CHARLESTON – This is for friends and family who are dumbfounded every time they learn that I’m getting out of a warm bed a little before the sun tops the horizon on a chilly Saturday morning to drive x-number of miles to run 3.1 miles (sometimes farther) with like-minded “insane” people.
Photo album from the race
I have to admit that up until this past weekend, my motivation for such behavior was typically two-fold: get some exercise and socialize. (The after-race food and beverage spread also factored in, at times.) Sure, there were a couple of occasions when I would enter an event with a cause I could relate to – cancer research, Doctors Without Borders and children’s charities are three that come to mind – but even then my focus would quickly wane, replaced by the urge to get to the finish line and consume bananas, apples, oranges, yogurt and muffins.
For this run, however, I had a motivating factor I hope some of you “normal people” can relate to. I was reading The Post & Courier (yes, I still read the newspaper) last Thursday when I noticed in their weekend events calendar a listing for a 5K event called Run For The Yorktown. The run was to take place Nov. 10 starting at 8 a.m. on Patriots Point, with all of the registration money collected going to support educational programs run through the USS Yorktown CV-10 Association. According to its website, the money benefits the Patriots Point History and Science Institute’s education program aboard the ship. Fifth grade students from local school districts hear stories about WWII veterans and naval aviation history.
Since my Saturday morning was free (I seldom do much, other than drink coffee and read the newspaper, prior to 8 a.m. on Saturdays), I immediately registered online. It was my first 5K road race since I ran with my wife and daughter 18 months earlier in the Run Forrest Run 5K in New Orleans, an event that fell under the exercise/socialize road race category, with the focus more on the socializing part – we were in New Orleans after all.
Around 250 people lined up on Saturday within sight of the Yorktown. Like most organized road races I’ve participated in over the past 30 years, we all paused, removed our hats and placed our right hands over our hearts for the Star Spangled Banner, this one nicely sung by a young Army Reserve woman. Someone fired an anti-tank gun to get the race started just as an AT-6 Texan Warbird flew overhead. It got the adrenalin pumping. Most of the runners were dressed in typical cool-weather running gear, except for one young man who was carrying a 3x5 American flag attached to a short pole, similar to the kind you often see attached to the outside of someone’s home. It wasn’t until about two miles into the race when I caught up with the young man that I noticed that he was also wearing a military body armored vest. I later found out that the vest alone weighs more than 30 pounds. I’ve carried backpacks on camping trips that weigh that much, but I’ve never tried to run while carrying it.
The run finished on the Yorktown, where the runners were directed up to the hangar deck for the post-race food and bottled water. There was a live band providing entertainment and the Chick-fil-A dairy cow was handing out warm chicken biscuits – a welcome surprise on a cool morning. During the run, I had thought about my reasons for being there and now, with everyone enjoying warm food, and fresh fruit and yogurt courtesy of Publix (the supermarket and the chicken restaurant were major sponsors of the event) and feeling pretty good about themselves, I took the opportunity to ask several runners what made them get up and come to this race. The responses I received weren’t surprising; while some said they simply came for the enjoyment of running with fellow athletes brings, others had additional motivation.
A Charleston man said he served on a Navy submarine in the mid-80s. He was wearing a Navy T-shirt over a long-sleeved light sweatshirt on Saturday. “It’s a great cause, obviously, one 
that’s near and dear to my heart,” he said.
Another man, who served in Vietnam, said he had had shoulder surgery and that this race was his first since that event. “The main reason is I haven’t run a race in a year and a half and I’m trying to get back in shape,” he said, adding that being a veteran and living close to the Yorktown also helped get him to the starting line.
“Everything just came together; right place, right time and a good cause,” he said.
A young woman, who is a six-year Navy veteran and served between 1993 and 1999, said she came out to “run alongside some fellow military folks,” while another man, who didn’t serve in the military, said he participated as a way of offering “a very small measure of appreciation for our veterans. I know some of these folks and this is an excellent race.”
Then, I found a middle-aged Charleston woman whose reason for running the race, along with that of her running partner, came closest to matching mine. Neither of them had served in the armed forces. “I ran this for my father, who is retired Air Force,” the woman said. “He served in the Korean War.” Her partner said he has several members of his family who served their country, one who is on active duty and has served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I wanted to do this to honor those in my family who have served and for those who are still out there fighting for us,” he said.
Though one of my nephews has served in Afghanistan, my initial motivation for running in this road race started with my father and father-in-law. My dad served in the Navy, while my wife’s father was in the Army. Both served during World War II, one in the Pacific and the other in Europe. Both men are now deceased, but rarely does a day pass that I don’t think about one or both of them and the sacrifices they and hundreds of thousands of others have made and continue to make, and I pray that ultimate gift will not go wasted by me or my family.
There are a couple of scenes toward the end of Saving Private Ryan that bring tears to my eyes no matter how many times I see it, and I’ve watched the movie many times. The first is when Captain Miller is near death after being wounded in a fierce battle with the Germans. Ryan is kneeling down to try and comfort Miller. Miller’s last words before he dies: “James, earn this… earn it.” That scene is followed by a return to the opening scene at the hundreds of grave markers near Normandy, France, where a much older James Ryan is with his family as he stands in front of Captain Miller’s marker. He starts to cry. His wife walks up beside him. He looks at her and says, “Tell me I have led a good life. Tell me I’m a good man.”
“You are,” his wife replies. He then gathers himself, stands at attention facing the Captain’s marker and salutes as the scene fades to an American flag flying in a breeze.
I can’t say whether I have “earned” anything, much less whether I have led a “good life.” I’ll leave that to others to determine. I do know that even though my time wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped last Saturday, I never felt more relaxed while running a road race. Perhaps, my father and father-in-law had something to do with generating that sense of well being that I enjoyed for most of that 32-minute journey.
Thank you, Bill Cregar, Stan Coulter, and all veterans.
Editor's note: Cregar is a freelance reporter for scrunners.com. This column is views of solely himself.