ARLINGTON, Va. – On Sunday morning, roughly 35,000 runners took to the pavement for another edition of the Army Ten-Miler.
The course took runners from the Pentagon, across the Potomac River into the District and back to the Pentagon to complete the 10-mile journey.
There were many reasons why these tens of thousands of runners spent their morning taking part in the event.
“It stands for the Army and those that came before us,” participant Pablo Romero said. “[It’s] our time to remember them, just like we do every day.”
Josh Eckert said he was there to run his 10 miles and was “pretty wiped out” after the race, but he also said he was “pretty motivated just to be out here with the wounded warriors.”
David Simons, too, was motivated by wounded warriors. He said he was running for former and current service members. “It’s a lot of fun, pay some respect to them,” Simons said.
Race day was damp, chilly. The rain moved out and the sun moved in, but neither helped ease the breeze.
“The wind was pretty brutal at the beginning and the end,” said Kimberly Luciano.
By Eckert’s estimates, the winds were coming in at 25 miles an hour. “The last two miles of the race are headlong into it,” he said. “It’s a rough course.”
This race was a challenge for the experience and the inexperienced. Liam Fitzgerald ran a little bit of cross-country in high school.
“I wasn’t very good at it,” Fitzgerald said, looking around in awe with the Pentagon behind him.
“This is incredible,” he said. “I’ve never seen so many people in one place.”
And more and more people are trying to be part of the event: This year was a sold-out race.
“I had a friend [who] had done it previously and she’d always raved about it,” Luciano said. “I just moved here, recently, to D.C., so I figured this would be a good time to do it. I really want to support Army veterans and wounded warriors. It’s a really good cause and it’s a good race to really get you excited and get the adrenaline pumping.”
So what’s next for these runners, after all of the training and the long run?
“Sit on the couch, eat a lot of food,” said Eckert. “And then go out for a run tomorrow.”
“A lot of eating,” Luciano said with a chuckle. “I’m going to do a bottomless brunch somewhere.”
Others have to get back to work.
“I fly [back to Fort Hood, Texas] tonight and I’m back in the field tomorrow,” Fitzgerald said.
