Well, I am officially back from Iraq, I accomplished one of my re-deployment goals - - run the Army Ten Miler, more on that later. Before that:
We redeployed from Iraq, and out-processed FT Riley. I can honestly say that I hope to never go there again now that we are done. All of the events were well run, there were a lot of people to out-process, so it took a little while, which was expected. Along the way though, we were once again treated pretty un-professionally by the unit responsible for organizing the event. I can understand a little confusion, but confusion plus goofy ideas, well that is just plain silly. To be fair, some of our TT brethren did some just plain stupid stuff, for which that individual should have been called out, but the unit that was organizing the outprocessing defaulted to the ancient army principle of mass punishment. Sigh. Oh well, done with that chapter of my life.
After leaving FT Riley in my rear view mirror, I went up to KC to see my little sister and her crew. I went for a good run there on the high school track (sweet track, btw), my last bit of hard intervals. After the run, me and Julie went out for pizza (naturally, my new favorite food). And watched Sydney's volleyball team play. Lot of giggling going on out there, but it did look like they were having some fun, so I think the giggling is excused.
After KC, I went up to the homeland and hung out at Melissa's house. That Friday night I watched probably the best high school football game I have seen, Millard South Patriots (Christian S. plays for the Patriots, so we had to go) took on the team from Elkhorn. Early on, it looked like South in a runaway, but Elkhorn came storming back, and took the lead. Millard South came back and tied it up, with a little bit of time to go. Elkhorn was driving for the winning score, when they lined up for a field goal. Number 4, the MVP for that game, from Millard South came through the line, blocked the field goal, picked up the ball and stormed to his end zone for the game winning TD. WILD is an understatment. I haven't got an update on Millard South, but they looked pretty tuff after that game. Christian S. had a pretty fair game, he is an offensive/defensive lineman, and still a junior. Pretty good year for Christian - - - he also earned his Eagle Scout badge which is pretty cool, and quite the accomplishment. I knocked out my last long run on the Twin Creek Trail there in Bellevue, and had a nice visit with the rest of the family.
After that, I headed east on I-80 (for those of you driving from Omaha to Aberdeen, take 70, no tolls) to Aberdeen. I spent a few days finding a new house for me, Sam and Cheney, and found a nice one.
http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?ID=33207520175
3441 Tewkesbury was the choice, I am hoping the elephant stays in the room. I will need to figure out a fence for Sam and Cheney, but that will be pretty easy. I also checked out my new digs at Aberdeen Proving Grounds - - first impression: VERY SMALL. I found a gym there and asked "where are the other gyms?" (NOTE: there are 20 gyms on FT Bragg, so plenty of selection). The guy working there said "this is the only one . . . . ", bad sign. I also did some running around on the post, there aren't any rolling hills (like the sisters) on APG, so I will have to find some places to run off post that have hills. I didn't check out where I will be working, but I can do that later on.
This past weekend I went down to DC for the Army Ten Miler, my favorite race. I stayed at JFord's Foggy Bottom mansion, but he wasn't there so we couldn't exchange running stories and such. His roommate, Derek B. was there, so I hung out with him some. Unfortunately, Derek is a michigan fan, so I had to listen to some michigan propoganda and a few complaints. For those of you that don't follow football, Nebraska won the 1997 National Championship, some folks in michigan believe that they should share the championship, but there really is no evidence of that outside of the ann arbor, michigan. Defeating michigan in the 2005 Alamo Bowl was the high mark of the bill callahan regime in Nebraska, so there is further evidence of Husker domination. While there I went with the michigan fans to watch the michigan vs. michigan state game, good game, unfortunately the wolverines lost in OT (sorry SFC T).
On to the Army Ten Miler - - a pretty good run on a beautiful, fall day in DC. I was hoping to hit somewhere in the high 60s for the run, but was not too sure about my condition and I had a couple of nagging injuries (sucks getting old). Once the race started I kept a pretty good pace and just enjoyed the run. Pleasantly, I hit right at 68:06, which, although not a record for me, was a pretty good day considering I spent the last year trying to train up for it in Iraq. For those runners in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am sorry you missed it, but I was thinking of you while I was running. I really like this race, it is kind of a homecoming for military folks and I am always pleasantly suprised by who I meet up there. Sure enough, while I was getting on the subway to go to the race, there was Bill R. one of my former team leaders and a company commander while I was a battalion XO in 1/3d SFG. We caught up with each other then got lost in the crowd. I also saw Joe C., a fellow USASOC salt mine worker, he is now developing optics and lasers for the Army, so I will probably run into him again. Pretty good day all in all.
