One of Fort Huachuca’s own, 1st Lt. Charles “Chad” Ware, 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, is at it again after being selected for the All-Army Team for the Army Ten-Miler and the Armed Forces Marathon Championship which is run in conjunction with the Marine Corps Marathon.
Ware was awarded Army Athlete of the Year in February after coming in first at the Marine Corps Marathon last October. Ware ran 26.2 miles in 2:19:16, while competing against more than 20,000 other runners, and completed the Army Ten-Miller in 49:46.
“I am really excited about it [this year] because we have most of the Army’s best runners for both races: Augustus Maiyo, Robert Cheseret, Joseph Chirlee, Kenny Foster, Kyle Heath and myself will all be running in both. The rest of those guys either are currently, or have been in the World Class Athlete Program,” Ware said.
“For the Army Ten-Miler we also have Greg Leak and Edwin Sang,” he added. The Army Ten-Miler is set to take place Oct. 21 and the Marine Corps Marathon is one week later, Oct. 28.
When Ware was last interviewed about his achievements he had not been living in the Fort Huachuca area very long. “My training has changed quite a bit this year because I moved to Fort Huachuca from the Chicago area and I switched from being an Army Reservist to active duty,” he said.
“Some of the changes are beneficial and some of them have been challenging. The altitude of Fort Huachuca is a training benefit because of the increased red blood cells from altitude training increases the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to the muscles, which should make it easier to run faster, and I believe the hilly terrain is a benefit, but it has taken a long time for my body to adapt to these changes,” Ware said.
Ware also discussed how changing from Army Reservist to active duty has affected his training for these events.
“Before this year I was a grad student and a cross country coach, thus I had more flexibility with my workout schedule. On active duty, I have to do one of my two daily runs at five or six in the morning and the other one after I get off work. This usually isn’t too difficult but has taken some adjustment mentally, especially for hard workouts done at marathon pace or faster,” Ware said.
“Another change is that I haven’t had the opportunity to run in as many races this year, because there aren’t many summer races with good competition in Arizona due to the heat. I have eight more weeks of solid training left, and I would like to run personal bests at both races, Lord willing,” he added.
