St. Patrick's Day runners join forces with soldiers doing Jalalabad Jig

Maghen Larson had one thing on her mind during Saturday’s 5K St. Patrick’s Day race.

It wasn’t to pass the sea of bright green shirts on the hundreds of runners who took to the streets of downtown Colorado Springs.

Her thoughts were on a fellow runner about 7,000 miles away — her husband, Spc. Anthony Larson.

He ran in a sister race, the Jalalabad Jig, put on by members of Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team at Forward Operating Base Fenty in Afghanistan.

“It kind of feels like something we’re doing together even though he is halfway across the world,” Maghen Larson said. “It is special to us, even if we didn’t get to run it together.”

The Jalalabad Jig was started by some soldiers who didn’t want to miss the fun of the local St. Patrick’s Day race.

Local businesses sent the unit a “Race in a Box” packed with 100 green race shirts, banners, hats, trinkets and treats. Everything but the green beer.

The Jalalabad Jig was at 6 a.m. Afghanistan time.

“We had 201 that signed up, but more than that actually showed up,” Staff Sgt. Mac Arthur D. Ocampo wrote in an email to The Gazette. “I felt that this run would be a significant because one, we are doing it the same day as our friends, families and supporters from Colorado Springs are doing it, and two, we’ve been supported by them all throughout the preparation for this event. Though we are thousands of miles away, just knowing they will be running only hours behind us in celebration of the same holiday makes us feel like though we’re far apart, we’re still close.”

It helped bridge the distance for Maghen Larson,

“It’s exciting,” she said. “And it’s emotional.”

The emotion threatened to cause her eyeliner to smear after she talked to her husband by cell phone shortly before the race here.

Anthony Larson, 21, was deployed last June.

“Running is something I started after he left, to get in shape so when he comes back we can start a family,” his 23-year-old wife said.

She runs daily, between going to college full-time and her job as an Walgreens assistant manager.

“Running keeps my mind occupied and off of everything going on there. It makes time fly by,” she said. “As hard as it for me, he is doing something for his country. He is making a difference.”

She often runs with a group of other wives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan, including Britin McGuire.

“It keeps us focused,” McGuire said.
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