Since arriving at the KRAB, I've been making plans to do a marathon here. My initial thought was to do it in the heat of the summer for no good reason beyond "just because." If you've read my Birthday Blog entry, though, you know that I ran my first marathon here on 9/9/9. While I was training for that effort, though, I encountered a fair number of other people (mostly in our EMEDs unit and running club) that were interested in running a formal marathon with me, so we started working out the logistics of this kind of a race.
The services section was willing to help us put on the run, so we got it scheduled as a marathon as well as a 1/2 marathon on the first weekend of November. We got help from one of Greg's friends to design a pretty cool T-shirt and advertised the race, hoping that people would take the few months that were left to get themselves ready.
After the long preparation, race-day finally arrived! It was a beautiful day, cool and clear without any wind. Here is a picture of us starting the marathon (at 0615).
I felt really good on the first couple of laps (each lap 6.55 miles), despite the fact that I was about 2 minutes behind the leader. I decided to run my race and keep my pace just under 8 minutes per mile and if he was able to stay ahead of that, more power to him, but I wasn't going to wear myself out to catch him. 
As it turns out, he thought the race was only 2 laps and was so demoralized when he finished the 2nd and found out he was only 1/2 way done, that he slowed down to a crawl and I passed him less than a mile later. I kept up the same sub 8 pace for the third lap and here is me coming across the line to start my 4th lap. 
I felt really strong at this point - much better than I had during my previous marathon despite the fact that I hadn't taken a walk break yet. I continued at pretty much the same pace and finished the marathon at a time of 3:24:30, which I felt great about. It was a full 20 minutes faster than my last time and I felt much stronger this entire race as well.
Here is a picture of my buddy Greg, who finished the 1/2 marathon in a time of 1:34:20.
There were 2 of us (SMSgt Pehrson and I) from the EMEDs that ran the full, and 7 others (including Greg) who ran the 1/2 marathon. It was a great day for a run and we all had a lot of fun. It was also nice that the even that we planned so long ago to be shortly before the end of our tour was finally here! It almost felt like I was running home!
I have been extremely fortunate to work with a lot of great people on this trip in the EMEDS unit, some of whom I will likely keep in touch for a lifetime. Here is are our final squadron pictures in front of the TWall art that Charlotte Shealey (IM Doc) and Karen Doherty (Dentist) designed and painted.
