The Dam Run: Conquering Lake Murray Dam #Damrunner

By V. A. Riccasola

Some days we are inspired to run and some days we run and it inspires us. This book is both sides of that coin; the run and the inspiration. It is a book for everyone whether you run or not. It is about being inspired to do hard things. It is about finding the strength inside you when you think you have none. It is about knowing you are good enough; that your efforts count. Read it and reflect. You may be surprised to realize whom you inspire and who inspires you... and if you are inspired to run, all the better!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512740554

V. A. Riccasola

V. A. Riccasola prides herself in being a well rounded individual: she’s a mother, daughter, sister, friend, career woman, writer, runner, kick-boxer, fad dieter, pseudo-nutritionist, home school teacher, cook, amateur political debater and public speaker, small-time daredevil and home maker. She is passionate about challenges and adventures and has found she loves roller coasters, rappelling, no ropes rock climbing, spelunking, skiing, martial arts, motorcycle riding and Corvette racing. Currently residing in Lexington County, South Carolina and working in Public Safety, she writes tales born mostly from her experiences in the Northeastern and Southwestern United States. Now she is accumulating experiences in the American South to share. Short yet valuable careers in hospitality, real estate, the medical field and public safety give her an experienced view of the world from which to draw. Her love of travel lends zeal to share the world's beauty and both personal and imagined experiences through her writing. Her stories are the culmination of many hours of pecking away at her keyboard between all that life has thrown at her and running. Mother of two teenage boys, she is often surprised when she can find even fifteen minutes a day to call her own. She dedicates that cherished time to writing.

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© 2016 V. A. Riccasola.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4056-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4057-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4055-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906986

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/13/2016

Contents

Chapter 1 My Journey Begins Again

Chapter 2 Never Say Quit

Chapter 3 I Remember Why I Love This

Chapter 4 The Gauntlet is Thrown Down

Chapter 5 The Struggle Continues

Chapter 6 July is Mine! says I

Epilogue

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57

(KJV)

I didn’t know I was a runner. Honestly. I used to have a vision of runners being sleek and fit and fast. I had a picture in my mind of long, sinewy limbs, a small chest, and thick hair pulled back into a pony tail. I envisioned a lack of make-up on the beautiful, sweaty faces of every runner. I saw perfect skin all over their perfect bodies, pearly white teeth, and an upright gate. No, I was not that. I didn’t know I was a runner, but I am.

I am a curvy girl. Even when I was very thin I was curvy, and I will admit I was downright overweight at one point. Nonetheless, I will always be curvy. I used to think I was tall, but nowadays the high school girls are taller than me. I used to think I had long legs, but my son’s legs come up past my hip. I guess I am on the tall side of average height, medium build and slightly overweight right now, and curvy. I pull it off pretty well in jeans. I will never be a bean pole. I’m okay with that. I do love my curves. They give my body character as do my scars, my stretch marks and the occasional grey hair that I have developed. Like I said, I am far from perfect. But I have realized that I am a runner, and that makes me very happy.

So, are you an unaware runner? Do you give it your best shot but then take yourself out of the category because you are not fast enough or you don’t run far enough? Do you look at a huge race like the Boston Marathon and say to yourself, I’d never qualify for that, so, I guess I’m not a runner. If that is you, just stop it. Right now, stop it! You are beating yourself up and not giving yourself any credit.

The guy who pistons his way through the Boston Marathon and barely breaks a sweat, the one with the muscled chest and perfect upright pose, the one who does not put his head down to climb the up-hills, the one with the toned and tanned everything, yeah that guy- He is an elite runner. Kudos to him! I will probably never be that, but I am a runner and I dare that guy or anyone else to tell me differently. If I was to run the Boston Marathon, I would make him look good, so to him I say, You’re welcome!

Yes, Mr. and Ms. Elite Runner, on behalf of the rest of the average runners, you are welcome. If we were all like you, you wouldn’t be so special. This book isn’t about you; it isn’t not about you either. Maybe your journey began similarly to mine. Maybe this book pushes you too because maybe like us ‘little guys’, us ‘not-so-elite-runners’, us slow-pokes or slightly overweight people who just like to run, maybe you feel inadequate at times too. Nobody is perfect, right?

damlocks300.jpg

Lake Murray Locks

Confession time: I am guilty here. I raised my kids in a manner that might anger some people. Truthfully, it used to anger my friends and family members. My kids were raised to strive to be number one. Okay, so far, you’re with me. Here’s where I lose a lot of you to disagreement (that’s why this book is a running book and not a parenting book). My kids were also taught that second place is first loser. Gasp! I know. What a concept, someone can be better than the rest, we aren’t all equal, we aren’t all great at everything and everyone shouldn’t get a trophy for everything. Oh, no! I just set back parenting to the 1950’s where kids learned respect and awe.

Wait, what? How is that a bad thing?

It isn’t. My kids learned to strive to be number one, and in teaching them I also learned to strive to be number one. Sometimes I am and sometimes I am not. I learned to be humble and to be in awe of the ones who are great. And when those ‘great ones’ aren’t humble I can’t wait for the next best thing to come along and knock them off their proverbial pedestal.

So where does all that fit in with my dam runs? It’s pretty simple, really. I look at my runs and I look at my stats and I say to myself, Cool! I went further than the last time I had a similar run, or, Wow! My pace has gotten better! Some days I say, Boo! I really was tired, that was more like crawling the dam! Do I share my pace with my friends? Absolutely! Am I the fastest? Not even close; I may be dead last, to be honest. Do they ridicule me and tell me that I am not a runner? No! Why not? Because I am a runner! I am faster than everyone sitting home on the sofa. I am faster than I was a few months ago. I run further than I have in a long time, and I love it! My friends instead inspire me - and I hope I inspire someone - but if I don’t, that’s okay too. I don’t do it for that; I do it for me. In fact, it is the one thing in my life that I can truly say is for me.

However, I do inspire people; they have told me so. And that is when I decided to write this book.

damrun300.jpg

My run, my way; no excuses.

My journey into running began years ago. I was pretty overweight and I wanted to do something about it. I joined a gym and took kickboxing. I was one tough cookie! I thought I was going to die during my first hour session. I was sweaty and hot and I felt swollen all over. My lungs were on fire! We went one full hour - no breaks. I had two thirty-two ounce bottles of water on the floor next to my little corner of the room and I had barely touched them. I was in shock that I was so out of shape! I was already a hiker. I could hike for days in the desert. I had regularly gone on five to twenty mile hikes with the scouts. Yes, twenty miles.

How could I be dying from one little hour of kickboxing? I thought.

Yet there I was. I felt great and accomplished but I also felt a little sad. I went home determined to pick myself apart and put myself back together. I showered and weighed myself. I looked in the mirror for a good long time… and I cried. It was undeniable. I had gotten fat. I had seen pictures of myself after my children were born, and I didn’t think it was as bad as what I was now observing. I thought about the food I had eaten and the activity level I had settled into over the previous ten years. It was a harsh reality.

Yes, I rock climbed and hiked in the desert, but the intensity level and frequency of my climbs and hikes had reduced dramatically when I got pregnant with my first son; I now had two. I used to hang from cliffs and shimmy up crevices with just my hands and feet touching rock on either side. I used to make it to the top of Calico Basin and back down again in forty-five minutes. People used to tell me I climbed like a mountain goat. I had muscles! Even I could see that my calves, back and shoulders were very well toned. I was strong!

My diet wasn’t the greatest back then, but only because I was single and didn’t spend a lot of time on food. I didn’t eat junk all the time, that isn’t what I mean, but I ate things that did not take a lot of preparation on my part. A bagel with cream cheese was a fairly standard breakfast food for me. I kept cereal in the house and didn’t think it was a poor food choice because I didn’t go for the sugary, little-kids snack cereal. I ate Cheerios or Wheat Chex. It was just a higher carb diet than is healthy and I didn’t eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables either. I simply didn’t make the time to prepare that kind of food for