This was a very FUN event! I had a HUGE grin across my face the entire way! I think this was so fun for me because it was a combination of my teammates AND my coworkers! Plus it was great to have a race right here in my hometown and not have to travel or book a hotel!

My employer, Fayetteville Technical Community College, was a big supporter of this race. They manned a water stop at the 5 mile marker as well as had a booth at the parade grounds. I was excited to get to the 5 mile mark because I knew the College President would be there and Brad would be filming. Brad filmed me as I ran up and gave the President a big sweaty hug. He said the clip will be use on the State of the College video that will be shown at the end-of-year campus-wide faculty and staff meeting.

I saw a few of my teammates during this first part of the race, Marsha, Al, Steve, Orca, Bonnie, Shelly, and Jamila. Also saw the Rich and Heather cheering from the sideline on "heartbreak hill" and a former coworker from the Fitness Center, Will.

After the FTCC water stop, it was not long before we got onto the All American Freeway. At this point I put on my headphones for my MP3 player because I thought it might get monotonous. It was fun to run right on the freeway! I stopped and took a few photos along the way. There was "Remember the Blue" row with photos of fallen soldiers. After that was a row of supporters holding out flags to us (photo below). After that I saw a former coworker who was filming for Fort Bragg and he made me stop until he could get his camera ready to roll on me. It was amazing to see such a long of runners up the freeway as far as the eye could see. I bet it was a sight to behold for the people watching us on the bridges above. The final turn towards the finish line on Fort Bragg took us directly into the sun. Next thing I knew, there was the Finish Line! It seemed to go by so fast that it didn't even feel like 13.1 miles.

At the Finish line there were young ladies wearing crowns and soldiers in full dress uniforms putting medals on the finishers. I grabbed a bottle of water, then waited for Pete. He was only a few minutes behind me. We found our teammates, then went to get our Finisher shirts. Right beside the shirts was the FTCC booth, so I chatted with coworkers there. After that was chicken fingers and beer! There was a live band playing on a stage. They also had some military vehicles displayed and a blow up ride play area for kids. Then we went back to the finish line to cheer in my coworker, DeSandra. And after that was a paratrooper drop! A plane flew overhead and three paratroopers jumped. We watched them come down and down until it looked like they were going to overshoot the spot designated for their landing. I thought, "It's too windy, they aren't going to make it!" But they DID make it; they knew how to make those chutes circle back around and land SPOT ON! Then, as if that weren't enough, we looked up and another paratrooper was falling with a fancy black parachute that was leaving a trail of red smoke behind! As he was falling, the song, "I'm Proud to Be an American" was playing and the song finished just as the paratrooper hit the ground!

After all that, it was time to find the shuttle buses back to Festival Park in Fayetteville. We found Gus who had just finished the full marathon just as we were leaving. There was a shuttle loading up as were arrived. We got right on and headed out without even waiting. It seemed they thought of about everything for this race, right down to using clear bags for gear drop so that nothing could be hidden from view. Fayetteville and Fort Bragg did an awesome job. I hope to do this race every year!

We ran right up the All American Highway to Fort Bragg!




Lose a few pounds and train harder.

Found some teammates at the Finish Line!


And OF COURSE I had to get a photo with Iron Mike!





EPIC AWESOME FUN race! Most definitely at the top of the list of best run races. What a day! I'm so happy and proud that Fayetteville/Fort Bragg were able to pull this off so flawlessly, and it will surely grow exponentially in the coming years.