Running for Foolish Pride in Baghdad

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.

How I started running

Having been one of the most fit guys in every unit that I served in with the US Army, running was something that I was always expected to do well.

Only 5’10″, 165lbs on a good day, the chubby guys expected me to be lighting fast. I’ll admit, I had speed. But long distance running is a whole different ball game.

On my third tour serving in Iraq, back in 2009, I was in charge of getting our overweight Soldiers back into shape.

We ran every couple of days at my pace and my distance. They hated me for it.

I was never shy with my motivation. I yelled and screamed at them to push harder and run faster.

I’ve always had the ability to see more in people than what they usually saw in themselves.

Because of my position, and my style of motivation, my superiors and even my subordinates always challenged me to do more. It was expected of me… the PT (physical training) stud.

Every 3k, 5k, or 10k that was held on our camp, about 20 miles from Baghdad, Iraq, I was put in charge of forming our “team” that would run it together. They wouldn’t be very competitive runs.

We’d just do it to say that we weren’t wasting our time sleeping and and engaging in other nonsense like that.

One day, though, my First Sergeant (1SG), the highest ranking enlisted personnel in my unit, told me about a marathon that was coming up in a couple of months.

The Seattle Marathon was going to be mirrored in Baghdad and he was interested in running it. He told me that he had ran a marathon once before with his brother. So, in other words, the old guy had done something that the 25 year old PT stud hadn’t.

Here we go.

The Challenge

My 1SG talked about how tough it was. He stated that his brother was an awesome athlete and beat him by over an hour. He also mentioned how he felt while he was accomplishing this massive goal. He made it seem as if he was the most resilient Soldier in the Army.

The only problem was that my 1SG was a little guy with a beer gut. He was only 35 at the time and I just couldn’t see him ever doing such a thing.

Let him tell it, though, and he was the ultimate athlete “back in the day.”

He gathered the unit together to put out some notes about a few missions we had coming up. At the tail-end of his briefing, he decided to let us know about the marathon.

He mentioned how great of an opportunity it was for us to get away from our camp, spend a few days in Baghdad, and accomplish something big.

Anyone who had been in our unit for more than 5 minutes knew that collectively, we were not the kind of guys to run a marathon on purpose. We would only do it if we had to because of a direct or lawful order.

Well, I soon found out that I take orders from none other than my own foolish pride. As he spoke to the crowd of chuckles and rolling eyes, I felt like this was an opportunity to stand behind all of the yelling and motivation I had been dishing out to everyone else.

Plus, my 1SG made it a point to say, “How about you, SGT (Sergeant) Davis? It should be easy for you. If an old guy like me can knock one out, your skinny a** can do with in your sleep. Hey, if you do it, I will go down there and do it too. I’ve already done it once. Too easy.”

Here we go again.

Marathon training and preparation

With only two months left until the marathon, and never running more than 10 miles at once in my entire life (and I only did that once), I started looking up the details of training for a marathon.

I quickly learned that being in charge of the overweight Soldiers, plus training for my first marathon was a lot to do in the desert sun.

Like any Soldier would do, I chose to handle my duties as a leader first, and if I could squeeze in a little training, I would.

But I didn’t.

A month before the marathon, I finally finished a six month session of overweight PT and successfully brought every Soldier to a weight and body fat level that was in accordance with Army regulation.

I could finally take a break. My break was only supposed to last about a week and then I was to start training. I only had 3 weeks left to do so but that was better than nothing.

To make a long story short, the marathon was all of a sudden tomorrow and I hadn’t ran in a month.

My 1SG and I, along with one of my Soldiers who wanted to witness the old man’s failure (our 1SG), hopped on a Blackhawk and headed for Baghdad on November 28th, 2009. After a plate of pasta from the dining facility, we bunked on our cots in tent city in hopes to live through the following day… the Seattle Marathon in Baghdad.

Gunfire in Iraq

The bullets rang out all through Iraq. We ignored that, though, and lined up at the start point of two 13.1 mile laps around BIAP (Baghdad International Airport).

Scared out of my mind, but happy to be in civilian attire with my Soldier and my 1SG, we all shook hands, and said “see you when it’s over.”

The whistle blew and we all took off.

I had never ran in such a large group before. There were people of all shapes and sizes, speeds and running styles, and even a few walkers.

For the first 7 miles, I stayed with a pack of guys that seemed to be just like me. After all, we were all the same size, pretty fast, and had iPods on our arms. This must be the group for me, right?

7 miles and 52 minutes went by before we reached a point where we had to slow down and circle around a cone in the road.

All hell broke loose.

What am I doing here?

My pack of comrades turned the loop and kept flying. My body, on the other hand, realized that it was quickly approaching a point that it had never experienced before.

I struggled for my second wind and kept on running. I didn’t stop until I reached a water point at the top of a hill at 11 miles. Even then, I kept a little walk-run motion going.

I couldn’t believe what was going on.

“I still have 2 more miles before I reach the halfway point and I can barely stand to push any further right now?”

At this point, I realized that this was a marathon. This wasn’t a run with my unit, where 99% of the guys were slower than me and I couldn’t leave them behind.

This wasn’t a Saturday morning 10k with my buddies.

This was a marathon… and I had to finish what I had started.

I finished the first 13.1 mile lap in 1 hour and 49 minutes. That was much slower than you would have expected based on my first 7 miles.

Pride held me together

As I finished the first lap, I thought to myself that the worst part was over. I had already done more than I would have to do again. And with a span of 5 hours to do it, I could easily finish the run before the clock stopped.

I was right, but I had no idea what kind of pain I was facing.

For the last 10 miles, I struggled along the course, getting bursts of energy and pride along the way. Unfortunately, they would only last for about 200 meters before I was once again humbled by the side, thigh, and calf cramps.

Even my jaws cramped. Yes, the jaws on my face. Chewing gum and running 26.2 miles is a bad idea, apparently.

The only thing that kept me moving was the fact that I had started a marathon, and I wouldn’t dare consider quitting. For as long as the course was there, I would continue to run it.

The big finish

At 4 hours and 31 long minutes, I turned my final corner to see a group of cheering bystanders, half-marathon runners, and senior military leaders.

I also saw my 1SG and my Soldier. They yelled and clapped as I jogged the last 100 meters… unable to finish strong like I would normally do.

“Let’s go SGT Davis! Awe man… I can’t believe you finished!”

They finished their first 13.1 miles in just under 3 hours. Understanding that there wasn’t enough time to run the remaining 13.1 miles, they waited for me to finish.

I crossed the finish line into the comfort of my comrades and some guy trying to put a huge piece of aluminum foil around me. I was so clueless as to what I had gotten myself into that I didn’t even know that he was only trying to help!

After seeing the person in my unit that I looked up to the most burst with pride over what his Soldier had accomplished, I couldn’t help but be proud of myself.

I finished a full marathon with no training, no direction, and no real purpose other than pride.

Lessons Learned

The next three days were the hardest days of my life, physically. I had never been in so much pain. Areas of my body were cramping that I didn’t even know had muscles.

I quickly understood how foolish I was for tackling such a physically demanding task without adequate preparation.

However, I had fallen in love with a new sport.

I spent the next few weeks reading articles, downloading apps, and buying gear.

I was now a runner.

I also found out that my 1SG had never ran a marathon. He attempted to run a marathon with his brother but quit after 7 miles.

Pride got me into it and pride got me out of it.

Advice for Those Interested in Running a Marathon

Go for it.

Don’t work yourself into analysis paralysis and fail to take action.

1. Research what it means to run a marathon
2. Find a great training program (you’re already on Run Some)
3. Follow through with your training
4. Find a reason to be proud of what you’re going to do

As for the pride, you don’t need a 1SG breathing down your neck about it. All you need is to have the desire to accomplish something that will challenge you.

And you don’t have to go straight into a full marathon.

Do understand, though, that running is a real sport. It’s not a mindless activity than anyone who feels like it can do.

Take your first step. You can’t lose this race.

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This post was written by Sean Davis of SDavis Media. Sean is a freelance writer and internet entrepreneur who writes regularly onSuccessOnMyMind.com and IamSeanDavis.com. If you like this article, consider following Sean on Twitter.