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Today I hit the pavement for my sixth or seventh running of the Army Ten Miler. (I'm still trying to figure this one out....through all the runnings under other names, I've truly lost count. But I like this race! It's one of the few races I will venture into DC for time and time again. It celebrates the heroes, it celebrates the survivors, it celebrates running and it celebrates achievement. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?
The start of the race was slightly different from previous years. The race coordinators doubled the number of corral starts, which I think was a good idea. If you've run this race, you know that there is a tendency toward a crowded course, jockeying just to maintain a reasonable pace. With the added corrals, it was a little better. Folks still ran with faster corrals, but they were few and far between. It was easy to hit my pace and maintain it.Let me backtrack....I didn't hit my pace, really, until the second mile. Why? Well shortly after the start, I ran into Patty Schloesser walking on behalf of the Fisher House Foundation. Who, might you ask it Patty? Only one of my favorite wife's of a former commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. I had the great pleasure of working with Patty for a couple of years while her husband was the commander. I've rarely known a milspouse to work so tirelessly and take more of the stress of the military families on her own shoulders than Patty. So of course I had to walk with her for a little bit to catch up. That was awesome.
That was probably the high point of the race. Much of the remainder was typical Army Ten Miler. Bands at regular intervals, people with their motivational signs spread throughout the course, lots of water stops. There was a funny new jiggle on Capitol Hill. It was rather sad not to run in front of the Capitol building for the first time on this course, not sure why the change. But it did make up for it by stretching the distance on the other side of the bridge to regain motivation after the life sucking bridge crossing.
Another strange occurance....in my humble opinion....the crowd seemed quiet. This is usually a loud race with spectators pushing you through even the toughest sections. Not the case this year. Usually roaring sections were so quiet you may have been able to hear a pin drop. It wasn't too quiet to break concentration, but still notable.
Anyway, when the finish line finally appeared, I pushed forward and dug deep to find the burst that would get me across the finish line for a new ten miler PR. So what were the results? Overall I finished 6536 out of 21,912 runners. Among all women, I finished 1436 out of 9747 runners and within women age 35-39, I finished 249 out of 1806. My best Army Ten Miler finish yet. I can't wait to make it even better next year. Happy trails!!!
Stats -
Miles: 10.11
Time: 1:26:58 (average pace of 8:35 per mile)
Location: throughout Washington DC, Pentagon
Feeling: everything worked well, no pain
