www.duluth.com/articles/?page=view_article&id=70348&pro -
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Published on: 7/15/2008
Last Visited: 7/17/2008
Capt. Steve Timm of Red Wing, a chaplain with the 136th, was an organizer of the Iraq half-marathon.When he came to Duluth to run the 2008 Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon last month, he presented a commemorative plaque to the Grandma's staff.
Photos of the run surround a Minnesota Army National Guard emblem, and are accompanied by the inscription: "Many thanks from Chaplain Steve Timm, Sgt.First Class Kerry Buckle, and 2-136 Infantry Battalion."
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"I wanted to thank the Grandma's folks personally and let them know how much our guys appreciated their help," said Timm, 35, pastor of United Lutheran Church in Red Wing, and now assigned to the 682nd Engineer Battalion in Willmar, Minn. "Our tour had been extended at that time and we were all thinking, ‘We've been here 15 months and we should be home.' There was a feeling you had nothing left in the tank.
"We wanted to have a couple of hours to be part of a race and take our minds off the war.It was more than just a run.It gave us something to rally around and we made an event of it."
The Iraq race began at 5:15 a.m. after a safety briefing to discuss possible mortar attacks.The temperature at the finish was in the 90s as Timm completed the course in about 1 hour, 47 minutes, 20 seconds, which, amazingly, would be within one second of his time in the 2008 Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon.