Good morning and happy Monday!
I had a great weekend – the highlight of which was running the Army Ten Miler on Sunday morning with blogger buddies Tina and Theodora!
The Army Ten Miler will always have a special place in my heart not only because my family is military, but also because it was my very first long race ever! I first ran it back in 2009 when I was just starting to get into running, and I remember being SO proud of myself for running that far. It was the first time I ran double digits and also the very first race recap I posted here on this blog, which was only about a week old by that point!
I love doing races again that I’ve done in the past because you can really see how far you’ve come. A perfect example of that was the Clarendon Day 10k that I just ran a month ago; my finishing time went from 9 minutes/mile back in 2009 to 8 minutes flat/mile this time around! Crazy.
Anyway! Theodora arrived bright and early at my apartment (she was at a nearby wedding on Saturday night) and we had a quick breakfast of some toast, almond butter, and banana before heading out the door. The race started at 8 a.m. – it was still just getting light when we got there around 7:15! Beautiful morning.
The Golden Knights (the Army parachute team) were putting on a show above us just as we arrived at bag check. So cool!
Theodora and I wore matching Lululemon ruffled skirts for the occasion, obviously. 😉
After hitting up the porta-potties, it was race time… but unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the actual race! The website (and people at the expo) said they would be confiscating phones/cameras in security – which turned out to be false, bummer. Should’ve brought it anyway! Oh well. 🙂
We had a great race. I was debating if I should to try PR (set a new personal record) – my current 10 miler PR is 1:28:27 (average pace of 8:51) from the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler back in 2010, which is a pace way slower than my recent half marathon PR (which was an 8:20 min/mile average pace). I’ve been wanting to set a new 10 miler PR but I figured given how busy I’ve been the past couple months (and the fact that I didn’t do a ton of long runs leading up to this), I’d take it easy on myself and just see how I felt.
The first 2 miles were REALLY crowded – there were 23,000 people running this race and we were literally shuffling and nearly walking at some points. Around mile 2, I had a horrible random side stomach stitch – I never usually get those and it was so painful I almost decided to stop running to stretch it out but I didn’t want to lose the girls. I sucked it up and luckily it only lasted about a half mile and I was good from then on out! By that point I had settled in nicely with the girls and decided to stick with them. Forget the PR – it was more fun to just enjoy the beautiful weather, fun scenery, and chatter with my friends. We talked nonstop pretty much the whole time and had a blast – I couldn’t believe how quickly the run went by! The race was nice and flat and we ran all through the city, by the monuments, along the water, etc. Stunning day for a race.
Splits:
- Mile 1: 9:08
- Mile 2: 8:50
- Mile 3: 9:02
- Mile 4: 8:49
- Mile 5: 8:54
- Mile 6: 8:53
- Mile 7: 9:06
- Mile 8: 8:49
- Mile 9: 8:36
- Mile 10: 7:44 (!)
- 0.2 mile nubbin pace (my watch was a little off): 6:56 (!!)
We were flying the last mile – I felt great and a lot of it was downhill, which helped! I was pretty pleased with our time, especially given that we were talking the whole time and also stopped at water stops 3 times! Just goes to show how far I’ve come – when I first did the race I finished in 1:30:01 and that was HARD. This time, it felt much easier and we were faster, too!
My official time from the Army 10 Miler website: 1:29:12. Tina finished with me in 1:29:11, and Theodora was right behind us at 1:29:44 (she’s doing the Marine Corps Marathon next weekend and wasn’t trying to destroy her legs by sprinting the last half mile like we did!).
Yay! I seriously couldn’t believe how quickly the race went by. The girls and I already decided we need to do more races together ASAP. 🙂 We want to find a smaller, less crowded 10 miler and crush our PRs! Gotta love running – always something to work for.
Here I am with the official race shirt! I paid an extra $10 or something to get a tech tee instead of a cotton tee. Worth it!
We also received these Army coins instead of medals!
After the race and wandering around a little, we headed out for brunch! All you can eat buffet? Yes, please!
We went to Ireland’s Four Courts in Courthouse, VA. Love this place for brunch.
The food at the finish line was lackluster (packaged muffins and bagels – blech – I just had a Kashi bar and an orange), so we were all starving. I enjoyed a mix of fruit, bacon, roasted potatoes (more than pictured because I ate some while waiting for my omelette!), a veggie filled omelette, and some smoked salmon and tomato. Hit the spot.
Fun day with good friends!
I also want to give a shout out to some other bloggers who ran the race that I met up with on Saturday – congrats to Katie, Madeline, Lani, and Lisa for rocking out the race yesterday as well! It was fun meeting/seeing you ladies 🙂
I’m off to my first day of my final 3 week dietetic internship – have a fabulous day, everyone! Official wedding recaps will commence tomorrow – stay tuned. 🙂
p.s. Looking to run your own 10 miler but not sure where to start? Check out one of my previous 10 miler training plans – it was from the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and includes a complete 2.5 months of my day to day training.
