So I left you guys back in late May, I think my longest run had been a 5K or 4 miles… and really with no one else but me… but a Captain, Caitlin Hall, who came in from the FOB, and she wanted to run… so we did and we went by the most famous of land features here on Kandahar Airfield, the Poo Pond. It was about 100+ degrees out that day- Caitlin was kicking my ass after we had both done intervals the day prior… My legs were a little heavy, and well we went about 3.5 and that I think was the longest run up to that point… As you can see we are really afforded the opportunity to run in about the most uncomfortable running clothes ever… the Army Physical Fitness Uniform… the shorts are super scratchy and the t-shirts are usually huge and don’t forget the mandatory reflective belt to further add to your annoyance while running in broad daylight. Luckily the Army decided awhile back to actually let us wear all white ankle socks of the running type, before it was all mid-calf old man socks.
Oddly enough the Poo Pond doesn’t smell when you are right next to it… it really smells several feet away or even way across the airfield depending on how the wind blows. I have smelled it while running over a mile away and almost heaved- it is that bad… Now that it has gotten really hot I am pretty sure I will not be running by there anytime soon. Apparently the Poo Pond dates back to the Russians in Afghanistan. It is alleged that the Poo-Pond has been emptied before. There are also many an urban-legend about people swimming, diving into, and doing various other things in the Poo Pond. I have not confirmed the truth of any of them… nor would I want to find myself swimming with the fishes in said poo filled pond.
There is a small off shoot of the Poo-Pond; I like to call it the Poo-Canal. The Poo Canal runs in between the airfield and the road, sort of moat like, and you get to run next to it for a good half-mile on the six-mile route here; that route also takes you by the Tim Horton’s Coffee shop, although sometimes I really am tempted to stop in on a run, sort of like an aid station, I have refrained. Maybe if I tackle the Airfield Loop twice (18 Miles) I will stop!
The pictures below are from my other out and back lolli-pond, which is the tail end of the 6 mile loop too. I call it the NATO Pond 4- out to the pond and back- you can vary the mileage by the number of loops around the pond…
The NATO Pond, as I call it, is a drainage pond and there are all these weird little things in it, a cow, the Eiffel Tower, to name a few… but it doesn’t stink and there is generally a cool breeze coming off of it at night… funny the first time I ran by it at night, I turned the corner and the little weird things had little lights on them… and one was playing music, random.
Like I said earlier, there have been some events that have derailed my generally consistent evening run. The most recent, and humorous, was the escape of a Military Working Dog named Max*. My day started off with this email….
So I was pretty sure that I really didn’t want to end up running by myself around the airfield, and have some crazed Belgian Shepherd take me down and then maul me with no one around, I mean really that would not have been cool. I affectionately nicknamed him Cujo, as throughout the day I had visions of him standing outside my door as I woke up to use the bathroom, or jumping through the window of my sweet Toyota Prado to eat my innerds… one of my Soldiers read the email really fast and transposed the letters of MWD to WMD… Max/Cujo the new WMD…
So I opted to wait it out… well 36 hours passed before they caught ol’ Max.
*I am sure that Erica “Smackdown” Carper could really run with this story line if given the opportunity!
No worries though I started right back up with only a two day delay…
My job is pretty cool sometimes, I get to meet lots of cool, tough Soldiers who give their all daily out in the grape rows in the Arghandab River Valley, tough terrain for even the toughest of the tough… most of them think I am crazy for running out here too… A lot of these guys are coming in to go on R&R Leave, and some others have been injured in battle, and generally we have some cool conversations, not usually about what goes on in the grape rows, but what goes on before and after… and these guys have me cracking up in seconds with their stories and antics- whether it be Johnny Situation (a mannequin dressed as a Soldier) that shows up all over the little Combat Outposts they live on, or the laughing, prank playing and interactions that they have when they aren’t out patrolling…
Today, one of our Wounded Warriors here, a Staff Sergeant in the Cavalry Squadron, decided he was going to run with me, he is one of my favorite guys out here, he takes no crap from anyone and he runs like a fricken’ gazelle... I was a little hesitant at first because I really wanted to have a nice slow-ish run by myself, his Soldiers looked at me like “are you afraid to run with him too?” of course that did it, and we were off in about 5 minutes… He normally clips along at about a 6 minute pace, but he was nice enough to run 8:50 pace with me- about 30 seconds faster than I wanted to go tonight… we only went about 3.5 but I felt pretty good the whole time and was able to keep chatting along. Things are looking up!
On a more random note… I have been hooked on another thing I would have never thought would appeal to me… the toe sock… for those of you who know me- I have some humongous feet, and my toes are super long, well I have revisited a problem I seem to have had last year…. The one-time-use sock, here is a picture from Flat Rock 50K last year… one time sock use… I think I have come back from almost every run with a holey sock… until now… those toe socks are some crazy goodness… and they come in Army specifications- all white and no visible logo… yippee… I just ordered 6 more pairs…
Well that will do it for now....
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