day but whose lives don’t center on running. Without them, we wouldn’t have a race.”

Osberg runs with the IMT Des Moines Marathon Running Club on Saturday mornings and loves the routes that take her through downtown Des Moines.

“There's so much energy and so much to look at as you run past the artwork, the beautiful landscaping, the buildings, the gardens,” she said. But her own neighborhood offers opportunities, too.

“I spend most of my time there running routes as I need them: short, long, looping, hills, flat,” she said. “Urbandale has every route I need for training and for fun.”

— Elizabeth Keest Sedrel for the IMT Des Moines Marathon