Dam to Dam

It was a cold, rainy, early morning Saturday when we headed out the door to my first (Travis's second) Dam to Dam run. By early I mean we got up at 3:45 AM. We headed downtown for the bus pick up by 5 AM. Thankfully Terry was able to drive us down there (he had planned to run but was on the injured reserve). By 5:30 it was pouring. And it wasn't the nice summer rain that I had hoped for. No it was cold, chill you to the bone, hard rain that everyone hates. So there we were for an hour and a half waiting for the race to start in the cold rain. We huddled under a tree for some sort of protection. It didn't help that it was slightly windy.

Once the gun sounded and we started to run, it got better. Travis and Jake (his cousin) took off and left Angela (his cousin's wife) and I behind. Jake fell back later to run with Angela. I paced myself a little faster after we did a quick potty stop around mile 2.5 and ended up running alone. Well not entirely alone. I ended up running most of the race with an older gentleman. We didn't talk, but seemed to pace each other to keep going. I thanked him after I was done for keeping me going.

I should mention that the fartherest I had run prior to last Saturday was 6 miles-and not even 6 without walking. Dam to Dam is a 12.4 mile race with hills. I didn't feel prepared at all. That might be an understatement. Travis had hardly trained the last month because he was dealing with a back/hip injury. We were just hoping to finish.

Finish we did. My goal was 2 hours 30 minutes. I finished in 2:31. I finished hard too, sprinting the last block because I was so excited to finish. I think once I saw the Finish banner all my aches were gone. I just felt my legs take off and my feet speed up. I was excited and ready to get my medal! I will say that I didn't walk as much as I thought I was going to. I walked through each water station but didn't actually walk any until at least after mile 7 or 8. I think the fact that my mystery running partner was there, I felt motivated to keep moving.

Travis's time was 2 hours 43 minutes. He was a little more disappointed with his time. With his back injury he has been taking some anti-inflammatory meds. We think that may have caused his legs to cramp around mile 9 and continue to cramp everytime he tried to run after that. He was on pace to beat his time last year (2:16), but had to walk out the last three miles. I was bummed for him. (especially when I passed him around mile 9.5).

But we did it. Even though it was a horrible first experience (the rain and all) I would definitely still do it again. I'm contemplating signing up for the Des Moines half marathon in October...we will see!