For years now the other services have had their annual marathons: the Navy with their Blue Angels Marathon at Pensacola NAS, Florida, the Marines with their well-attended marathon through the streets of our national capital, and the Army with not one, but two (!) marathons. Until this year, however, my Air Force never managed to put one together. So, as an avid runner of 14 marathons, when I heard earlier this year that Wright-Patterson AFB would be staging the inaugural Air Force Marathon, marking the 50th anniversary of the Air Force, I knew I would have to go.

I rode the train from Ottawa to Windsor, then rented a car for the last stretch to Dayton. A pleasant trip and easier on the legs than a straight 12 hour drive from Ottawa.

The last isolated splashes of rain from the previous night's thundershowers pelted my windshield as I drove in to Wright Pat the morning of the marathon. Although it wouldn't rain anymore that day, the lingering humidity in the air combined with temperatures in the 70's would make running conditions difficult.

I arrived just in time for a massive traffic jam as thousands of cars converged on the grassy parking area near the Aviation Museum, where the marathon would start in about an hour. Once freed from my metal prison, I made my way towards the starting area, keeping my eyes pealed for people I knew. While stationed at Offutt AFB from the 1990 to 1993 I really started running competitively. At that time Offutt had a great little group of enthusiastic runners with whom I often trained. Although I suspected most of them would still be dedicated to the sport of running, I was still surprised to see no less than seven people I knew from that period in Dayton for the marathon. Of course none of them were stationed any longer at Offutt, but a seminal event like the inaugural USAF Marathon brought us all together again.

As I alluded to earlier, I was not always as you see me now.  Twelve years ago while stationed in Germany, I quit smoking for good (I had, like so many of us former smokers, quit many times before). Quitting smoking however was just the first step on a long journey to total fitness. Shortly after dropping the nasty habit I attempted to begin aerobic training. It was very difficult for many years. When I began I couldn't even run one kilometer to the next German village without stopping to gasp for breath. Nevertheless, I plugged away over the next 4 years running a mile or two 2-3 times a week until just before I went into OTS when I could turn in a respectable 10 minute time for the annual Air Force mile and a half fitness test. Running was still work, though.

While in OTS I discovered that running can be fun as well as a great release. And when I saw that I could be competitive with my peers I began to train even harder. One week I won the "aerobics animal" trophy for amassing the most weekly aerobic points for my class. By the time I left OTS I had brought my mile and a half time down to 8:43, good enough to be one of the top 10 runners in my class. (When I later attended Squadron Officer's School, and after I had been running competitively for some time, out of a class of 1000 captains I finished 2 and a half minutes ahead of my closest competitor in the 10K race)

In the year or so after OTS I kept up with running, but still only managed 3 miles or so 3-4 times a week. Enough to stay in shape, but not nearly enough to become competitive. That all changed with my first competitive race. It was only a 5 miler, but at that time I had barely even run that distance in training. I finished back in the pack, averaging just less than 7 minutes a mile. But when I saw the winners in my age group go up to the awards stand with times under 30 minutes I was in awe. They averaged less than 6 minutes a mile for 5 whole miles! I decided then to set goals to bring my time down so I would be in the winner's circle.

The year following that first competition was an exciting one in my running experience. I steadily moved my weekly mileage up from 20 miles to around 70 miles. Every race I ran was a new Personal Record (PR). In one breakthrough race I dropped my 5-mile PR from 30:40 to 28:40. I not only broke the 30-minute barrier for 5 miles--I smashed it! (I have recently run five miles under 26 minutes, so there was still room to improve) Soon I was not only winning my age group consistently, but often winning races outright. It all came from having a goal and working steadily towards it. Once I reached a goal I would make a new goal, always attainable, but difficult enough to make me work hard to get there. Running is a very personal thing, and you don't have to be the best to get personal pleasure from it. 99.99% of runners know they will never be the fastest (there are always the Kenyans!) so we all are essentially running against ourselves. Anyone can set personal goals and strive to improve themselves and their fitness level.

At 0830 on the 20th of September, nearly 3,000 runners began the journey of 26.2 miles. In the early miles (the first 13 or so) I like to find someone to talk with to make the time go by faster and to relax. Two guys with "Hawaii" on the back of their running shorts were just ahead of me after the initial start. After I caught up to them I realized I knew one of them from Hickam AFB, where I was stationed prior to Ottawa. The other one was over 40, so he represented my competition for the first place in the master's (over 40) division. They had both been sponsored by PACAF for the race.

We ran together and talked about Hawaii and how the local competition is going there since I left, and I told them about my favorite running haunts on the island. But after going by the halfway point in 1:18, averaging six-minute miles, I realized that I would have to either slow down then or really slow down later. The humidity was rapidly draining my energy. I let them continue thier pace, watching them slowly pull away until they were almost out of sight. Maintaining what was now about a 6:20 pace I caught and passed one of them at the 18-mile mark. I was now entering the lonely world where every step is painful, your focus narrows to a tunnel, and the water stations seem to be getting farther and farther apart. Around the 21st mile I could see someone way ahead who had stopped to walk. When I finally caught up to him I realised that it was my competition for the master's trophy. Both of the runners from Hawaii had tried to push the pace and now they were paying the price. The marathon is all about pace. Disobey the law of pace and the consequences are disastrous.

I kept myself going by telling myself, "just make it to the 24 mile mark and then see how you feel". Fortunately the 25th mile was mostly downhill, so I relaxed and rolled down the gentle grade. By the start of the 26th mile it had flattened out though and I could see the long straight stretch ahead. At that stage of the race seeing where the finish line is way off in the distance is torturous. It just goes on forever. I couldn't stop to walk at that stage though with people lining the sides of the course shouting their encouragement. Every marathon I have ever run has come down to a similar ordeal at the end. This one was no different. But once it's over the ordeal rapidly gives way to a feeling of relief and accomplishment. And then the massage...

And then the awards ceremony! The Honorable Sheila Widnall, Secretary of the Air Force, and General George T. Babbitt, Commander, Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, were there to present me with my goatskin bomber jacket and the best trophy I have in my collection--a scale model of the Wright Brother's first airplane. My time of 2:48 was far off my PR of 2:39, but I was pleased with the result--winning 1st place in my age group and finishing 13th overall. The humidity affected everyone, but it was my experience that caused me to pull back when I had to and endure and outlast my competition.

To round out my story, some of you may be wondering what happened to the "extra 40 pounds". Those extra pounds were, after all, the reason I started on this running odyssey. Well, they vanished within six months of beginning my aerobic training. My motivation thereafter came from a desire to improve myself to the highest level I could attain. I hope I have encouraged those of you on your own personal journey to fitness.