Josh in Iraq

Josh here. I haven't made any posts on here in a while, and figured that y'all might be wondering what I've been up to. So, here goes.

November was pretty nice. I got to spend two weeks at home with Rachel and the kids. We spent most of it at home, but did a little bit of travelling. Andrew's birthday was November 9th, then we did his baptism on November 14th. So, overall, it was pretty good.

Back here in Iraq, things are going okay. My team and I still work with the Iraqi Federal Police, advising and assisting them to do their job. The next big thing is going to be in January, with the national elections.

Here on FOB Falcon, we do races and other competitions each month. It keeps the soldiers busy and helps fight boredom and stress. Usually we run 5K (3.1 mile) races, but this month they decided to make it a 10 miler, on Thanksgiving Day. So, imagine my surprise when I got back here on November 22nd, to find out that there was going to be a 10 mile race on the 26th.

The race went well. There were well over a hundred soldiers who came out and ran, along with many others who came to cheer on their friends. I placed 3rd with a time of 70:27. That's not a PR (personal record) for me, but it still was pretty good. My goal for next year is to run the Army 10 Miler and beat my PR of 65 minutes.

Here are a few pics from the race:

Before the race. I'm in the back, next to the latrines, stretching. The big tan vehicles behind us are MRAP's (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected). We use those when we go outside the FOB. They're pretty good at stopping bullets and explosions, but it's like driving a large armored garbage truck. Which means they're hard to maneuver and it's easy to accidentally hit things with them. But, my team hasn't had any accidents since we've been here, so far.



Here we are lined up and ready to start. I'm in the middle, towards the right. Yes, I'm one of the shorter guys running. That's just the way it is.



Crossing the finish line, pressing the stop button on my new Garmin 205. That's a GPS-enabled watch for runners that tells you how far you've run, how fast you're going, what your lap time is, etc. It's pretty cool.



Getting our medals. I placed third, which isn't too bad. Hopefully the next race will be a 5K. After doing ten, a little 3.1 miler won't seem too tough. My goal for that is 19 minutes. We'll see.