By BOB DALTON
Special to The Citizen

For the second consecutive year, Third Army Headquarters won the All Comers division at the Army Ten Miler in Washington, D.C. Sunday, Oct. 10.

The team is comprised of individuals from the south side of Atlanta: Col. Larry Camp of Sharpsburg, Maj. John Quinlivan of Peachtree City, Sgt. Ken McEnaney from Riverdale, MSgt. Lloyd McDonald and Cmnd. Sgt. Maj. Steve O'Connell from Fort Gillem in Morrow, and Coach Bob Dalton from Fayetteville.

This year, the race made history again. With a record 16,300 registered runners (over 2,000 more than last year), the race has been America's largest ten miler for ten consecutive years. It is consistently rated by Runner's World as one of the 100 best road races in the nation. There were 673 registered teams competing in 18 different divisions, featuring athletes from more than 15 different foreign countries.

Unfortunately, history also was made with rain for the first time in 15 years on the day of the race. The rain started the night before and caused the famous Army Golden Knights to cancel their parachute jump prior to the start of the race.

When the Army's 105mm Howitzer finally thundered, the runners let out a roar and began splashing down the road. However, the steady rain did convince some runners to roll over and go back to bed as evidenced by the number of runners who finished the race - 11,453. Times for the runners who did show up were slower than expected due to the wet conditions and standing water on the course.

The U.S.A. Track and Field certified race course begins and ends at the Pentagon and takes runners through D.C. with views of the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Kennedy Center, and national park lands. For the first time this year, race organizers used the Champion Chip system to time the runners.

The Third Army runners were determined to win their division again this year and did just that, defeating 26 other teams. With a cumulative time of 3:50:35, they won convincingly, beating the team closest to them by 40 minutes. CSM O'Connell was first across the line for the team in 56:32. Close behind O'Connell were Dalton and McDonald in 57:08 and 57:18 respectively. Also finishing under an hour was Quinlivan with a time of 59:26. Rounding out the team were Camp in 1:02:37 and McEnaney in 1:05:43.

O'Connell and Dalton also won their age groups, 40-44 and 45-49 respectively, while McDonald finished second overall in the 40-44 age group.

Dalton echoed the sentiments of the team when he said, “It was great to win again this year, especially in spite of the miserable conditions. There is always pressure to repeat when you are on top and hopefully we can keep this winning streak going for a long time. It was very satisfying to see that everyone's diligent training paid off. We worked hard for the win and it was truly a team effort.”

Back to the Top of the PageBack to the Sports Home Page