The IMT Des Moines Half-Marathon and Marathon took place Oct. 21. While the runners took to the streets for the 13.1- and 26.2-mile races, there was a different kind of marathon going on. Trees Forever intended to plant 26 trees and 2 seedlings during the event. Runners and spectators saw the volunteers in action. At Gray’s Lake, swamp white oaks and London plane trees got a new home. Grand Avenue found some Kentucky coffee trees, and Water Works Park took on some new neighbors of bald cypress, river birch and swamp white oak. Finally, the Drake campus east of the Knapp Center got some black gum, chinquapin oak, and shingle oak. Des Moines Public Works (forestry department) will pay for the trees in the right-of-way (using money from the tree mitigation fund), and Trees Forever is covering the trees in Water Works, explained Leslie Berckes, the group’s program development and innovation director. An army of 16 to 20 volunteers was expected to help. “We stagger the planting times to correspond with the maximum number of runners going past,” said Berckes. “Chris Burch with the IMT Marathon is an outstanding partner in this as is the city of Des Moines Public Works.”