Content was removed to align with the President's executive orders and DoD priorities in accordance with DoD Instruction 5400.17, "Official Use of Social Media for Public Affairs Purposes."

Road to war paves way to life of running for one combat rescue pilot

  • Published
  • By Maj. Cathleen Snow
  • 920th Rescue Wing Public Affairs
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., --  Air Force Reserve combat-search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, Capt. Jason Tomas, 920th Rescue Wing, did not start out as a runner. But now, he asserts that not only was he born to run, but we are all born to run.

Going to war led him to this philosophical belief about running, and to his biggest running feat to date--a 50-mile ultra-marathon in the Florida Keys--The Keys100 on May 18. His ultra-marathon journey began at mile marker 50 on Marathon Key and ended at Higgs Beach near the southernmost point in the continental U.S., Key West.

Tomas's experiences as a combat rescue pilot led him down the path to running.

"Often times we are the first ones to get to a guy who just had his legs blown off," he said, explaining that Air Force Rescue Teams are the 911 of the military. "You see a lot. I've seen young kids who will never get a chance to run."

Put simply by Tomas, he runs because he can, "If you got it, why not use it."

Today Tomas runs for relaxation and to challenge himself. But running wasn't always his thing. He grew up in Daytona Beach, Fla., surrounded by sand and surf. It's also where Tomas's pursuit of service began--first as an ocean rescue lifeguard, then as an EMT, and then as a sworn in beach patrol officer. Finally, in 2006 he was able to intersect his life of service with his lifelong dream of flying, and earned his Air Force wings.

Above flying, surfing was always his passion--he even took a month off after pilot training to surf the entire east coast of Australia. After chasing waves, he was cast into a new environmental setting where he ran his first long run during an overseas deployment. A fellow crew member/pararescueman invited him on a group 10K run. Tomas recalls after that run, he asked himself--and has kept asking--"How far can I really push this?"

Landing in Khandahar, Afghanistan in 2007--one of three deployments to the landlocked country--he found himself surrounded by dry, mountainous terrain. Swimming and surfing were definitely out of the question, so running it was. In 2008, he ran his first marathon on a squeaky treadmill inside a dusty tent that served as the base gym.

"All 26.2 miles," he said.

The challenge of running soon swelled into an unquenchable thirst. He began reading others' stories about running, and his love of running started to redefine his life.

One of Tomas's most inspiring role models is Dean Karnazes, an ultra-marathon runner who wrote Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner (among several other books). Tomas's favorite quote from the book reads: "Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not demanding more from yourself - expanding and learning as you go - you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip."

Karnazes' quotes and stories have been an inspiration to the Air Force captain, almost as much as the people he meets on his running journeys.

"Running attracts all walks of life," said Tomas.

For example, at the Keys100, athletes from 13 countries and 33 states tested themselves. It was there that Tomas met a fellow runner from Germany who wasn't accustomed to the intense South Florida heat. Tomas and his personal crew--wife Kaili and 11-year-old daughter Alani--came to the runner's aid and helped him finish the race by providing cold drinks to him along the route.

"There was a ninety-five percent chance that if somebody didn't make it, it was due to the heat," said Tomas.

In fact, the race director Bob Becker emailed the following to the runners after the race: The difficulty of this race is often underestimated by those who have never competed here; the KEYS100 is a very tough race, indeed, and the heat may have been a bigger factor in 2013 than ever before.

Even for Tomas, who is used to running in incredible heat, the race was tough. While the cool wind on the bridges was "heavenly," he saw a lot of people fall out of the race because of the heat (lower to mid 90s), especially in the hotter interiors of some of the larger keys where the trees blocked the five-knot quartering tailwind. Then, when the sun went down, there were other obstacles besides the heat.

"There were so many mosquitoes swarming my body that I had to put my sunglasses back on to keep them from bouncing off my eyeballs," he laughed. "I'd take the mosquitoes over the heat any day."

Had he been able to run without stopping, he would have finished the whole 50 miles in about 10 hours. But he took frequent breaks where he would spend anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes with his support crew Kaili and Alani providing him ice, "just trying to get my body temp down." This added 4.5 hours to his completion time of 14.42 hours. Tomas figures he burned 13,000 calories at the Keys100, which he calculated off his GPS watch by synching it with his heart-rate monitor.

Even though he lost his appetite from the heat, he forced himself to eat four bananas, four gel packs, a cookie and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He also guzzled lots of Gatorade and three Red Bulls to keep his energy levels up. Another trick that helped him avoid getting picked up by one of the many ambulances busy responding to runners with heat exhaustion, was by packing ice into a fishing scarf around his neck. "This was good for two-three miles till it completely melted."

Running an easy pace is what it's all about when you're going for mileage, Tomas advised.

"When you get that runner's high you can take on anything, regardless of what your day throws at you. Running takes the stress away. It naturally makes you feel good. And at some point when you are running, you get so pumped with endorphins that you no longer feel the pain," he said.

Tomas said running long distances allows runners to take in natural beauty they might otherwise miss. An endangered Key Deer, an animal that can only be found on one of the Florida Keys, came right up to him (he helped clear it from the roadway with another runner's help). The endangered Key Deer weighs only 50 lbs. and stands only 30 inches high at its shoulder, so the sighting was quite unique. Tomas also enjoyed the beauty of his marine surroundings, the Gulf of Mexico on the right side of the road and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

Tomas has logged a lot of miles and seen a lot of scenery changes in his years of running. He's run two local Melbourne Music Marathons, and a 30-plus-mile run to his favorite watering hole. To prepare for the Keys100 he trained by regularly running back and forth to work at PAFB, just under 7 miles one way.

"I tried to time it so I was running in the heat," he says, "especially if I was flying at night." His pace was a comfortable 6 miles per hour. "Kinda slow," he said, "just to cover the distance."

Tomas said an ultra-marathon is considered anything beyond 26.2 miles, but most ultra-marathoners don't consider it an "ultra" unless it's at least 50 miles. Despite earning this new title, he plans to keep going even farther. "After my upcoming HOA (Horn of Africa) deployment, I'll run 100 miles."

A lot of people are quick to say they can't do something, especially running. But Tomas contends that "Everybody was 'born to run' - read the book." He advises new runners to try to run the length of their driveway barefoot. This immediately critiques if you are striking mid-foot versus the cause of all feet and knee problems - the dreaded heel strike. Then emulate that foot strike in running shoes when going for distance. Keep at it and you'll improve, just like anything else."

"You're not going to go out there and run 50 miles your first time out," he said. "But if you want something bad enough, set goals now and go and do it. Everyone should challenge themselves to do one thing that scares the Hell out of you, that you don't even know if you're capable of, and never quit until you achieve it."

-30-

Editor's note: Captain Tomas deployed to Khandahar in 2007; Khandahar in 2008-09; and Camp Bastion/Leatherneck in 2011.

*The HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter is the Air Force's version of the Black Hawk, with an avionics system on steroids. It's used for pulling off search and rescues in bad weather on dark, dark nights.

To learn more, join the 920th RQW's award-winning social media conversation at Facebook and Twitter.

Here are some of Captain Tomas's favorite quotes from Dean Karnazes' book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner.

"I run because if I didn't, I'd be sluggish and glum and spend too much time on the couch. I run to breathe the fresh air. I run to explore. I run to escape the ordinary. I run...to savor the trip along the way. Life becomes a little more vibrant, a little more intense. I like that."

"People think I'm crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. Dostoyevsky had it right: 'Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.' Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner."

"If you can't run, then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. Do what you have to do. Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up."

"Most dreams die a slow death. They're conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born. Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral. People who've lost their own dreams become pessimists and cynics. They feel like the time and devotion spent on chasing their dreams were wasted. The emotional scars last forever."

"Sometimes you've got to go through hell to get to heaven."

"Pain is the body's way of ridding itself of weakness."

"How to run an ultramarathon? Puff out your chest, put one foot in front of the other, and don't stop till you cross the finish line."

"I wasn't born with any innate talent. I've never been naturally gifted at anything. I always had to work at it. The only way I knew how to succeed was to try harder than anyone else. Dogged persistence is what got me through life. But here was something I was half-decent at. Being able to run great distances was the one thing I could offer the world. Others might be faster, but I could go longer. My strongest quality is that I never give up."

"The human body has limitations; the human spirit is boundless."