Maniacs & 50 Staters before the start of the Main 2 Main Marathon in Osage, Iowa. It was a bit humid, hilly at times, with a view of cornfields & soybean fields which stretched on forever. Much of the time we were running on a grooved concrete road which wasn’t forgiving at all on the joints after 26.2 miles. Smelling manure for that many miles was a real nose-workout. 😉 The medal had a cute pink piggy on it although I never saw any of them. I think a cornfield would have been a better fit. 😉
There were 53 marathon finishers. They also had a 5k,10K, & half. They gave people 7.5 hours to finish. Plenty of water stops with snacks, water, Gatorade. There was gear check. There was race day pick up if you couldn’t make it on Friday. Our bag had a nice long-sleeved shirt with the same pink piggy that’s on the finisher’s medal. There was also good mile signage along the whole course. They also had volunteers directing us which way to go. They also had small jeeps which served as emergency vehicles. They kept going back & forth along both sides of the roads and offered bottles of water, Gatorade or first aid if you needed it. It was a well-organized race. 🙂
Post and Photo Credit Christine Murasaki Ainsworth — MM13525, DA3296, HF17376 and Jiming Huang