CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Fourteen Team Charleston members were among the nearly 7,400 participants who took part in the 12th Annual Air Force Marathon Sept. 20, hosted at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Despite the remnants of Hurricane Ike, which made landfall recently, the event set a record in participation with close to 1,000 more than last year's event, equaling a 15 percent improvement overall.
Charleston participants competed in the full and half-marathon, as well as the 10,000 meter race.
First Lt. Colt Brock, who finished 31st overall in the full marathon, said that while he is disappointed with his finish time of 3:03:40, having qualified for the Boston Marathon was a positive.
Lieutenant Brock, 437th Contracting Squadron, ran his first marathon during last year's event in a time of 2:59:32.
"For me, the most challenging part of any race is the training. I like to go out and have a good time with my friends ... but you can't really do that when you are training for a marathon. The race itself is the easy part," he said.
As part of Lieutenant Brock's training regiment, he ran every opportunity that he had. "I loosely followed a training schedule, but most of the time I would just go out and run whatever pace felt comfortable for as long as I could," he said.
Col. Frank Jones, 437th Mission Support Group commander, also ran his second Air Force marathon this past week, finishing strong with a time of 3:59:30 and shaving 30 seconds from his goal of running under four hours.
"The Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB is great because of the historic, heritage-filled venue. Dayton and Wright-Patterson are such an important part of our Air Force and aviation heritage. The start and finish of the race was at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in the shadows of some of our greatest aircraft," Colonel Jones said.
To kick off the event with true Air Force spirit, the colonel said there was an aerial demonstration of an F-16 Falcon, F-15E Strike Eagle and an F-22 Raptor at the start of the race.
Despite the 26.2 miles, this was not the last marathon for Colonel Jones.
"I'll be participating in my second Kiawah Island Marathon in December. It's another great venue, with the course taking the runner through a very nice South Carolina community and golf course. My goal is to run three or four marathons every year."
Tech. Sgt. Michael Bunting, 315th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, placed third overall for the military finishers and third in his age group with a time of 2:51:23.
Although he is an avid runner who has tasted the competitions of both Chicago and Boston's challenging courses, Sergeant Bunting said that this race was a whole other ballgame.
"Running in a Charleston AFB Marathon team uniform in 'our' marathon, I felt great pride in bringing a trophy home for the base."
Though the hilly course and heat took its toll on him, Sergeant Bunting said that the five months of training leading up to the marathon, in Charleston heat, was even more difficult. However, he said overall the race was one of the best Air Force experiences in his life.
"The runners were able to concentrate on training and had the full support of the wing and base to fund the costs of registration and travel."
While most participants trained for the Air Force Marathon, others such as Lt. Col. Patrick Maes, 437th Airlift Wing Inspector General, ran the Air Force half-marathon as training for an upcoming race -- the Marine Corps Marathon, which takes place in October.
Due to injuries, Colonel Maes had to adjust his goals for the half-marathon. While he originally had hoped to run the race as fast training, in addition to beating his 2005 time of 1:43, he ultimately had to realign his ambitions from running fast to desiring to run "injury-free."
"I hit my adjusted goal-time right on the nose, and I survived without additional injury. Holding myself to the slower pace when the gun went off was tough, but necessary," Colonel Maes said.
Other Charleston AFB participants included Lt. Col. Michael Carter, 437th Operations Support Squadron, Capt. Rick Mueller, 437 AW executive officer, and Senior Airman Michael Mahaney, 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. They ran the full marathon with times of 4:00:17, 5:11:56 and 5:24:31 respectively.
Maj. Stefanie Shraver, 315th Aeromedical-Dental Squadron, completed the 10K in a time of 55:10.
Lt. Col. Scott Hausman, 14th Weather Squadron commander -- a geographically separated unit from Charleston AFB -- completed the half-marathon in a time of 2:04:13. Five other members of the 14 WS participated in the races.