AHH-OOOH!

At 0630 our unit rendered its honors to the flag and our division. Then I began to stretch out my platoon for the run. They are a good group of warriors, all of them experienced. I told them what route we would be going on and then broke them down into ability groups. I explained it as a recovery run as they had done an 8 mile ruck march the day before. In my brief, I explained how to effectively run this event and the times that they should try to achieve.

I let the "A" group, or the fastest group lead out first. They are my "gazelles." 1/2 a minute later, I moved out with the middle group. This allows for a person to move back to the next group if he has bitten off more than they can chew, though most Soldiers will not succumb to defeat and will battle their way back into the group they started with.

We warmed up for the first 1/2 mile, then moved into our steady pace. About 1 mile into the run, and the lead group was steadily pulling away and I accepted the challenge to see how they were doing on their run. I let the "B" group know that they were doing good, to maintain, and I started the long sprint to catch up with the Gazelles.

A few rises worked against me, but I reached them in about a minute and fell into their pace. The sergeant in charge and one other sergeant in the lead were doing a great job of keeping them on pace. We had a large hill to go up, and at the top, we only had to regroup a couple of troops and we headed off to our next hit-point. These guys were amazing.

We passed by a lot of other Soldiers that I know from other units, and I gave them a hearty "Hooah" as I went past them. We hit our turn around and headed back, gaining momentum as we went. As we turned down one street, I ran by a group that some of my old Soldiers were in. We shouted our Hooahs! and as I passed, I gave one last yell.

"Spartans!" Without rehearsal my gazelles yelled out, "Ahh-Oooh!"

It made me proud to have such a great group of troops with me. At the end, we all finished together, leaving no man behind.

Bottom Line: In a span of 14 hours I completed 13.3 miles. All broken up, but still pretty cool ... and all with a purpose. I don't feel like the runs were junk miles.
04:42 hours: 4.6 miles, 40:16 @ an avg 8:46 minutes per mile.
06:47 hours: 4 miles, 31:35 @ an avg 7:54 minutes per mile.

Next up: night LSR tonight; rest on Saturday until the Country's BBQ Midnight Express Run. Best training time on the route, 24:59. trying for a race day 22:00 ... then a beer!

Question? Does a run that starts at 23:59 hours count for Saturday or the finish on Sunday? Crazy, eh? Report due, if I don't fall off the course into a luminary!

SPARTANS!