 I'm Colonel Michael L. Brooks, I'm the commanding officer of Marine Corps-based Quantico. And what we're doing here is a little bit of community connection with the Marine Corps Marathon Organization and our Fredericksburg Historic Half. This has been a fantastic day. It really has. The weather has been perfect. People are excited. When I say people, I mean the community, the runners, and all of our volunteers and sponsors who are here today. Well, you know, we're celebrating our 16th year. The energy is just not today. It started on Friday when we had our ribbon-cutting ceremony and it went through yesterday and then on today. What's it like? I tell you that every runner here has their own story, their own reason why they're running. Even the volunteers who are coming from multiple states just to be here today, it's incredible. And they too, like the runners, have their own reasons why they're volunteering today. And they're excited. No, you know, I would say that my chief of staff, you know, he's been training for the Half Marathon, but then like a week before he got a knee injury. So instead of doing the Half Marathon, he went down to the five-miler and he finished today. So I was really looking forward to seeing him cross the line because he had been training for a while. And then just other people that I have gotten the privilege to know from these Marine Corps Marathon events throughout the year. They're here every single time. So just the familiar faces as they're coming across the finish line, giving everybody high fives is just exciting to see. Alex has been great. He is bringing a different kind of energy. When I went out to the starting line this morning, he had even put yellow footprints on the starting line. That's the first. Plus he's added a couple of other things to the expo, for example, the panel discussion. This year's event is themed United States Marine Corps Salute to Veterans and First Responders. So Sergeant Major was able to conduct a panel discussion with local First Responders yesterday. Yeah, he's bringing a lot of energy to this, to these events. Well, I would say that, you know, we are honored and privileged to be able to put these events on in the city of Fredericksburg. We have a lot of Marines and their families who live in the city of Fredericksburg and it's just our way, a meaningful way to really give back to the city who has given a lot to us. They've opened up their doors to their communities, to their schools, to their churches, to their businesses and really made the military families here feel at home. And that's very important to us and to be able to do this in their town where the community is involved in this race, it's very rewarding. Michael Harms, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, Harms-H-A-R-M-S, this is Donald Harms, D-O-N-A-L-D, H-A-R-M-S. Oh, it was awesome. We love this race. This is our fourth running of it and it's just such a fun event, well put on, super inclusive which we obviously appreciate and just a blast, absolutely a blast. Ainsley Angels is an organization dedicated to the inclusion of all people, especially people with disabilities in endurance sports. So they just make sure that, you know, they help make endurance sports accessible for people with special needs and disabilities. No, this is our, oh man, we got to be closing in on a hundred races at this point. Yeah, this is our fourth of the historic half and we'll be running our fifth Marine Corps marathon in the fall, so we've done eight now different Marine Corps events. Oh, I would encourage them to definitely reach out and do it. Running is an amazing sport, but, you know, and it's definitely, there's a community aspect to it, but once you're out there in the thick of the race, especially towards the end, it's pretty much solo. You're on your own, but when you're running as part of a team, it's just something really special. You're able to dig deeper in that, that just community aspect is even stronger and then to, you know, to connect together out on the course, to push through the tough parts together and to finish together is just really special and something that I don't know if you can understand until you experience it, but anyone who does it, I think, feels it and knows it. No, just thanking everyone that makes, you know, impossible, Ainsley's Angels making it possible for helping us have the gear and to be able to do this. We really especially thank the Marine Corps too for putting on amazing events. When we first started running, we ran a local 5K and then we were immediately like, oh, we got to run a marathon. So the Marine Corps marathon just was the first thing we saw. We reached out, we didn't even know Ainsley's Angels at the time, we just reached out and they were super quick to be on board and happy to have us, you know, and they do, the logistics of everything just is so well run and smooth, which really we appreciate because it makes it easy for us. The part of making it accessible is, you know, parking is well set up and there's lots of space for wheelchairs and every little detail is well thought out and we really appreciate it and we always feel welcome so just a big thank you to the Marine Corps as well. Yeah, yeah, I mean, this is the special thing with being able to do these events is like Donald is absolutely an athlete, like he's how we got into running. He wanted to do it, you know, we saw a video of Rick and Dick Hoyt and he was immediately, he wanted to, you know, get out there and do that too. Donald is adopted, so when we got him home we could tell right away this kid's an athlete, he just needs, you know, some accommodations to be able to participate and so running was really the most accessible sport, all we needed was a chair and Ainsley's Angels helped with that right away once we found that organization and then like I said the Marine Corps was great with yeah come run the marathon right on like and so that all that came together so easily to help Donald be able to show and demonstrate just, you know, the the fierce intense athlete that he is and so that's really special for my wife and I, but you know.