AFRC Marathon Team finishes strong

  • Published
  • By Stacy Vaughn
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  The Air Force Reserve Command Marathon Team was among 15,000 runners participating in the 19th Annual Air Force Marathon held Sept. 19, 2015 here.

The marathon course is a 26.2-mile run that starts and ends at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The course traverses historical places on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, including the museum, the Wright-Patterson AFB flight line, Huffman Prairie Flying Field, and the Wright Brothers Memorial Monument. All levels of runners participate from around the world in the marathon, wheelchair, half marathon, 10K, and 5K races.

This year's AFRC team had 10 Airmen running - four running in the full marathon and six running in the half marathon. This year's goal was a combined time of 22:00:00 (9:20:00 for the half marathon and 13:53:40 for the full marathon).

Lt. Col. Brian Biggs, AFRC team organizer, said runners chosen for the AFRC team were selected based on their previous results in organized events. The participant could be a reservist or any regular Air Force Airman assigned to an AFRC organization, any rank and any age. The Airmen chosen for this year's AFRC team came from bases across the country--New York, Georgia, Texas, California, Colorado and Florida. The group was composed of four Air Reserve Technicians, three traditional reservists, two IMAs and one AGR.

Two runners, Tech. Sgt. Joel Nowatchik, full marathon participant, and Senior Airman Josh Williams, half marathon participant, are both assigned to the 914th Operations Support Squadron, Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, New York. The two motivated each other in preparation for the big event. They did training runs together, including an 18 mile trek around Conesus Lake, located in the westernmost of New York's 11 Finger Lakes.

In addition, Williams ran a few check point races; 5k, 10 mile, and a half marathon, as a tune up to this race.

"I'm incredibly excited but nervous to be honest," said Williams before the race. "This is the Air Force Marathon so being a member of the AFR component competing in this has a significant importance to me."

"Over the last three months I have averaged 200 miles a month in training for this event. Last year was a breakthrough year for me and I attribute that to adding competitive cycling to my training regiment," Williams said. "In preparation for the Air Force Half Marathon, I broke down my training into three phases; the first part was all speed work, the second part was hammer the legs (60 miles/week), and the third part was fine tuning mechanics and sharpening my comfort level at my goal pace."

Williams was able to beat his personal record of 1:24:15 when he ran the race in 1:23:08.

"I felt great," said Williams. "I am really proud of the time; it was my new personal best. It was a tricky course. Every time you came off a downhill you would anticipating to be able to pick it up but you came into a headwind so it was very tricky. It was a wonderful field out there, the course was spectacular, the support was great, lots of weather stops. There's nothing you can do about the weather and the wind but it was an outstanding overall day for everyone here involved."
"I feel like it was a great day," said Maj. Christina L. Hopper, T-38 pilot instructor for the 5th Flying Training Squadron, Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. "I dropped ten minutes off my best time, was first in my division so it was an epic day for me."

Hopper's overall time was 1:35:53.

"I'm a triathlete so I do a lot of cross-training and biking," said Hopper. "I did my first Half-Ironman this summer so that was my preparation. Once you've done something like that, this doesn't feel quite as hard."

Hopper says she used Hansons Half-Marathon Method which included a lot of tempo runs, race-pace runs, and running more frequently. This helped her improve her pace-per-mile.

"If you're going to do it you need to prepare because it can be very discouraging if you don't," said Hopper. "It's a wonderful goal to shoot for; to do either a half-marathon or marathon or if you never ran before to just go for a 5k. My goal is to be able to continue to walk when I am in my 70's and 80's and be healthy and fit in order to set a good example for my children."


The team saw a familiar face at the finish line - Lt. Gen. James F. Jackson, the commander of the AFRC, who was handing out medals to the runners.

"This is the first time we have attempted to put together an Air Force Reserve Command MAJCOM team," said Jackson. "I'm pleased with the responses that we've had. We have a huge number of responses of people that want to run for their team and for the Air Force Reserves." 

(Tech. Sgt. Patrick O'Reilly, 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this story)