Hey everybody! Well it's Sunday afternoon in Iraq, about 4:04 pm and the weather out here has been really windy and coldish. I say coldish because it's not really "cold" it's in the lower 60's. I'm sitting here and listening to Big Dismal. Wow, guys.. such a great band. It's a slow day really, though I got to talk on Aim for a lot of it. We're pretty close to coming home now, just a little more time.

Okay, well after a moment of back thought I realize now that I have very little of literal consequence to report, thought my days has been filled with GREAT emotional events. I figure, if you don't mind terribly I'd tell you about the marathon. I completed it! I finished in 4 hours and 35 minutes. The course for a normal marathon is flat and straight, but the course we had, had slants and rocks, off road, on road.. lol.

The person I ran with was a Legal Officer named Chris. And I will not lie.. without him I wouldn't have made it. About 12 miles in, I wanted to quit and he told me that I just had to keep going. The course was about 8 miles around, We did three aps of these 8 mile loops and then ran 2 miles inner perimeter (big circle) to finish at the finish line. It was Chris' best marathon type yet, and I believe it was his 4th. After you complete each lap you get a bracelet to prove you completed that lap, first green, then blue, then black. Then you run the inner perimeter (2.4 miles) and then back to the finish line, where they are playing "Eye of the Tiger."

When I got done, I saw something I've never seen in the marine corps before. EVERYONE, no matter what branch, were hugging, patting each other on the back and having just a general expression of love festival. "You did a great job!" "You kept me going, I couldn't have done it without you!" "No, YOU rock" lol and such. Every person who started the run and completed became a member of the marathon club, which in my opinion is also a great feat. Afterward my legs were DYING, and for two days I did nothing but the absolute minimum of movement. I was a bit of a local celebrity around the ram (my company) as the only guy in our Unit to have participated. There were a lot of people who claimed they were going to run, but I actually did it.

So anyway.. I'm going to run another one in June maybe, and Steven might be joining me! Thank you for everyone who prayed for me, and believed in me! You guys rock! You kept me going! You guys do a great job! :-)

Jason