Taji Army 10 Miler Run

MSG Duncan, Chief and I

In conjunction with the US Army 10 Miler Run that is held every October in Washington DC during the AUSA Conference, most posts here in Iraq and Afghanistan held their own Shadow Run on the same day as the run held back home. Taji was no different and the run was scheduled for a 0700 hr start time. I had been worried that I would not make it back in time from my pass, but that no longer was an issue.

I had been training for this run by going longer on my daily runs, 6-7 miles, although I decided not to do any PT while in Qatar so I could get a total relaxing vacation. KBR were the guys responsible to set up the run. To their credit, they do a pretty good job and have great T-shirts for the runs. All I know is that when I get back home and show up at some of the races, the T-shirts will be noticed. The one thing that KBR could use some help on is correctly setting up a course as you will soon read about in the blog.

I had no clue who would be at the run from the folks I usually see at the runs. I did run into MSG Duncan and Chief from the COIN Academy. MSG Duncan is a fellow 104^th Soldier who was in my Battalion Task Force both at Fort Hunter Liggett and Ft Riley.

There were a couple of other folks there to include the 1^st Cav Divisions Aviation Bde Commander who I see in Church on Saturdays.

I was hoping to settle with a sub 77 minute run as my goal, since I knew that was in my reach. Anything less than 77 minutes I would not complain. I decided to run with my trusty camelback which I use for all my runs, that way I wouldn’t have to rely on the water points which leave a lot to be desired.

It was a cool morning about 78 degrees which was cooler than Chicago for the start of their death valley temps run that same day. The good news was that the cloud cover from the previous days thunderstorms were still around and that would mean less heat but unfortunately more humidity. Not wearing my hearing aids I did not catch the course description which had a couple of late changes due to force protection, since part of the run was originally to be held along the inside perimeter road, but was axed due to possible sniper activity. Why worry about heart attacks when there are snipers around!!

Off we started and I started in the mid pack and soon was passing runners who had started off too fast or should have been behind us at the start. Except for the few civilians all of us were wearing our respective service PT uniforms, so there was a literally a long gray line making it’s way down the road. I looked at my watch after about 7 minutes and starting eye balling the road ahead to see where the mile marker was, I kept looking and found nothing, after 8:30 I stopped looking and realized that once again KBR did not set up any mile markers. I am sure for 95% of the runners that wasn’t an issue, but for those of us who like to know where we are at and what our time is that is key. At about 14:30 I started looking again but to no avail. There was a water point, but with only one poor soul pouring water into cups you can imagine what a CF that was! Nothing like the 100 oz of water in the ole camelback to suck on! The wind was in our faces and coming crossways which kept us cool, but as we headed towards where I live and run at it became evident that the sun was getting hotter and these next few miles would not be a cakewalk. At about 3 miles based on my watch MSG Duncan and Chief caught up to me and I ran with them for about 2 minutes and realized that I had to put the hammer down and pick it up, so off I went. I spent the next mile picking off runners one by one and when I hit the magic 35 minute mark I was in overdrive and was on my way home, having picked up the pace considerably.

I kid you not it was getting real hot and what I noticed was that between that water stop around mile 2 there was nothing for the next 4.5 miles. I was thirsty even though I was sucking down the water and wondered what the others who had no water were going through. More than one person that I passed said after seeing me pass them and wearing a camelback “why didn’t I think of that”! At around 6.5 we turned into some minor head wind and there was a water stop. I picked up the pace a little bit more and was focused on a group of about 20 runners about 200 meters in front of me. At around 8 miles I had passed them up and could see the DFAC where we started from and was wondering how they were going to tie in a loop to get us to the 10 mile mark. When we turned the corner and headed to the DFAC I started wondering if this was the finish line or not, because my watch still had me out another mile plus at a 7:45 pace. But then I could see people walking and by then it was too late to get into the 200 meter rush to the finish. I hit the imaginary tape at 1:05:13 which I know for a fact was not a 6:30 mile pace, so I figured out that the course was approx. 8.5-8.7 miles long. Once again with no mile markers I had to calculate with my gut reaction on my pace. (Carmen a Garmin mini GPS for Christmas may not be a bad idea hint…hint). Judging from what I saw at the finish line I probably finished in the top10-15% of runners, not bad for an over worked 48 year old Colonel.

MSG Duncan came in about 3+ minutes behind me and chief another minute or slow behind him. We grabbed out T-shirts, stretched, took the photo and split. Although Sunday was supposed to be my off day, the general and the new J-4 were coming to visit Taji and I sure didn’t think me being off was too smart of an idea so I worked that day and took off Monday. Of course as luck would have it they never got to my office that day, so I could have taken the day off, but instead I got some decent work completed on the project.

As an after note I did speak to the KBR rep and told them that for their next race I would volunteer to measure out the course and mark the mile markers so that on race day the runners would have an idea what their splits are. So I guess that I will be busy later this end of the month walking and marking the 5km course.

The Colonel with the sore quads!!