23rd Annual Army Ten Miler

We had a fabulous time in Washington DC for the 23rd Annual Army Ten Miler! We all got in late afternoon on Friday. After lots of hugs, giggles and exclamations on hair length, we organized ourselves and headed out to dinner. It was so nice to once again sit around a dinner table and start catching up with each other. Although many things had happened in the past 2 years, we haven't changed a bit.

Saturday started with the expo. The ATM has a great expo with loads of deals on fitness stuff and excellent guest speakers. We didn't stay too long since we had plans to get into the city. We made a trip to Arlington Cemetery and were lucky enough to catch a Changing of the Guards. Angie has not seen many of the DC sights, so this was a great opportunity. After Arlington, we headed down to the mall to find lunch and hook up with another dear friend from the past. We enjoyed our chat at the Vietnam Memorial until we were attacked by mosquitoes and were forced to part ways. That evening we enjoyed the Command Sergeant Major of the Army's Pasta Dinner. The food was OK for banquet food. The entertainment was the chorus for Europe. They are all active duty soldiers. I don't think any of them will be making a living singing, but they put on a good show. I think we all enjoyed the medley of songs from the past. It was fun to compare where we all were when each song was popular.

Sunday morning came very early with a 5:45AM wake up. Christy, Shelley and I headed out to the metro with bagels, bananas and various means of caffeine satisfaction. The line up was easy and there were plenty of porta potties, which is critical when you have to arrive so early for a race. We left the hotel at 6:15AM and would not start the race until after 8AM (depending on which wave you were assigned). Christy and I had an interesting encounter with a woman we dubbed "Crazy Lady." Each corral of runners is a different color which matches your bib number and correlates with your estimated finish time. Since Christy has never run a 10 Miler, she was assigned to the purple (last) corral. Orange was in front of purple. Well, apparently, in previous years, Crazy Lady had been assigned an orange number. According to her (and she told us often) she swears her pace is 11:11 per mile and that is orange. This year she was placed in the purple corral and she was not happy! She actually said, "if you are purple, they might as well just write 'you suck' on the number!" Christy remarked, "I'm purple and I don't suck." She didn't get it,nor did she care. She went on to say "if you run that slow, you must have cerebral palsy!" She was speaking in general, not directing to Christy, but still, can you imagine? She was loud and obnoxious in a way that I have not seen on someone sober. She was really despicable. We finally got away from her and found our place in the line up.

The run itself was hot and I was disappointed in the race organization. For instance, they ran out of water at mile 6! They even ran out of finisher coins. We did manage to spot Angie and E around 5.5 miles. I was so inspired by the amputees and their team, "Missing Parts In Action...Some Assembly Required." I hope to join their team next year as a support runner and carry a pack that contains extra prosthetics, and various first aid supplies for the soldier. Tragically, a man died 200 yards from the finish. They have not reported whether it was heat related.

Unfortunately, E and Angie had to leave on a early flight, so we were on our own after the race. We made it back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed back out in search of food, preferably red meat! Every time I run a distance race I crave red meat and apparently, Christy does as well. We had fabulous bison burgers and french fries as our reward. Then, we wandered back down to the mall and to one of the Smithsonian's for a bit of culture. We found even more culture at the Hard Rock Cafe where we indulged in wine and bar food. It was a fun night and the walking did us good. Although Christy has some impressive blisters, I don't think either of us got sore.

The next morning, we were up at a more reasonable time, but sad to be parting ways again. I had a wonderful weekend with amazing friends. One of the things that we tried to stress when we were all together was acceptance and forgiveness. We are all so different in many ways, but also very similar in many others. We don't always think alike, go at things the same way, or agree. We are at different stages of life with different perspectives, but we have come to accept and appreciate each other in a way that is truly a gift.

You don't get to pick your family or the people you are stationed with. I am so happy that the people I was stationed with became part of my family.

By the way...Christy, you want some beans?