Army Ten Miler

All things considered, this was a successful race for me!! I hadn't trained as well as I would have liked (so what else is new!) and had a pretty crazy day before the race, meeting up with relatives in town and taking extensive Metro rides with my two kids in a stroller with a bum wheel. Thank goodness I brought a balloon with me in the morning, which helped Jami find me. I had literally just told Jenny, who was planning to do a walk/run with several of my other usual companions, "I HAVE to find Jami; I can't do this race without her!" when there she was, saying how glad she was to find me and how she couldn't do this race without me. We had a great time together (at least I did!) and stuck together the whole way. Having Tara jump in with us at mile 7.5 or so was a HUGE blessing -- she kept us going the rest of the way. I don't recall if I ever apologized for Jami for completely shutting down on the last hill, but I knew I needed to just push as hard as I could if I was going to make it. And I knew Tara was with Jami, so I just concentrated on getting myself through that last hill and across the finish line. As always, I say that I'm happy with anything around 1:40 for a ten-mile race; my finish of 1:40:47 was just fine with me.