Saturday, July 2, 2016

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From







































The General Dynamic's F-16 Fighting Falcon, this is the plane I was born to fly. Somewhere around age ten, already made up my mind, no doubt, I was going to be a fighter pilot. That summer, almost lost my mind seeing an advertisement for a new flight simulator game being released in the fall. It was torture waiting, but my training started the second Falcon came out for the Macintosh. My destiny was set, by the time of graduation, the Air Force would be begging me to join with all the hours of flight time I logged in this simulator. Heck, they wouldn't even need to train me, simply fit me for my flight suit and send me on my way.

Not exactly sure when my dreams were crushed. Needing glasses, could have been the deal breaker. Maybe it was finding out what pilots get paid. Or maybe it the threat of Mom never wanting her son in military with the constant reminders of being taken out of the will if I ever did join. Ugh, what about the realization of finding out even Air Force pilots have to take part of basic training....and all that running! Ugh running, who does that?

Thirty years later, give me a mouse and a keyboard, and I'll make those boogies sorry they ever shared the skies with me! Fox-two, a nine-G turn and a victory barrel roll later and the world is safe again! Yeah, it's safe to say I've never lost my love of the Falcon and dreams of flying it.

Sister Downhill and niece Bug decided to run a 5K. When looking up info for them, couldn't believe the price of this damn race, who charges this much? Then I noticed with race entry, also includes entry to the Air Show and parking pass. Hmmm, Air Show and a race, what's this they also have a half marathon and the Thunderbirds are in town? Was that a sonic boom? My finger may have broken the sound barrier registering before I knew it.

Running in July, isn't fun. Racing in July, makes even less sense. The ONLY reason I'm doing this is support for my girls, okay and maybe the reward of watching an air show after. Summer racing is for the birds!

Insert an F-16 with full afterburner here, for the start race gun here. It actually was a fairly mild morning, the temps were cooler for July, but I wasn't taking chances and went shirtless...for Freedom and American dammit! Plus it is essentially the 4th after all! Freedom!

The first few miles, it actually felt good to running easy to look down at the watch and see a respectable time, amazing the difference cooler temps make, but also knew it wasn't going to last. Clear skies and beating sun ahead. About mile three, they routed us on the actual runway, huh this is kind of cool. First time for this.

"Tower, this is Ace four one, clear for take-off?"

"Ace four one, pattern is clear, cleared for take-off."

Mile four, was the attempted take off. Running on a runway was exciting because it was different, the pace quicken. The unexpected part of runway running, can see forever and time feels like it stands still with no points of reference changing the view. Mile four, was the longest fast mile in the history of aviation running. In the distance, I could see the tails of the Thunderbirds and remember thinking how cool would it to be if we got close to them, but knew they are going to funnel us back just before we get to them in my gut.

"Tower, this is Ace four one, request for fly-by?"

"Ace four one, Rodger."

"Yankee, Echo, Alfa, Hotel!!"

Had they advertised getting to run directly in front of the seven Thunderbirds lined up as a perk to doing this half marathon, I would have been signed up months ago. The whole time as I got closer and closer to them, I expected it still to be some kind of cruel joke with the Tower waving us off at the last second. Instead, I could actually feel my heart racing with excitement, not because I was four miles into a half marathon, but it felt awesome to be this close to the plane I fell in love with so long ago. So close, could almost reach out and touch, better yet, how about just climbing into the cockpit and taking one for a test flight?

"Ace four one, this is Tower, stay on target."

Back to reality, the armed MP's standing guard, preventing those childhood dreams.

The whole rest of the race was uneventful. Maybe, because the climax happened and nothing after that could be topped. Maybe, my head was already in the clouds. All I do know is nothing was left in my body for speed, probably from all the extra heartbeats by the hanger, or possibly lack of training this whole summer, going with the racing heart early in the race.

"Tower, this is Ace four one, permission to land?"

"Ace four one, this is Tower, ummm, this is kind of FUBAR, but the runway is a bit short...good luck! Over and!"

For the second time this year, a race course ended short. But, any race you can walk away from is a good one.