ARKANSAS RUN FOR THE FALLEN, A RITUAL OF LOVE, LONGING AND LOSS

Whether it’s an acute awareness or a violently apparent reality, every service member in the military knows that to be in the military is to form a shaky contract with love, longing and loss.

Bubba Beason says the same thing every year that he organizes the Arkansas Run for the Fallen, “Everyone dies twice. First when they die, and then again when their name is said aloud for the last time.” Service members carry this uneasy truth.

That’s why when Beason searches for dozens of runners for a 3-day, 155-mile-long run from Ozark to Little Rock, he exclusively recruits military runners (veterans and current service members).

This year, Beason organized the run’s 12th year. The run began on Mar. 17 and spanned most of the day from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., starting in Ozark with what seemed like every Ozarker, including the mayor, lining the sidewalks, cheering the runners on with flags and family alongside.

The run concluded at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) in Little Rock, on March 19, at 1 pm and 5K was run from MEPS to the State Capitol.

Each team has a minimum of two runners who run in six-mile increments and honor a fallen Arkansan service member (referred to as ‘heroes’ during the run) each mile.

This year, I had the chance to participate in the run for the first time. I spent six years in the Navy as a SONAR Technician with most of my time on the USS Gridley (DDG-101) stationed in Everett, WA.

The love that I witnessed over the weekend because of longing and loss made me realize that nothing can fill the hole that loss leaves us with, but community makes it just a little more bearable, even if it only exists in 90-second sweaty hugs with a stranger.

The love in that community was admittedly infectious and empowering, and although I had never run further than 6 miles at a time, I ran 20 miles in total that weekend for the Run.

The heroes’ names were said aloud every mile and their story was told as the runners made their journey escorted by a motorcade of military veterans and police vehicles for the 155 miles.

Many runners ran for multiple legs, some in the same day and some others in consecutive legs.

Each leg was run in less than an hour as a requirement because many Gold Star Families, the heroes’ loved ones, waited at some of the stops. Some of the families were large and sometimes only a single person waited for the runners at their stop.

Every year many of the families point out that their loved one’s names are never said aloud all year except during the Run.

So, some waited in 30-degree weather and whipping winds for the runners to read aloud their loved ones’ stories, boldly exclaim their name and then forcefully shout, “You will not be forgotten!”

Almost every one of the family members hugged the sweaty runners gratefully and some cried with the runners.

Without my asking, many of the volunteer veterans readily confessed that this run was so important to them because they felt that they could have been one of the heroes that gave their life.

No one joins to give their life, even when it is quietly understood that death is a possibility. Service members may join for several reasons: education; financial stability for themselves and their families: American citizenship for their families; patriotism; a longing for community; the list is endless.

But no one joins to die.

When service members die during their service or because of their time in service, it is certainly never expected. Many of the heroes were young—less than 25 years old—gone entirely too soon.

Service members seem to understand the sometimesunderstated connection between fear and love.

The bridge is gratitude. That is what the Run is quietly about: gratitude for love, loss and longing because they keep us connected to our loved ones in their respective ways while we have our loved ones and after our loved ones have passed from us.

Beason told me that he was worried that the Run would not last much longer as every year has proved harder to find willing military runners.

If any of our military students would like to be involved with the 2024 AR Run for the Fallen, they may contact the Run’s organizers through the Facebook Page, AR Run for the Fallen or their website, www.arkansasrunforthefallen.org

BY BRYAN HERNANDEZ