Dedicated runner knocks out two big accomplishments

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Gerald Sonnenberg
  • 932nd Airlift Wing
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Capt. Christina Bologna, 932nd Maintenance Group executive officer, is a dedicated marathon runner. 

Recently she participate in two marathons--the Boston Marathon and the Potomac River Run in Washington D.C. 

"It (Boston) was definitely an experience of a lifetime! I finished in 3:35 making my goal of being able to qualify for it again next year, so I cannot wait to go back! The temp was in the mid 40s, which was good until the finish... then I froze! 

"There's the infamous cheering crowd from Wellesley College at mile 13. Coming up the hill, you hear a rumbling, and as you get closer, it gets louder and louder. 

"Then, there's the infamous 'heartbreak hill' just after mile 20 right as you 'hit the wall' in a race. It's a slow steady incline that seems to never end. That was painful," she said. 

"I was in Washington D.C. and found another marathon last month called the Potomac River Run. It was a great course, but being just two weeks after Boston I physically could not handle it. I finished, but I completed it 15-minutes slower than I would have like to have been. I realized my body was still exhausted from Boston, and my legs just wouldn't go any faster." 

Capt. Bologna is signed up for the Air Force Marathon in September and entered into a lottery for the New York City marathon the first week of November. 

If she is able to run that marathon, she said, "it will round out my marathons to 10 for the year (five of them in 2009)," 

NOTE:  Several wing members including the commander and command chief are planning to attend the United States Air Force marathon in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Oh.