Story, photos by U.S. Army Spc. Jeremy D. Crisp
Multi-National Corps-Iraq Public Affairs Office
19 April 2005
MARATHON
BASE CAMP ADDER, Iraq -- The 109th running of the Boston Marathon was conducted April 18 with the typical fervor and excitement that a race of its stature brings to the New England area. Only this year, the race not only took place in the streets of Boston, it was also run on the desert flatlands of the Ali Air Base in Southern Iraq.
Soldiers, Airmen and civilians deployed to Iraq were given the unique opportunity to run in the Boston Marathon under coordination with the Boston Athletic Association, the Outdoor Life Network and Base Camp Adder's Morale, Welfare and Recreation department.
The idea for the race came from New Hampshire National Guardsman Capt. Rodney T. Freeman of 1st Battalion, 172nd Field Artillery, Manchester, N.H. A native of York, Maine, and officer-in-charge of Base Camp Adder's MWR, Freeman said he originally wanted to have a road race every month to offer an opportunity for service members to get out and break their routine.
"Then I thought it would be kind of neat to have a marathon in conjunction with the Boston Marathon," Freeman said.
"In January I sent an email to the B.A.A. telling them that I was thinking of conducting a marathon here, and they jumped in with both feet," he said. "The Outdoor Life Network then wanted to have video coverage broadcast with their video coverage, and it just exploded from there."
A marathoner and distance runner himself, Freeman said he had always wanted to run the Boston Marathon, but has never had the chance to. Once he brought the marathon to Iraq though, he thought he would be able to run. However, things didn't quite work out that way.
"I just thought I"d run with ten or twenty people and one Humvee. We could throw a cooler in the back with a bunch of water and Gatorade in it, and we could all just run together as a big group," Freeman said. "We weren't going to time it or have a challenge; we were just going cover the 26 miles.
But it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It got to the point where I just didn't have time to run with the workload I had, but that was o.k., because I though it was a great day and a really successful event."
Once Freeman noticed a rising interest in people wanting to run the race, he took every step to get as many people involved as he could. One way he did that was the advent of a relay run.
"As it started to catch on a little bit, we decided maybe we should do a relay and that would get more people involved," Freeman said. He added that the relay idea was in part a way to curb untrained participants from trying to run 26 miles.
"We did that for the runner's safety," he said.
A significant part of the running of the Iraq/Boston Marathon was the opportunity for competitors to run to Iraq's historical Ziggurat of Ur. The Ziggurat is a massive stepped pyramid near what is thought to be the birthplace of the Biblical Abraham.
Freeman said that under normal conditions, people wouldn't be allowed to run to the Ziggurat because it is outside the gates.
To combat that, he coordinated a security team on the day of the race 'so runners can go out to the Zig in a safe environment."
"The scenery was beautiful!" said Keith E Matiskella, intelligence officer, Army Corps of Engineers.
"We're lucky to have the real estate here to run a marathon, and if anything else, you got to see the Temple of Ur," he said.
Along with running to the Temple of Ur, competitors ran along a grueling section of terrain with nothing but the pavement and dessert sand to guide them.
Once running to the end of that part of the route, they had to turn around and run back through it to complete the journey.
The winner in the female category, Elizabeth North, dietician, 86th Combat Support Hospital, Fort Campbell, Ky., said 'the back 40 section was a little bit of a mental challenge, but you just put your mind to it and get it done."
This was North's first marathon, and she said being able to run in this race was particularly significant. "This marathon here was a great thing to do," she said. "To be able to train for this in your down time and run in this race has been absolutely amazing, it was a perfect day."
This was also the first marathon for overall winner Luis A. Soto, a mechanic with the 89th Transportation Company, Fort Eustis, Va. Soto finished by walking a good portion of the last mile due to back problems, and still finished in a respectable 3 hours, 3 minutes and 19 seconds.
"I've run many five- and 10-kilometer races, but it has been 12 years since my last half marathon," Soto said. "The fact that it was my first marathon makes this interesting. The things we have to go through while deployed makes this very special.
Freeman said the main reason for such a great turnout, which included 350 runners, was that, "a lot of people running just want to say they ran the Iraq/Boston Marathon," he said. "Just imagine when you are back in the states and someone asks, "Have you run a marathon?" You can say, "Yes, I ran one in Iraq while fighting the war on terror." Not your everyday running story."
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 04.21.2005 11:01 |
| Story ID: | 1640 |
| Location: | TALLIL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 11 |
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