Soldiers doing marathon — in Afghanistan

About 300 Americans will run 26.2 miles at airstrip
at same time race is being conducted in Honolulu

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updated 3:15 p.m. ET Dec. 11, 2004

HONOLULU - About 300 American soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday will run past palm trees and up Diamond Head in their very own Honolulu Marathon.

Granted, the trees will be wooden and “Diamond Head” is a small hill renamed, but the soldiers will still be doing 26.2 miles on the same day as more than 26,000 runners in Hawaii.

Nine hours before the race’s 5 a.m. local start — Afghanistan is 13½ hours ahead of Hawaii — the servicemen and women will make nearly six laps around a dusty airstrip at Firebase Ripley just outside Tarin Kowt in the central province of Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold and a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden. The aid stations are guard towers doing double duty.

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Going in circles is the upshot of putting on a road race in a war zone. Runners need a foxhole here and there for cover in case of a rocket or mortar attack. Fellow soldiers in full gear will be standing by with armored Humvees.

Much of organizing the run fell to Capt. Ivan Hurlburt, who has run the Honolulu Marathon four times. He set about the task after a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, expressed the wish of going back to Honolulu for the race. The regiment is based at Schofield Barracks near Honolulu, and 16 members of the battalion, including Hurlburt, are Honolulu Marathon veterans.

The runners have been motivated and inspired by Patti Dillon, a four-time Honolulu Marathon winner who now coaches young runners in New London, Conn., where she lives.

Dillon sent to Hurlburt a banner featuring her quote from a media interview: “If they’re going to beat you, make ’em spit blood.”

“The soldiers here have been inspired by her and we have seemed to inspire the young runners she teaches,” Hurlburt said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Hurlburt has posted Dillon’s e-mails, which include marathon training tips.

“It has been a great inspiration for us to have an American distance runner world record holder have a genuine interest in a marathon that is being held for and ran by soldiers,” he said.

The results of the race at Tarin Kowt will be listed separately in the marathon book and on the Web site, said Mike Burns, president of the computer services company in Ann Arbor, Mich., that has recorded finish times in Honolulu for 18 years.

The top three finishers will receive wooden bowls carved from koa, a Hawaiian tree. All runners will receive medals and official Honolulu Marathon T-shirts.