Treadmills, treadmills, treadmills...Hello everyone, I will be posting about the running club I have formed/in the process of forming here in Iraq, Camp Anaconda to be exact.  I am marketing it as, "The Finest Running Club in Iraq!" lol.  I am an avid runner and have seen numerous military out running daily, so this only makes sense to have a club over here.  I found a flyer over at the MWR (Morale, Wellness and Recreation Center) which talked about a group meeting to run, so I tried to contact the POC on the flyer without any success, so I am guessing he has left base, so I did a little more research and found out that there is no club and there is an application I have to fill out to make this club "official".  I already have two logos created, one is the new school logo which my good buddy Chris designed, (he is a phenomenal Graphic Arts Major who always wants to play with my logo designs) and the old school logo which I through together real quick.  I also have 50 shirts coming this way with the old school logo printed on them; they have been donated by some people at my work back home at Rock Island Arsenal.  It has been amazing how people, I mean complete strangers have lent their support for everyone over here!  America is truly a great place to live and I am so proud to be an American!  I have numerous race directors who want to send shirts/medal/bibs over to do “shadow” runs in conjunction with their races which I have also found amazing.  I hope this club helps boost morale here on base all the while helping people ease a little stress and keep them in shape.  One thing I have witnessed over here is the way people eat.  The food is REALLY good!  And it is buffet style, so basically I have watched a good number of people put down some food; I was warned of this prior to my arrival, so I have been good in watching what I eat.  Ok, back to running…We have a track here; it is very nice considering where we are.  It is surrounded with T-walls for protection and has a huge stadium around it.  The only downside, it is pavement...but better then nothing!!  I am looking forward to running some good track workouts, along with potentially hosting some running events there as well.  Right now it is winter here, but so far it has been very mild, the lows have been around 30-35 at night and the highs have seen 65 during the day.  I honestly can’t complain about the weather because back home they have been getting hammered with bitterly cold weather and snow, the worst since 2000.  So I guess I picked a good time to be here.  Well, I will keep you posted on what is going on with the club once it is “officially sanctioned” by the Powers that be over here…

Peace,

Sherrod