Surprisingly, my performance in the Death March Memorial Marathon received coverage by my local newspaper, the Somerville Journal. Not so surprisingly, they didn't get all of the details quite right. But that seems to go with the territory.

I finally stopped running around (literally) long enough to sort through the photos from my trip to give a little more insight into the experience. Part of me wishes that I would have had a camera with me while running the race, but to be honest, I don't think my photos would have been all that great. I would recommend visiting the race website and viewing the event photos online.

Upon arriving in El Paso, TX two days before the event, I realized (a) that I had spent way too long crammed into airplane seats, (b) that I needed to get acclimated to heat, the lack of humidity, the sun, the altitude difference, and the terrain, and (c) that I needed to do something fun and educational while I was here. So with that I headed out to the namesake of the missile range and visited the White Sands National Monument the morning before the race. It was about a 120 mile drive from El Paso (the scenic route) and as you can see, the sands are definitely white.

It is also a strangely barren place, which at the time I went was truly devoid of people. During my run along the 4.8 mile "trail" through the dunes I only saw 4 other people, the footprints of whom are seen below. The sand is powder fine and filtered through my shoes and socks and got into just about anywhere on my body that sand could get. Only about the top 3 inches are loose, but that is more than enough to slow a person down dramatically. I was lucky to manage just over 10 minutes / mile and was very thankful for the 44 ounces of sports drink that I was carrying along the way. Fortunately, the sand on the race course was actually much more coarse and therefore easier to run through. I didn't experience anywhere near as much trouble as I did during this training excursion, which is probably how I did so well.

But of course the event was more than just a run on the beach, a beach nearly 1 mile above sea level and hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean; it was a memorial to the soldiers who suffered the horrors of the Bataan Death March through the jungles of the Philippines in 1942. My trip would not have been complete without a visit to their monument in nearby Las Cruces, NM.

I am honored to say that I was fortunate enough to sit and talk with a couple of the survivors of this horrendous chapter from a war full of great atrocities. Eight of these men were on hand to send us off at the start of the race with a handshake and a "hurry back"; an order that I obeyed and used as my inspiration while challenging the 4 mile long hill climb in the middle of the course. I am also proud to say that I was welcomed back by these same men when I crossed the finish line. Below is a picture of Colonel Glenn D. Frazzier and myself (wearing my signature honor flags) after the race. You can learn more about the Death March and Colonel Frazzier's experiences in his book .

I am so truly honored to have been able to compete in this event in honor of these men as well as all who have followed in their footsteps by answering the call to service. I truly appreciate that I can show them all my respect for what they have done and continue to do in the name of liberty and democracy. I also am honored that you have chosen to help support these efforts through your participation in following my progress, in your comments of encouragement, and in your pledges of support for this noble cause to help the NESHV.

And of course, no visit to the White Sands Missile Range would be complete without a visit to the missile museum.

Well...only 7 more days until the Boston Marathon. I know that I am recovered enough to complete the full 26.2 mile marathon distance, but I am unsure of just what pace to set for myself. Especially since less than 2 weeks later I will be undertaking the duty of leading others in their quests to qualify for next year's Boston Marathon by holding the 3:30 pace (8 minutes per mile) throughout the New Jersey Marathon. I intend to better my time from last year and would like to at least finish in under 3:20, but I really want to requalify myself for Boston with a 3:10 or better. Ideally I would be shooting for sub-3:00, but that might have to wait until the fall at the Marine Corps. Marathon, depending on the outcome of my application to pace at a marathon I completed before.