Hey all, its been awhile since I have written anything, due to my mind being on a bunch of different things...I have met up with an "already" established group of runners and we have brought our ideas together to have the official Anaconda Running Club, so that is pretty cool! It is hard to get all the members together because the group is mostly made up of active duty military, so they are off on missions quite often. I have always considered myself pretty hard core when it comes to running, with my drive to reach my goals in running, my crazy workouts (a lot of times completed by myself), fighting through crazy weather to get that run in when others just put it off, but I have to tell you, I have met some tough runners! I have found that a great number of our military have that strength that some of us might not ever know but highly admire. They have a “don’t give up” attitude, and that is just one thing that makes me proud to work besides them and call myself an American. I have seen this the past two years when I have traveled to Washington D.C. to run the Army Ten Miler. A great race to run or watch if you ever get a chance!!
Running in Iraq is very different then running back home. There is no “Soft running” spots (grass, or trail paths) to run on, you get your choice of uneven cement, or hard dirt/rock next to the road/sidewalk. I can’t wait for my R&R so I can run on some soft grass. The other thing is the weather, so far there has been three dust storms. I have attached some pics of what it looks like when the “yellow dust” is blowing around outside. Don’t worry, we don’t run during those, we actually try to avoid going out during those. Not so good on the lungs!! But the biggest distraction you have to be alert of at all times is the indirect fire that comes into the base. I would say on a normal day, we get about 5-6 warnings from “the great voice in the sky” speaker system that lets us know what is going on. We have only had three actual “Incoming! Incoming!” alarms on our side of the base, which are scary. Those are the ones you have to look out for, that means some how a mortar or rocket got through the defenses and all who are not in a hardened building need to get to a bunker. That will make you move pretty quick when you hear that alarm!! Don’t let this paint a bad picture of the daily activities that go on here. Pretty much you just get use to a routine here and it becomes the norm (well, as normal as an Army Base can be…lol). 12-16 hour work days, 7 days a week. (I don’t think I will complain about my 8 hour work day back home anymore…lol) The workouts take place after work at night, but I have been running my track workouts at lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The weather has been pretty nice here so far, but the hear is coming I have been told. So far it has gotten up to 93 during the day, I have been told it gets up to over 120 on some days…crazy! I think during those days, the night time workouts will be feeling pretty nice!! J
