So if you read the “quote of the day” on Letsrun.com today, you would have seen it was from a MAJ in the Army over here at one of the bases in Iraq.  I thought that was really cool for Wejo and Rojo to do that.  I emailed them and let them know.  We also had/have a running club here at Anaconda.  I emailed the MAJ whose quote was selected and he is a really nice guy.  His club and ours have established the same type of values and programs and principles of running and it was neat to see the running scene get a little press time over here.  We are going to do a shirt swap, I am sending him one of the Anaconda Running Club shirts, and in return, he is sending me a Tikrit Running Club shirt, sweet!  His base is about forty mins away from Balad, and I am going to run a 10k up there with them on 1 November.  It should be a good time.  It will be the first time I actually get to travel to a different base, I am really excited.  I am going to keep him posted of bigger races we have here as well. 

That is what I like about runners, we usually share the same passion for the sport, we are usually friendly, kind of like an extended/weekend family, we usually know the time and dedication it takes to train, and at bare minimum you can carry on a conversation about the sport it self.  I am also pretty stoked because after talking to my friend today at the pool, he mentioned I should try spinning.  They offer some classes over here, so I am going to give it a try.  It is only twice a week so I shouldn’t be killing myself.  My old room mate Carla use to teach/run those classes back home at one of the local YMCA’s and she would always have me make cds for her.  I think this will help with my training for triathlons when I return home.   I plan on getting into the tri-thing and the adventure race thing when I return.  I have done a couple adventure races and they are a blast!  I plan on buying a pretty sweet road bike and mountain bike when I return so I can compete in some of these races.  I pretty much live for the outdoors.  I love kayaking, so maybe down the road I could get one of those, but until then, I think I will just keep renting them through our MWR back in Rock Island.

Well, hope everyone is getting in those miles!  Have a good one and don’t forget to run happy!

Sherrod out J