The first 3 miles were very flat, fast, and somewhat downhill and I was easily keeping 6:58-7:00 miles and staying with Melissa, another gal on the team who I knew too be a very good runner. At about mile 3 she took off and I kept with my pace and tried to keep her in site. I hate water stops in big crowds, so I had my 2 bottle Nathan belt and drank as I wanted to do so, and that was nice. I was feeling very solid up through about 6 miles, and it was between 6-7 that we had lots of crowds, and that helped, plus my friend Melissa saw me and cheered. Then, I hit 8-10. My neck, right side, started aching. We hit some overpasses/bridges that didn't really have an spectators, it was warmer now (which probably played in our TX team advantage), and it was a slight incline. At a slower pace, it wouldn't phase me, but going the speed I was, and going really at LT for quite a while (I was between 177-182 for my HR most of this time, and that's the top of what my LT area is) it was tough. I did catch up to Melissa here, and while I didn't want to pass her as a teammate, I had the kick, and I did and hoped she'd latch onto me. I saw a girl from Bragg and wanted to beat her--they keep winning every year. Then, as we made the last turn towards the finish line I kicked it in with about 700m or so to go, and once I was in the chute I sprinted it in the best that I could. Ended up I was the 4th woman from the women's team in and that finished out our time. There were 6 of us on the women's team, and the top 4 finishers make the team time.

Speedwork and train for this race specifically. I've got IMFL in a month, so my body is in endurance mode. I'd like to do a 10-miler in 70 minutes. But, I gave the team 100% like I promised, and it paid off. They were happy with me and I felt like I earned my keep.

walked with the girls and finally found a spot where we could wait for the rest of our team. We went to our Ft. Hood tent, got some food, and celebrated as we knew we had done well and thought that we probably would probably had 2nd. Finally, the results came out, and sure enough, we took 2nd. First time the Hood women have placed. Our men took 2nd as well, and our mixed Master's team took first! We cleaned up more than any other post!! It was exciting and I'm glad I got to do my part. Even if I had tapered, it wouldn't have been enough to close in on Bragg as they had a gal that ran 64 minutes!! Take her out, and we'd have won, but we were only about 4.5 minutes up on Campbell, so it was a close and well fought race. BEAUTIFUL day for racing and I'm glad I got to do this race. It hurts, post race, more than my 20 milers--that's what running fast for that long will do!! The Army 10-Miler shadow races in Baghdad in '06 and '07 are what got me into this whole endurance running thing. It was nice to do the real thing, great to see so many other military members out there, and running in our Capitol. I'd like to do this again.


IM training vs. speedwork. Taper. :)


Huge race, but well organized, started on time, and had some decent schwag. Helps that I didn't have to pay for ANY of it. In fact, I think I made money off our per diem!! This is something that, when I was a cadet, I would've never thought would happen--me on a podium placing post team from the BIGGEST Army post we have. I couldn't run then. This race got me started into it all in Iraq, and I have come so far. It was fun to run as a team as well. Would've like to have trained with them, but that wasn't in the cards this year. Great group of gals.