Missouri Track Star Ready To Run
11/17/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
September 28, 1999
Story Ran September 28, 1999 -
By Jon Stemmle, Columbia Daily Tribune
Justa Dahl had achieved the runner's high. She went from being one of the top 10 3,200-meter high school runners in the nation to being an All-Region member of the MU cross country team that reached the NCAA Championships.
Then it stopped.
At the end of her freshman year, after an All-Big 12 indoor performance in the 3,000 Dahl noticed something wasn't right. Her first outdoor season started strong, but as the season drew on the energy she always had was waning. By the time summer came, the high was over.
"I remember at the Big 12's my freshman year feeling like I had nothing left," said Dahl, now a junior. "I couldn't explain it. I figured I had been on a high running good times through high school and my freshman year and that had carried me. Then I crashed and I crashed pretty hard."
Although her legs are now back and she is one of the top contributors on the nation's No. 13 team, Dahl said she ahs survived a year that felt like a nightmare.
As Dahl's energy waned, her first thought was that she was anemic. She ahs suffered through bouts of anemia, an iron deficiency, in high school. Blood tests, however, showed she was in perfect health. Dahl continued training through the summer, eating right, getting plenty of sleep, but the energy didn't return.
"It was the most frustrating thing I had ever gone through," Dahl said. "I had never experienced that before. In high school I could be remotely good and be on top of things. At this level one little thing can knock you off your stride."
By the time her sophomore cross country season was about to begin, Dahl developed a sinus infection, further slowing her down. While it was another excuse Dahl could have used for her problems, she didn't, and continued to run.
"When a girl runs three minutes slower than the year before it's hard to compute," said MU cross country coach Jeff Pigg. "The bloodwork didn't show anything was wrong. We knew something was wrong though and didn't know how long it would take to fix. It would have been easy for her to quit, and most kids would have taken a redshirt, but she wanted to contribute to the team."
Her sophomore season became a lonely one. Her lack of energy didn't allow her to keep up with her teammates during races or practice, forcing her to run alone. While the team rewrote the MU record books, Dahl felt like she was on a different page.
"Coach Pigg and I talked about a redshirt, but I didn't want to do it," said Dahl. "I just wanted to get through it. I just wanted to figure it out. I didn't want to let the team down, but when I ran I felt like I was on a totally different world from them."
After nearly one year, Dahl's energy finally returned. She started the 1999 outdoor season with a NCAA provisional-qualifying time in the 10,000 at Stanford and got stronger as the season went on. It was the push Dahl needed. Now, in what she describes as her second real cross country season, she has rediscovered running.
"I almost started crying after Stanford," Dahl said. "It seemed like I took a year off because it took me so long to get going. Now things are going pretty well again. I'm running with the girls again and it feels incredible. It's almost like I forgot how to race cross country because I hadn't done it in so long. Now I can help the team again."
In her first race this season, Dahl finished fourth in 18:43.34, a time she hadn't seen in a long time. At the Roy Griake Invitational at the University of Minnesota last weekend, Dahl finished a solid 60th out of a talented group of competitors. Eight top-25 teams were in the field.
"I knew I couldn't have lost all my talent and forgotten how to run," said Dahl. "It was in me somewhere and I just had to find it again."
