Fort Hood represented at Army's Ten Miler Race

By Debbie Stevenson

WASHINGTON – Six Fort Hood teams were among 20,000 runners competing in the Army's annual Ten Miler Race on Sunday at the Pentagon.

The race kicked off at 8 a.m. A little more than an hour later, the first Fort Hood runner to cross the finish line, 27-year-old 2nd Lt. Jonathan Good, returned to the III Corps hospitality tent.

The pace "didn't hurt as much as I thought it would," said Good, who turned in a 57:32 minute time that put him in 67th place.

The Fort Hood runners included four active-duty teams of six soldiers from III Corps and Operational Test Command. Among them were 12 spouses from the 4th Infantry Division who formed two teams to run in support of the division while it serves in Iraq.

Running with them was Iris Dorsey, wife of Air Force Lt. Col. Ron Dorsey from the 712nd Air Support and Operations Squadron at Fort Hood. She turned in a time of one hour and 16 minutes.

Dorsey said she competed in the Army event to "just support the guys out there."

Her husband is scheduled to leave for Iraq with III Corps later this year.

Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Ciotola, III Corps' senior noncommissioned officer, said he was proud of the caliber of this year's Fort Hood competitors.

"They're superb," he said. "Every command on the installation is represented."

Good, a member of the newly arrived 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, credited four months of training with team captain Maj. William Rediske for his team's success. Five members from the team placed in the top 100.

The Operational Test Command's top runner was Pete Laky, a Defense Department civilian. He turned in a 63-minute finish, a command spokeswoman said.

Capt. Marilyn Walls, the G1 operations officer for the test command at West Fort Hood, said Sunday's race was the first time she was entering to run competitively.

"In the past, I've done it leisurely," she said. "This time, I'm expecting, hopefully I beat my personal record."

Several members of the Central Texas-Fort Hood Chapter of the Association of the United States Army showed up early at the runners' welcome tent to support the members.

The tent was among rows of hospitality centers set up to show off the competing posts.

"It's another way to show support beyond the gates of Fort Hood," said Steve Hanik, a chapter vice president and spokesman for Embarq, which sponsored the Fort Hood hospitality tent.

"We get to continue to support the troops," Hanik said. "It's another way to extend Texas to the rest of the world."