The Army Eleven-point-two Miler

I haven't commented yet on the fiasco that was last Sunday's Army Ten Miler. First of all, it was supposed to be a training run for me in preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon. I was supposed to run 20 miles total, so I decided to run 10 miles before the race, and then the ten mile race. The ten miles before was uneventful other than trying to actually get to the correct Pentagon parking lot from the running path... one of the bomb-sniffing dog handlers kept saying "Stay! Stay! Stay!"--to his dog, not me-- and I kept wondering "what exactly is the dog going to do to me if he doesn't keep saying that?"

Anyhow, I did loops around the Pentagon parking lot until about 5 minutes before the 8AM race start, then jogged in place until we got to the starting line. Again, all fine, until we got to the turnoff for the 14th St. Bridge... and didn't turn off. Turns out the DC police spotted a suspicious package on the bridge at 8:05AM, weren't able to get it cleared, and the race organizers diverted the path to avoid the bridge. The second the course changed? No longer official. Big bummer for people who were trying to win, big annoyance to the rest of us.

Running the extra distance wasn't such a big deal for me, but not having any official time (they couldn't move the timing pads to the "new" finish line) was quite a drag. If I want to run 11.2 unofficial untimed miles, I can do that without 19,999 other people around me. This is the second year in a row where "security concerns" have interfered with this race, and it's getting old. It's something that has never happened with the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler, for instance.