The Air Force Marathon

Each year in September the Air Force along with a few corporate sponsors hosts the Air Force Marathon. This is the half-marathon that I've been writing about over the past month or so. Saturday, the 4th, was the half-marathon and along with myself there were at least 999 more knuckleheads silly enough to run 13.1 miles in the name of fun. The size of the base determines whether they host a 10k, half-marathon, or full marathon...thank the Lord Bagram could only withstand the half!

We began our run at 5:00 a.m. on the nose and the course took us 6.55 miles out around the airfield and then back. The north side of our base actually has some pretty views of the countryside, we could see the mountains really well in the distance as well as a few of the local homes/huts. Since we ran around the airfield we had the opportunity to see quite a few really interesting aircraft take off and/or land.

Before I began I established two goals; (1) finish the race, and (2) average 10 minutes per mile for the duration of the run. I somehow managed to do both! An exact 10-minute average would have been 2:13:00, it took me 2:07:18. When I finally did come to a stop I wasn't sure that my legs would support me all the way back to my hut, they were quite wobbly and weak. Today is Tuesday and my legs are at 90%.

The most interesting thing that I heard while running was from a young Sergeant whom I kept passing and subsequently being passed by. He would run and then walk, I felt like he was the hare and of course I was the tortoise. Anyway, he passes me once while I'm jogging along and says "come on Sir, only 5 more miles!" If I weren't so weak I think I would've kicked him, but I'm pretty sure my legs wouldn't allow it.

As far as running goes, this coming Saturday is the Patriots Day 9.11k (just over 5 miles). Only two of us ran in the half-marathon from my office, I think there are six planning to run in this one. If nothing else I'll have extra t-shirts when I get home!