jeffchin.com

Waking up at the crack of dawn when it’s still pitch black outside usually isn’t my idea of fun. But when two of your best friends show up to catch the metro to get down to the Pentagon in time to run 10 miles through DC with 24,000 other people, it’s a little different. We started off all together, but quickly broke up within the first half mile. Bobbing and weaving through the initial backup was a little annoying, but after about 2 miles things started to break up and I could get into a good pace.

Halfway through it was nice to see some familiar faces when Amanda, Amy and my sister Kelley were waiting to cheer us on at about Mile Marker 5 (@ 14th & Independence). Up until this race, the farthest I had ever run at one time is ~8 miles. I actually beat my goal of running 10 minute miles by running 9.5 minute miles, finishing in an unofficial time of 95 minutes. Andrew ripped up the course and finished in 82 minutes and Nick (on his birthday) finished somewhere in between us. One thing that I didn’t expect to do was run the entire time. I had been training by walking for a minute every couple miles or so, but when there were other people running with me, I was motivated to keep my legs moving.

Overall a very good experience, and I think Andrew, Nick and I are hooked enough to sign up for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler that’s on April 1st, 2007. Amanda took some pictures of us, so check them out on my Flickr site.

Army Ten Miler 2006 on Flickr Set | Map

Update They’ve updated the ATM site with results…I finished in 1:35:08, click on the picture to search for yourself or someone you know that ran the race.