Army Ten Miler - Race Report 2009

I’ve run the Army Ten Miler or ATM three years in a row. It is a race I look forward to each year because I run it with a college friend, Katie, who comes in from out of town for the weekend. We get to catch up before the race and often, during the race until we start to get tired in the last few miles. This year was no exception!

Since I am a local, I took advantage of the Friday evening packet pick up in order to avoid the Saturday crowds. I was in the National Armory through security, with my packet, bib, t-shirt in hand and completing a lap around the room to check out the vendors in less than 10 minutes. Some people really enjoy the expo prior to a race but since I am never there to spend money, it can be nearly useless to me.

Saturday night I invited Katie, her boyfriend and two friends of hers over for dinner so they could see the new house and we could partake in some homemade carbo-loading. I made Parmesan Chicken, Marinara Sauce and Angel Hair pasta for the main course along with a simple salad of mixed field greens and grape tomatoes, followed by peanut butter bars with chocolate chips for dessert. Yum!

After they left, I cleaned up and was in bed by 9:30 since I had to be up early, the alarm was going off at 5:45, to meet up with them before the race.

Sunday morning ended up being a near-perfect running morning. As I walked to the metro, the air was crisp and they sky was clear, with temperatures around 50. I meet up with Katie near the Pentagon where the race starts. Since their hotel was close to the start, we were able to take care of all the overactive bladders and stay warm before heading to the start line about 10 minutes before the gun. It was a nice way to start the race – without the worries of port-a-potty lines and pre-race chills. (However, we did miss the Golden Knights parachuting over the start line and the helicopter fly over but we’ve seen those twice before).

The gun (more like a canon) went off but we were stuck at the back of the first wave of runners so it took us over 10 minutes to get across the start. Once we were running though, we were able to dial in to a pretty good pace.

One of the reasons I enjoy this race so much is because I run it at Katie’s pace which is about a minute per mile slower than my all-out, balls to the walls 10 mile pace. I don’t feel any pressure or desire to race when I’m running with other people (unlike the few times I’ve tried to approach a race as a fun run and always end up blowing it by deciding at some point, ‘Oh, what the heck – why not race it”). We chatted for the first few miles – told stories, talked about other races, training.

The ATM follows a good DC sight-seeing course – starting at the Pentagon, running by Arlington National Cemetery before crossing the Potomac at Memorial Bridge, swinging by the back of the Lincoln Memorial, over to Watergate Hotel and then back around to go under the Kennedy Center before running by the Washington Monument and up the length of the Mall, looping in front of the Capital Building, coming back down the Mall, and finally over the bridge (the only boring bit) to the Pentagon and the finish line. It really hits all the highlights!

As we headed over the final bridge with a slight incline, Katie began to tire but she hung on to the pace and we finished in good time – 1:36:12. Last year we did 1:38:33 and 1:52:56 the first year we ran it, 2007. We set a PR for this race by over 2 minutes.

After we finished the race, we met up with Katie’s boyfriend, hit their hotel to change and then her Dad (who also ran the race…finishing 3 minutes behind us) treated us to lunch.

As always, it was a fun race and I look forward to running it again next year.

Pros:
Running with friends
Tons of crowd support (except for the final mile and a half across the bridge to the finish)
Getting to see DC sights en route
Nice race packet – long sleeve cotton t-shirt, hat, cup, etc.

Cons:
Crowded (25,000 people to celebrate the races 25th year…however, the wave start and pace corrals do a decent job eliminating the worst of this problem)
Not the course you’re going to set your ultimate 10 mile PR

An Injured Runner

I am currently recovering from an injury that has prevented me from running. I *believe* I have a stress fracture in one of the outside bones on my right foot due to overtraining for a marathon and this injury has stopped me from running (with the exception of one foolish incident) for over a month.

The reason I say "believe" is because I have not had this confirmed by a doctor, mostly because rest has relieved the pain and it is my understanding that there really isn't much a doctor can do for a stress fracture other than prescribe rest.

I felt a sharp pain in my right foot while running the Army Ten Miler (ATM) in early October, still finished the race but ended up hobbling and limping for the next three days. I wasn't sure what had happened but I knew that resting it was the only thing that was alleviating the pain - drugs and ice had no effect. At first, I told myself that I would be up and running in no time, after all, I had another ten mile race and a marathon planned. As the days went by, it became evident that I would have to nix the marathon plans but I still foolishly attempted the ten mile race (family bragging rights were at stake so I had to give it shot). I only made it 4 miles through that race before the pain became sharp and I dropped out (my only DNF so far - bummer). I keep telling myself that I planned it smart but the DNF still stings.

However, three weeks from the race and I've had zero pain, ache or discomfort in my foot for three straight days now. I am very much encouraged by this improvement but I have publicly vowed that I will not be running for the entire month of November. Yet, my outlook on running has certainly improved and I'm starting to come up with a running plan/schedule for building my running back up so I can run the National Half Marathon in March.

If I can just hold myself to the self-imposed running ban, I know I'll be back to running and happy to be doing something I love. In the mean time, the treadmill incline button and the free weights have become the best friends I am using the make my formal best friend, running, jealous. Think its working?