Story by: Spc. Jonathan Montgomery
About 400 deployed service members arrived Oct. 9 before the sprawling backdrop of SH-60 Navy Seahawk and UH-60 Army Blackhawk helicopters landing and taking off at the Patton Army Airfield at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, to participate in the International "Run with the Troops" 5- and 10-kilometer Sunshine Run.
The event was a live simulcast with the stateside Sunshine Run held annually in Springfield, Mo. Images of events at the starting line at Arifjan were broadcast live back to Missouri through a portable satellite terminal allowing participants there to witness the first ever International Sunshine Run. Audio feeds went both ways, and about a half-dozen Springfield, Mo., natives got a chance to speak directly with their families prior to the start of the race.
"Several of us here [in Kuwait] have run past Sunshine Runs, and we thought it would be neat to run in honor of the Sunshine Run on the same day and same time as the one being ran in Springfield, Mo.," said CW3 Roger Fillmer. Fillmer, who is section chief of the 1107th Army and Aviation Classification and Repair Depot's armament and electronics equipment test facility, won first place in the 10-kilometer run for males ages 50-59. The Kuwait run, however, was an uphill battle for most of the participants grunting through the dry and hot desert sun.
"It was tough," said Sgt. 1st Class Terry Made of the 308th Transportation Corps. Made, who is from Nixa, Mo., just south of Springfield, was the winner of the 5-kilometer run for males, ages 50-59, with a time of 24 minutes and 29 seconds.The pain wasn't confined to Army runners. Those in the Navy struggled alongside their green counterparts.
"It was a good run," said Lt. j.g. Tobijah Griffin, the third place 10-kilometer female winner with a time of 49 minutes and 23 seconds. "But, with the sun beating on you, I was cramping so bad." Motivation kept Sgt. John Njuguna of the 821st Transportation Corps from falling out. "I didn't want to quit," he said.
The physical hardships were daunting, but the psychological payoffs were greater, according to the 1107th AVCRAD's Mark Turner who took first place in the 10-kilometer and won the honor of being the overall winner of the Sunshine Run with a time of 37 minutes and 15 seconds. "It was tiring, but it felt good," he said. The event, which trekked its runners along Patton Boulevard to the Abrams Loop in Zone 1 and back to Patton Army Airfield, provided an opportunity for those deployed to ease their way down from the day's work. "[The Sunshine Run] gave me the chance to get away and do something fun with my buddies," said Spc. Chad Classen of the 1075th Transportation Corps.
The run also helped boost troop morale, said Joshua Wessel, also of the 1075th. "It lets you know what you're fighting for," he said.
According to Fillmer, the Kuwait run helped to bolster turnout for the race back in Missouri. Because the race in Missouri ran simultaneously with the race in Kuwait, participation in the race back home was likely to double from 1,500 to 3,000 runners, he said. In Missouri, the race benefits a number of charities, and the involvement of the troops in Kuwait provided some indirect assistance by drawing the larger-than-usual crowd. The charities include: the St. John's Burn Center; the Breast Cancer Center of the Ozarks; the Springfield Public Schools; and the Springfield Catholic High School.
The fact that this race has helped to benefit breast cancer research is especially important to Fillmer, whose wife is a six-year breast cancer survivor.
Col. Don McMahon, commanding officer of 1107th AVCRAD, which hosted the event, awarded the winners with medallions and glass plaques following the run. "You all made this event possible, and we at the 1107th really appreciate it," he said while donning a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap.