Travelblog ’17

Marathon one for the 2017 season was one I had on my radar screen for many years. I remember hearing stories of the Bataan Death March Marathon from a fellow running club member of the Shoreline Striders.

That member happened to be the Sheboygan County Veterans Affairs Officer, Jim Riesenberg. At our April meetings he always told of his adventures at White Sands Missile Range, near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Even though it was mostly active military that participated, they also had two divisions for civilians.

Civilian light and civilian heavy meant you were not on active duty and could choose either running the marathon with or without a 35 pound ruck sack. I chose civilian light.

I was fortunate to have friend, Mark Dorion, in El Paso offer me a place to stay prior to the race. He left me a key as he and his family were on Spring Break in Florida. I had another friend who offered to put me up after the race and she found a friend of hers to host me the night before and who could get me to and from the army base, for the race.

The morning of the race I drove to the start with Juan Escobar and a car caravan of his running group from El Paso. We met at a Starbucks and he introduced me to his running friends and arrived early enough to miss a back up at the military gate.

Prior to the start there was a ceremony celebrating the “Battling Bastards of Bataan”, some, now in their 90s, were on hand. Not many are still alive. The unit that lost many during the Death March, 75 years ago, was from New Mexico.

After a lengthy ceremony the race finally began with a slight downhill road mile. There were over 7,000 starters, mostly Heavy Military division, carrying 35 pound rucks and wearing full military gear, on a day where temperatures would reach 90.

The dessert is actually quite beautiful in a rugged sort of way, but small flowers and plants were evident. The mountains created a great backdrop, but running from 4100 to 5300 feet took a little of that beauty away. Well, once we headed back down it was actually a blast! I could see the water towers at the base and they became the magnet drawing me in.