September Race Recaps and New Run Streak

After a disappointing race in August I was excited to redeem myself with 3 opportunities in September on sequential weekends beginning on the 15th. 

HyVee Half Marathon Series 5k

It was a nice cool morning as I headed downtown on the 15th. I was able to get a parking spot 3 blocks from the start line which gave me plenty of time to pick up my packet and walk back to my truck to drop off my race packet. I found Adam, who was running the half marathon, shortly before it was time to line up. The half, 10k, and 5k all started at the same time so I lined up as far back as I could. 

As the race started, I felt pretty good. My goal for the race was to try and break 40 minutes. I settled in behind a few different runners which really helped me keep an even pace. The problem with that ended up being when we hit the 5k turn around and everyone I was running with continued on. With a gap over 100 yards to the next runner, I just kept myself focused on them and slowly began closing the gap. Before I knew it I was past Principal park and heading back to Court Avenue. 

I looked at my watch for the first time with about a half mile to go and was pleasantly surprised to see that I would easily break 40 minutes. I gave it all I had the last quarter mile and ended up finishing in 38:41. 

I stuck around to watch Adam finish his half marathon (in just over an hour and a half) before heading to meet the girls at church. This race was exactly what I needed to bounce back from my bad race in Johnston in August. I was able to cut off almost 4 minutes from that time. 

Tri the Illini

After a week of vacation, I loaded up the truck with all of my triathlon gear and headed for Champaign, IL on September 21. The 5 hour 30 minute drive felt like it took FOREVER, but I finally arrived around 2pm. I located the parking lot that would be transition and drove the bike route before heading to packet pickup and checking into my hotel. One of my coworkers, recently turned employee, lives in Champaign so he picked me up and we went out for some bbq for dinner. 

It stormed overnight, and while the thunderstorms ended around 6:30am, the rain continued throughout the morning. I sat in my truck pondering my interest in completing the race in such miserable conditions but ultimately decided to do it. Not only had I driven over 5 hours to the race, this was also my last and only opportunity to complete an outdoor triathlon in 2024. 

I set up my transition in the pouring rain. All of my stuff was wet including my cycling shoes, running shoes, socks, and both towels. I then headed into the rec center to await instructions and the start of the race. 

The race consisted of a 300 meter swim in their outdoor 50 meter pool, a 14.4 mile out-and-back bike ride, and a 5k run through campus. We were self-seeded based on swim time and took us out to the pool 50 people at a time. I was very impressed at how well run the race was as they managed to get everyone started within about 40 minutes (over 400 racers). I was happy with my swim and really enjoyed the 50 meter pool. My time was 9:33, but that included about 150-200 meter run out of the pool to transition. 

I was EXTREMELY nervous heading out on the bike and did not go nearly as hard as I would normally go. The streets were wet, and in some cases had standing water, and it was still raining. I slowed down a lot for turns and managed to stay upright the whole time. I was very thankful for the closed bike course. Usually the bike ride gives me a chance to dry out after the swim, but the combo of the rain and my back tire splashing water on me the whole way made me even wetter than when I started. Either way, I was happy to make it back to transition in a time of 53:22. 

I took some extra time in transition to take in a GU gel and drink some water. It felt so gross putting my wet running shoes onto my soaking wet socks. As I headed out of transition I could tell that my legs were very tired and the run was going to be difficult. I took several walking breaks throughout the run and was thankful for a flat course. As I crossed the finish line, in a time of 1:50, I was just happy to be done. I quickly headed to transition to pack up all of my wet stuff before heading to the truck and driving to my in-law's in the Quad Cities. 

Even though the race was miserable and I was not really in race-ready shape, it felt great to get a triathlon into the schedule before the end of the year. 

John Deere Des Moines Area 5k

It was a beautiful morning on Saturday, September 28. With a 9:00 am start time, I was able to sleep in before picking up my friend, Kyle, on the way to John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny. Both Kyle and Adam were running too but Adam was running a 5k at DMACC before the John Deere 5k (he is kind of crazy sometimes). After picking up our packets we made the rounds and talked to various coworkers that were also doing the race. 

There was a short kids race before the 5k started, but before I knew it, we were off. The field felt much smaller than last year and it didn't take long for me to be running with nobody around me. The course was very flat as we weaved in and out of the various buildings at Des Moines Works. I tried my best to keep a consistent pace and with about 3/4 mile to go I started to push a little harder. As I crossed the finish line I was a little disappointed as I felt like I had a lot left in the tank and should have kicked a little sooner. 

My final time was 39:01, almost an identical pace to the HyVee 5k less than 2 weeks prior. I was happy with the result and hung out with Adam and Kyle as we waited for the awards. 

New Run Streak

After getting cleared to start running at the end of June, I was struggling to build consistency in my training. As the end of July approached, I decided to start a new run streak and did that on July 31st. As of today, that run streak is at 61 days and counting. In those 61 days, I have run 119 miles. The best part has been seeing consistent and incremental improvement in my running again. Just like last time, I have a long way to go but am taking it 1 day at a time. 

Up Next

So what's next? That's a great question. At this point I am not signed up for any more races in 2024, however I'm looking at a few more 5k races in November and will probably sign up this week. It's hard to believe that the racing season is winding down. It was such a difficult year for me and I have caught myself thinking of what should have been far too often. Even though I wasn't able to accomplish most of my goals for the year I'm still proud of myself for sticking with it and working to overcome the adversity that I faced.

Stay tuned, because I hear there is a BIG announcement coming to my blog very soon!

DSM Corporate Games and Johnston Mayor's Run

It has been awhile since my last post, and while I'm still not quite ready to share my plans for 2025, there is a lot to catch up on this year. 

Des Moines Corporate Games

On July 13th, just a couple of weeks after being cleared to start running again, Adam and I headed for Ames to run in the Corporate Games Cross Country Race. Adam was participating in the 8k and 4k, while I opted to only run the 4k. The 8k went first and Adam was so tired from that race that he opted to just jog with me for the 4k. I certainly enjoyed the company and encouragement along the way. It was a hot day, and I was out of shape and slow, but I managed to finish and it felt good to be running again. There was only 1 other person in my category and age group so I did manage to snag a silver medal and bonus points for John Deere. 

The following weekend was the Corporate Games 5k Road Race, run as part of the Clive Festival. It turned out to be a rainy morning. Adam and one of my summer interns ran as well. We got soaked but still had a good time. I managed to finish in a time of 40:06, and was pleased with how I ran. My legs were extremely tired and sore the last mile but I pushed through. 

Johnston Mayor's Run for the Trails 5k

I didn't really have a plan after the Corporate Games races, so Adam encouraged me to sign up for the Johnston Mayor's Run on August 10th. The race was held at Terra Park and we could not have asked for a more beautiful morning to run. 

The nice weather was not enough though, as I had an absolutely horrible race. About 1/2 mile into the race, my right shin began cramping, by 1 mile in it was so unbearable I had to walk. Shin splints are not something I've dealt with much before and I was extremely frustrated. I did what I could the rest of the way and ended up finishing in 42:32. It took a couple of hours for the pain and cramping to subside after the race. 

I was very frustrated for several days following the race, but luckily, after a few days of keeping my runs short, the shin splints subsided and I've been running pretty well as of late. 

Upcoming Races

After easing back into running during the month of July, I've really gotten back at it during August. I've logged over 50 miles this month and have stacked up 4 extremely good training runs in the past week and a half. I'm not a patient person, so I'm very proud at how I've been able to take it slow without getting too frustrated. 

Looking ahead, I am signed up for 3 races in September. On September 15th, I will be running the 5k as part of the HyVee Des Moines Half Marathon Series. The following weekend, I will be traveling to Champaign, IL to race in Tri the Illini, a sprint triathlon put on by the University of Illinois triathlon club. I will finish out the month of September with the Des Moines Area John Deere 5k in Ankeny on September 28th. 

I've been starting to keep my eye on another milestone too. The Johnston Mayor's Run marked race #72 since I began racing back in 2014. That means that I could hit 75 races by the end of September!

Big Things Are Coming

On Monday, I had my final physical therapy appointment, ending nearly 2 weeks earlier than originally planned. I'm officially cleared to resume my full training regimen and am already easing my way back into a run training program. 

My ankles are probably stronger than they have ever been, and it has been great to get a few miles running under my belt. I'm certainly not in the best shape at the moment and it is going to take awhile to build that back up so I'm planning to take it slow for the duration of the summer. Without running, I've spent a lot more time on the bike (mostly inside) and strength training so I will not be completely starting over. 

Looking at the remainder of 2024, I'm trying to stay flexible but will begin racing again soon. In July, I'm planning to compete for John Deere in the Des Moines Corporate Games cross country race and 5k road race. I also have a couple of sprint triathlons that I'm considering in September. To finish out the season, I'm planning to put an IMT Des Moines Marathon Relay team together. The season certainly isn't going the way that I had planned or hoped, but that doesn't mean I can't end it on a high note. 

The bigger news is what is brewing for 2025. I'm not quite ready to publicly share my plans, but I will tell you that it is big...REALLY big...and I will share more as it comes together. For now, my focus will be getting back into running shape and increasing milage on the bike. I have set a goal to complete my first ever century ride this fall, which should be a lot of fun. 

That's it for now, but keep an eye out for race updates in the coming months. 

Market to Market Relay and Recovery Updates

Market to Market Relay

On May 11th, I finally realized a long time dream when I completed the Market to Market Relay. The race begins in Jefferson, IA and ends in downtown Des Moines. It is split into 17 stages and teams can be made up of 6 - 8 runners. I've been wanting to do this race since 2017 but until this year had failed to put a full team together. With the help of my good friend, Adam, we were able to put together a group of 8 John Deere employees to form a team. The team members consisted of:

• Adam
• Brady
• Andy
• Josh
• Cody
• John
• Logan
• Me

Our ages ranged from mid-20s to 40 years old and our running abilities were all over the board. While we all work at Deere, we were all relatively strangers before race day. We met at the ISG parking lot at 6:00 am on Saturday morning where we all hoped into the rented Ford Expedition to head for Jefferson. We stopped along the way to pick up Andy as he would have to leave us mid-day. It was a gorgeous day for a race!

We arrived in Jefferson just before 7:30 with a scheduled start time of 8:00. We received our team slap bracelet (to act as a baton), and Logan toed the starting line to lead us off. I handled most of the driving with John navigating in the passenger seat. The race provided a very detailed stage-by-stage description of both the running and driving routes which came in very handy. With only 20 teams starting every 30 minutes, the race was much more spread out in the early stages than I expected. At the first transition point, Logan handed off to Brady who was ready for stage 2. 

Brady was the oldest of the group, but certainly not the slowest. We quickly hoped into the vehicle to head off to the 2nd transition point where Brady handed over the bracelet to Andy. 

This was Andy's only stage to run for the day because he had to head home for kids activities, and he made it a good one. At the next transition, Andy handed off to John. The rest of us jumped in the car to head to the next transition in Yale. 

John battled through his first stage, that was mostly up hill and nearly botched the hand off with Adam which gave us all a good laugh. Due to my injured ankle, Adam had agreed the night before to switch stages with me so I would have fewer miles to run.

At the next transition, Adam handed off to me where I proceeded to run the next 2.8 miles to Panora. My ankle held up okay during that first run and I actually ended up running faster than I expected on a bad ankle. It still wasn't great though and I could tell that I wasn't in the best shape either. I ended up averaging just over 11:30/mi.

In Panora, I handed off to Josh, who turned out to be the fastest runner on our team. Following my first stage, my ankle hurt A LOT for about 45 minutes. It was painful to drive and walk but eventually the pain began to fade. We met Josh in Linden where we loaded everyone up in the Expedition and headed to Redfield. There is a bridge out on the trail between Linden and Redfield so they had to exclude that section this year. In Redfield, our final runner, Cody, began his first stage. By this time the sun was getting high and the temperature had started to rise. We started going through a lot of water and Gatorade as a team. 

At the end of stage 8, Cody handed back off to Logan and we started through the lineup again. Adam covered Andy's 2nd stage, which meant that he ended up running 2 stages with just a 1 stage break in between.

Logan running into Adel

Adam starting his 2nd stage just south of Dallas Center

John wrapping up his 2nd stage at Walnut
Creek Elementary in Waukee

After Adam's 3rd stage, he handed off to me at the Clive Aquatic Center where I ran another 2.8 miles down the Clive Greenbelt. My ankle again held up okay, but it was definitely less comfortable than the first stage resulting in a much slower pace. Again, for about an hour after my run I experienced some pretty bad pain.

After handing off to Josh, we had to hustle to the next transition point and he almost beat us there. The last 2 stages for Cody and Logan were a grind in the heat. Eventually, we met Logan down by the river and all ran across the finish line together. 

A full day of team building and making new connections with people from work. It has been nearly 2 weeks and there is still almost daily conversations in the Teams group chat that we started for the race. Lots of talk about Des Moines Corporate Games events and Logan is even forming a relay team for the Quad Cities Marathon. Even with a bad ankle, I really enjoyed the day. 

Recovery Updates

As mentioned in the race recap, my ankle did not do so well during my 2 short stages of the relay. That was really the only sour note on the day. Erin and I had several talks in the days following the relay and I made the extremely hard decision to stop running and suspend my racing season indefinitely. This will probably get some eye rolls, but it was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make in my life. I decommitted from the DSM Corporate Games triathlon on May 19th, and backed out of the Clear Lake triathlon, Pigman triathlon, and Ledges trail race the 3 following weekends. To say that I am devastated would be an understatement. 

Over the last 1.5 weeks, I have seen slow but steady improvement in my ankle. I have not worn my brace at all for over a week and I managed to mow the lawn on Sunday without it. About 90% of the time I have absolutely no pain or discomfort but the other 10% reminds me that I'm not there yet. After talking with my doctor, I begin physical therapy tomorrow. 

Luckily, I had only signed up for races through mid-June, so I'm not losing out on a ton of money from race registrations but honestly, I don't even care about the lost money. I feel like I'm losing an entire racing season. Between the kidney stone and 2 surgeries in February and now the sprained ankle in April, this year is not turning out at all like I had hoped. I'm not letting myself formally commit to a timeline as I am in it for the long haul and really want to get my ankle fully healed before starting to run again. I am still hopeful that I can fit some races in at the end of the season but only time will tell. 

For now, I'm getting a few rides in on the exercise bike each week and doing some strength training as well. I'm hoping to get back to the pool in the upcoming weeks and maybe start doing more walking if my ankle will tolerate it. I can feel my fitness level decreasing each day but just don't have the motivation to get after it too hard since I can't run. I've put more weight back on too, which is not great. Right now I'm just trying to get through each day. I know that someday I will be able to get back after it and refocus and in the end I hope to come back better than ever.

Road to Recovery

It has been 10 days since I injured my ankle and things have been progressing well so far. I have done my best to rest and stay off my feet as much as possible which has been extremely difficult for me. I am not a patient person and I don't do well just sitting around. This was amplified by having this week off work and having to cancel pretty much all of my vacation plans due to my ankle. I tried my best to find ways to stay busy that wouldn't cause further damage. 

For the first few nights I slept in my recliner with pillows under my feet. I wore a compression wrap during the day and iced it every morning and evening. I also used the elevator at work to cut down on the number of stairs each day. For the most part, I have seen slow but consistent improvement each day. Below are some pictures of my foot from April 12th, which was probably the peak of the bruising but when the swelling was just starting to go down. 

As of today, the bruising is about 90% gone, and the swelling is down about 80%. I'm able to walk around with a normal gait and mostly pain free. At the beginning of the week I started wearing an athletic ankle brace and intend to wear it for the next couple of months to help prevent reinjury. I've also started back to swimming and have been spending time on the exercise bike in the basement. I'm slowly beginning to add in some PT exercises to begin to strengthen my ankle as well. 

At this point I feel like I am on track to begin running again next week (after the 2 weeks of no running prescribed by the doctor) but will be extremely cautious as I start back in. While I am still very hopeful that I can get back on track by the Market to Market Relay on May 11th, I am focusing on my long term health and recovery. 

With a week off work and nothing to do, I have had a lot of time to think about how to proceed with my 2024 racing schedule. After a lot of thought and discussion with friends, I've decided that I'm going to switch things up. 2024 is less than 4 months old and I've already lost 2 months of training. I'm also a bit nervous about the intensity and milage involved with my marathon training program that was set to begin in June. With all that in mind, I'm going to shift my focus for 2024 from training longer miles for a marathon and half marathon PR attempt to shorter distance races. Specifically, I'm going to target a 5k PR. I feel like at this point of the year, this goal would be much more attainable with much less risk than going after a full marathon. 

For now, I'll keep my focus on continued recovery as well as adapting my training and race schedule for the remainder of the year. Additionally, I'm going to refocus myself on losing weight. Once I settle on schedule updates, I will share them in a future blog post.