National Guard Soldiers Run to Qualify for the All Guard Marathon Team
This past May, 143 Army National Guard Soldiers from around the country burned up a marathon course running amidst 12,000 civilians at the Lincoln Track Club in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Lincoln National Guard Marathon – a public marathon that is funded, in part, by the State of Nebraska – serves as the only qualifying marathon for the All Guard Marathon Team.
“The program encourages and enhances the National Guard’s [recruitment and] retention program mainly by instilling physical fitness and self-discipline and esprit de corps,” said SFC Christopher Sterns, the marathon’s coordinator with the Nebraska Army National Guard’s Joint Force Headquarters.
In an average year, just over 60 male and female Soldiers make the team, SFC Sterns said. The team competes in several marathons throughout the year in an effort to promote just some of the many benefits related to serving with the Army National Guard.
Each year, States and Territories send National Guard athletic teams to compete in the Lincoln Marathon. Those with the fastest times join the All Guard team.
“They are competing for 61 slots,” SFC Sterns explained. “We choose the top fastest 40 males and the top 15 females. Then we have three male Masters [Soldiers over the age of 40] and three female Masters.”
To qualify for the Lincoln Marathon, male Soldiers under the age of 40 must have run a recognized marathon, taking place in the 18 months prior to the Lincoln Marathon, in under four hours. For women and Masters, the time requirement is 4 hours 30 minutes.
SFC Sterns said part of his role is to notify State coordinators about the number of competitive slots available for their State.
“I send out State rosters in December of each year saying, ‘Hey, you need to start building your team,’” he said. “I tell them how many Soldiers the marathon program can fund. The program will fund [Soldiers] to come to Lincoln and run. Some States really believe in the program and they will fund people past what we can fund.”
The 26.2-mile race starts and ends at the University of Nebraska – specifically at the Lincoln Football Stadium. The race course winds through a significant portion of the city, then wraps back around to end on the 50-yard line.
During the race, runners get an up-close-and-personal tour of Lincoln, Nebraska. They pass by both urban and suburban scenes, run across college and high school campuses and even stride past the State capitol and the city’s zoo.
This year, leading the pack of National Guard qualifiers were CPT Kenneth Raynor and CPT Kimberly Quinn, who came in first place for the male and female categories, respectively. They are now both on the 2018 All Guard Marathon Team. This year’s win marks a first for CPT Quinn, while CPT Raynor is an old pro when it comes to running on the All Guard team.
First Place Winner, National Guard Men’s Category
CPT Kenneth Raynor, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 74th Troop Command, D.C. Army National Guard
Running Time: 2:38:55
CPT Raynor came to run at the 2018 Lincoln marathon, sent by the Washington, D.C. Army National Guard. It was the fifth year he had run the race and the third time he had come in first among National Guard contenders. The Lincoln marathon marked CPT Raynor’s 16th completed marathon. He came in sixth place overall – just 9 minutes 18 seconds behind the overall winner, a civilian by the name of Geofrey Terer.
CPT Raynor has been a member of the All Guard Marathon Team for five years and has been a competitive runner since high school. His civilian job is in law enforcement. He simultaneously began both his law enforcement and military careers right out of college. He said he realized that being part of a police force and being part of the Guard meshed well for him.
“I definitely thought of different avenues, but I think the challenge of [doing both] was really big for me,” CPT Raynor commented. “I felt like, physically and mentally, law enforcement and the military gave me that opportunity to challenge myself more than anything else. The military gave me that good balance to start with and that really helped me in law enforcement. Having that base of fitness and military toughness from being in the Guard helped me.”
When talking about this year’s marathon, CPT Raynor said the course has not changed much over the years he has participated. He describes it as mostly flat, except for some slight elevations towards the end, with little shade. The warm May temperatures can make the last miles of the marathon particularly grueling, he said.
“The route is good,” CPT Raynor noted. “But there’s no shade, so by the time you get to the second half of the race, the heat gets really bad. It’s tough. It definitely heats up.”
CPT Raynor noted that in recent years warm run days have been the rule in Lincoln, rather than the exception.
“A May race is usually pretty tough, especially when there is no shade and the sun’s out,” he said. “This is probably the hottest year we’ve had, but it’s been hot four out of five [years]. The last year it was cool was 2013, when it was around 40 degrees. It’s been tough for a lot of Soldiers, especially for these guys that are doing their first marathon in that kind of weather.”
CPT Raynor went on to note the wave of support from local residents, who came out in droves to cheer on all the runners.
“It is a cool city,” CPT Raynor recalled. “I think it has a good feel to it. The community is really, really into it, especially for a race of that size. It seemed like the whole community was out there. It’s a great place to hold the marathon.”
First Place Winner, National Guard Women’s Category
CPT Kimberly Quinn, Range Officer, Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, Florida Army National Guard
Running Time: 3:11:29
CPT Quinn also expressed a sense of appreciation for the supportive nature of the Lincoln city residents.
“Lincoln, Nebraska is awesome!” she said. “The community out there supports the National Guard. There were patriots lining the street the entire way and it was incredible. It’s beautiful. I just ran the whole time thanking people. It was amazing.”
CPT Quinn is one half of an Army National Guard power couple. Together with her husband CPT Ryan Quinn – a regionally recognized racecar-drifting driver – the Quinns work hard to support each other’s passions and to support the recruiting and retention efforts of the Florida Army National Guard.
Being a member of an initiative that works in direct support of the National Guard’s recruitment and retention program is a perfect fit for CPT Quinn, but making the team was no easy feat as the Lincoln race was just her second marathon. She had raced only once before in Clearwater, Florida, to qualify for the Lincoln contest. An obvious natural for the sport, she placed fourth out of all female runners in the Lincoln marathon.
While she may possess a natural propensity for running, placing in the top four at a national-level marathon did not come by luck. CPT Quinn explained that she at first had a love-hate relationship for the training required to enter the marathons.
“I found out [there was a chance I could make the State team] last October and I started training last October,” she recalled. “My first race was in January. To train for that marathon, I was running once a week. I ran up to 21 miles. I would do one run a week and the rest of the week was weightlifting and cross-training.”
She said her training was a bit of a trial-and-error experience. The final miles in Clearwater showed her that she needed to move her training up a notch.
She laughed about it in retrospect.
“I despise the fact that it hurt really, really, really bad,” she said. “It worked, because I qualified – I had like a three-and-a-half-hour [race] time. It just hurt really badly, especially the last mile. My legs were just in complete and utter pain.”
When she was chosen for the State team, she decided to devote more time to training. She started running six days a week. The increased training paid off. In Lincoln, CPT Quinn still had plenty of gas in her tank as she approached the end of the race. She actually sprinted toward the finish line.
“I felt so good,” she said. It was really hard to find my pace to keep from setting myself up. That was the hardest part—knowing how hard to push myself.”
Being on the All Guard Marathon Team also gives CPT Quinn the opportunity to work on another important Army National Guard initiative. CPT Quinn regularly scores 300-plus on her Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and she wants to see her fellow Soldiers excel in this area as well. As she explained, physical fitness is not only important for personal development, but for the health of the Guard as a whole.
“We need people to be healthy so that they can continue to fight and win our Nation’s wars – and not necessarily just for our wartime missions, but for peacetime missions and to serve in times of natural disasters. We have to be a fit force. The health of our Nation is important. This marathon team allows me a platform to speak to that threat.”
By Staff Writer Matthew Liptak
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