Hundreds of athletes congregated on my campus last weekend to run the best races of their lives thus far. Some friends from back home made the eight-hour journey to see yours truly (I felt pretty awesome they did that for me), and we spent two days touring Des Moines, watching the races and playing with a bulldog named Meatball.

 

 

In this picture, my friend Ryan gets some affection from Meatball, the beautiful bulldog of 2010.

 

Believe it or not, there are some pretty fun things to do in Des Moines. We began by checking out the Iowan capital, a mastery of architecture from the late 1800s that's pretty magnificent to look at.

 

We also went to the Pappajohn's Sculpture garden in downtown DSM. I'm not a big art person normally, but I like the diversity and creativity of this arrangement. The man of letters is a particular favorite of mine, and we enjoyed racing each other up the small hills located nearby.

Afterwards, we returned to Drake to watch some of the races, including a 100-meter international hurdle.

 

I gotta say, we had a great time — can't wait for next year!