ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- 1st Lt. Bradley Chronister has been selected to represent the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) at the Air Force Marathon as a part of the men's half marathon team.
The marathon is scheduled for Sept. 17 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force located on Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Lieutenant Chronister, project manager in the Investments Branch, responded to an e-mail sent out earlier this year from Ron Stephenson at the fitness center asking if anyone was interested in running for the AFMC team.
"I wanted to pursue competitive running again," Lieutenant Chronister said. "I already planned on doing the Air Force marathon so I applied. There's an established system in the Air Force for requesting what they call 'specialized sports training.' You just list information on your past performances on a standard form, then Services submits it to Headquarters. I put down all the races I had done in the last two years or so. A few weeks later they informed me that I was selected."
The following individuals have been selected to represent the command at the marathon:
Men's Full Marathon
· Maj. Derek Speten, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
· Capt. Joshua Stoley, Edwards AFB, Calif.
· Capt. Justin Manganaro, Eglin AFB, Fla.
· Master Sgt. Thomas Smith, Hill AFB, Utah
Men's Half Marathon
· Maj. Lance Campbell, Eglin AFB, Fla.
· 1st Lt. Bradley Chronister, Arnold AFB, Tenn.
·Airman 1st Class Monte Murillo, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
· Airman 1st Class Joseph Medley, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
Lieutenant Chronister said he has a pretty simple training philosophy - "just run a bunch of miles and try to mix in a couple faster runs every week."
"There's really not much of a trick to running endurance races," he said. "Like anything else it just takes a lot of long, boring practice. The tough part is ignoring that internal voice that tells you to lay off for a day or cut a run short. Once I've established a good endurance base, I try and mix in some speed work on the track, but there's not much speed involved in a race this distance. It's mainly just getting used to running a faster pace."
For the September race, the lieutenant has yet to set his goals or expectations.
"After the holidays I thought under 1:10 was realistic, but I lost a couple months due to injury and I'm not sure that's attainable right now," he said. "On the other hand, I still have about six solid training weeks until the race. There will be some very fast runners up there to help pull me along, so that's probably the pace I'll try to keep."
As part of the AFMC team, members' participation can earn points tallied toward the Major Command Challenge. The winning command earns possession of a prestigious traveling trophy.
The top male and female Air Force finishers in all age groups and both the half- and full-marathon races earn points for their commands.
The MAJCOM Challenge is an Air Force-wide competition open to active-duty and activated Guard and Reserve service members.
The challenge pits uniformed members of the service against one another in a friendly competition determined by participation points and race performance.
Now in its fifth year, the MAJCOM Challenge was established to boost involvement in the marathon. The point system rewards commands for their percentage growth in active-duty or activated military participation based on MAJCOM population.