11:30 AM
Road
$55+
Des Moines
500-1000
Some Hills
Urban
Run along mostly rolling terrain through the heart of Iowa’s capital city, the half marathon at the event now known as the Hy-Vee Road Races at the Drake Relays have been a fixture in this city for more than four decades.
From the starting line near the athletic stadium on the tree-lined campus of Drake University, the race follows a counter-clockwise, out-and-back loop course through the city, winding through a mix of neighborhoods, commercial districts, and park and greenspace areas.
The race then flattens out for the next couple of miles before hitting its next significant hills between miles 8 and 10, and then flattens out again for the last two miles to the finish line back at the University campus.
There’s a course time limit of 3 hours for the half marathon, which means that runners are expected to keep an approximately 14-minute-per-mile pace or faster. Organizers plan to re-open the course to traffic after 11:30 AM.
Though they are the marquee races in the Drake Relays road races, Saturday’s events are just the conclusion of an extra-long weekend of track and field events that take place at Drake University’s stadium, where the half, 10K and the 5K start. Tickets are available as part of your race package for the previous days’ events, which take place Thursday through Saturday.
Let others know what makes this race so special.
