Some thougths and pictures

10MAR
It rained all last night. It was soothing to hear the rain hit the tops of our tin CHUS, everyone knows that sound, and the constant rhythmic beat slowing sings you to sleep. Usually when you think of rain, you think of life, you think refreshing, you think cleansing. Not here in the desert. The rain may bring all those to locals, but to us in the military, it brings nothing but a mess! 99% of the time before the rain moves in, we get hit with a dust storm. It looks just like fog from back home, but it is made of pure dirt. Yesterday, just as expected, one of these dust storms swooped in. That evening I walked to the gym for my daily workout session, as I signed in and made my way to the bathroom I looked in the mirror and my hair looked as though I just came from the barber and got my hair frosted. That is how thick the air gets with dirt. As I wiped the sweet from my face, my white towel slowly stated to turn tan from all the dirt.

Then the rain comes. You look down on your black shorts and you see little dirt spots all over you. The rain tries to clean the think dust from the air, but as it does, you end up looking like a leopard from all the little dirt bombs that hit you with each rain drop.



I have to take a break from running. My shin splints have returned along with some pain just below my right knee. The bone is very sore to the touch and even walking is uncomfortable. To say the least it has really bummed me out. I was just hitting my prime and ready to turn the corner in my marathon training. There are several 5k races coming up, a 15k, and even a Boston Marathon Satellite run. I was really looking forward to running all these, but when it hurts so much to run, it does not make it any fun. I have not quit, I have just varied my routine. I now alternate between the elliptical and stair stepper. I go for one hour 5 days a week, and for two on my long days. I will sometimes throw in an easy 1-2 miles run on the treadmill too. I think the problem stems from my shoes and possibly my orthotics need to be tweaked a little bit. But I am thinking mainly my shoes because all throughout running at Ft Sill and in Kuwait, I did not have issues. It wasn’t until I bought some new shoes here in Iraq, a different brand than I had been using, that I started to notice all my problems. So I quit the other shoes and am just sticking to my New Balance, I will do the light impact cardio until the pain in my legs subside and then hit the pavement to see how it feels! More than likely I will still run all the 5ks, I will just take it easy, like an 8min pace verses a 630min pace, I got to collect all the T-shirts I can! The main goal is to recover and get in adequate amount of training for Grandma’s Marathon on 20JUN upon my arrival home!

As for the fight here in Iraq, things are pretty quiet, mortar attacks have subsided somewhat. I think they, the terrorists, are getting the message that if they leave us alone, we will get out of this country and leave this shit-hole to them. Hopefully President Obama will pull us out of here and send us to Afghanistan where the real fight is. Why anyone would fight so hard to keep this place is beyond me, I think it is safe to say only God knows why! Yes it is rich in history, but it is nowhere near the paradise it used to be back in the times of the Old Testament. If you are really interested in what this place use to be like, there are two links under the HISTORY section of my Blog.