17th Annual Bataan Death March, March 26th, 2006.

White Sands Missile Base, New Mexico.

Al Harman

This race completes my marathon a month, consecutively, for a total of 2 years, starting in Boston in April of 2004!

This looked like a tough race. There is a _support_ mail list of people who have previously run it, for those running it this year. It sounded very tough with the sand pit at 22 miles. I said I would take it easy, running fewer early 4:30 am races. No such luck on this one. Another 3 days of 4:30s.

PRE-RACE

I woke up at 4:30, an hour late, instead of 3:30. To get to New Mexico (NM), I have to fly out of Seattle using Southwest. I drove down to the border, pretty much without problem, on a Saturday morning. The border crossing was easy, but I did get a strange look, as usual - a marathon in NM?

I was really pushing it, going about 120-140km/hr. Only 20 minutes N of Seattle I got caught. I knew it too, the car looked strange. Luckily I was only going 78 mph. But the 70 zone is a 60 because they are fixing the shoulder. This was at 6:00 am on a Saturday morning! Shit. <20 minutes later I was entering Seattle at 60mph, easily being passed by everyone. Hello? So $160 WA highway tax for Canadians. The cop was videoing me, but I was really polite and admitted I was going a little fast, because I was on my way to the airport. He processed me fairly quickly. Losing about 10 minutes.

Hoping to hit the airport, no such luck, the airport is on the far side of Seattle - south, so an extra 10km. Luckily it was only about 2 mi off the highway, so not too bad. I looked for the offsite parking that Scotty told me about, but couldn’t find it. I found a cell phone pickup parking lot. I knocked on the door of a guy waiting, he was just reading a book. Some people are so bloody dense, it took 5 minutes to establish this was a rendezvous for people picking up arrivals, not vans picking up departures. So I had to go and park right at the terminal at $30/day. Ouch.

Southwest has an interesting boarding routine: A, B & C, based on when you got there to check in. I used the auto check in with carry on, which went really quick. Security was long but efficient, and I got to the gate about 10 minutes before boarding. There are no seating arrangements, basically the A line boards first, and gets to pick their seats, B next, and C gets the worst. I was at the end of the C line. The bad news is I forgot my sandals under the seat, with no way of them knowing who was sitting there, because there are no seat assignments. The flight was cheap though, and they cover West and Southern US.

I arrived in Phoenix. Interesting place: desert with sharp mountains (the Rockies actually). I flew over the dome used for baseball. We were so close I could read the signs and ads inside. Lots of green fields in that desert - crops?

Then I flew to El Paso TX. Got there pretty much on time. Why making the flight was important, was picking up our race #s on Saturday, saving a night’s hotel, and I was meeting Don from Chicago at my gate. He had rented the car, and was driving us to Las Cruces NM, an hour away. So the travel was tricky.

I got to El Paso, very quiet airport, but a very spread out town. The flight over the mnts near El Paso was real choppy, like Calgary. We got our car and drove to the base first. The race was held at the White Sands Missile Range. We passed security and picked up our packages. Then drove another hour to the nearest town, Las Cruces, near the Alamogordo test site where the a-bomb was tested. The drive near the base was like CFB Suffield in Medicine Hat, where the tank range is - there are gazelle at Suffield. Somehow Don spotted this thing, I thought it was an ibex, but it was an ORECK. Our gazelles are like a thin looking dear, with smaller gentle horns, and fast. New Mexico’s Orrick is like a horse, with very long twisty horns, a bigger stronger animal. Totally blends in with the terrain. Very cool.

The hotel was good, it was about $100 each for 2 days. This was Don’s 12th marathon, he is an ex-marine from Chicago, 48 years old and in good shape. Very nice guy.

RACE DAY PRE-RACE

So we had to wake up about 4am, again; and drive to the base. The start was as expected, very formal, military marching and stuff. Bugles. It was the only race, as a runner, I felt out of place. Everyone kept looking at us. We were in racing gear, very light, for this desert race. Everyone else was in full military dress. Really weird. There were about 200 runners, and 3,500 military participants. It is called a March.

There are 2 categories, 2 types of participants and 2 distances. Confused? There is a civilian and military, 26 miles or 15 miles and light vs. heavy. Most of the military were heavy, most of the civilians were light. And most of both were 26 miles. The heavy category is carrying a 35 or 50 pound pack, in full dress. The military light is just full dress: long sleeved shirt, long pants, army boots, full canteen. The heavy was this plus the big pack, which were all weighed before the start.

They called the roll from last year, which was 8 people, of which only 3 answered (5 died last year). These are the veterans from the Real death march. After the surrender of Bataan, in the Philippines, after fighting for 3 months, the allies (in Bataan), mostly Americans, surrendered. The Japanese forced these guys to march up to 30 miles over a 7 day period without support (and they even had US trucks, that they chose not to use). If you dropped off you were beaten or killed. Similar marches happened from Corregedor and other places, like Hong Kong where the Winnipeg rifles were stationed. I think Singapore was the largest surrender, of British and other empire countries, over 100,000. The Japanese would kill their own troops if they surrendered and were later re-captured; so you can imagine what they thought of enemy soldiers who surrendered, esp those that surrendered without a fight (Singapore).

In Bataan, they fought. But being cut off from everywhere - the US fleet was gone, because Pearl Harbor was 2 weeks before, and 90% of the Royal Navy was moved back to the Home fleet (in the north sea to prevent a German invasion) 1-2 years before in 1939-1940 (Pearl Harbor was dec 41). The Japanese had sunk the two large British ships that still remained in Asia, a huge setback - the Prince of Wales was one of them. So they were all cut off. The artillery in Bataan only had 17 second fuses (dictating the altitude they exploded at). So once the Japanese figured that out, their bombers could fly and never be touched, avoiding the altitude for that fuse. The unit from New Mexico was actually the artillery unit.

The start line had tents all over the place, where marchers had slept, and there was a lot of race food available before the race - orange juice (iced up), yogurt, and [not enough] coffee. It was interesting to be fed right before the race. They kinda had this backwards, but it was probably a good idea as most people were marching.

RACE

The race left in 4 waves, the injured, the lights, the heavies and then the 15 milers. So the guys with artificial limbs and those maimed in wars, like Iraq, marched by first (I don’t think they did the race). The gun went off. Now what normally happens is the gun goes off and everyone tears off like crazy. Not in this race, this race was very different. Everyone walked. Then you got in a line, and there were about 10 old guys spread out sitting in chairs. Everyone stopped and talked to them and shook their hands. These were the survivors of Bataan (3), plus local ww2 veterans who served in other places. An officer was well in front of these guys telling us not to stop and shake Every one of their hands, so I just shook one. THEN we crossed the start line, and the race was on. There was chip timing (your time starts when you cross the matt), so it didn’t matter how long it took to get to the start line, which was perfect.

I had previously duct-taped one of my runners last week to test it out, to see if it kept the sand out. Jesper from Denmark, the guy who ran around the world, who I ran with last May, was in Vancouver the night before I left. I spoke with him until 11:30 pm, which is why I woke up late at 3:30 am the next day. He had told me last year that in the Sahara a friend of his duct-taped his shoes to keep out the sand. I had opted not to do this, after the test. It was the right choice. I instead opted to run with my light trail runners, that has a poly sock like layer that is quite solid (no holes), and a double layered/stitched set of socks (two socks are stitched together). As it turned out my feet are fine, and I only had to stop once to clear out my shoes, at about 22 miles.

This was an incredibly hard race, I have no idea how these guys did the course in full uniform, ESPECIALLY THE TWO GUYS THAT PASSED ME!!!! In the end I was leap frogging one guy from a german unit, and I finally passed him, but I couldn’t catch the other guy. They were obviously in incredible shape. The hills are how they did it, it was a slow course.

So the first 4 miles or so was a dirt road, in the desert. I was running with a girl from Maryland, but she turned out to be doing the 15 mile course, which is why she was so fast. And I ran with Don for about 3 miles. Very bleak desert, cold in the morning, and the sun was out by the start. About 70 degrees or so? Maybe a little colder. It was perfect. Such a good call to bring a hat. In the dark I wasn’t sure., but I brought it anyway. The bad call was not carrying water, I thought with 12 aid stations it would be enough. It wasn’t!

We turned off this very nice, soft, dirt and sand road, and moved onto pavement. Lots of military police driving around in 4 wheelers. This is where I caught most of the military guys, except for one guy. Remember these guys are in boots, running with the rest of us civilians, and I am in trail runners. I was running slow, about an 8 min pace, because I know we have this wicked 1,200-1,800 foot hill up ahead, as we go around a mnt. We hit the road and left the base and I was glad I didn’t tape my shoes. The wind really picked up and we were surrounded by [parks], wardens in 4 wheelers. The support was excellent, with people handing out water, but they were only handing out small cups. I took 2 each stop. They had water tankers, which were really designed for the military guys to FILL UP their water bladders. I should have carried a bottle, esp with the slower pace I was doing. I passed the german support team on the highway setting up their station, and complained that they

didn’t have the beer ready for me yet.

Half way up the road they had a tanker truck shooting out cold mist, which was great. Then the hill got really steep and this is where the german passed me again. We finally veered off the highway and back onto dirt and sand roads. Holy crap was it steep, and very very tough. Now it was about 7-8am and it was getting really hot with the sun coming out. The wind was really strong too. So it was slow going in the sand, and it was tough. A girl passed me, obviously a tough lady. The wind was good because it was cooling, taking away the sweat, to unclog the pours, but it was hard running against it. I prefer it, versus no wind. The other problem is you don’t feel like you are sweating at all, since the strong wind, with the heat, is taking it all away. I was thirsty pretty much the whole race. I entered the aid station parched, and right after downing the 2nd cup, I was still parched. The only time I wasn’t parched, was in the seconds it took to drink 2 cups.

We finally headed down the mountain pass, and I cracked a joke to the crew of an aid station. It was fun. I had to take two breaks due to the Mexican food the previous night. Big mistake. I was carrying an extra gurgling pound for 13 miles. Ouch. I started to leapfrog the one woman and finally caught the german on the downhill. I was leapfrogging this guy that looked like an ex-military guy, but I think he left me in the dust.

There were small signs showing the miles, every mile, but there were several courses, and the 15 mile blue course was new this year, so it was a bit messed up, especially when you are sweating and parched. I finally left the sand and hit the highway again and ran downhill into the ever present wind, again. All the heavies were marching up the hill with their huge packs. Poor bastards, almost 3 hours, and I’m at 19 miles and they aren’t even half done, and have just started climbing the 5+ mile hill with 18 miles to go. The winning time for the heavies was 6 hours, the average was around 9 hours. I was energized and was high-fiving, the encouragement going back and forth. It was great. At the airport the next day I talked to the limping military guys in sandals that flooded the airport. Some of them were not too happy with us lights _skipping_ down the hill while they were humping up it.

So we were headed back to the base, when all of a sudden we turned 90 right, and headed away from the base. Hmmmmmm. The mile markers seemed to be getting further apart, and it was really getting hot as we passed the 3 hour mark. Not too many people around me, only the slower 15 milers that I was passing. No 26 milers. There was a blue and green training course, and it said 4.5 and 3 miles, the signs were large, and were dropping in miles. The real signs were small brown signs that Increased, 22,23,24. So it was confusing. I was walking more. Then we hit the sand pit. I had to move sideways a lot as I passed 15 mile walkers.

The sand pit wasn’t as bad as I thought, it wasn’t deep sand, but it was still pretty bad. At 22-23 miles, it was 2-3 times deeper than a sand road, so maybe 3 inches or so, so fairly deep beach sand type depth. Almost impossible to really run on, especially when tired. It was hard. Luckily it only lasted about a mile, and then I emptied my shoes. The roads were also plowed, so you could see neat piles on either side of the road, like a snow plow, you know what that looks like, a sharp edge of snow on either side. Same thing, but sand. I tried to stay on the more compressed sand where the MPs were driving their 4 wheelers. I did get one of them to stop and give me some water, so that was great, esp since I saw a cooler on the back,. Their water was COLD!!!!

The going got very rough at 3hrs30, and I saw the missile farm and thought, only a mile left. We were turning back left gradually, with gentle sloping hills on dirt. Then all of a sudden another 90 right again, away from the base. It was still 3 miles out. We ran around the base accommodations, which was surrounded by a 3 foot stone wall, an infinite stonewall. The course kept turning around this wall, but I could never see where I was headed. I was pretty much alone at this point, but later Don told me he and another girl could see me and were using me to try and make a good pace,. I had slowed to a 12 min mile, which is slow, because of the walking. It was really hard to start up again in the dirt and sun.

There was a huge water tower that we ran to, and this is where I lost them (I found out later). Then out of nowhere I hit another brown water tower (these things were big, 10 stories or so), which somehow I didn’t see. I thought I had run into the first tower again, and somehow got lost. I was very thankful that the water stops were close together near the end. Some races have no water in the last 3 miles, this race had a water stop at 25 miles, which was perfect, because I was pretty much done at 24 miles. Later we found out that heavies were being pulled off the course at 24 miles in the dark - 6:30 am - 9pm, that’s a long day with a 50lb pack, in the desert.

FINISH

Eventually I hit the 26 mile mark, came around the corner and saw the finish line only 300 yards away. I finished alone, thru the crowd, which was great. I crossed the carpet and was directed to an old guy sitting alone in the middle of the finish area. Even though I was tired, and parched, I stopped to talk to the veteran, and he wouldn’t let go of my hand. So that was pretty cool. Eventually he let me get some water and I sat down at the finish line to empty my shoes. A doctor came to check me out (why was I on the ground?). I wasn’t dizzy, probably because I had done a slow 12 min mile the last two miles. I could really feel the heat. I also had something really strange going on - my hands were swollen. The fingers, the lower joints next to the knuckles were so swollen that I could barely bend my fingers. I had someone else tell me this happened to them too - they were trying to get some gel out but they couldn’t get it open because they couldn’t put their fingers

together. The doc said it was some kind of cramping. Weird hey?

Later I discovered my neck, back, and back of my knees were burnt to shit. I had covered my nose and ears, but in the dark of 5am, you just don’t think of these things. We were lucky that there was intermittent cloud for an hour. One of the locals said there was a wicked sand storm the previous week, so much that you couldn’t see the tops of the mnts for the sand. So I should also have carried a bandana for my face.

I finished at about a 9 min mile ave, at 4 hours and 5 minutes, 27th place (out of 1,110 civilians). So I’m happy with that. No finisher medal, but I got a finisher dog tag instead. Is that cool or what?!!

POST RACE

They had beer and burgers, no whimpy runners post race food - yogurt etc. Just real mans food.

I don’t think I’ll be doing that next year! I’m glad I did it. I went out too fast at a 7:30-40 pace, but went up the hill well. I should have carried a water bottle, that would have helped the last 2 miles, and I should have had sunscreen on my back and neck. Those two military guys blew me away, running as fast, with boots and full clothing. One guy tried to tell me it was cooler to wear the full gear. I said - hey whatever gets you mentally thru it ;-). There is no way it is cooler than a racing singlet, my system worked well, showing almost no sweat. Plus I had no salt lines, and everyone else did, which showed I was hydrating well, and my electrolytes were working well. I didn’t cramp. There were a lot of very sore guys crossing the finish line (blisters). We watched the military lights come in up to 6 hours and 30 minutes, talking to parents and other spectators. Great race.

One guy I talked to, who just beat me, or finished just behind me? It was his first marathon. Nuts!