As runners gathered in the nation's capital, Oct. 9, to compete in the annual Army 10-Miler race, Soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Combined Task Force Spartan), ran a 10-Miler "shadow-run" a week earlier near the heart of the Taliban at Forward Operating Base Pasab in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
Shadow runs were conducted at 18 locations worldwide, many of them in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as locations like Korea and Egypt, according to the Army 10-Miler website, and Spartan Soldiers wanted to ensure their race was shown to the participants in Washington, D.C.
Every year, the race attracts thousands of runners from every walk of life. It has been one of the largest 10-mile-races in America since 1985.
"We are running our run a week early so we can send clips and highlights of our run to the people at D.C," said Capt. Nathan Sharp, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd IBCT, and the race's coordinator at FOB Pasab.
The Spartan's shadow race attracted nearly 100 runners. While the high operations tempo of a deployment leaves little time for Soldiers to train or take time from work to participate, Capt. Sharp says the turnout was better than expected.
"We had about 100 people, and for a deployed location, 100 is really good," Sharp said.
The official race in Washington, D.C. started and finished at the Pentagon, weaving through the National Mall and near several of the nation's most recognized monuments. The Spartan 10-Miler, however, started at the brigade tactical operations center, looped around the FOB four times, and then finished near the helicopter landing zone.
The shadow race was divided into three categories of runners - male and female individual runners, who ran the whole 10 miles, and relay teams of four. The relay teams each ran two and a half miles per person.
The first-place male runner was 1st Lt. Derek Taylor, the civil military operations officer in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment. He completed the race in 57 minutes, 55 seconds. The first-place female runner was Maj. Paige Waterman, Company C, 710th Brigade Support Battalion, who finished at 1 hour, 17 minutes, 55 seconds.
"About four or five weeks ago I saw a flyer and I decided to sign up and give it a try," said Taylor. "I have been running on and off for this deployment," Taylor continued. "(I finished in) just under 58 minutes."
By upholding the tradition of an Army 10-Miler, even while in a combat zone, Soldiers not only got to experience a little taste of home during a morning run, but also trained for an accomplishment.
"I like this race, it is a good distance, it is challenging, but it was still fun to be out here," Taylor said of the race. "I think all the events the Army puts on are great; I think it helps relax the Soldiers a lot."
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