EMC DAM to DSM

EMC DAM to DSM sends runners on a point-to-point course beginning beside Saylorville Lake at Saylorville Dam and finishing amid the celebratory energy of downtown Des Moines. Few regional road races offer this kind of scenic-to-urban transition within a single morning, moving from open water and trails to a capital-city finish line.

Because the race starts outside the city and finishes downtown, support crews benefit from choosing a single Des Moines base rather than trying to track the race across two separate locations. A visit to Saylorville Lake the day before, whether for a walk along the shoreline or simply to see the starting area, gives families a preview of the course’s opening miles before race morning arrives.

Booking a downtown hotel keeps the finish-line district and its restaurants within easy reach once the race wraps, letting families turn a single morning of racing into a fuller Des Moines day. For runners drawn to a course with genuine scenic variety rather than a single repeated loop, few Iowa races offer as clear a transition from lake country into capital-city energy as this one does.