Army Ten Miler Shadow Run in Afghanistan

Above is the field of runners at FOB Lagman, Afghanistan who decide to join our fellows back in the Arlington & DC who ran the Army Ten Miler on Sunday, Oct 9. We of course started 8.5 hours earlier than our peers. One cool thing to note in the second picture is that the First Sergeant of our unit is carrying the guidon of the HHC. He actually ran the entire 10 miles with it, finishing just a little bit behind me.


The ATM here was probably one of the toughest races that I have run. The altitude was still a factor because even though I have been here for 2 months there are still moments for all of us that we find ourselves catching our breathe. We are a little over 1 mile above sea level here. And running past the burn pit plus all the dust doesn't help (there was a lot of dust in the air today). The terrain was the biggest factor, there were tons of hill on our run, most of the path was on unleveled ground (think 15-20% grade) and those parts that weren't gravel (and by gravel I mean the fist sized ones, not the nice marble sized ones. I call them ankle breakers) were either packed dirt or moondust (really fine sand that drifts). I finished in just a bit over 2 hours, definitely not one of my better runs (but good for the conditions).

It was definitely a nice bit of solidarity and a little reminder of home (and I will appreciate the fact that most races will seem like cake after this.