Growing up I was never much of an athlete. I played Junior Varsity basketball for two years and ran the 800 for two years. In both sports I wasn’t very good. For basketball, I rode the bench and was the de facto water boy for the basketball team and for track I came in last in the 800 at every single track meet we had. Before high school I played baseball and football each for one season before I quit. Being an athlete wasn’t my calling.
Despite my athletic failures I still made fitness apart of my lifestyle. Lifting weights and doing cardio is something I have always done. Lately I do low intensity workouts to focus on fat burning to get my body fat down to the impossible goal of 10%. So I wasn’t coming into this race as a couch potato but I am no where near an avid runner.
So I when the opportunity came for me to join the Army Ten Miller race I was thinking I can do this right? The longest I had ever run in my life prior to this event was 6 miles so what’s another 4 miles?
I say all this to give context on my first ever organized race event. But now that it is all over here are my takeaways.
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Since I mostly walk for my cardio running is a whole different beast. I tried to train about a month out but that just wasn’t enough time. At about mile 6 my legs were absolutely shot.
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With that said I used the cheering and the motivation from the bystanders to keep me going. Seeing people giving fist bumps, high fives, mascots, music. Every time I felt like stopping and start walking I would get energized! Now I see why home field matters in professional sports. Having people to cheer you on and can really pump you up thus have an impact on performance.
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I know bitcoiners are very anti state and this is a run sanction by the US army (military industrial complex) it was absolutely amazing to see all the different people coming together. Gay, white, black, latino, fat, skinny, buff, all of us just on the track and just running! It’s amazing to I see all the different bystanders cheering and celebrating the runners. Days like this reminds me how great America is when we are not constantly trying to be divided. By our elite and political classes.
One last thing I would add is running 10 miles is nothing to those soldiers who lost their lives serving in the military. While all the outside nonsense can skew people’s thoughts and ideas about the military it was really nice to run and push my self to do something I never thought I could do. My game plan was to run 5 miles and walk 5 miles but I ran the whole way and finished with a time between 1:32 and 1:43. I was at about a 9:20 mile pace before my watch went dead at about 7 miles in.
Stackers if you get a chance to run a race do it! My advice is train early. Hopefully next year my legs will be stronger and my legs won’t die at mile 6.
Now it’s time to relax and have a pizza!