Anchorage Daily News

By the dawn's early light, soldiers from Fort Richardson found fleeting respite from war last week when a small reminder of home brought something ordinary to an extraordinary place.

As a couple thousand runners converged on downtown Anchorage for the Big Wild Life Runs last Sunday, a companion event was held near Sharana, Afghanistan, where members of Fort Rich's 725th Brigade Support Battalion are midway through a year-long deployment.

About 150 people -- troops and civilians alike, including a runner who showed up in the results simply as Mr. Mohammad -- toed the starting line for the desert edition of the Skinny Raven Half-Marathon.

The race happened through the efforts of the Anchorage Running Club and Capt. Margaret Berryman of the 725th Brigade. Berryman approached the running club with the idea of staging a shadow race for troops in Afghanistan, and the running club responded by sending five boxes filled with race bibs, medals and commemorative race T-shirts.

"This race was a little bit of home -- hugely encouraging," Sgt. Jesse Lind wrote in an e-mail of thanks to the running club.

Runners caught glimpses of camels and C-130s, of ravens and Blackhawks. They wore race bibs -- replicas of those worn by runners in the Anchorage races --pinned to light gray T-shirts turned dark with sweat as the sun baked the dusty ground. It was 70 degrees when the race began at 5 a.m. and 90 degrees by the time the last runner finished about four hours later.

They raced at high altitude -- 7,400 feet, about a mile and a half above sea level. Three times they circled a loop around the Forward Operating Base for a total of 13.04 miles, just a tad short of the official 13.1 mile half-marathon distance.

At the finish line, they turned in their bibs and received their souvenir T-shirts.

"Everyone who didn't run it wishes they had for the T-shirt," Berryman reported in an e-mail.

Berryman, a registered nurse who said she would have entered the Big Wild Life Runs if she'd been in town, said she came up with the idea for the Afghanistan race while talking with a friend.

"One of my friends suggested I run half a marathon here and she would run half the marathon in Anchorage," Berryman wrote. "I decided then to contact the Anchorage Running Club to see if they would support a shadow race here."

Mike Halko of the running club responded with an enthusiastic yes, and soon plans were on to stage what Berryman believes was the first footrace at the Sharana forward operating base. The race was open to all residents of the base.

"We had Army, Navy, Air Force, DOD civilians, third country national and civilian contractors," Berryman wrote, with about half the runners coming from the 725th Brigade support battalion she is assigned to.

The most extreme of the 150 runners were those who opted to race with 35-pound rucksacks on their backs. A separate category was created for them, with the men's winner finishing in just under three hours and the women's winner finishing in just under four hours.

"We had a 60-year-old civilian carry one," Berryman wrote. "It was awesome."

The Army's fitness standards ensure that most soldiers exercise regularly, said Berryman, who is the brigade nurse for the 4th Brigade Combat Team. But those who stay fit by running can't always run. Some go on week-long convoys that prevent them from exercising at all, she said.

Last week's race came halfway through a year-long deployment for Berryman's unit, which is due to return in February.

"This event is definitely one of the highlights of our deployment, so far," she wrote. "It was a great way for our soldiers to break up the monotony of deployment and reconnect with our families and friends back in Anchorage. It was certainly a huge morale booster and everyone is still talking about it."

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

Skinny Raven half-marathon Sharana, Afghanistan

Men's winner -- Shane Jervis, 1:38:00.

Women's winner -- Carmen Halcomb, 2:02:23.

Men's rucksack winner -- Robert Mosley, 2:51.29.

Women's rucksack winner -- Christina Wilson, 3:53:55.

Men's walk winner -- Jan Michael Riemenschneider, 3:10:02.

Women's walk winner -- Luz E. Rodriguez, 3:05:50.

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