Before the sun rose over Holt stadium on Oct. 15, more than 500 service members and DOD civilians gathered to run Iraq’s 2010 Army 10-Miler, the first to be held at Joint Base Balad.
The run at JBB is the larger of two official shadow runs that were hosted in Iraq this year for the national Army 10-Miler scheduled for Oct.24, 2010 in Washington. There are also shadow runs scheduled in Afghanistan, and one in Djibouti, Africa.
Lt. Col. William McNeely, 103 Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Deputy Chief of Staff for G7 and a native of Wichita, Kan., came in first overall with a time of one hour, 42 seconds.
“I train all the time, regardless of any event. I run, I swim, I bike on a daily basis,” said McNeely, who was also the director for the event..
Spc. Emily Walter, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Public Affairs Specialist and a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, finished first out of the female participants with a time of one hour, 14 minutes, 42 seconds.
“I love running. I’m just running to be my best,” said Walter, downplaying the competitive aspect of the run.
Walter also finished first in the Air Force half-marathon and confesses to a little nervousness about the high expectations of her performance in the upcoming Marine Corps Marathon.
Maj. Angel Wallace, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) public affairs officer and a native of Albuquerque, N.M., and coordinator of the run, considers the turnout over well over 500 a great success.
“We ran out of bibs, so quite a few individuals ran out of a sheer love of running,” said Wallace.
Wallace added that everyone who worked to set up the stadium and manned the checkpoints and water stations did so voluntary, as units, showing a great deal of motivation and esprit de corps.
The 2010 Army 10-Miler Shadow run at JBB was a great success because of the many service members who worked hard and went the extra mile.