Still Running

It has been a long couple of months and I am feeling guilty about not writing; been running though. The weather has broken and it’s cool across Iraq – temperatures in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night. It’s even rained a little, which creates a muddy mess. But all the same the runners are out, which is always nice. Since the last time I blogged we’ve had a few running events on Tallil. There was the Air Force Marathon shadow event in September which I didn’t run, there was the Army 10 Miler shadow event which I did run, and some Air Force folks are sponsoring a weekly 5K on Fridays. I run this religiously. I am actually really into the weekly 5K which I think is a great idea and may take that home with me. For me physical fitness seems to be the order of the day around here. Running and a little gym time is by far the best way to deal with the stresses of deployment. As a matter of fact I am a true believer in running to combat post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and to control weight gain – grant it I am no doctor but at one time I was married to a psychologist. She and I always talked about the mental benefits of running and exercise – not that I would ever admit my ex-wife is right, but she certainly wasn’t wrong about that aspect. Many service members are affected, at least a little, by PTSD. Personally I would much rather see physicians prescribe running than many of the pharmaceuticals out there.  In my opinion physical fitness is a pillar of mental health. I know some people hate to run and I guess the older I get the more I hate hearing excesses about why someone can’t run – my knees hurt, my back hurts, I smoke too much, or whatever.  Most days I hurt, most days I don’t want to run – there I admit it. Some days I spend more time making excuses of why I can’t run, then getting up and spending 40 minutes to run 5 miles.  God, am I bitching or what? Anyways, I am running, and yes I am running almost daily. I am enjoying some great running right now because of the weather. What I haven’t been doing is blogging; because of many obligations and the fact I am lazy too. My blogging has been on the back burner.  For what it is worth, I will be back in the good old United States hopeful by the end of the year. I will keep writing and updating through the next few weeks and months, maybe even add some stories about the 10 miler and a more recent visit to Taji, Iraq, where I was stationed in 2004-2005 – and yes I ran there too.

Advertisement