I was concerned there might be a potential scheduling conflict between the Easter morning church service, the 5K race, and the war. As for the war, not much I could work with on that, but I went to the Base Chapel to confirm “Separation of Church and Race.” I met with fine old Father Kennedy, one of the Chapel’s Lordly Liturgical staff tending to the diverse religious flock in Camp Fallujah. Fit, but not a runner himself, he confirmed that not only would Easter Sunday services not commence until later that morning, but Major General Kelly, the Multi-National Force-West (MNF-W) Commanding General himself would be running that morning as well!

I thanked him profusely for the faith-check and assured him that we few Jewish troops in Iraq would graciously reciprocate this scheduling accommodation by ensuring scheduling changes to the parting of the Red Sea this year. His amusement lasted about as long as it took for him to find a broom to "shwack" me out of his chapel.

I selected Major General Kelly as my official Easter Bunny 5K Race Marshall (although he was unaware of his anointment) while he chatted at the race start with Jeff Kelley of the Naval Special Warfare Unit and fellow Pennsylvanian from Johnstown. I spot Moses Tegume of Uganda (placed second in the previous week's 10K) and it appears he brought two speedy looking peers this morning named John Asimwe and Alaba Bertoh. I think to myself that the Ugandans here merit serious competitive attention and have proven to be stalwart runners and plain old sneaky-fast. I notice that they have unobtrusively taken start positions on the obscure end of the starting line and then hear the command to GO...

I was determined to get action pictures of lead, mid, and tail-end runners and the only way to ensure this on such a short race was to go to the final turn that spits the runners out into a 100-meter straightway leading into the Camp Fallujah monument traffic circle. After one emerges from going around half of this circle, a 50 meter spurt is all that remains for those with explosive speed in their reserve tanks.

Jonathon Yanez gently swings around the bend with no competition at this turn to win the Race in 16:13. I get tired of waiting for the next runner due to Yanez's extreme lead but as I peer around the corner, Sgt Arthur Wood, codename "The Weatherman" for his meteorological job here at Camp Fallujah, comes thundering at me with new running shoes ablaze and a Ugandan hot on his trail. Sergeant Wood holds on for a second-place finish in 16:56 but Alaba Bertoh from Kampala, Uganda, in white T-shirt and white shorts, stuck close to him until the end, taking third-place only a few seconds behind. Josh Asimwe and Moses Tegume, the favored Ugandan runners of late, were nowhere to be seen.