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Bagram hosts Boston Marathon Shadow Run-Afghanistan 2014

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Gary J. Rihn
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  More than 600 runners lined up in the pre-dawn darkness at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, to race for 26.2 miles in the Boston Marathon Shadow Run-Afghanistan 2014 on April 18, 2014.

With a blast of a fire truck's siren, the runners took off on a course that wound them around the base, twice. While there were runners of all abilities, the front-runners finished before the sun was even above the nearby mountains.

Some of the runners entered the race for the competition, some to prove something to themselves, and yet others for more personal reasons.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run something associated with the Boston Marathon in a country like Afghanistan," said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Rios, deployed from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. This was Rios' second marathon.

Others echoed the allure of participating in the famous race.

"It's an opportunity to run the Boston, even when deployed," said Maj. Scott Zakaluzny, a trauma surgeon deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif, who has previously run twice in the Air Force Marathon.

One Service member who ran for the competition was Capt. Scott Adams, deployed from the Air Force Legal Operations Agency in Atlanta, and running in his ninth marathon. Adams was the top Air Force runner, finishing in 2:51:43, beating his own personal record, and doing it in the much thinner air of Bagram's 5000 foot elevation.

While some Service members ran, others volunteered their time handing out water, sports drinks, and energy gels along the race route.

"These guys need something to drink to get them through this, I'm just trying to help them out," said Airman 1st Class Alex McGowan, deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., and who came out at 1:30 A.M. to help man a water station.

Working alongside McGowan was Senior Airman Jerick Encarnacion, who was suffering from an injured ankle.

"I can't do the run, but I can do something to help those that are," said Encarnacion, deployed from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.

Encarncion was deployed to Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar last year, and remembers seeing the coverage of the bombing at the Boston Marathon back home.

"It was a real shock", he said.

Capt. Emily Skinner, deployed from Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas and working with the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Bagram, deals with injured, wounded and ill Service members regularly. She had her own reason for coming out to run.

"I want to finish for those that can't," she said.