Thursday's run

I usally do not run on Thursdays. It is a BodyPump day, but I missed yesterday and was anxious for a run. I talked my husband into planning to be home till 0830 so that I could run for an hour. My baby kept waking up from 5am on, but I still got out the door at 0740. It is a beautiful day-- Fort Knox, Kentucky- a place I never would have chosen, but God put me here for a reason. I start out my normal route headed to the front entrance with railroad tracks and a road to keep me on the straight and narrow. It is my normal 4.5 mile run and my body kicked into a familiar pace. I try to pray on these runs for my family and did a little bit. On the way back I noticed up armored Humvees headed my way. I was in the Army from 1990-1996 and this is a training post that does not send large units off to war. I looked up at these soldiers manning machine guns on the top and fully realized we are in the midst of a long drawn out war. Please no politics here-- I have never been for invading Iraq, but am sure our soldiers are doing their best and need our full support. I guess I just felt really sad knowing that we're no longer playing cold war games or playing war games in the desert. These soldiers really need these heavy weapons on their vehicles. The Army I was in just seemed safer than this though we did invade Panama and fight Desert Storm while I was in. Is it because I'm a Mom now and my children may follow their parents to the military? Last year we had Thanksgiving Dinner in the mess hall with a bunch of new enlistees going through Basic Training. They were carrying their weapons with them inside and everywhere. That is also new to me. We always left them in the Arms room or one soldier would guard them outside while everyone ate. On Monday morning there were hundreds of these basic trainees running down my street (their Commander lives on my street). It was loud, they were yelling and happy, they were a unit. I looked out my window and could see the stragglers being helped along the end of the formation run. Running really builds stamina, esprit de corps, and whether they were ever runners before, they are now. We were assigned to the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) for 5 years and the cadets always ran by our house. They seemed so young and carefree. I'm going to add soldiers to my morning prayer time on a run or not.