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Sunday, July 3, 2005
Peachtree Road Race — Baghdad style
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Liberty, Iraq - The temperature at dawn Sunday in Baghdad was 85 degrees, but I got inspired and decided to run the Peachtree Road Race at Camp Liberty with about 600 other runners, most of them members of the armed forces. (Photos)
The circular route went around a man-made lake where one of Saddam’s former palaces is located, along with a half-dozen majestic marble homes. The palace was intact - but most of the other buildings in the compound had one or two massive holes in the roof or walls from American bombs.
“We really (messed) that place up!” said Capt. Josie Hobbs, 39, of Rex, admiring the precision devastation after the race.
I couldn’t help wondering what Saddam would think of the spectacle.
Imprisoned at Camp Cropper, a high-security facility along the 10K route, he might have been able to watch flag-draped American soldiers running around celebrating the July 4 holiday, albeit a day early. On other days, he might see off-duty soldiers fishing in his lake. (They sell rods and reels for that purpose in the Liberty PX.) That’s got to hurt the old hit man.
Unlike the real Peachtree Road Race, the Baghdad 10K course is pancake flat. There’s no shade, but there’s no “Heartbreak Hill” either. The few spectators don’t flash runners, and no one plays music on the sidewalk, drinks beer or acts foolish. And there aren’t 55,000 pairs of running shoes beating the pavement.
In fact, with most of the younger and faster soldiers running way out ahead of me, the Baghdad run was a largely solitary affair.
Organizers had expected about 200 runners, but three times that many showed up. Some, like 1st Sgt. Barry Smallwood of Griffin, were running their first Peachtree. Others were veterans like Col. Dan Kornacki of Peachtree City who ran his 13th consecutive road race, but his first in Baghdad.
This is the second running of the Baghdad race and organizers promised an even bigger and better event next year. That’s a worthy goal, but personally I hope they have a much smaller pool of Americans here to draw from - like, say, none.
Organizers didn’t have enough T-shirts for everyone this year, but they took down the names and e-mail addresses of all participants and promised to mail them to all who ran.
I’ve already got a pair of road race T-shirts in my dresser at home. But I know this year’s model with “Baghdad Division” on the sleeve will be my most prized.
From the Absurdity File
I ran afoul of Army intelligence officials when I mentioned in a blog two weeks ago that Saddam Hussein is being held at Camp Cropper, a walled prison at Baghdad International Airport. Apparently, Army security experts are unaware, or don’t care, that Google turns up 9,350 items listing the former dictator’s whereabouts. With this posting, that number should rise to 9,351.
The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division summoned photographer Curtis Compton and me to Baghdad to pick up a vitally important media credential that would allow us to get on and off Army bases in Iraq. Never mind that we’ve been doing exactly that for many weeks without the vitally important media credential. After scheduling, then canceling, multiple appointments to pick up the credential, Army bureaucrats apparently lost interest and we returned to the field. Now, however, they tell us we may not be able to leave the country without the mysterious piece of paper that supposedly proves we were here.
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