PR * Edited *

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:30am to the sounds of pouring rain. I honestly thought for a moment about crawling back into bed and skipping the whole race. But 16 weeks of prep and the strong desire to improve on last year's time got me moving. I logged onto the computer to look at the weather and as I studied the radar imagines I began to wrap my mind around the fact that I was going to be running this race in the rain. A lot of rain.

Dam to Dam starts at the top of Saylorville Dam, but due to road closures the bus had to drop us off at the 1 mile mark, the opposite of where we usually begin. We had to walk across the dam to get to the start - a walk in stinging rain and wind. By the time I got to the porta-potty's then back start I was soaked through. My shoes were squishing when I walked.

The race was slow to start, the gun went off about 20 minutes behind schedule. I lined up at the 10 min/mile pace sign, but the first mile was congested with people who were moving a lot slower than that. I zig-zagged trying to find a space where I could run, but it was a 1 - 1 1/2 mile before things spread out and I hit my anticipated race pace of 9:40-10 min/mile.

Despite the heavy rain and winds my run went pretty well. At least it was cool! I crossed the 10K mark around 1:02 feeling pretty good. The rain finally tapered off around the 7-8 mile mark. Down by the marina just past the 10 mile mark I started to struggle. My legs were very tired, I was uncomfortably wet and really ready to be done. I started having some 'monkey mind' telling myself 'what do you think you are doing? why did you think you could run this far? I am never doing this again.' Then there was John, there to cheer me on!

I rounded the corner, up the long hill to mile 11, but when I turned the corner to the last mile I had a renewed burst of energy. I finished the last mile under 10 minute pace (around 9:45 by my Garmin) and crossed the finish line at 2:07:14 by my watch. My first thought when I crossed the finish line? "I wonder if I can crack 2 hours next year?"

They haven't posted the official chip times yet, but my last year's chip time was 2:17:36. My watch time brought me in a little more than 10 minutes below that. I finished feeling pretty good - much better than I felt at the finish last year. I feel proud that in one year's time I was able to shave that much time off - to set a new personal record for that course and give myself permission to contemplate the possibility that I could continue to get faster as I get older.

I am taking today as a rest day for my tired, crunchy legs. This afternoon I plan to plot out a training schedule for the next six weeks to race the Iowa Games sprint triathlon on July 11th.

*Edited to add:

The Dam to Dam website just posted chip times and mine was 2:07:15. Fine, I'll give them the 1 second difference between my watch and the chip. :)