Inside Iowa State

June 7, 2007

Driving Miss Daisy

by Mike Ferlazzo, News Service

There's more to ISU economist Dave Swenson than his numbers on the economic impact of biofuel, although it also involves energy. To date, he has run 118 races that are marathon length (26.2 miles) or longer.

He's on the road training around 5 a.m. most mornings with his trusted four-year-old rat terrier, Miss Daisy, running by his side. She has run five marathons and one 50-kilometer race with him, earning her the handle of "Miss Daisy the Amazing Marathon Dog" and interest from an author of a book on amazing animals.

It's actually amazing that Miss Daisy is around to run at all. Swenson found her at the Ames Animal Shelter. She had been sent there from the Animal Rescue League in Des Moines -- making it her third shelter placement. The dog had been abused by her previous owner and Swenson reports that she "was probably on death row."

"From the records I saw, she had been waiting for adoption for over 100 days, so the conclusion was that her days were numbered," he said.

But Swenson took a chance on her. He was driving Miss Daisy home when the terrier escaped from the car and showed him how she could run.

"Two thoughts crossed my mind," he said. "The first was there goes a hundred bucks. And the second was, that's the fastest dog I've ever seen in my life."

Miss Daisy ran away from the car three more times, once journeying as far as 30 miles. Swenson concluded she might be a distance runner and started taking her out on training runs. She took to the longer distances well and went on to complete her first two marathons.

"The only thing she does during the longer distances is instead of wanting to tug and pull, after a while, she just starts running even with me," said Swenson. "That's her indication that she's getting tired."

Then last September, a neighbor's dog crawled over two fences and attacked Miss Daisy, leaving her gravely injured.

"She suffered massive puncture wounds and flesh was ripped from her back and had to be sutured back on," Swenson said. "She was a mess and it took about a month to get her physically healed. After she recovered, we slowly started our routine of running again and she's back in training and back to being my morning companion."

And they're back to running races too. They've run four races since she recovered, including the Wyoming Marathon on Memorial Day in Laramie, where Miss Daisy remained undefeated in the canine division and Swenson, as usual, finished in the middle of the pack.

Swenson's next race will be the 52-mile Bighorn Ultra on Father's Day weekend in Sheridan, Wyo. That distance is too far for Miss Daisy.

Community and regional planning economist Swenson gets real on biofuel development

Miss Daisy, Dave Swenson's four-year-old rat terrier, has run five marathons, earning her the handle "Miss Daisy the Amazing Marathon Dog."