Army Ten Miler

Yesterday, I ran my first ten mile race, the first time I've ever even run ten miles: the Army Ten Miler. I finished in 1:31:27, about a 9:08 mile. Considering my horrific cold and coughing, I'm pretty pleased. Still would have liked to break 9 minutes, but hey! It was so inspiring to be in the field of 30,000 runners, about 22,000 or so finished, and to be in the top 25% of women and in my age bracket. To see the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with only one leg, or no legs, still competing, and beating me at mile 9, was utterly amazing. The energy in the air at a race is something else, and I would like to try to do the half. I was feeling pretty sick around mile 9, but thankfully my body just lasted long enough to not start gagging until I crossed the finish line. You do dig to find that spurt of energy at the end. To cross the memorial bridge, to pass the Kennedy center down Independence, to the Capitol and then the 14th street bridge and back to the Pentagon is an amazing blur, and I am proud. But it was weird at the start, to hear us called athletes. It something I will continue to struggle to see myself as, because I've never been an athlete. And yeah, I was nowhere near the beginning of the finishers, but I was better than average in this field, and most people would never attempt that distance. So for me, it was my own personal victory.