The story below appeared in The Herald-Dispatch on Tuesday, November 11, 2003.

On the run

Kenova man home from war, off to 10-mile race

When Dan Bailey returned home in August from military service in Kuwait and Iraq his top priority -- well, right behind kissing and hugging his family -- was getting to a computer so he could register for the Army 10-Miler road race.

That’s how anxious Bailey was to compete in the Washington D.C. event for the second consecutive year.

Bailey, 28 of Kenova, finished in 143rd place out of more than 13,000 contestants in the Oct. 5 race with a time of 59:09. Bailey is a civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers in Huntington. He’s also a platoon leader with the 478th Combat Engineer Battalion, Company C.

"I ran it last year and I don’t even remember exactly how I found out about it," Bailey said. "I think I saw an article online or in an Army publication. I checked it out and thought it sounding interesting. I enter road races a lot and always wanted to get into a bigger race and this is one of the bigger ones around.

"I had never raced that distance before. Up until last year I had only raced in 5Ks, 10Ks and some seven-milers. The 10-miler is a good distance for me. I thought I could do it. I ran it last year. I loved it and I decided to do it every year."

Bailey was deployed in February and spent the spring and summer working on mobility, counter-mobility and survivability by clearing paths and creating and maintaining defense positions primarily for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He was deactivated in August.

When he finished his first race in 67 minutes, Bailey quickly targeted a goal for this year. He wanted to finish in less than one hour and began training. Bailey began running competitively in seventh grade, so he knew what he was in for. He even ran in a few races while he was overseas.

"I think I was in better shape when I came back than when I left," he said. "While I was gone we had opportunities to work out and run in secure areas."

After returning home Bailey did some training and assistant coaching with Spring Valley High School’s cross country team. Bailey said running, like any athletic competition, requires training and people who are really interested will find a way to do it.

One way Bailey finds is participating in local events that profit various causes. He listed the Rocco’s Ristorante road race, Ashland’s 4th of July 10K, the Chilifest race, Marshall Alumni Run and the Jingle Bell Run as some of his favorites.

Although he was focused and confident of reaching his 60-minute goal, actually crossing the finish line with 51 seconds to spare was still somewhat unbelievable.

"Every mile I was watching my time," he said. "I clocked myself and there were clocks on the course so every mile I was checking and saying to myself that I was still on pace. I hit a few miles where I thought, ‘I’m so close to pace that I can’t slow down’ and that was a driving force. I thought that if I dropped a little I wasn’t going to make it.

"I was very happy with the place. I was surprised that I did as well as I did. I was expecting to maybe be in the top 500 or so, but I had no idea that I would be in the top 150. I finished right behind the first place female runner. Normally I don’t like to be beaten by a woman, but she was a great runner."

The Army 10-Miler is open to anyone, but it is long on military participants. All branches of service are represented and people come from all around the world. Some service personnel who are stationed overseas at the time of the race come to D.C. to participate as part of a team representing various military bases. The race has competitors who run to win and others running just run for the enjoyment and exercise.

There is another benefit of the race for Bailey. This year he made it a weekend getaway with his wife, Elizabeth. They spent a day sightseeing before the race.

Like any true competitor Bailey is already thinking and planning for next year’s race.

"My goal for next year is to definitely go back and I’ve set a time of 55 minutes," he said. "I’m trying to shave five minutes off the whole race so that’s 30 seconds a mile."