Bitches do Des Moines

A couple of weekends ago, the Bitches and SoBs flew out to Des Moines, IA for a quick weekend.

The main event, was the Marathon and Half Marathon. The KoB, Jeff, and I were all signed up for the Marathon and the rest of the Bitches were signed up for the Half. When we arrived in Des Moines, we hit up a dive bar across the street from our hotel for lunch.

Quite possibly the most accurate photo of our personalities to date.

At El Bait Shop in Des Moines, IA

We had lunch at The El Bait Shop (highly recommend the tater tots! and a local Iowa beer called Dorothy's New World Lager) and then made our way over to the Race Expo.

The first awesome thing about this race was the ease of getting around. We didn't rent a car and we were able to walk everywhere we went (with the exception of the airport). Life is so much easier when everything is in walking distance.

At the expo, we got our race packets and more importantly:

Our wristbands for beer post race.

We also hit up the Barefoot Wine Display (Hellllooooo free wine!) (not sure what the hell Barefoot Wine has to do with Races, but as a lush, I'll happy drink whatever cheap ass free wine you pour into a plastic thimble with enthusiasm). And... I bought a pair of Nike Vomeros for $62.50 (including tax!). I can't find them anywhere online for cheaper than $140!! Crazy awesome deal!

We had dinner at a nice restaurant in downtown Des Moines and settled in early for the night.

The race started at 8am (awesome!), so we wandered out of the hotel around 7:20am (awesome!) and made it to the race start with plenty of time. 

Now, I will do a full write-up of the race itself. But, just know that it was a shit show for me. I had the worst finish time I've ever had and the only thing that kept me from dropping out and walking to the hotel at mile 20 (we passed right by it on the course. UGH) was that I didn't have a marathon finish in Iowa yet.

Anyway, while I was dying on the course:

 the rest of the Bitches were yukking it up and having a grand ole time back at El Bait Shop:

Another hour passed by and still:

Me.

Them.

Finally, I finished and joined them for the fun. They had moved on to the bar next door to El Bait Shop which was called The High Life Lounge. It was basically someone's basement circa 1978. It was awesome.

Thankfully, still alive.

And, totally unaware that there was an ass photobombing me.

We walked into the downtown area for dinner and then at the end of the night we stumbled into the Iowa Cubs Stadium where they were broadcasting the NLCS game on the jumbotron.

Monday we ate a huge lunch and then went to a different restaurant and had beers and some of us had dessert and I swear we all waddled out of Des Moines with about 4 extra pounds on us.

All-in-all it was a great trip! Des Moines was fun and had great food and a great vibe. And now the only question is... where are the bitches off to next??