Bataan Memorial Death March

Posted by E-George on March 29, 2008

Once again, it’s time for the Bataan Memorial Death March, and once again, I will be cheering everyone on from the safety and comfort of my couch. For those not familiar, the short history of the Bataan Death March is that there was a large sum of American and Philippino soldiers who were defending the islands of Luzon, Corregidor, and harbor forts of the Philippines from the Japanese in WWII. An estimated 90,000-100,000 of these soldiers were surrendered to Japanese forces, and were forcibly transfered by marching through the jungles, enduring unspeakable tortures. Of the estimated 54,000 of the 72,000 soldiers who survived the march, they were subjected to the known atrocities of Japanese prisoner of war camps. Within these ranks of soldiers was a large population from New Mexico. Wikipedia has a very excellent entry on this event.

The Memorial Death March through a 26.2 mile route through the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, and is designed to honor all of those fallen soldiers, but more expressly to honor those of New Mexico who perished so brutally.

Marching heavy this year, we have our favorite Iraq war veteran, Noah. He’ll be marching with his 35-lb pack requirements, doing the full 26.2 mile route. Usually, he comes out of this with full-sole blisters, and the inability to walk without looking like an ape with a banana stuck up its tailpipe for the next 5 days.

Marching light this year, we have our favorite Kansas refugee, Emily. She’ll be marching without any additional pack weight, and she hasn’t yet determined if she’ll go the full 26.2 miles. I suspect she will – she has every year she’s participated. She usually comes out of this the best of everyone and is pirouetting to the car the next morning planning for next year. This could also be the result of being a mother of 3 boys 5-years-old and under.

Also marching light this year, we have our favorite wife of the Magdalena law, Sarah. She’ll be doing the 15-mile route, which is deeply commendable, given the terrain of the course. She also comes out of this very well. But, she’s always been the picture of grace an aplomb. The worst she may mutter is something about being a little sore.

Volunteering is Emily’s husband, and fellow Iraq war veteran, Joe, who is set to man the lost-and-found booth from 5:00am – 9:00am (or something like that).

On baby watch is Larry, Dad, and Darlene who are set to watch festivities kick off, and then be entertained by Anah until everyone crosses the line. Also on baby watch is Mom, who is watching the Cable Crew at her house so Emily and Joe can participate. Three cheers for the baby watchers! They have, in my opinion, the toughest job of everyone.

Abstaining this year would be myself, which is an annual tradition on my part; Matthew, who is so completely slogged with work and school that I’m not entirely sure knows what day of the week it is; Nathan, who is training for other athletic endeavors; and Vanessa, who is also training to kick butt up and down the athletic circuit.

I’ll post the results for our marchers tomorrow, later in the afternoon when everyone has pulled themselves across using the remaining stamina in their elbows.

*** Updated, 4/1/08 ***
Turns out the race results must be manually posted because it’s taken until just now to get ‘em.

Place	Name	Guntime	Chptime	Pace	Bib #
151	NOAH BERG	9:16:58	8:51:18	20:16	2581
328	EMILY CABLE	9:16:58	9:05:43	20:49	2647
439	SARAH CEARLEY	6:11:07			2668

I guess they only track the results for the full 26.2 mile route, but that makes them stupid. Sarah walked the 15-mile route and I applaud the determination to do so. If someone asked me to do so any 15 consecutive things (like walking 15 miles), I’d probably puke on their shoes as a form of politely declining.

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