Fancy footwork

By FLTLT Fiona Harris
Volume 48, No. 8, May 18, 2006

Sea of sweat: Runners jostle across the bridge in the inaugural Anzac Day fun run at Camp Victory.

Photo by FLTLT Fiona Harris

AIR Force’s SQNLDR Chris Hayden left the crowd in his footsteps when he was the first Australian to cross the line in an Anzac Day fun run in the Middle East.

SQNLDR Hayden took out the honour in just a little more than 38 minutes, after approximately 350 runners lined up in the 10km challenge at Camp Victory.

CPL Janine Davison and SIG Nick Baraba from JTF 633 organised the event but had no idea that it was set to become the biggest fun run of the year.

“Considering it took about a month of planning, I was extremely pleased with the turnout,” said SIG Baraba.

BRIG Paul Symon, Commander JTF 633, joined a swag of Aussies among a sea of Americans, as runners jostled for a position at the starting line.

LT CMDR [Stet] Matthew Simms, Team Chief, Multi-National Forces – Iraq, was the first runner to round the final corner and head across the bridge to Aussie Island and the finish line.

He crossed the line with a smashing time of 34 minutes 50 seconds, just less than four minutes faster than SQNLDR Hayden.

The first 100 runners’ home received an Anzac Day Fun Run t-shirt and there were Australiana prizes for the place winners.

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