Event Recap: On your mark, get set…Army Ten-Miler
If you live in Washington, DC, are a runner, or even know a runner, you have probably heard of the Army Ten-Miler. With over 35,000 runners from all around the world, the Army Ten-Miler is the largest race in the Washington, DC area and the second-largest ten-mile race in the country, and we have been lucky enough to produce this race since 2017.
Like many things, the Army Ten-Miler was halted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic just a few months before takeoff. When 2021 rolled around and it seemed like the pandemic was on its way out, we were hopeful the race would resume. As we all know now, the pandemic continued and just ten days before runners were set to take their mark, the plug was pulled. For the second year, months and months of planning went out the window. So, as you can imagine, when it was time to start planning for the 2022 race, we were ready to hit the ground running, this time with back-up plan after back-up plan (we are planners, after all)! Lucky for us, the race was on!
The RGI team set to work, working tirelessly to build the race day imprint. What does that look like? Thousands of feet of bike rack, hundreds of tents, dozens of generators, and even a handful of stages, created something like a makeshift city in a parking lot over the course of two days. The team overnight to set up the intricate maze of medical tents, food service tents, and information which were tents scattered all across the two-mile stretch of parking lots and roads that surrounded the Pentagon. But nothing compared to the 100 tent village right at the center of the action, otherwise known as the HOOAH tent zone, where we built rows and rows of tents for race day sponsors like Navy-Federal Union, ROTC, KRP, Comcast, Boeing, and more. Our job did not stop just with tents. While those went up, we worked on stages for awards and the DJ and perhaps the most important job establishing the start and finish lines -- both of which had to be exact for the race even to count -- talk about pressure!
Remarkably, despite the fact that the Army Ten-Miler doesn’t look like the other events we produce, the planning feels very similar. This event, which is months in the planning, is on a grander scale. After all, keeping track of the timeline, coordinator crews, and managing budgets matter no matter how small - or massive the event is. That groundwork enabled us to keep the moving parts in check while team RGI and our crews were onsite, bringing the months of planning to life.
A job like this isn’t always easy, but it is exhilarating to be part of something not only so large in scale but also so important to so many people within our community. After all, in the Army’s own words, the Army Ten-Miler “exemplifies…the spirit of the Nation.” – and what an honor it is to be the team that can help make this race a reality.