I can’t say for certain that this was an intentional poke at the media by the Palin camp, but it did make for tons of fun headlines over the weekend:

Sarah Palin’s short-lived and unannounced run began and ended today in Storm Lake, Iowa.

The morning after Palin’s speech at a tea party rally in Indianola, Greta Van Susteren of Fox News posted a photo she said was snapped of Palin during the “Jump Right in and Run” half-marathon organized by the Storm Lake Running Club.

Hannah Campbell, webmaster of the Storm Lake Running Club, confirmed the former Alaska governor’s participation in the event. She said Palin’s official time was 1 hour 46 minutes 10 seconds.

The unpublicized stop by Palin is odd, but it’s not the first. She made a silent visit to the World War One Liberty Memorial in Kansas City last month.

A tweet from Palin this afternoon mentioned her Storm Lake stop: “Thank you, Storm Lake, Iowa. You put on a great event & we loved meeting some great folks in your beautiful town today!”

According to the Des Moines Register, Palin registered for the race using her maiden name, Sarah Heath, and finished in an impressive 2nd place among women in her age category.

“No one in our planning committee knew prior to her half-marathon finish that she was even registered for the race,” one event organizer told the Register.   “After learning that Mrs. Palin had run the race, a volunteer for the event realized that a man she recognized during packet pick-up on Saturday evening was actually Todd Palin.”