I am honored to be featuring an article from Sean Davis (follow on Twitter) who served our country overseas and is now safe and sound back on homeland. Enjoy his story of his first no-training marathon run in Baghdad. Definitely will get you to sign up for that little 5k you were wavering on doing in your neighborhood just for the fact that, thanks to Davis and our other service men and women, you have the freedom and opportunity to do so. Enjoy….

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Running for Foolish Pride in Baghdad

Running is one of those pointless activities that almost no one likes to do except for a crazy few with long legs and big hearts.

At least that’s what I used to believe.

Even with being a sprinter on the track & field team all through elementary, junior, and high school, and serving 8 1/2 active duty years as a Soldier in the US Army, I was still not a big fan of running.

What I am a fan of, though, is the pride that I feel when I’ve accomplished something big. Something that no one else wants to do. Something that makes people look at me like I’m a “cut above the rest” when they see me on the side of the road.

It’s a damn good feeling.

Though I have always been an athlete, running just to run was never my thing. Sprinting distances no greater than 400 meters was about all you could get out of me.

For a couple of years, I participated in the 800 meter dash. Somehow, I lived to speak about it.

Things have changed, though.

I’ve moved on up to the 42,165 meter dash… also known as a full marathon.