ARLINGTON, Va. — Every Army Ten-Miler is unique for some reason, whether it’s an amazing time or a particularly memorable runner.
For Sunday’s 23rd Army Ten-Miler, what likely will stand out in many minds is the heat.
While there are more than 150,000 U.S. servicemembers dealing with temperatures in Iraq that are still topping 100 degrees every day, it’s a little hard to complain about conditions in Washington, D.C.
Still, for the 26,000 runners who participated in Sunday’s race, the mini heatwave, with temperatures into the upper 80s (10 degrees above normal for early October), was an unpleasant factor.
Wherever they were training, many runners, — including Lt. Col. Marty Muchow, 42, an Army officer who won the men’s master’s division in 2006 — were watching the weather, and making plans for how to cope.
Muchow, who commands an explosives ordnance detection battalion at Fort Drum, N.Y., that is preparing to deploy to Iraq, told Stripes Friday that he “personally likes the weather to be as miserable as possible, because I think I’m tougher than other runners.”
On Sunday, the race field of half-civilian, half-military runners woke to a morning that felt more like July than October.
“I knew as soon as I got up this morning that the humidity was going to be a big, big problem,” said Alisa Harvey, four-time women’s winner of the Army 10-Miler and the owner of the No. 1 bib after she finished fifth.
By the time the traditional cannons boomed to signal the race’s 8 a.m. start, the sun was fully up, and the thermometer and humidity with it.
With humidity that high, “the sweat can’t evaporate. It just has nowhere to go,” Harvey said.
Runners crossing the finish line looked like they had taken showers.
Harvey said she had to do something she normally never does during a race: actually stop running completely, not once, but twice, so she could “pour a cup of water over my head.”
It didn’t help. By mile six, Harvey said, “I looked and I couldn't see anyone in front of me” because her female competition was so far head of her.
“That’s when I knew I’d lost” the race, she said.
Harvey finished with a time of 1:00:34, averaging 6:04 per mile.
One group of runners that was actually pleased to see the Sunday heat was the Brazilian Army team, which was making its first appearance at the race.
Among the top-ten male runners, Brazilians took first, second, third, fourth, and sixth places.
Ten-Miler runner diesARLINGTON, Va. — The runner who collapsed and died at the Pentagon near the end of the Army Ten-Miler race this weekend was identified Monday as 25-year-old Michael Banner.
His employer, Kimley-Horn and Associates in Herndon, confirmed Banner’s death. The Fairfax County man was treated by medics after he fell to the ground about 10:40 a.m. Sunday and was taken to George Washington University Hospital.
Julie Beauvais, a spokeswoman for Kimley-Horn, said Banner was a civil engineer at the company’s traffic division. The Army has not released his name.
The cause of death is still unknown. Army spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts says an autopsy was to be performed. He says the runner’s family had been notified of the death.
Yonts says one other person has died in the 23-year history of the event, in 1990.
— The Associated Press
Top finishersTop male finishers in the 2007 Army 10-Miler
Spec. 1st Class Jose Ferreira, 31 Brazil 49:21 (4:57)Spec. 1st Class Reginaldo Campos Jr., 20, Brazil 49:22 (4:57)Spec. 1st Class Josueldo Nascimento, 26, Brazil 49:40 (4:58)Cpl. Marcelo Vecchi, 37, Brazil 49:56 (5:00)Tamrat Ayalew, 33, Atlanta, 50:12 (5:02)Cpl. Weder Ferreira, 23, Brazil, 50:15 (5:02)Belay Kassa, 25, Atlanta, 50:44 (5:05)Ronald Kurui, 25, Atlanta, 50:50 (5:05)Birhanu Wukaw, 23, Atlanta, 51:35 (5:10)Jason Jabaut, 25, Carrboro, N.C., 51:49 (5:11)Top female finishers in the 2007 Army 10-Miler
Firaya Zhdanov, 46, Atlanta,58:31 (5:52)Susannah Kvasnicka, 35, Great Falls, Va., 59:11 (5:56)Johanna Allen, 26, Woodbridge, Va., 59:39 (5:58)Lauren Manero, 26, Fort Belvoir, Va., 1:00:13 (6:02)Alisa Harvey, 42, Manassas, Va. 1:00:34 (6:04)Chris Tucker, 38, Bealton, Va., 1:00:41 (6:05)Kristen Henehan, 28, Silver Spring, Md., 1:01:02 (6:07)Melinda Carson, 28, Washington, D.C., 1:01:27 (6:09)Claudia Colita, 29, Atlanta, 1:01:36 (6:10)Heidi Grimm, 40, Colorado Springs, Colo., 1:01:36 (6:10)More about the raceBlinded in Iraq, soldier running toward new goal
