Army Ten Miler

Hey there lovelies!  I just woke up from a nice three hour nap and am still flying high from this Ten Miler I ran.

After the letdown of last weekend, I was a bit worried about this race.  I tried to shake the feeling, set a couple of goals for myself and wanted to get past the pissy missy mood I had been in.


Saturday, I met with my TNT group because Katye kindly picked up my race packet (because she was working the running skirts booth---jealous!!!).  Nothing of note in there, aside from the race shirt (a nice long sleeve cotton tee).  It was a super cool morning (31*) and I went for a nice 3.5 mile jog to enjoy the chilly morning.


I packed my bags once I got home and headed to my cousin's house (her husband was running with me).  We watched Iowa lose (ick) and then headed out for dinner (Pei Wei--yum).  Once we got back to her house, I started getting myself ready for the night and the next morning by laying out my clothes.

I thought the camo skirt was cute and appropriate for the event!

After a good nights sleep (albeit with a 90 pound lab right next to me) I woke up at 5:20 with a sore throat.  Uh Oh.  All I could do was get dressed, drink some water, try and wake up and focus on the race.  I wolfed down a Clif Bar (spiced pumpkin pie--love the seasonal flavors) and drank some water.  


Soon, B and I headed out the door to the train station to head to the Pentagon--which we did--over an hour early--woops!  Luckily there were plenty of things to do and see, including a special ops maneuver booth and a few blues bands by army members from various bases.  Time flew by, and before I knew it, we had to head to our corrals to get ready for the start.

At the start waiting for the gun canon to go off.  Thats the pentagon in the background.

Some races have gun starts.  This race had a canon start.  Pretty cool.  B and I had separated at this point, so I took some time to stretch, take in the sights, and enjoy a beautiful morning.  After about 15 minutes (there were 30,000 runners), we finally started moving to the start and before I knew it, we were off!!

The first mile flew by!  I made sure I moved towards the outside and stayed out of the faster people's ways (but managed to keep a 10:54 pace for the first mile--go me). We turned to go over the Memorial Bridge and into DC and it was wonderful about seeing all the crowd support! 

I started my intervals by the second mile, 2 minutes on, 1 minute walking.  It really helped my legs feel fresh and kept my attitude positive.  I was moving well, keeping a good pace with it (it managed to slow down to about a 12:30 pace, but still, I'll take it) and before I knew it, we hit the five mile mark (at an hour and 2 minutes in).  

There were various bands (some army, some not) set up along the course, plus a ton of people.  Miles 5 to 8 was lined with people which was amazing.  We were also running across from runners (as the course looped around and had runners going in both directions on the same street) I just started yelling at people, telling them they looked great, and offered up high fives to anyone who would take them.  People looked at me like I was crazy, but hey--I wasn't going to win the thing but I was going to enjoy every second and be as POSITIVE about the day as I could be.

The last couple of miles has some slight elevation changes and there were bridges and overpasses as part of the course.  I just kept up with my intervals and about 8.5 miles into the race I realized I was going to smash my Ten Miler PR from April.  

At mile 9.5, I recognized one of my TNT teammates and gave her a hug.  We decided to finish the race together.  Once we hit mile ten (Olga had me running 10.11 miles by the finish line) we saw the finish line and just sprinted our hearts out.  Legs flying, picking off people left and right (at a 7:15 pace) I finished the race with a HUGE smile on my face!

 Pardon the gross, sweaty beast picture.  I was still freaking excited about my PR.

 I checked Olga and my finish time was 2:10:31, which I was thrilled with.  Seriously!  I was dead tired and felt like I might vomit and my legs felt spent (I think it was really adrenaline that got me moving so fast for the last .1 mile) but I PR'ed and I felt so confident and wonderful.  I wished the same legs had showed up last weekend, but in the end, I finished strong and felt like a runner :)  Officially results aren't up yet, but I will update this post with my official results once I get it!

Our finisher medallion.  Pretty sweet!

This is a race I would run over and over again.  Seriously, the crowd support was amazing, the course was beautiful.  The Army runs a great, well organized race and I would recommend that everyone try and run this race at least once!  

That is all for today.  I am going to use the stick on my poor legs to make sure they are ready for next Sunday and the MCM 10K.  3 races in 3 weekends--66.666% complete!!!  Maybe it wasn't so crazy after all!


***Official race time--2:10:28.