Relay for Life/First Ride in Turkey

9May09- Incirlik AB Turkey-

Well I don't normally blog about other things but figured this was a worthy thing to blog about. So I arrived to Turkey on a Wednesday and the following day at work I found out that there was going to be a Relay for Life here on base my first weekend. It just so happened that they had 2 open 1 hour slots for our squadron which also just so happened to be back to back. So of course I had not had a good long run since China and figured I would kick it off with a 16 mile track run. The great thing about this event though was it was something that I had grown up around and probably had done about 5-7 of them in the past years from about age 10 or 11. It was one thing that I always looked forward to every year going out to Johansen and spending the whole day and night out there. There would always be volleyball going on along with all other sorts of events. So the event here on base was only 12 hours instead of the full 24 and was a lot smaller but at least I was able to get out there for a good long run for a good cause. I did hear quite a few comments from the other walkers/runners since I ran for 2 hours straight: a little girl said "Man his legs are SKINNY!! But he sure does run fast".....A husband and wife "He is still running????" and then the water lady about every 15 mins "Are you OK??" So the event was good and I had a great time soaking up some sun and getting a good long run in.

So Sunday morning I met up with a guy that was stationed at Osan while I was there but I did not know him. I got a hold of him through some other bike friends back in Osan and they hooked us up. So he was able to show me the ropes around the roads here and got off base and was able to see some interesting things. It was a short 18 mile ride but was nice to see some different scenery then the 8 mile loop on base. Below are some pictures from the ride. In my opinion it is a heck of a lot nicer than osan scenery wise but I don't know if the drivers are near as respectable as the Korean drivers were.

Well I found out there is a 5K on base this Saturday and then next Saturday there is a "Poker" run 5K on base as well. So we will see how those go. I will post a small update after each of those.