Dancon March

Yesterday was the Baghdad Dancon March, I believe they also had one last year. Dancon stands for "Danish Contingent", who started the march tradition back in 1972 in Cyprus. The march was a little over 13 miles, so equivalent to a half marathon, and about 22 kilometers. A portion of the entrance fee went to a children's charity, so it was for a good cause.

This is the start, it was very early so the first few laps (of five) were in the dark. The start and finish were the same.

Here's some superb Baghdad advertising.

There are a number of arches like these over the roads along the route (which was where I live, in the "international zone").

This is a sculpture in the center of one of the roundabouts, all the Arab cities I've visited are big on roundabouts.

This street sign isn't working too well.

The finish. There haven't been many people in these pictures, but there were about 500 total. They got pretty spread out, but there were always people around on the course, they just aren't in the photos I took.

And I got a medal, I'm so proud of myself. The Navy people who may be reading will notice it says USNA instead of USN. Though an error was made when the information was transferred to the certificate, I am still unfalteringly confident that I made the right decision with CU instead of USNA.