Saturday, he braved the heat and humidity at the 36th annual Midnight Madness 10K road race in downtown Ames and came away with the top prize of the night.
"I'd never run it, and I've been in Iowa all these years," said Moen, a former Division III national champion at Wartburg College. "So I thought I'd just give it a shot. Why not?"
Moen, who is from Readlyn, won the men's race in a time of 30 minutes, 28 seconds. He beat Christopher Rutto, of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Matthew Chesang, of Olathe, Kan., who finished in second and third place, respectively.
Moen battled both the heat and the other competitors in the race, as the temperature was still around 90 degrees with 45 percent humidity when the starting gun sounded at 8:30 p.m., and the runners sprinted down Fifth Street.
Rutto and Moen were neck and neck as they neared the halfway point of the race, but Moen found an opening and took advantage.
"I felt terrible," Moen said. "Three days ago, I ran one of the best races of my life, a 10K in 28:56. So I come here and it's like running on the sun basically, and I felt terrible. I was about ready to let (Rutto) go at about four miles. He's tough.
|
|
The first woman to cross the finish line was Casey Owens, of Des Moines, in a time of 36:28.
Owens barely beat out Jenna Boren, who clocked a time of 36:35. The third-place finisher was Melissa Gacek, of St. Paul, Minn., a graduate of Des Moines Roosevelt High School.
Owens ran at Missouri State and was an All-American. She's not new to running here in Ames.
"This is about my seventh time at Midnight Madness," she said. "I won the 5K about four years ago, but this is my first time winning the 10K."
Owens and Moen ran together in Japan recently for the United States, and, like Moen, struggled to win first prize Saturday.
"I just knew I had to go out conservatively because it's always about 95 degrees out," Owens said. "I just wanted to be patient, and I had a good finish.
"I'm usually struggling in this race because I go out too hard, so I just tried to relax and run as well as I could. I was in second most of the race until about the last half-mile and I probably started out about fourth or fifth."
In the 5K race, Chris Jensen, of Mason City, finished first in a time of 15:54.
Erin Block, a former Ames High standout who now lives in St. Paul, Minn., was the first female finisher in the 5K. Kristy Feldman, of West Des Moines, and Danna Kelly, of Boone, finished second and third, respectively.
So will Moen be back to Midnight Madness after winning in his first try?
"I'm done," he joked. "No, it's a great place to run. I really enjoyed the experience."
