Army Marathon

I left Huntsville in a hurray yesterday to get over to Killeen for the Army Marathon this morning.  Just outside of Killeen, I realized that I had not packed my running shorts.  There was a vendor at the Expo, but they did not have my size.  So, I went to Academy in Killeen and bought a pair there.  My wife and I attended Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Killeen.  We attended that church when we were assigned to Fort Hood from 1982 to 1984.  As we were going into the church, we ran into Bill and Bridgett Moeller from Spring, Texas.  I have known them from races for many years.  They had a good friend down from Dallas to run the marathon and he was at the church.  After Mass, we all went to Olive Garden for dinner.  As we talked, Bill mentioned that he was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at the same time I was there from 82 to 84.  We were the Army's night fighting division at the time and we had a 10K run at 3 a.m. on May 1, 1983.  It was my first race.  Bill and Bridgett ran the same race.  We all had a great time visiting at the dinner.  It was after 9 p.m. before I went to the hotel to check in.
The race started at 6:30 a.m. at the Killeen Convention Center and went east to a finish line in Temple.  Overall, the drop in elevation was 200+ feet, but there were so many hills that you would not notice a drop in elevation.  It was cool and overcast for the first half at my time at the 13.1 miles was 2:53.  Then, the temperature started warming and we had a wind in our face.  The course was on the streets in Killeen and then open highway to Temple.  No shade trees.  I really started to tire at about 18 miles and I walked occasionally, which I normally do not do in a marathon.  I was surprized that my finish time was 5:53:35, my best marathon time this year.  The race results show that there were exactly 600 finishers and I was the only one in the 70 and over age group.  I met a guy at the start line who was 78, but he must have dropped.  So, another age group win.  This was my 96th race of a marathon or longer and my 14th since the season started in Texas in October.  Five more next season and that is it.