Carpenter jumps, Army wins at USMC Marathon

According to Stars & Stripes, Marine Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter opened the festivities for the 39th Annual US Marine Corps Marathon yesterday with a parachute jump to the starting line, despite the injuries he suffered when he pounced on a grenade to save his Marine brothers in 2011. After the jump, Kyle went on to complete the 26.2-mile run in just over 5 hours.

It was soldiers who took the honors, though;

Army Spc. Samuel Kosgei came in first in the men’s division with a time of 2:22:11 for 26.2 miles, and Capt. Meghan Curran was the first female finisher with a time of 2:51:46.

For Curran, a field artillery officer based at Fort Dix, N.J., it was the military camaraderie and the memory of a friend and fellow soldier killed in combat that got her through the race. Curran, 28, ran with the initials A.W.S. drawn on her left hand to honor 1st Lt. Ashley White-Stumpf, who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan in October, 2011.

“I think seeing all the wounded warriors out there, seeing everybody screaming, and the flags, it’s just one of those events that pumps you up the whole way,” Curran said. “When you’re hurting and sucking … that extra push will get you through.”

That energy also propelled Kosgei to first place, and the Army medic hopes that’ll be his ticket to the Army’s World Class Athlete Program and through that, the 2016 Olympics.

Category: Real Soldiers