I flew to DC for two reasons. 1) To meet my 8 month old nephew! and 2) To run the Army 10 Miler.
I had convinced my brother to sign up for the military lottery too. So, we were both in this. We went to the expo on Friday and picked up packets and race shirts. My brother needed a sweat band so he bought that. There was nothing I needed so after that, we headed out.
Race morning came and we hopped on the metro and headed to the Pentagon. I was meeting up with some ROTErs who were also running. It was a great reunion! After checking bags, we headed to the porta potty line and chatted while waiting. While in line, we watched the Golden Knights jump. After using the bathroom, we said our good byes and headed to our starting areas. I was in the last wave so I had to wait to start. Once it was our time, we were off and running!
I was a bit nervous about meeting the cutoff time so I kept checking time on my watch. I had about an hour and 20 minutes to reach the 5 mile marker. I beat the clock! But about that time my Garmin started to flip out and said the lap data was full so it no longer kept track of my intervals. So, I had to manually keep track of where I was.
Around mile 6, there was an out and back and I ran into my ROTErs there! I kept looking for them but they spotted me first....they said it was the hot pink pants I was wearing. From there, I just kept chugging away. Once I hit the 14th St Bridge, I knew I was almost home and I could hear the DJ from the finish line at the Pentagon. The big problem here is that 14th St Bridge feels like two miles up hill. Once off the bridge, I caught up with one of the ROTErs, with about a half mile left. His Garmin was still working so we followed his intervals to the finish. On the last interval, we had an all out sprint to the end. So, my first 10 Miler was in the books!
I'm happy with my time considering I had a half the week before and an international flight. My pace per mile was dead on with my pace at the half. I'm nothing if not consistent. All in all, I would say it was a good race and if we ever get posted to the DC area, I would do it again.
