Army Ten Miler Completed!

I loved every minute of it. It was packed – 35,000 registered runners!



There were three waves – I made the mistake of starting in the last wave so had to jockey for a spot the first five miles or so. Next year I will arrive on time to ensure I start with the correct wave (determined by speed). I ran an extra .40 miles attempting to run around the slower runners or walkers! And I am not speedy. It took approximately 9 minutes before I even crossed the start line of my wave! Crazy eh? My time has improved from previous races though:
Gun / Net Time
1:58:31 / 1:36:59
Overall
11368 /21636
Sex
3570/9581
Div
783/2010
6.5Mi Split
1:03:55
Pace
9:41
Slowly but surely I will become a little faster and not a middle of the pact jogger! I had a great time. It was a gorgeous weather day, fun running around downtown DC past all the monuments, the capital, the white house. I remember years ago during my first Iraq deployment thinking it would be such a huge accomplishment to run the Army Ten Miler – I finally accomplished it and can’t wait to run again.I even ran into a friend from that first deployment around mile 8! I honestly never thought I could run 10 miles, let alone a half. Amazing what you can accomplish with a bit of hard work and determination. Even more inspiring to me were the racers in wheelchairs or racing with a prosthetic limb.




Many many veterans participated and made me appreciate even more my health. Those that can overcome extreme injuries and loss of limbs, eyesight, or other trauma and come back strong enough to participate in an event such as this are true heroes! Heroes for protecting our freedom and heroes for overcoming barriers that have been placed upon them while protecting us. Thanks to each and every one of you. It was also sobering to see the many “in remembrance of or in memorial to” shirts being worn throughout the race – again a reminder we need to keep those protecting us in our prayers daily. And thanks to Justin and Kimberly for cheering me on from the sidelines due to injuries that prevented your participation. I know how unbelievably brutal that was to stand on the side and not run!

All photos by my little brother who will run this race next year with me :) except first photo which is from ATM site.