Payback – the Army 10 miler

I have been meaning to write about this for months but for one reason or another, I have just been putting it off. This morning, I decided that it was finally the time or I would probably never do it.

Last year Peter B and I signed up for the Army 10 miler but then logistics got in the way and neither of us could go. For most races this would be the end of the story. However, the Army 10 miler has this resell message board on their site. Runners that for whatever reason cannot make the 10 miler can resell their entry to another person.

After Peter and I agreed that neither of us were going, I went on the message board and posted that I wanted to sell my entry.

Like within minutes, I got a slew of email responses. The hardest part of picking one was reading the heartfelt stories and then trying to decide. But after much deliberation, I chose an email from Caitlin Slaughter. I will not go into all of the details from our email exchanges, but I will share one particular part.

Having never run the Army 10 miler, I was just coming to understand how hard it was to enter and how much people were will to do for an entry.

I guess I could have asked for anything, but it wouldn't have felt right. And, it is just not my style to take advantage of someone else.

So what could I ask for? I pondered it for a while and came up with this idea. I asked Caitlin to take the entry fee money that she would expect to send to me and donate it to the Wounded Warrior Program and send me a picture of her and her husband at the finish of the 10 miler. Caitlin true to her word sent me the photo adjacent to this post.

To this day, I think it may well be the best money that I ever spent to enter a road race.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner