Time to Run

upcoming events, museum of aviation foundation, nonprofit organization

It’s that time of year again folks, the Annual Museum of Aviation Foundation Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K Run/Walk is this Saturday! This is the 16thannual event, and promises to be a great one. I ran my first organized half marathon back in November and it was a blast. This race should be a great one too. There aren’t many races of this type where you get to run on the grounds of an aviation museum and an active Air Force base during the same event. For an aviation and running enthusiast like me, it’s an awesome scenario. The weather is going to be chilly early Saturday morning, but there is plenty of sunshine in the forecast and temperatures should be great during the run.

Start of the 2011 race

There were 1,244 runners and walkers from around the United States and the world that participated in last year’s event, which was made even more meaningful with the addition of a shadow Marathon and Half Marathon at Kandahar, Afghanistan. Around 300 ran the race there.  The neatest part however was a live Skype session with race organizer U.S. Navy Master Chief “Lee” True in Afghanistan at the opening ceremony.  Brigadier General Lee Levy, 402nd Maintenance Wing Commander at the time, interviewed Master Chief True who said runners there came from 34 different U.S. states and several foreign countries.

Skype session with troops in Afghanistan before the 2011 races.

The fastest runner in last year’s Marathon was first-place finisher Sammy Nyamongo from Atlanta with a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds. With slightly warmer, drier weather forecast for this year, it will be interesting to see if anyone can beat that or any of the other times from last year (Women’s marathon: 3 hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds; half marathon: 1 hour, 12 minutes and 12 seconds; 5k: 15 minutes and 33 seconds). See you at the race and look for a follow up blog sometime soon after with results, pictures, and maybe some video.

2011 runners make their way past the Museum’s C-141 and EC-135.

– Arthur Sullivan, Assistant Curator

 

Museum of Aviation
Museum of Aviation
The Museum of Aviation has grown to become the second largest museum in the United States Air Force and the fourth most visited museum in the Department of Defense. The museum is a place that honors our veterans and their families and reminds our Airmen of their legendary Air Force heritage.