Run the Gulf

It was brought to my attention that I haven’t written in a while… oops, my bad.

Things are getting really Groundhog Day-y out here, every day revolving around working out and dieting, with a break for shower, and sitting on watch not doing much of anything useful. I haven’t had a lot of time or energy to put into anything even remotely interesting. Except once a week I work with the mail department and absolutely love it. And they love me back. However, my feet and my lower back do not participate in the love-fest.  

So anyways, Run the Gulf is a program put on by our morale department. The Persian Gulf, where we are currently annoying other countries, is 615 miles across. Okay, okay, 618 to be exact, but what is it they say? “Good Enough for Government Work”? Yeah, that. ANY-ways, point being, it’s something they do on deployments. Track your mileage, make the goal, get a free teeshirt and I dunno, a pat on the back or an atta-girl or something.

I was already methodically tracking every step I take on an exercise machine, because I tend to be obsessive about statistics. For example, I have already run about 120 miles since we left WA. Considering we’ve been gone for three months, I’ve really been slacking. The RTG program only started about a week ago, and at my current pace—if my memory serves, which it may not—I average about five miles a day. At that rate, it will take about 120 days [three months] to meet this goal of 615 miles across the metaphorical gulf. It’s a good thing they gave us the rest of deployment to run!

Some of you may be really confused right now. I hate running. Loathe. Despise. Someone give me a thesaurus, I’m not done expressing emotion. But you know what, I gotta keep it up. I have to keep going. So, at least this gives me 1) a clear and concise goal with a tangible reward at a concrete end; as well as 2) a very visual mental image to encourage me. I’ve already noticed an improvement… like the day I totaled over 8 miles. Guys, EIGHT MILES. In ONE DAY. For NO REASON. What is happening to me?? There’s no zombies behind me, nor chocolate cake or beer in front of me… what reason do I have to run? Well… just to say I did, I suppose. It’ll make a good story one day, right?