CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Two Charleston Airmen competed in the 11th Annual U.S. Air Force Marathon, Sept. 15 at Wright Paterson AFB, Ohio.
1st Lt. Joshua Brock, 437th Contracting Squadron acquisition officer, and Col. Frank Jones, 437th Mission Support Group commander, ran the 26.2 miles course along with more than 1,600 other participants in 38 degree weather.
For Lieutenant Brock, the low temperature was just an added incentive to finish the race.
"It made me want to run faster," Lieutenant Brock said. "I wanted to get warmer fast because it just doesn't get that cold in Charleston in September."
Considering the fact he was running in conditions he was not prepared for, he was still able to finish in less than three hours and come in 32nd overall.
"It was great to get my first one over with," Lieutenant Brock said. "In a way, I was just relieved and glad to be done. The entire race itself was some of the most fun I have ever had."
Being his first marathon, Lieutenant Brock took six months to prepare for the 26.2 mile run. His training included running the Cooper River Bridge Run, Charleston 9 Memorial Run, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Hope Run and Charleston AFB Commander's Challenge runs. His longest run was 34 miles to Moncks Corner.
Finishing in less than three hours sets the bar pretty high for his performance in future marathons, he said. "It will just make me work that much harder to make sure that I am always improving," he said.
Colonel Jones, a runner for five years, started running as a way to jump start his physical training for the Air Force.
"I started running when the Air Force started getting serious about physical fitness," he said. "When I got up to about 10 miles a day, I decided it would be fun to run a marathon. Finishing [the Marine Corps Marathon] was such a thrill that I decided I was definitely going to do it again."
While the Air Force Marathon was only his second marathon, he completed the course in 4 hours, 16 minutes, placing 792. Along the way, he was able to pass through some of Air Force history.
"The marathon started and ended at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. So the final 0.2 miles of the 26.2 mile race passed right through the museum's air park. What a great way to end the USAF Marathon right in the midst of some of the Air Force's historic aircraft," he said. "At the very end of the race, when the general officer placed the finisher's medal around my neck, it was a fantastic feeling of accomplishment. At that moment, all sense of fatigue, pain, thirst, etc., goes away and is replaced by a comforting feeling of euphoria 'Wow ... I just ran 26.2 miles!'"
While both participants were able to take pride in their accomplishments, their efforts did not go unnoticed by Charleston senior leadership.
"They did an outstanding job in representing Team Charleston," said Col. John Michel, 437th Airlift Wing vice commander. "It is great to see Airmen taking the time to train and participate in these types of events and doing as well as they did."
Though both Colonel Jones and Lieutenant Brock just completed this marathon, both are preparing for more upcoming marathons. Colonel Jones will be running in the Kiawah Island Marathon in December, and Lieutenant Brock will be running the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans in 2008.