Just a quick post to say thank you to all of the support participants from W4OVH that joined in with the Prince William County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (PWCARES) team to help support the Marine Corp Marathon (MCM) Organizations simultaneous Quantico Triathlon and Quantico 12K Run. Although David Lane, KG4GIY was unable to be present for the event, he planned and developed the support effort and turned the final implementation over to Greg Gresham, KM4CCG and myself and we had the easy task of working with our outstanding support volunteer team to make it all happen.
The Triathlon and 12K Run was a success with more than eleven hundred participants starting their respective events by either jumping into the Potomac for the 750 meter swim or starting off on a 12K run through historically named trails like Tarawa trail, Iwo Jima Trail, and others on the grounds of the Quantico Marine Corps Officers Candidate School in the woods of the Quantico base.
From twelve year old children to adults, the participants enjoyed the physical challenge, beautiful weather and our PWCARES and W4OVH members ensured the trails and road courses were safe and participants had constant support via ham radio communications to ensure the safety and security overwatch during their event participation.
Our collective team was there from “o’dark thirty“, the military slang for getting up well before sunrise, to after noon when the last runner crossed the finish line. Although everyone who participated impressed me with their endurance and stamina, the last runner was a gentleman who was determined to endure despite physical difficulties and in the best tradition of the military with its credo of nemo resideo, or “leave noone behind,”, several Marines from the Start/Stop area accompanied the last runner for es·prit de corps and provided an escort to him for his 5K run until he crossed the finish line.
Thanks to the entire team for your hard work and participation to ensure the success of this mission. Although geographically challenging, the team setup a Net Control station on high ground and was able to reach from end-to-end of the large course with simplex radio communications. This is the first time PWCARES was invited to participate for this particular event and based on our work, Id say it will certainly not be the last time we support this great event for MCM.
73,
Andy
KJ4MTP