That Darn Dam to Dam

Like every spring for the past 7 years, I have led a 10-week training program for Dam to Dam. Beginner runners extend themselves to tackle the 20K race held in Des Moines. This program and this race are always highlights of my year. The time always go by so quickly... one day it is March, then I blink my eyes for just a second and suddenly it is Memorial Day and the race is only a few days away!

This year, instead of leading the whole thing myself (which doesn't allow for any other activities on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings for 10 weeks), I decided to hire an assistant coach. We ended up sharing the Tuesday/Saturday coaching responsibilities 50/50. Not only did that make everything more manageable, but it also made the time fly past even more quickly!

The only downside to all of this is that I didn't get to run with the group every week, especially the long runs. Plus, the rest of my focus has been on cycling this year, where in past years it was triathlon, so I was still getting plenty of run training accomplished. This year, I managed to squeeze in one each of 6-, 8-, and 10-mile runs, all done prior to four weeks before the race. That meant I literally did nothing over 4 miles/week in the 4 weeks leading up to the race. If you haven't already figured it out, that is not anywhere close to what I should have been doing to prepare.

Back in February, I had an athlete ask me if I thought someone could bike their way to run fitness (he'd been doing a lot of riding (but little running), and was signed up for a marathon in the spring). Apparently, I'd decided to put this theory to the test, with me as the test subject!

I have never in my lifetime toed the line of a race with so few expectations. Truly, the only goal was to finish, regardless of time, with as little damage to my body as possible. With a mountain bike race the following day, I honestly just wanted to get the 12.4 miles done and over with! I had no pre-race nerves. In fact, as I stood on the Saylorville Dam waiting to take off, I was having trouble even getting excited about being there. Usually, I love this race, and it always gets me excited, but that was not the case this year.

I also had another unwelcome detail present itself in the days leading up to race day. My right rotator cuff had been bothering me - probably something that I did out on the challenge course earlier in the week. I didn't realize that it would be a problem until I ran with Team 12.4 two days before the race at our annual Team 12.4 / Team Vardo pasta feed. As we took off down the road, I realized that the forward and back swinging motion of running was nearly impossible and very painful with my shoulder in its current condition. The best I could figure out was that I was going to have to run with my shoulder basically held static for 2 hours while I ran! I spent the rest of Thursday and all day Friday alternating between icing and exercising my shoulder as best I knew in hopes of a miraculous recovery somehow by Saturday morning!

I woke up Saturday morning with a little improvement, but no miracle. The day was beautiful, but I knew it was going to heat up in a hurry. I found a bunch of Team 12.4ers, past and present, and some Zoom athletes at the start. I decided to run by myself, as I didn't know what to expect from either my legs or my shoulder. The gun went off, and I quickly discovered that if I swung my right arm directly in front of my body (such bad running form!!), the shoulder would tolerate it. So picture me, a running coach, running the big event of the year, with the worst form of any of my students! The day started warm and only got hotter as the day progressed. So, I took off slowly and decided to let my legs make all the decisions of the day.

Miles 1-6 are all downhill or flat. Easy. I felt good, kept up with my nutrition (I love caffeinated Hammer Gel!), my hydration, and tried to keep my heart rate in Zone 2-3. I maintained a steady 9-9:30 pace, and was using my HR as a gauge until the stupid monitor gave me the black screen of death at mile 4. So much for that training/racing tool! I was pretty much on my own from that point on, with no HR data to provide feedback.

The hills were next, which lead us into town. I felt much stronger on the hills than I ever would have expected, and didn't stop to walk as I had feared I might need. Around mile 8 I noticed my right trapezius was getting tight and fatigued from holding my shoulder in such a foreign position for so long. I thought that might be the beginning of the end for me, but kept pushing. I knew that mile 10 was usually the valley of darkness for me in this race, so I wanted to cover as much ground as quickly as possible before I arrived there. Like Pavlov's dog, I made the turn towards the 10-mile mark, and I felt everything get sluggish. I was ready to be done. It was not more than a minute later that I heard a familiar voice from behind ask me how things in Ames were. It was Ian - I'd trained his wife a few years back, and had the opportunity to get to know him a little as well. We ran and talked all the way to Birdland Marina, and kept each other moving. When I pulled ahead a little on the hill, I hollered back for him to catch up with me; I think we both needed each other more than we thought. Another half mile down the road, we stopped at an aid station for a sip of water. While I wanted to walk and drink, Ian made me throw down the water and get running again. We bypassed the champagne at mile 11.4 and just pushed our way to the finish line. Ian dropped off at mile 12 for another sip of water, but I kept cruising.

When I ran my first two marathons, I found myself getting a little emotional as I neared the finish lines. It was hard to breathe and my eyes would well up a bit. All the emotions of training and accomplishing something like that came to a head in the final miles. I would be near-hyperventilating as I crossed the finish lines. That never happened in my Ironmans, so I thought that silly female stuff was behind me. Not so. As I ran across the river for the final 1/4 mile to the finish line of this Dam to Dam, the same emotional thing hit me again. I did my best to contain it, and crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face. Final chip time was 2:01. Not a PR, but certainly in the Top 3 of my 8 Dam to Dam finishes!

I could barely walk, my legs hurt so bad; in particular, my right leg was the worst. I blame that on the goofy gait that my shoulder forced upon me. I found some water, some Gatorade, and eventually all my runners from Team 12.4. On a day with so few personal expectations, it turned out to be an awesome day!