I wrote up a short report in the "October 2 Training Week" thread on
Sunday, but there has been a lot more info flying around since then.
The best source right now seems to be the bulletin boards on the ATM
website. I'll give them credit for apparently NOT moderating these to
remove posts which are critical of the race organizers.
See:
http://www.armytenmiler.com/exec/army/bulletin_board.cfm?publicationID=16
And lots more discussion (somewhat less civil) at:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1051138
The short story goes as follows:
- Largest 10 mile race in the US (18000-20000 runners)
- Race starts as planned at 8:00 AM
- Race organizers notified at 8:02 AM of "suspicious package" under the
14th Street bridge (around mile 9 of the course)
- Decision made about 8:40 AM to re-route runners back into Virginia
via Memorial Bridge instead of 14th St, deviating from the original
course around mile 7.5
- Hastily erected balloon arch at original start line (about 1/2 mi
from planned finish) marks the new finish line
- No timing mats, no finishing times or places, no awards, no refunds
I stopped my watch at the new finish, hoping to figure out the
semi-official distance eventually. I've heard many estimates now, and
they all seem to indicate it was very close to 11.2 miles. So I'm
sticking with that.
It seems to be definitely established now that the "suspicious package"
was simply material from ongoing construction. The funniest rumor I've
heard yet is that it was a construction worker's LUNCHBOX. That's so
crazy, it sounds like it could easily be true!
The good/bad news for me is that this was a big PR (old PR was 56:55).
Damn, it would have been nice to make it official.
Splits up through mile 7 were as follows:
1) 5:45
2) never saw it
2+3) 11:26 (5:43 * 2)
4) 5:34
5) 5:41
6) 5:40
7) 5:43 -- 39:50 split
8-11.2) 23:23 (5:34/mi avg) -- 1:03:14 final (5:38/mi avg)
If I take my avg mile pace * 10, I get 56:27. If I take my 7 mi split
and add 3 * 5:40, I get 56:50. The true number is in there somewhere.
Regardless, it was my best WAVA age-graded race ever at around 82.5%.
A great sign for the marathon in 2 weeks.