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This must be the slump in my training routine and this has turned more into a week in review rather than running log I intended it to be. I didn’t even run 1 mile last week, and only 2 miles this week. To my defense I have been busy at work and traveling all over the place on the weekends. Camping and white water rafting last weekend, drove almost the furthest you can go while staying in Virginia (to Grundy, VA) this weekend, and next weekend, I’ll be headed down to Orange, VA for the day to jump out of a plane with my sister. More pictures from that later this week. Panoramic ones. Hope you’re not tired of them yet…

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.

In a brief moment of inspiration after watching the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler this past April, I decided to sign up for the Army 10 Miler. For those who don’t know, the ATM is a 10 mile race (obviously) that starts and ends by the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, but we snake in, out and around Washington DC.

Six months ago when I signed up, October 8th (the day of the race) seemed like a year away. But now, it’s only 2 days away. I half heartedly trained for the first few months, then I invested in real running shoes, running shorts, and if the new iPod Shuffle had come out in time, I would’ve bought that too. At first, running three miles was just about my limit. Then I ran around Burke Lake for the first time in my life. Slowly since then I’ve pushed myself to running an 8 mile loop on the W&OD trail by my house 2 times in the last 3 weeks.

The hardest part about running for that long, definitely isn’t the physical part of it – it’s the mental. You really have to clear your mind and set aside an hour and a half where you can’t think of anything else you need to be doing. If I started running at 1pm on a Sunday right when the Redskins start to play, there’s a 100% chance I’d only run for 2-3 miles or so. So, the key to having a good run, in my opinion, is not having anything to do and nowhere to be. I actually can’t wait until the race on Sunday so that I can get it over with.

I even got a couple of my friends (Nick & Andrew) to sign up for the race too. So come out and support us if you can. The race starts at 8am, and I should be finished at around 9:50-10am or so.