Airmen conquer local Rainier-to-Ruston race

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Bill Baker
  • 62nd Mission Support Squadron
MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  (Master Sgt. Bill Baker, 62nd Mission Support Squadron, recently competed in the Rainier-to-Ruston race. This is a first-person account of his experience.)

It started innocently enough.

"Hey Shirt! What did you do this weekend?" they asked.

"I ran nine of 51 miles with my six-person team in the Rainier-to-Ruston Rail-Trail Relay Marathon," I replied. That answer prompted a litany of other questions. "What was it like?" "Were you tired?" "Are you nuts?" "Would you do it again?"

My answers were simple: awesome, exhausted, of course and most definitely!

The R2R is in its sixth year and has exploded from a paltry 14 runners and 13 walkers in the beginning to more than 250 contestants now. Many run the marathon in teams of four or six, but there are those -- the ultras -- who run the entire 51 miles in roughly nine hours. The route starts from Mt. Rainier National Forest and takes a northwesterly route through several small towns and finally, Tacoma. Although the majority of the run is on a developed paved trail or road, about 12 miles are run in completely undeveloped, boulder jumping, puddle swimming, dog chased, and stinging nettled back country. It was awesome!

I share this with you because 12 of our McChord Airmen from the future 62nd Force Support Squadron took part in what many would call an insane idea. Alesandra Morgan and David Swory from the 62nd Mission Support Squadron have recruited and trained teams for the last two years. Last year, they fielded a team of six, trained for about two months and finished in over eight hours. This challenge drew interest from even more Airmen, including myself, over the past year.

"This year, we wanted to train longer to get us into better shape to break eight hours," Swory said. Heat, along with unfamiliarity with the routes last year was a huge factor in the desire to do better this year, he said.

This year the group from the 62nd AW, "Blood, Guts & Paper Cuts," had two teams finish the entire 51 miles in six hours, 47 minutes and seven hours, 22 minutes, respectively, to take the coveted Gold and Silver Spikes for winning first and second in the military categories.