Army Ten-Miler

I've only run this once before - years ago; I'm generally not partial to races that aren't marathons. But in January I signed up for the Armed Forces Challenge. Coast Guard Marathon and Air Force Marathon were the first two races in the series. Today's 10-miler was race #3. (Marine Corps Marathon (in two weeks) and Space Force Ten-Miler (in two months) are the last two.)

The expo is held at the same venue where the MCM used to hold their expo, until they decided to use the Gaylord Convention Center -- the Armory (which is located right next to RFK Stadium). Yesterday was a great day weather-wise, and portended to be so for the race, too.

Even though there was a field of 28,000 runners (about the size of MCM, I think), it wasn't all that bad when I went Saturday morning for bib pick-up.

It's a small venue, which explains why MCM has apparently abandoned it - not sure if it became a madhouse later in the afternoon. The only thing I wound up getting was a new bobblehead (thanks, State Farm!). Now I have a runner and a superhero. I wonder whether they will be at MCM and/or Space Force. (I didn't see them at Coast Guard.)

This morning, I got out earlier than planned -- totally happy for that since I rarely drive in the Crystal City area; I detest how the roads weave down there -- it's very confusing to navigate. And with road closures, I was not happy about any possibilities of getting messed up. Mercifully, my directions were spot on and I had no problem getting to the parking garage, and then walking the half mile or so to get to the Pentagon south parking lot. 

The signage down there was HORRIBLE, as far as I was concerned. They didn't have any signs directing people to where the security check and walk towards the corrals was located. I did relatively easily find the signs related to the corrals right next to the Garment Check (which itself was rather prominently marked, but which I didn't need to use). Lots of people standing/milling around were trying to figure out what the deal was. One person even suggested that the race would carry these marker signs up to the starting corrals. 

About 5-10 additional minutes of trying to figure things out, and then one of the volunteers made an announcement on the bullhorn about how the Wounded Warrior and Waves 1& 2 should move to the security check - and where precisely that was.

Took no time at all to get through security and start walking along the roadway up. This sign was on the side -- poorly placed right after security, since the corrals were nowhere near there.

In fact, once we made our way around a curve, we came to a point where we could either follow the road to the left, or we could walk over a grassy median to get to another roadway. Nothing was marked at all, and there were no volunteers providing directions. No one had any clue which way was correct.

Thankfully, someone figured it out -- it was crossing the grassy median to get to Route 1. (The push cyclist had to backtrack down the bottom of the ramp to do a U-turn to meet back up with us.)

Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial (a bit blurry) off in the pre-dawn distance.

I arrived at the archway for our corral by about 6:30am. 

Now to sit around and wait (and eventually take the photo of the arch in light). Thankfully they had some programming start up at about 7:15am.

First up was one of the Golden Knights parachuting.

Here's the second part. It was long enough, I had to upload it to YouTube first.

Next up were several more Golden Knights -- where they hooked up in formation, and two pairs successfully made it into the landing zone.

The first of two pairs was a long enough video, I, again, needed to upload it to YouTube first.

Next up was a neat overflight of some Chinook helicopters in formation.

Next up, the invocation, presenting the colors, and the National Anthem.

Ready to go everyone?

The corral set-up for the ATM was more lax and confusing than for MCM, and that set in after I had joined the standard "crush forward" of everyone in the couple of minutes before the howitzer went off. 

Everyone had different-colored bibs matching the colored-balloon arches that marked the corrals. I don't recall seeing anything in the materials that said that each would have its own distinct starting cannon. I kinda figured it was the same as MCM which set off the wheelchair/handcycle athletes first, and then had a mass, rolling start with a single start cannon for everyone else. So, when the soldiers who were holding the ends of the green arch started moving forward, and were in the middle of the crowd lengthwise, rather than simply spanning side-to-side, I made sure to stay in front of the first of them. It was only after I set off within Wave 1 and was hearing some of the follow-on announcements and then the howitzer again (and multiple times thereafter) that I realized I set out early, technically, since I was a Wave 2 runner. Thankfully, it didn't wind up mattering. (They didn't enforce anything with the colored bibs, as there were tons of people with all different color bibs near the front. One person even had a pink bib -- the last corral -- who was remarking that he was supposed to be in the back, but that they don't enforce it.)

Much of the course overlaps with the MCM route. I was looking forward to actually taking some photos and videos along the way, since I never take that opportunity during MCM (and certainly can't do so when I'm serving as a pace group leader).

(Netherlands Carillon -- located on the grounds of the Iwo Jima Memorial)

Running on the bridge toward Georgetown, the National Cathedral is visible on the other side of the river. Where we turn left onto the bridge from the southbound George Washington Parkway during MCM, we came northbound and turned right to this point. And we turned off early, onto an off-ramp, rather than running in Georgetown proper (which is typically just before Mile 5).

Where we run underneath the concourse of the Kennedy Center along the river during MCM (at about Mile 10), we ran on the other side of it today.

Soon after this point, I passed a boy who I would be surprised was even 10 years old. He was one of several I saw in the corrals, and he was doing a great job booking it. A few of us made it a point to cheer him along.

This initial view of the Washington Monument is usually at about Mile 17 of MCM.

For MCM, we usually turn down the road here and then make the right-hand turn at the corner of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to run up the north side of the Mall, before rounding the tip to come back around the south side of it. Today for ATM, we simply kept going on this side of the Mall.

I'm always so intent at this point on the MCM course that I've never recognized that I was running past the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. I'm usually distracted enough by the huge group of drummers who are pounding out tons of energy before we make it past the point at about Mile 20 where we Beat The Bridge.

And, boy, is that length of highway and bridge DREADFUL. Long, boring, and when the heat is really cranking up.

I finally have something that I can point out to others while running on the bridge, to break up the monotony. On our right, and falling off behind us (eventually) is the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument further off in the distance.

At this point, with the Pentagon looming large off on the right side, we are ALMOST off this bloody bridge and back onto the local streets of Virginia. And glad that we have less than 2 miles to the finish, instead of the usual 4-5 miles left during MCM.

And with that, I kept a faster pace than the rest of the course, as there weren't any other things that I wanted to take photos of. Soon enough, I was finished.

After getting a bottle of water, it took a little while to have the many lengths of table with the finisher coins (this year as spinner medals, for the 40th anniversary) pointed out. People were crowded around the random extra couple of soldiers who were handing out some medals, but that was actually causing more of a backlog than if they didn't have them there at all. Quick enough to get through, regardless.

And the finish area had a lot of food, not only officially provided by the race (enough so that I requested one of their empty boxes to put things in), but also by several of the sponsors after that -- where not only runners, but spectators could avail themselves, all gratis. Nice.

Quite pleased with this result, given I wasn't running "for time" by any stretch of the imagination. My goal was to get around 84 - 85 minutes, while taking all of the photos and videos. I dropped nearly 2 of those minutes in the last two miles, purposely picking up the pace which, if I were acting as a pacer I wouldn't have done. 

Great way to finish out tapering in advance of pacing the 3:45 group in Atlantic City in a week! Stay tuned for that race report.