Benning team ready for Army Ten-Miler

FORT BENNING, Ga., (Oct. 8, 2014) -- Runners from the Fort Benning Army Ten-Miler team are preparing to compete in the 30th Army Ten-Miler, which encompasses all military branches, Oct. 12 in Washington, D.C.

The Benning team is comprised of four men and two women who competed during preliminary qualifiers for the opportunity to represent the Maneuver Center of Excellence.

"The Army Ten-Miler is one of the largest running events in the nation and helps support (the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation) programs around the Army," said Lori Smith, director of fitness facilities. "MWR organized and held each qualifier (and pays for one team's expenses). It's important that Fort Benning has a presence there and this year's team will certainly represent Fort Benning proudly."

Team captain Adam Patten, Soldier Division, Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate, said there are a number of categories at the Army Ten-Miler, which include all-male teams, all-female teams, senior teams, command sergeants major teams, mixed teams and several more.

"The mixed team division means we will be competing against other mixed teams where four people score with one being from the opposite gender," he said. "Last year there were over 26,000 participants and 649 teams."

Patten said there are 56 teams in the mixed division and if his team runs their goal of a combined time of three hours and 45 minutes, they should fair well.

After the last qualifier, he said, there were more people training than the team had slots for, so they held another final qualifier to solidify the team.

"We found a 10K in Atlanta (Sept. 20) called the Dream Mile, (organized by) Anoop Sinha, (who) allowed us to compete for free," Patten said. "The team swept the race, logging the top five (unofficial) fastest times. The Dream Mile team was most gracious and honored our team and the Army before and after the race."

The team retained two alternates in case of injuries and other situations, he said.

Due to conflicting work and training schedules, Patten said, it's been a challenge to get the team together for practice, so the team mostly ends up training in groups of two and three or runs with Big Dog Running Company.

"Saturdays seem to be the only days we can consistently get together to practice as a team," he said. "It has been far from perfect, but I'm really happy with the effort everyone has put in."

The goal, Patten said, was to get everyone on the team running 50 to 70 miles per week with eight to 10 miles during the week and 13 miles or more for the runs on Saturdays "before tapering for the race."

The race will begin and end near the Pentagon and will be split up into eight waves starting with wheelchair athletes and wounded warriors.

According to the Army Ten-Miler program, Wave 1 will start at 8 a.m. with subsequent waves every eight minutes. The runners will have to maintain a 15-minute mile pace in order to continue to the end.

Patten said runner's times will be tracked through electronic trackers in the race bib.

Because Patten's time didn't qualify for the team, he will not be running for the team, but as an individual.

He said his role for the team will be to provide guidance and leadership when traveling.

FORT BENNING'S ARMY TEN-MILER TEAM AND TOP TIMES:

Brett Carter, Armor Basic Officer Leader Course - 53:41

Kendall Ward, Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course - 55:41

Gerard Sclafani, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment - 58:12

Ashley Urick, Martin Army Community Hospital - 63:28

Robert Brown, 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry Regiment, - 64:21

Rysper Sirma, 463rd Medical Company - 73:08

ALTERNATES:

Rafael Merced, 14th Combat Support Hospital - 62:15

Alex Santiago-Torre, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment - 58:15