4 Down, 3 To Go

I think that my addictive personality is starting to manifest itself in road races. I am in no way a disciplined runner, but for whatever reason I have been signing up for more and more races. I started the year with 4 races on the schedule, and it's turned into 4 races in the month of October alone. I've still got 3 races left this month, but last Sunday was the Army 10 Miler, which has so far been my favorite race. It's enormous (30,000 people signed up, 22,000 ran), the course is pretty easy (only gently rolling hills), and the course is scenic (goes past the DC tidal basin and major monuments). So, here's the rundown on last weekend's festivities.

Saturday was somewhat hectic with me running errands in the morning, then literally running (just a 5k to stay loose), and then more running...only this time to the DC Armory to pick up my packet. I drove to my parents house for the night since I could buy myself an extra half hour of sleep in the morning. There was also the added fact that both of my parents were going to go to the race with me. I got up the next morning at 5 and scarfed down a bowl of cereal. I woke my dad up at 5:30 by saying, "Wake up daddy. The US Army wants to make you breakfast. Don't keep them waiting." My dad was up and ready to go by 5:45. We were at the Metro station just after six, along with about a dozen other people. By the time we made it down to Metro Center to transfer over to the blue line to the Pentagon, the Metro stations were packed. We got to the Pentagon a little after 7:30, just in time to watch the parachute teams and catch the Blackhawk flyover. My mom insisted on taking random pictures of me and others warming up (my warm up consisted of a little stretching and then wrestling the d-tag onto my shoe). I attempted to escape the photo frenzy by telling her that she couldn't pass a certain barrier, but the overly-helpful soldier manning that post waved her through and insisted she could accompany me to the runners' corral. Eventually, I persuaded her to go with my dad to find some breakfast, and she rolled out.

At 8:10, the second wave started and I took off. It is quite a sight to see literally thousands of people take off running, and even though I hadn't trained properly (not even as much as last year), it was still enough to get the adrenaline going to get in a decent first 6 miles. I had bought a new watch specifically to help gauge my pace, and I was clocking in the 11-minute range, which was faster than I wanted to go, but I figured that would give me some cushion on the home stretch. The first few miles are probably the most impressive. Running over the bridge into DC, you get a great view of the Potomac, and as you progress over the next few miles, you run past the Tidal Basin and its monuments and the Kennedy Center. One of the runners had brought a small camera with him and was snapping pictures of the monuments and the general scene as he ran - great idea that I'll have to remember for next year! By mile 6, we were in the heart of DC, but the liter of water I drank that morning meant that I had to make a pit stop during the race. That was unfortunate, because it added at least 10 minutes to my time (no joke, it was a ridiculous wait for the bathroom, and while I could have put in another mile in that time, I wasn't sure where the next bathroom would be, so I waited). I eventually finished in a pretty woeful time, but I finished nonetheless and still enjoyed the experience.

Here's me with Dad, just before the start gun. Notice the backpack my Dad brought...he came prepared to raid the food and giveaway tents!














At the finishers area, I picked up the latest in my collection of shiny finishers coins, plus some food and a bottle of water. By luck, I ran into Beney, who had come to cheer me on. We stocked up on some more cookies and muffins and then headed off to find my parents. When we found them, my mom and dad had clearly gotten their money's (or at least my money's) worth of food and random giveaways. They each had 2 bags stuffed with things like hats, cookies, muffins, bananas, bottled water, chocolate milk, Power Bars, Larabars (coconut cream pie protein bars - YUM!), Army hats, Army t-shirts, half a dozen snackable-type lunch kits, and a DVD on how to become an Army officer (yeah, not exactly applicable to either of them, but hey, it was free!). I was thoroughly mortified when my mom proceeded to pull out all this loot on the lawn across from the Pentagon Metro station where we were hanging out while the crowd cleared. Mom then proceeded to show me the pictures she'd taken that day with my camera. She ran into the mayor of DC and took a picture with him, then proceeded to take pictures with the color guard, random runners with rainbow wigs, and just lots of other random people. Mom and Dad both said they're really looking forward to the Marine Corps 10K I'm running at the end of the month. I think they meant they're looking forward to all the swag!