Plymouth Man Wins Boston Marathon Shadow Run

The Department of State’s Josh Peterson of Plymouth was the first of 600 runners to cross the finish line in the Boston Marathon Shadow Run at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, on Friday.

Peterson finished the course in an impressive two hours, 39 minutes, and 10 seconds. It was a person record for Peterson, who was running his ninth marathon, according to a story from the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution Service. He beat his previous personal record, set in Athens, Greece, by 45 seconds, despite an early morning start time.

"The timing of the race was the most difficult part for me,” Peterson said. “The 3 a.m. start time really messes with your sleep cycle; you have to decide whether you want to stay awake or try to catch some sleep before the race."

Aside from the dangers of running a marathon in hostile zone, all the other conditions for the race were ideal, with a starting temperature of 58 degrees with very little wind as the runners began the race and only increased five degrees as the final runner crossed the finish line.

The first Boston Marathon Shadow Race was held in 2005 and was founded by U.S. Army Lt. Col. Rodney Freeman, who currently serves in the New Hampshire Army National Guard, where he is part of the adjutant general’s executive staff.

Freeman was training to run the Boston Marathon in 2005 when his unit was deployed to Iraq in 2004.

“Not being able to run Boston in 2005, I contacted the Boston Athletic Association in February of 2005 to tell them that we were planning a small marathon in Iraq on Patriots' Day,” he said. “They responded with medals, T-shirts and all the other stuff that we needed to hold a marathon in Iraq.”

This year, U.S. Army Chaplain (Capt.) Lukasz Willenberg, the chaplain for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mtn. Div., was the driving force in bringing the Boston Marathon Shadow Run to Afghanistan.

He ran in the Boston Marathon for the last four years and was planning to run in 2014, when he learned he would be deploying to Afghanistan.

Willenberg contacted the BAA and the administration was again very helpful in establishing the only 2014 Official Boston Marathon Shadow Run. The entire 10th Mtn. Div. chain of command was also extremely supportive of setting up the marathon.