Runner's High

Quarter moon and contrail; Near dawn somewhere over Iraq a military aircraft returns from a mission somewhere else in Iraq leaving a contrail underlining the moon waning through the final days of Ramadan.

Type of aircraft? Don't know. Returning from Fallujah? Perhaps. Death at the other end of that vapor trail?

Could be.

Blessed are the peace makers.

Last weekend I had my first day off since I've been in country. Celebrated with a relaxing long run, a few laps around the camp. Light drizzle was falling at the start, but halfway through the rain stopped and a cool breeze kicked in. Perfect running weather. Lately all my running has been done on a treadmill, so this was my first outdoor run in weeks. I know exactly which part of my quads let the treadmill work for them, because they protested this run. They were wasting their time, I've run marathons before, and pain isn't going to stop me. so I went hard enough and fast enough for long enough to induce an endorphin rush, a runner's high. Puts a quick stop to that pain crap.

Someone described this deployment to me in this way early on: "Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint." I didn't ask them if they'd ever run one. Late in a marathon several of your leg muscles will likely fail. Did you know you can use hip and abdominal muscles to compensate for the loss? I would imagine more than a few troops are doing that now, as a result of this marathon.

Anyway, the bottom line is eventually some of the muscles give out, reach their limit, can't make it, and the rest get to work double time, double effort. I wish the quitters wouldn't protest though, it just seems wrong, don't you think? "We're going further only if the rest of you do all the work, and by the way, please stop."

Just seems wrong.

See this run? This is the route of my typical 5-miler in Germany, a land that 60 years ago was nearly destroyed. The run I was on this past weekend wasn't as scenic, but it had its moments, and like I said, the weather was fine. This is a land of every day beauty, and if you keep your eyes open and your head up you'll turn a corner and see things like this.

That's kind of rewarding, kind of motivating. But you know why I won't stop going? Here's a teen age girl in Iraq and here's another who's father is here. Go read them. Don't read on until you've done it.

I don't like a lot of things about the world they're growing up in, so I'm doing my bit to change it. I'm not talking about this writing mind you - though I suppose that's a little part of it - I'm talking about what I'm doing.

When did I stop talking about running?

Blessed are the Peace Makers.

Not the peace lovers, we all love peace. The peace makers.

The difference? One group makes history while the other makes noise.

Speaking of the peace lovers, where are they? The coalition is involved in the heaviest fighting of the year and no one is in the streets protesting?

Must be the wrong Tuesday in November.

Some months ago when the peaceful people of Fallujah hung the mangled corpses of US contractors from a bridge in that town the American media did a brief bit of soul searching and decided to show the pictures of that atrocity in all their gory detail, in hopes of generating a massive outpouring of anti-war sentiment from the American people, of instilling a desire for regime change in the good ol' USA. They of course underestimated the American spirit, that drive that leads some among us to run marathons and others to cheer. Here's a typical quote from the day:

But the real effect of the images on Americans could be felt just months from now.

"These are the kinds of pictures that will linger," said John Schulz, dean of Boston University's College of Communications and a former faculty member at the National War College.

"They'll be there in November when people go to vote."