Des Moines Spring 4-Miler

Des Moines Spring 4-Miler is a road race in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 6, 2027, with a single 4-mile (6.4 kilometers) event starting at 10:00 a.m. The mid-morning start is generous for early March in Iowa: temperatures have had time to climb off their overnight low before you line up.

Four miles is a distance worth seeking out. It is long enough that pacing matters and short enough to run at close to 10K effort from the gun, which makes it a clean measure of where your fitness stands at the end of winter. Runners building toward a spring half marathon can slot it in as a hard tempo effort without needing a taper, while newer runners will find it a manageable step up from the 5K. Three or four runs a week for six weeks, one of them reaching 5 miles, is plenty.