Book Review: My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman

My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter and a Ridiculous Plan by Tom Foreman

One of my goals of 2016 is to step back from all too much mindless, wasteful time online and to read more books and write more, too.  Tom Foreman’s book offers a perfect chance to combine reading, running and writing a book review, and shines a light on some of the absurdities of running (and runners) as well as how the sport can become a passion that unites families and rekindles joy and inspires us to great things.

Foreman is a journalist for CNN and it shows in his writing; he knows how to tell a story and make it come alive.  There were times where I was laughing out loud at his descriptions of himself, in part because they were descriptions of me and the runners I know, too.  What made this book special for me, though, were the descriptions of his daughters.  As the father of three wonderful girls I hope that they can grow up to be as talented and witty as Foreman’s are portrayed, and I dream that we will be able to bond over a shared passion for the simplest of sports.  At a few moments I had to stop and wipe away a tear (or two) that formed as I imagined how special it would be to have a daughter say some of the things that Foreman’s daughters tell their 50+ year old dad. 

While running brings Foreman closer to both his oldest daughter and his brother it also threatens his relationship with his wife and younger daughter at times.  And the all-consuming running fire that burns hotter and hotter in Foreman threatens to derail his goal of completing a 50 mile trail race.  I won’t say much more than that here, but know that this book has the potential to not only inspire, but also to question whether all the miles and hours, blood, sweat and tears are really worth it.  If you are a father (especially with daughters) and a runner and are looking for a well-written, humorous account of a year in the life of a celebrity-ish runner in which he goes from not running to attempting a 50 mile race I definitely recommend picking up this book at your local library or bookstore.

Note: Shortly after I wrote this I happened across David McNeill's discussion about runners and non-runners and how they relate to each other.  It's a nice piece and fits in well with what Foreman and his wife were dealing with.

Interview with Wartburg's Alana Enabnit

(Originally published September 17, 2012)

As a first year student last year at Wartburg College in Waverly Alana Enabnit started her collegiate career hampered by injuries early in the cross country season.  She came on strong in what was only her second season of cross country ever and finished 10^th at the NCAA Division 3 National Championships held at UW-Oshkosh.  But it was this past track season where Enabnit really made her mark by winning both the 5k and 10k national championships on the track and helping the Knights to a dominating 77 point victory [results].  Her performance in the distance double there opened some eyes and is drawing inevitable comparisons to another former Wartburg star, Missy Buttry, who won 14 NCAA titles and twice represented the U.S. at the World Cross Country Championships.  Following her victorious races at D3 nationals Enabnit went on to place 3^rd in the 5k at USA Junior National Championships. Enabnit, who graduated high school from Clear Lake High School, won the state championship in both the 3k and 1500m on the track her senior year but had spent much of her time prior to that focusing much more on figure skating.  She definitely has a very bright future ahead of her and fans of Iowa runners should keep their eyes on her over the next few years!
PRs
1500m - 4:38
3000m (indoor) - 9:58 (but covered 3000m during a 5k in 9:46)
5000m - 16:25
6000m (Cross Country) - 21:13
10,000m - 35:03

Can you briefly describe your high school running career and how you got into running in HS (or before)?
I ran track in middle school, but I did not do cross country till my senior year. I started track in 7^th grade just because that was the only sport that my rigorous figure skating schedule could fit in. I did it more as an extra hobby till HS.  By the time I was a senior, my passions changed, and my love for running really blossomed.  Much of the transition from skating to running came from the fact that I felt like God really was calling me to use my running career as a testimony and reflection of my faith.
What made you choose Wartburg? Did you have opportunities to run at Division 1 schools?
I did receive offers from Division I programs but nothing extremely serious. I was probably overlooked by many because I didn’t really enter the “serious group of runners” until my senior year. I was introduced to Coach Johnson by my high school coach, and from there I fell in love with the Wartburg program. Wartburg has an amazing reputation on the academic level, but what really drew me in is the passion the school has for improvement, relationships, and lifelong development.
Wartburg has had some incredible runners over the years... To what do you attribute that? Coaching? Recruiting? A culture of success? Something else?
I think the recipe for success at Wartburg is a result of many simple things combined under one program.
-A passion for running
-A passion for family (team) success
-A dedication to hard work
-Individualized training
-Amazing athletic trainers
-Personally invested coaches who care about EVERY runner on the team no matter their position
-Encouragement and faith in each other
Good high school runners don't always find success right away in college, but you did pretty well, placing 10th at Nationals in cross and winning the 5/10k double outdoors. How was the transition from high school to college life and collegiate running for you?
My transition was actually pretty rough. I had a stress fracture and IT band syndrome to start out my cross season last year. I was only able to run the last three races of the year. I learned that I needed to trust my coach with my training. I started my summer training with a “more is better” mentality. That led to overtraining and injuries. After those experiences, I began to understand that training development is a slow process, and I needed to trust the knowledge of my coach.  Once I learned those lessons, my training and racing fell into a much better place.

Your success as a freshman is going to draw inevitable comparisons to Missy Buttry. Do you feel any pressure to achieve the same sorts of success that she did at Wartburg?
Whenever I am compared to Missy, I feel extremely honored.  If I do feel any pressure to achieve the same sorts of success that she did, I have put that pressure on myself. She was an amazing athlete and person, and I want to hold myself to those standards. However, we are completely different athletes with different strengths.  I pray that I can make the impact that she did on Division III athletics but in my own way.
What are your goals for this year? For your final 3 years as a Knight? Beyond that?
For cross, I really want to help our team bring home a National Team trophy . I would love to bring home an individual title as well.  Winnings are not the most important thing on my goal sheet.  I really just want to keep improving on my racing and training from last year, and I want to see how tough I can compete.  However, my number one goal is to make sure that I praise God with every stride I take, because He gave me the gift to run, and I want to let people know what He has done for me.
For track, I would love to run under 16:10 this year in the 5k and under 34:10 in the 10k. I do not like to get to ahead of myself with future goals. I have big dreams, but a lot can happen in three years. You never know what life will throw your way, and that is why I enjoy every moment. I have the tendency to let myself get into the “I want it all, and I want it now!” mentality, but I am taking life, training, and racing a season at a time.
What's your favorite running experience so far?
My favorite moment has to be going 1-2 with my teammate Laura Sigmund in both the 5k and 10k at Outdoor Nationals. Sharing the experience with one of my best friends was incredible.
What's your favorite workout? Favorite race distance?
My favorite workout is our River Road tempo. It is a two lap loop that we do that equals out to be about 5.4 miles. I try to run so that my average pace is about the same as my 6k.  It is the most mentally tough and rewarding workout we do, and doing it with our guys makes me push myself that much harder. In track I have a love hate relationship with 800 repeats. I feel my sharpest when I complete some quality 800 repeats. My favorite race distance is currently the 5k on the track. I haven’t raced the 10k enough to make an honest comparison, but I have a feeling it will soon be my favorite.
Thanks so much for your time, Alana, and best of luck to you and your teammates at Wartburg this year!

Runners high in Leadville, CO

(Originally published June 27, 2012)

Newton, Iowa: elevation 940 feet vs Leadville, Colorado: elevation 10,152 feet.

I have experience running in Leadville, having been there four or five times to vacation, visit family and eat the world’s best pizza at High Mountain Pies.  I know just how hard it can be to go for a run there after arriving from the flatlands of Iowa.  The elevation can inflict pain and make even the easiest running pace seem hard.

Seemingly everyone has heard of Leadville thanks to the publicity generated by the epic 100 mile run and bike races there.  For runners, the book Born to Run also drew worldwide attention to the small town and a movie version is in the works.  While the Leadville 100 races may be the big draw there are plenty of other races leading up to them and one Iowan did them all in 2011, and plans to do them again in 2012.

Last year Newton’s Matt Scotton was one of 25 athletes from around the country who completed the “Leadman” competition.  To earn the label of Leadman he had to run the Leadville Marathon , compete in either the Silver Rush 50 mile mountain bike or run race (Ed. note: why not both?), ride the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race, run the 10k the following day and then complete the Leadville 100 run a week later.

Scotton is director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Skiff Medical Center in Newton.  A baseball and football player in high school, he didn’t really get into cycling until after graduating from Central College in Pella when he tried a few days of RAGBRAI and then was convinced to try a triathlon followed by a mountain bike race.  This progressed on to 12 hour mountain bike races and then the Breckenridge 100 race in 2010.  Running went along with the triathlon and at age 32 Scotton began the way many beginning runners do: run a block, walk a block and repeat.  Within a couple years it was on to central Iowa’s Dam to Dam 20k. A few years later, it was the Des Moines Marathon.  By 2009 he had completed the challenging Sawtooth 50 mile run on the Superior Hiking Trail of northern Minnesota.  Now he has become hooked on the comaraderie and contagious energy and enthusiasm he finds at the ultra distance events.

After crewing for a friend competing in the LT100 bike race and competing in the nearby Breckenridge 100 in 2010 Scotton knew he wanted to compete in the LT100 bike but didn’t think that his odds of getting in through the lottery process would be very good.  So rather than rely on luck he simply decided to enter the Leadman competition, which would guarantee his entry in 2011, provided he could finish the earlier races within the time limits.

So in 2011 Scotton and his wife made four separate trips out to the town to “explore nature and human performance.”  Scotton got plenty familiar with the big beautiful mountains of the area spending 47 hours, 46 minutes and 43 seconds competing in the thin air.  His combined time was the 8^th fastest of the 25 Leadman finishers and he aims to lower that time this year by being faster in each event and place in the top 5 overall.  One hundred people have signed up to compete in 2012, including one other Iowan, Brian Block from Adel, president of Ames Adventure Outfitters.

Scotton balances a full time job and a family with the need to train enough to make it through the grueling races.  He says that on average he manages to put in 30-40 miles of running and 6 to 12 hours of cycling in each week, and his lunch hours are crammed full of running and weight training. Trips to watch his high school daughters’ swim meets, soccer games and tennis matches are often done via bicycle, and when he arrives he finds clean clothing and food waiting for him, packed by his wife or a daughter.  While Scotton is quick to thank his wife, Sandy, and his daughters for being so supportive during his training and racing, one of his colleagues at Skiff just happens to be Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Robyn Friedman of Iowa’s Runablaze racing team and Scotton credits her with providing some of the motivation to get out and train.

While simply putting one foot ahead of another in Leadville can be hard for those of us used to plentiful oxygen, Scotton says that within 72 hours of arrival at 10,000 feet he is usually feeling like he can run and has re-learned how to consume enough oxygen to make forward motion at something faster than walking pace possible.  To that end Scotton is heading west with family and some running friends, including teammates from his recent Relay Iowa trek across the state, this week to compete in the first of this year’s races – the Leadville Marathon.  In it he will face some of the toughest terrain of the whole series, a brutal climb up (and subsequent descent) of 13,185 foot Mosquito Pass at the midpoint of the race.

Certainly many runners I know in Iowa and elsewhere go out of their way to avoid hills.  For some Iowans, though, the lack of challenging terrain and the ease of running with abundant oxygen are enough to send them in search of something harder.  And in the Leadman competition Scotton has indeed found a challenge unlike anything available in Iowa.

We will be following Scotton’s adventures in Leadville through the course of the summer so stay tuned for updates.

Interview with Fr. Kirby (WDM Dowling girls cross country coach)

(Originally published September 27, 2011)

Father Jim Kirby has coached West Des Moines Dowling Catholic to four consecutive Iowa girls high school Class 4A state titles in cross country, and they are favorites to win a 5th this season.  The Maroons have started making their mark nationally with a top-20 ranking having just captured the team title this past weekend at the prestigious Roy Griak meet in Minnesota.  The team has been led by outstanding runners including Betsy and Katie Flood (now at the Universities of Iowa and Washington, respectively) and Ashlie Decker (now at the University of Minnesota).  Some might say that Kirby has been lucky to have such outstanding talent to work with, and that's true.  But it is also true that he puts in the work himself, seeking to learn and improve right along with his team and he has high expectations for his girls, and himself.  Betsy Flood writes:

" Running is important to [Fr. Kirby] but I think whats even more important are things that really matter like faith and love and integrity. He knows when you are a good genuine person then running will go well also. And he is the first one to live this selfless example for all those he coaches."

Minnesota sophomore Decker says of Fr. Kirby:

"[He] is an inspiring, dedicated, and passionate coach.  He continues to encourage me today and is a major support system in my life.  Fr. Kirby helped me grow in my running, but also in life and my faith.  He helped me to balance my life through service trips to an orphanage and always made it clear that while running may be a large part of my life, there are more important things than how I perform on the track.  He has always been there for me even after I graduated.  I ran one my worst races last spring and he was there to remind me that no one race can define a person.  He has always put others before himself, whether it is going out and buying bagels for after early morning practices or driving hours away just to be at a race that will last for twenty minutes. Fr. Kirby will always be a life long coach, mentor and friend!"

And now for the interview...

What's your running background? Are you still running?

I ran track in high school and played football. Looking back at my football career, I wish I had run cross country. In college I took a fitness class and got into running and took a hard look at running marathons. Since then I have run 24 marathons including four Boston’s and the Berlin Marathon and my PR is 2:44. Currently I have not been able to sustain much of a running routine due to back issues and responsibilities.

How long have you been coaching? How did you get into it? Why?

I have been coaching since 1995 beginning with grade school track and then in 1999 I started as an assistant coach at Dowling. In 2007 I took over as head girls coach.

I love being around young people who want to better themselves and have the courage to try the sport of running. Helping young people excel in running has been one of my greatest joys and passions in life

Your teams have obviously had tremendous success and I'm sure many people would give you much of the credit. What do you attribute your success to? What do you and your runners do that make Dowling more successful than other high schools in the state?

I would give the credit for our program to having two great catalysts, Katie and Betsy Flood, who established the level of expectations for all those to follow, including myself.

As Katie was about to become a freshman in high school I know I had to learn more as a coach in order to provide her with a quality experience in high school. It was clear that she would be outstanding and I didn’t want to fail her. At the same time her sister Betsy was a sophomore and was getting more and more excited about running and began to improve. I met people like Dan Fitzsimmons, then head girl’s coach at Yankton (SD) and Will Freeman, head men’s coach at Grinnell College. Learning more and more I soon became acquainted with Tim Ives [now the Dowling boys’ CC coach] who helped me formulate our first program for a season.

Having Katie and Betsy buy into what we were trying to do influenced our team and inspired a generation of younger runners. Because of those two and the likes of athletes like Ashlie Decker, Heather Tobias and Tanelle Berard the expectations and commitment to our program helped create an environment of hard work and accountability on our team. Now, others who have come through the program have embraced and passed on that same “buy in” and cultural expectations.

Can you describe your team's training? What sort of mileage are your runners putting in? Do you have any special workouts that you and/or your kids really love to do? Do you feel like you emphasize quality or quantity training or have a mix of both? Are there little things you do - core work, weight training, stretching, massage, visualization, etc. - that you feel really benefit your runners?

We follow the general principles and philosophy that Scott Simmons and Will Freeman put forth in their book “Taking the Lead.” It is an “athlete centered” philosophy, which emphasizes specificity, and what some would call a higher mileage approach. Our kids don’t necessarily “love” to do any workouts, but they know they are a necessary part of the plan. I found our girls are “addicted” to times and splits. While I use times as guidelines for certain workouts they get a little crazy when they are not hitting pace exactly. They love to know how they stand and they love to quantify their running and so I try to give them as much hard information regarding their running. We try to do things safely especially for the younger kids, but we are constantly challenging the girls to do more, to be good today but better tomorrow. Kelly Parriott is our assistant coach and she has taken over the weight training and strengthening program. We also try to fit yoga in especially after our long runs on Saturday. I think the thing our kids really embrace is the idea that there is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday meaning you can’t expect to be rewarded from anything, including running, without some sacrifice and hard work. Also, they begin to understand that an athlete can learn an awful lot about themselves in 4000 meters -strengths, weaknesses, what is inspiring, what gives them hope, what makes them quit etc.

It seems that distance running in the U.S. is definitely on the rise, with many great young runners coming up through the ranks. We're seeing more success on the world stage as well, with people like Chris Solinsky, Galen Rupp, Morgan Uceny and Jennifer Simpson being competitive against the best in the world. What do you think is behind that success?

For girls I think they have discovered that you can be beautiful and feminine in running. They have found a great deal of accomplishment and what a great impact running, teammates and the positive expectations the running culture can provide. They have been able to find integrity and a great life-long activity that is beneficial in so many ways. Running, they find, has so much symbolic value and they are committed to the life lessons they have learned and are to be learned in the classroom of running. Running cross-country is an outlet for many girls who would never have ever experienced athletics. For example, cross-country is that odd quirky sport which for various reasons attracts girls who are driven and disciplined in other areas. These athletes find running a great complement to their other passions such as academics and service. Recently one of our top runners who is also academically the number one student in her class told her mother, “Mom, what would I have ever done if I had not gone out for cross country? I would never have met all my friends on the team and I would have simply been that nerdy smart kid in school.”

Betsy Flood talks about how instrumental you were in helping her develop a love for the sport. Who were your mentors?

I think I owe much of my love of running and passion for coaching to my running group. When I was struggling to run and complete a first marathon I got connected with a running group of friends. We did our long 20 milers together and did outrageous workouts and weekly mileage totals. We had a raw and no-frills approach to running without a lot of patience for fads or talking too much about it. We just worked hard together. The fun and camaraderie was the thing I loved so much about our group. I loved the pride, the jokes and our own ability to hold each other accountable and never let each other off the hook. I think the thing I wanted most to accomplish for our team was creating that same fun loving, weird culture that didn’t worry too much about what it all looked like but worked hard and had high expectations for each other. I wanted to help our girls enjoy that same closeness, fun and support that I felt during within my running group.

I went to NXN in 2006 just as a fan to see what it was all about. I wanted to watch this Yankton team and to watch runners like Betsy Bies (their number one runner) to see what it looked like to be with a team at that level. I loved every second of it. I got to know the Iowa City High coach, Tom Mittman, and was able to learn from him and his team. I sat in on one of the coaches forums after the race and heard the coach from Yankton talk about how much he loved his kids and how they prayed and expressed their love for each other before the race. His name was Dan Fitzsimmons and he was speaking my language! I decided I needed to meet him. We spoke afterwards and it turned out that he had an Iowa connection. I drove to Yankton later that spring and I simply asked him all sorts of questions about workouts and team culture. Today, he is one of my biggest supporters, best friends and mentor.

I went to a seminar at Grinnell College on a whim and heard a coach talk about a new way of looking at distance running training and coaching. His name was Will Freeman. Again, I ate it up. It all made sense and so I took a chance and went to visit him for lunch one day. Since then I am proud to say that Will Freeman is a friend and also a great supporter and mentor. I call him sometimes for questions and concerns and he always offers advice. My only regret is that I haven’t been able to steer more athletes toward his superb program after all he has done for me. Will has introduced me to other great coaches like USA Olympic coach Joe Vigil and National Champion coach Scott Simmons. I owe so much to all of these people and so many more.

Dowling is currently ranked 1st for the boys and the girls. What do you predict for Fort Dodge in late October?

I predict there will be many coaches who will have their runners and their teams at their best at the state meet. The team that stays healthy and stays the course will prevail. I hope we are that team. I just hope that our kids stay humble and hungry and do the very best they can. When we do our best, good things happen.

Thanks to Father Kirby for taking the time to be interviewed.  Best of luck to the Maroons this fall as they prepare for the state meet in Fort Dodge and what lies beyond!

Running a relay across Iowa is for DUMMIES (part 2)

(Originally published September 21, 2011)

[Some people think of biking across the state in RAGBRAI as a challenge, but how hard can that be?  I mean, those people are on wheels!  And they can coast down hills!  For those looking for a real challenge Relay Iowa offers the opportunity to run 340 miles across the state.  This is part two of a two part series by guest writer Tim Bergan, who along with three other central Iowa runners, made their way relay-style across the state over the course of a couple days this past June.  Because that was too easy for them they threw in a few quick miles in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.  Read Part 1 here.]

...With roughly 140 miles completed, we “only” had 200 to go.  I started my seventh leg of Relay Iowa as it started to get light on Saturday morning.  With each of us now having slept for an hour or two, we were back to doing five mile runs and mine was great.  It was cool, the sun was rising, and it was one of those runs that remind me why I run.  Chuck once again followed me and Chip took us through Jewell.  Matt got us through Ellsworth (though it’s not quite the halfway point, Ellsworth feels like the halfway point, since it is where we cross Interstate 35), where a nice breakfast provided by the relay organizer awaited us.  Ed, Shelley, Chip, and Chuck ate while I crewed Matt.

Once Matt finished his run, I took over for my eighth time out the door and onto the road.  Matt returned to Ellsworth to eat.  I planned on running six miles, but it ended up being closer to seven and a half as Chuck and Shelley missed a turn and kept going east while I turned at Radcliffe (where I encountered two dogs who seemed intent on biting me but settled for standing in the middle of the road barking at me) and was running north.  Ed, Matt, and Chip found me, called Chuck and Shelley, and they back-tracked and caught up to us.  Chuck took over and I ate the breakfast the team had brought for me.  We sat around for awhile and then decided to track down Chuck.  Apparently his poor navigation skills were not limited to misdirecting Shelley in the minivan since he was not where we expected him to be.  After a bit of searching, Shelley found him and we got headed back in the right direction.  Chip and Matt followed with relatively nondescript runs.

My next run took me through Eldora and up a huge hill east of there that I ran in 2010 as well.  Chuck’s run went well, but Chip was beginning to feel the effects of the effort we had put forth so far.  His right achilles was starting to hurt and he was having trouble flushing the lactate acid from his body.  Uh oh!  Having only a four person team was beginning to catch up to us.  Matt, though, was feeling fine (a couple ibuprofen helped) and had a magic run through Grundy Center.  He says it felt like he was running downhill the whole time though he had two big uphills at the end.

Run number ten found me on the Pioneer trail (which paralleled Highway 175) passing through Morrison.  The trail was a welcome relief from dodging cars on the highway and provided some shade.  Though it was still cool, the shade felt good.  Chuck ran through Reinbeck where there were no sidewalks or shoulder on the road.  No big deal, but at this stage (we’ve now been running for over 31 hours), he found himself wondering “why?”.  Chip was now in pain, tired, struggling with fluid/nutrition management, had digestion problems, and was thinking “Pull me out coach!”  In spite of this, he put in four miles until Matt took over and ran eight that got us east of Hudson.

I took over for Matt and put in six miles.  With the course staying south of Waterloo this year, we avoided repeating some excitement we had in 2010.  It’s a story for another day, but let’s just note that it included a lost runner of ours, a very unsafe part of downtown Waterloo, and the question of “Why’s your ass flashing?”  No such adventure this year as we were running the rural (rather than urban) area around Waterloo and at a much earlier time.  As I finished this run, I felt crappy.  When we met Joe and Margot Stover and Matt's wife Sandy, who were joining us to help crew, I couldn't stop shivering in the cool (but not cold) outdoors.  I had to return to the van and warm up.  Not a good sign with still well over 100 miles to go.  Chuck plugged through his five miles getting us through Washburn, we skipped Chip in the rotation (who was headed with Shelley to my sister’s in Independence to sleep and eat some solid food), and Matt took over for six miles only an hour and forty-five minutes after finishing his eight mile run and got us east of Gilbertville.

Run number twelve came up quick for me as well with Chip out of the rotation.  I was still feeling crappy, but managed to get down some food and fluids and get back out the door.  Surprisingly, I actually felt good while running.  There were three memorable things about this run.  First, I witnessed a beautiful Iowa sunset over the Iowa farm fields as I ran north toward old Highway 20.  Second, this run took me over last year's mileage total and we still had something like 100 miles to go.  Third, when I crossed the "new" Highway 20, it took a lot of mental toughness to avoid taking the on ramp toward Dubuque as it was only 81 miles on the four-lane "new" highway versus more than 100 on the "old" highway which the course followed.  Chuck followed me and fought through his run which took us through Jesup.  While he didn’t necessarily feel bad, he struggled with maintaining a good pace and had to alternate running with walking.  Great.  We now had three of the four of us struggling.  Matt again did more than his share and ran six miles which got us to Independence, where the locals were having a pretty good time at the rocking street dance.  After his run, he called sleeping princess Shelley to get her and Chip back with the team.

After my previous run, I had trouble ingesting fluids and food.  I lay on the couch in the RV feeling like total horse crap.  Joe was helping crew us at this point.  Not knowing him and needing a mental diversion, I started peppering him with questions about his work (and actually was somehow able to remember most of his answers).  We were still on our three-man rotation, so I only had about an hour and a half to recover and re-fuel.  Finally, about 15 minutes prior to running, I was able to get down some orange slices (the candy, not the fruit) which worked miracles.  I followed it with yogurt, an actual orange, some salty snacks, water, and Coke.  I started feeling a bit better as I headed out the door of the RV.  My run was good and as I finished, I had my energy back.  I quickly consumed food and fluids.  Feeling much better, I suddenly turned into an amped-up, sleep-deprived comedian.  I'm sure Joe had to be wondering what he had gotten himself into.  An hour earlier, I looked and sounded like death warmed over and now I was a stand-up comedy act.  Chuck, who was still struggling with getting his system back to normal, put in three miles (getting us to Winthrop) and then it was on to Matt again since Chip was not yet back from my sister’s.  After Matt put in his five, Chip was back.  And when I say he was back, he was really back.  While Ed, Chuck, and Matt slept in the RV (Joe and Margot had left at this point), I joined Shelley and Sandy in the minivan.  I was on call to take over when Chip could no longer run.  We were hoping to get five miles out of him.  Almost eleven miles later, in Manchester, Chip finally turned it over to me.

I took off on my fourteenth run at about 2:30 Sunday morning.  We were in my childhood stomping grounds now – fifteen miles from Edgewood, the town I grew up in.  It was 55 degrees – unbelievably cool mid-June Iowa weather.  I finished and Chuck took over.  After resting a bit, Shelley and I decided to catch up to the RV.  Not so fast, though.  We had a dead battery.  We had to call Ed to come give us a jump start.  Thank goodness for two vehicles.  Chuck was still not back to normal and ran just three miles for us.  Matt, who got over an hour and a half of sleep while Chip and I were running, put in eight plus miles to get us through Earlville to Dyersville.  Chip took over, and apparently wanted to see the Field of Dreams again this year (we detoured to it last year, ran around the bases, and took pictures), since he ran there rather than staying on the relay route.  After hunting him down, we got back on track.

I hit the road again for another run.  By this time, we’ve lost track of how many times we’ve run, how far we’ve run, and how much we still have to run.  About all that we know is that daylight has returned to northeast Iowa and we’ve made it through the toughest part of the relay.  We had planned on doing ten mile runs again on Saturday night, but with Chip out and Chuck and me feeling like crap, that just didn’t happen.  Instead we did what we had to do to get through the night and keep putting miles behind us.  I was operating on a grand total of two hours of sleep since Friday morning and the rest of the gang didn’t get much more.  I guess two hours is better than none.  I ran some serious hills northeast of Dyersville, Chuck got us through Farley, Matt ran through Epworth, and Chip took over.  I think one of the last things Chip said in the RV before this run was, "I know this sounds crazy but my achilles hurts when I go downhill, so I'll be glad to take the uphills".  Long story short, this leg was a long downhill descent to the base of Potter Hill.  Chip made a comment along the lines of, “it felt like my achilles was going to tear off.”  General icing followed.

Well, Chip made it to the base of Potter Hill, which meant, yep, I had to make it up Potter Hill.  I told the gang that I hadn’t walked a step of this relay to this point and I wasn’t about to start now, but I also didn’t know if I could make it to the top of this mile long monster with an average grade of 6% (some sections much steeper than that) without slowing to a walk.  We solved the problem by triple-teaming it – I ran a third, Chuck ran a third, and Matt topped it.  I picked up again from there and continued our trek toward Dubuque.  Chuck, Matt, and Chip all followed with runs, getting us through Asbury.  By now, none of us were doing five mile legs any more.  The combination of miles, hills, and lack of sleep had us running two to four miles each at this point.

My next leg was two miles along Asbury Road in Dubuque.  Again familiar territory, since I graduated from Loras College.  About this time, a driver who had trouble understanding the four letters of S-T-O-P on the sign he was approaching almost hit me right in front of Bill Raine, the race director.  By this point, tired and maybe even a little cranky, I didn't really have a sense of humor about it so I slapped the back of the car as it went by.  I had to laugh as I ran by Bill and he observed, “It would kind of suck to run 335 miles and then get hit by a car five measly miles from the finish.”  Chuck got us to the dog track, where we had the RV.  All four of us gathered together and walked the remaining half mile toward the finish in Riverview Park with Ed, Shelley, and Sandy.  About 100 feet from the finish, the four DUMMIES and Ed picked it up to a tortoise-like pace and crossed the finish line with what appeared to be some kind of zombie attempt at running.  None of us were moving particularly fluidly at that point.  Fifty-one hours ten minutes and 340 miles from the Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City, we were done with the Relay Iowa portion of our run.  We lay in the grass at the finish while Wisconsin and Illinois still loomed if we were going to complete the five states portion of this adventure.  Continuing to run did not exactly sound enticing and it was mentally tough to get going again, since it really felt like we should be done when we crossed the Relay Iowa finish line.

After resting for a bit, we had Shelley shuttle us to the Highway 151 bridge over the mighty Mississippi River.  There is a wide shoulder on the divided highway bridge where we crawled out of the van.  The noise and rush of air from the vehicles screaming past us was unnerving as we watched an old stern-wheeler cruising upriver below us.  Shelley leap-frogged us with the minivan and walked back to meet us on the Wisconsin side of the river.  With the four of us now in our fourth state, Matt began a solo run up the long hill past the big Wisconsin sign to the first exit ramp and continued to ascend to Highway 35. The rest of the DUMMIES met him at the Illinois border where we walked the last few steps to complete our mega-event – one run, four guys, five states, one weekend.

For anybody interested in joining us for the 2012 version of Relay Iowa (yes, we’re doing it again – we are idiots after all), it’s being run June 8-10, once again from Sioux City to Dubuque.  More information is available at the relay website of http://relayia.org/.

[Thanks so much to Tim and the rest of the DUMMIES for sharing their story.  Relay events such as Hood to Coast and the Ragnar series are growing in popularity because they can be so much fun.  However, most teams are smart enough to run these with more than four people and few of these relays are more than 200 miles in length.]

Running a relay across Iowa is for DUMMIES

(Originally published September 19, 2011)

[Some people think of biking across the state in RAGBRAI as a challenge, but how hard can that be?  I mean, those people are on wheels!  And they can coast down hills!  For those looking for a real challenge Relay Iowa offers the opportunity to run 340 miles across the state.  This is part one of a two part series by guest writer Tim Bergan, who along with three other central Iowa runners, made their way relay-style across the state over the course of a couple days this past June.  Because that was too easy for them they threw in a few quick miles in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.]

2011 Relay Iowa... and then some

Report by Tim Bergan

Alan Cabelly said, “Any idiot can run a marathon.  It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon.”    Well, my friends and I are a special kind of idiot.  In 2010, we ran the inaugural Relay Iowa (the world’s longest continuous relay run at 340 miles) as part of a team of six.  We went by the team name of Six Pack of Dummies, which pretty much fairly represents our mental capacity.  Having completed that, and looking for the next team challenge, we decided to run Relay Iowa this year as a team of four.  Four Pack of Dummies just didn’t make sense for a team name, so we decided to shorten it to just DUMMIES, and through Chip’s creative mind, that came to stand for Dimwitted Ultra Maniacal Marginally Insane Endurance Studs, all of which is true except for maybe the very last word.

There are four DUMMIES:

• Me, Tim Bergan, a Colfax, Iowa resident and a controller for a transportation and logistics services company.
• Chuck Fritz, a Clive, Iowa resident and business development expert for an information technology services firm.
• Chip Overton, a West Des Moines, Iowa resident and the owner of an architectural firm.
• Matt Scotton, a Newton, Iowa resident and the director of physical medicine and rehabilitation at a hospital.

I’m not sure how four otherwise seemingly normal people have come to enjoy things such as running a 51-hour, 340-mile relay from Sioux City to Dubuque.

Relay Iowa 2011 began on the morning of Friday June 10 and ran (pun intended) through Sunday, June 12, 2011 with four teams participating.  Along with DUMMIES, there was Born to Run, Northwest Iowa Runners, and I-O Runs.  Due to different teams running different paces, and the need to have teams finish within a window, slower teams start earlier than faster teams.  This year, all four teams expected to run relatively similar paces, so the first team started at 6:54 A.M. from the Sergeant Floyd Monument in Sioux City.  We began our Relay Iowa run at 8:10, and the other two teams followed closely after us at 8:30 and 8:47.

But, we didn’t really start running at 8:10.  Remember earlier when I noted that we are idiots – well, our plan this year was to not just run Relay Iowa.  No, we had something more in mind.  We were going to run from South Dakota to Nebraska across Iowa into Wisconsin and then finish in Illinois.  To accomplish our five-state goal, we began running at 6:30 A.M. as we started in South Dakota and made our way into Iowa.  We then made our way to Nebraska, back into Iowa and to the Relay Iowa start line to begin our trek across Iowa.

With the other four teams having ten to twelve members each, as recommended by the race director, their logistics were a lot simpler than ours.  They had the ability to run six members through the night while the other six slept.  We, on the other hand, with only four of us, needed a support crew so that we could focus on running, re-fueling, resting, and getting some sleep.  Our crew consisted of the following:

• Ed Scotton, Matt’s dad, and his recreational vehicle.
• Shelley Fritz, Chuck’s wife, and her parents’ minivan.
• Sandy Scotton, Matt’s wife, who would join us Saturday evening and see us through to the finish.
• Joe and Margot Stover, friends, who drove our two support vehicles Saturday night and early Sunday morning so our primary drivers could sleep.
• Julie Davison, my sister, who conveniently lives in Independence, Iowa which is right on the route and a location that we get to in the second night, which is the toughest part of the relay.

After we arrived at the start line, I led off this year’s Relay Iowa route with a leg of five miles.  The first two and a half miles through Sioux City were comically hilly, followed by a rolling two and a half.  Chuck followed me, Chip followed Chuck, and Matt followed Chip.  We had a beautiful morning for running – 60 degrees, overcast, and a cooling five mile per hour breeze.

As we began our second rotation, I once again ran hills (Sioux City’s were short and steep . . . these were long and gradual).  I noticed the beginning of a trend that would continue.  Chuck followed with his second leg which took us through Anthon (one of a number of small Iowa towns on the course that I had never heard of prior to running Relay Iowa in 2010).  Chip’s second leg consisted of him watching cows and cows watching him (we are in Iowa, after all).  As Matt took over, his run soon took him on a gravel road, so he too had to (got to?) run hills.

My third leg started on gravel, moved to dirt (yes, dirt) and ended on gravel.  If Matt thought his gravel roads were hilly, he should have run the dirt road with me.  Two miles of serious up and down since roads like that just follow the contour of the hills with no attempt to smooth out the inclines and declines.  I was thankful that it was only overcast and not raining, since rain makes mud of dirt and I’m not much for running with three pound shoes.  At one point, I heard branches scraping behind me, turned to look, and discovered our RV support vehicle following me down the narrow, tree-lined dirt road.  It was a beautiful road to run (tree covered and remote), but wasn’t necessarily designed for 28-foot motor homes.  Chuck and Chip followed, mostly on paved roads, which took us to Ida Grove where there was a spaghetti dinner (if you call eating at 3:00 in the afternoon “dinner”) provided for us by the race director, Bill Raine.  Matt continued on through Arthur (another of those small Iowa towns I didn’t know existed).

As we began our fourth rotation, I caught up to a runner from I-O Runs, the team that had left before us.  I finally had a flat leg, and enjoyed the time I spent chatting with Karen prior to picking up the pace again and passing her.  Chuck ran through Odebolt, Chip cruised through Lake View, and Matt kept us heading to the east as he pounded down Highway 175 early Friday evening.  I think we were all happy to be putting miles behind us with no incidents.  While a team of twelve can have something go wrong and still finish the relay, with only four of us, we couldn’t afford to have anything go wrong.  A year ago, Matt got his feet caught in a loop of wire on the road he was running.  He took a hard fall, but was okay.  That’s just the kind of thing we didn’t want to have happen to us this year, so boring was good at this point.

Our fifth rotation started with me running from shortly after 7:00 to almost 8:00 Friday evening.  Chuck ran through Auburn and Chip got us to Lake City.  Matt left Lake City in the dark and had to play a game of car dodging as much of the traffic he was meeting failed to move over and give him room on the road.  We spent some of our time in each of our support vehicles, using the RV to eat, change clothes, shower, and stretch out, and the van to shuttle runners and tease Shelley (things aren’t nearly as much fun if you take them too seriously).  With nighttime now upon us, having two vehicles was about to become very valuable.

To this point, we had been running roughly five mile legs.  It’s a distance that all of us can run comfortably and can run over and over (and over and over and . . . you get the point) again.  Now, it was time to switch to ten mile legs, which was designed to allow us to get some sleep (which we didn’t do a very good job of in 2010 when we only had Ed and the RV to support us).  I exited the van for my ten mile leg, Chuck joined Shelley in the minivan to support me, and Ed, Chip, and Matt drove twenty miles down the road where they parked and slept.  It was a nice cool (though humid) evening and I had one of those runs where I didn’t feel good until about mile nine.  Just as I started feeling good, it was time for Chuck to take over and for me to eat, drink, and make fun of Shelley.  Chuck’s ten-miler included finding a thirty foot tape measure which he picked up and carried for awhile.  I’m not sure what he planned on measuring at midnight in the middle of nowhere Iowa.  He eventually came to the same conclusion and left it behind.  When Chuck finished his ten miles, we switched places with Chip and Matt.  They joined Shelley (what a trooper . . . she had yet to get any meaningful sleep) to do their ten-milers, and we joined Ed, drove twenty miles down the road, and slept.  While the Friday night runs all kind of blended together, we passed through Lohrville, skirted by Harcourt, ran through Dayton, crossed the Des Moines River valley, and navigated Stratford.

With roughly 140 miles completed, we “only” had 200 to go...

[Part 2 will be posted later this week.  Stay tuned.]

Interview with Alan Shakespeare and the D4NCs

(Originally published July 5, 2011)

“If I can help impact their lives for many years to come after they graduate then I get a real sense of accomplishment. These kids are going to be the ones teaching and coaching my kids. They are the ones who will be helping to make the community I live in better and stronger. Of course I want to make sure we develop our athletes the best way that we can for on-the-track performance, but I think it’s more important that we develop them the best way we can for off-the-track performance.” -Alan Shakespeare

High school runners hoping to compete on a college team used to have few options.  The best of them could hope to obtain a coveted athletic scholarship.  Others could go to a smaller NCAA Division 3 (D3) school where tuitions can stretch the pocketbooks of many families and high academic standards can make it difficult for some students to get in.  Some simply went on to a state school and ran on their own or gave up on competing.  Now, thanks to the efforts of people like Alan Shakespeare in Cedar Falls, there is another option – attend a state school like UNI but compete on a club team against NCAA competition.

The UNI track and field club team travels to D3 meets in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois and competes under the team name D4 National Champions (D4NC).  The moniker D4NC, which gives no clue as to what school the athletes are from, often leaves competitors scratching their heads: Just who are these guys (and gals, too)?  The name originated from current club coach Shakespeare as a joke, but the team is anything but.  Members are every bit as dedicated to competing hard as those competing under their schools’ names.

Shakespeare, who ran track at Vinton-Shellsburg high school, knew in high school that UNI was the place for him but was not good enough to make the UNI track team, then among the nation’s best.  After one year in Cedar Falls he realized how much he missed “being part of a track team, the friendships, the hard work and the fitness that comes from the hard work.”  He began to meet some athletes he competed against in high school who were longing to get back on the track.  Shakespeare, along with three other students, got together and began travelling to D3 track meets in 2002.  The group grew and by 2005 D4NC was official, with jerseys and a full indoor and outdoor meet schedule.

Shakespeare says that D4NC typically starts the track season with 50-60 members (men and women) and may end up with 20-40 remaining by the end of the season.  Early-season workouts start out hard in an attempt to weed out those who may not want to commit themselves. Those that remain are truly dedicated and fit in the five organized weekly workouts between classes, jobs and other activities while Shakespeare does his best to accommodate diverse schedules.  The squad is heavy on sprinters and middle distance runners, but distance runners are welcome, too, as are throwers and jumpers.  Shakespeare coaches them all.

Coaching is really not Shakespeare’s job.  By day he is a Business Banking Relationship Manager at Wells Fargo in Waterloo but at night and on the weekends he is a coach.  He writes all the workouts, organizes team travel, handles meet entries, finds fundraising opportunities such as selling football programs and cleaning up after football and basketball games for the team to cover all their costs (they receive no funding from the university), coordinates uniform purchases, offers advice on injuries, mentors and disciplines his athletes and more.  In the summer he spends time reviewing high school track performances and cross-referencing those with incoming UNI freshman so he can give them a call and recruit them to join the team.  In short he does most everything that college coaches do, except receive a paycheck.

If there’s no money in it for him why does Shakespeare devote so much time and energy to the team?  In short, he loves the sport of track and field and he loves watching his athletes grow, improve and mature.  He strives to create an “atmosphere that makes [the athletes] want to be there,” one where the fastest among them and the back-of-the-packers can have fun together while working to improve their PRs as well. For Shakespeare anyone is welcome on the team (even grad students and non-UNI athletes) as long as they are dedicated, willing to work hard and represent the team with dignity and class.

Still, the vast majority of D4NC members are UNI undergrads, and the team is a close-knit group, running together, eating together and in many cases rooming together.  Jon Steinkamp, who transferred to UNI from Wartburg College after his freshman year and was active with the D4NC team for four years typifies what the club means to many:

While a member of D4NC I ran personal bests in all running events and even set a few club records, but even more importantly I made great friends that will be in my life forever.  D4NC really did change my life, not only because of the memories and friends I made, it taught how to be a leader, how to always work hard to get positive results, and that hard work can be turned into fun with the right attitude. When I joined I can honestly say I had no idea that it would change my life the way it did, but it was by far the best thing I have ever been a part of.

Steinkamp was one of the long-time members who get asked by their coach each year to help run practices when Shakespeare’s “real” job keeps him away.  John Brehm, a senior-to-be with the team who, upon Shakespeare’s suggestion, made the successful jump from running 100s in high school to 400s in college agrees with Steinkamp that the D4NC team has made his college experience even better.  He also notes that the fact that team members have to work together to earn money to fund the team makes them appreciate their opportunities to compete even more.

Maria Moeckly, who is expecting to run a third and final season with the team this upcoming academic year echoes much of what her male teammates say; the hard work, fun and friendships and the opportunity to compete on the track make running for D4NC one of the best experiences of her life.  Moeckly notes that without Shakespeare’s dedication those opportunities would not exist and says “I know we all don't thank him enough. We couldn't ask for a better coach!”  They should also thank Shakespeare’s wife because as Shakespeare says “without her support this team wouldn’t work out.”

UNI is not alone in having a club like this.  The sizes and structures of university club teams may vary but they are growing in popularity at large D1 schools and are offering opportunities for college athletes to continue competing past high school.  NIRCA, the National Intercollegiate Running Club Association, has exploded since hitting the scene six years ago with 70 teams in 30 states across the country.  Thirty-five men’s and 21 women’s teams competed in the 2010 club cross country championships at Indiana University where the Iowa State men finished 5^th and the women 17th.  Some of these teams are big, with 50+ members while others are small, with barely enough to score as a team at meets, but they are all made up of students who have a love of running.  To date NIRCA has been more focused on cross country, though most of its clubs compete in the track.  D4NC does not compete in cross country, though some members are interested.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to run in college on teams know how great it can be.  Too many high school athletes graduate and head off to big schools still wanting to compete and experience the joys of being with teammates who share a passion for running, but not having any outlet to do so.  Now, thanks to people like Alan Shakespeare, college students at some big universities have that opportunity. And for those that don’t have that opportunity yet at their school, a little (or a lot!) of hard work can make it happen.