The commander of 2-104th Aviation, LTC Joel Allmandinger, is an avid bicyclist. He mostly rode mountain bikes before our deployment. He rode in Iraq also and won the individual category in the Thanksgiving Day Biathlon held at Tallil Ali Air Base in 2009. On Saturday we competed in different races at the same time as part of the Turkey Hill Country Classic.
LTC Allmandinger races in Category 5, at least until he moves up to Cat 4. I race in the 50+ category. Since he is 40 even when he moves up to Cat 4 and can do age-group races, we won't be in the same races. He won a race three weeks earlier at Farmersville Lancaster County. It was a cold day with rain on and off and wet roads for the whole event. I finished way behind the leaders.
It wouldn't seem like one weekend a month is a big deal, but serious bicycle racing means racing a lot. We go to summer camp for two weeks in June, but that means three weekends.
The civilians in my life think drill weekend is physical. Actually, drill weekend cuts into my exercise routine.
Oh well, at least we get paid to miss races.
Veteran of four wars, four enlistments, four branches: Air Force, Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard. I am both an AF (Air Force) veteran and as Veteran AF (As Fuck)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
George Packer at the Hannah Arendt Forum: Rediscovering Solidarity in an Age of Division
George Packer At the 2026 Hannah Arendt Forum at Bard College, journalist and author George Packer presented a personal and provocative exa...
-
When I re-enlisted in the Army in 2007, I saw several soldiers with Μολων Λαβε tattoos and Μολων Λαβε stickers on their pickup trucks. I...
-
Tasks, Conditions and Standards is how we learn to do everything in the Army. If you are assigned to be the machine gunner in a rifle squad...
-
Senatus Populusque Romanus The Senate and People of Rome Some of the soldiers I served with in Iraq talked about getting an SPQR tat...
