Rebecca Hoffman has been through this whole process before.
She’s packed up her belongings, tied up loose ends at her job, hugged her parents goodbye and joined her South Dakota National Guard battalion for deployment in the Middle East.
She did it in 2003, and again in 2008. On May 27, Hoffman, an Army major based in Colorado Springs, will head off on her third tour in Iraq, where she will work as a logistics officer.
“Now it’s just about getting myself mentally ready,” Hoffman said. “And for me, my coping mechanism is running.”
And not just running, but racing.
Hoffman, 38, already has completed four full marathons and one half marathon in 2011 (she ran five other full marathons in 2010), and Sunday, she will run in the Colfax Marathon, her first marathon in Denver. She might try to squeeze in another distance race the next weekend during her last few days stateside.
This is the life Hoffman has chosen and one she loves — military and running, her two passions intertwined.
“I always joke and say that I’m a professional athlete. The Army pays me to maintain a level of physical fitness,” Hoffman said. “So, it is part of my job to stay fit. I do it through a number of ways, but running is one of them.”
Hoffman’s interest in running was born through the military. She joined the National Guard in 1993 to pay her way through college at South Dakota State. After graduating with a degree in economics, Hoffman enrolled in Officer Candidate School. She started to run, but never more than five miles at a time. Then, during her first tour of duty — she was deployed in March 2003 as part of the Operation Iraqi Freedom mission — she hit her first milestone of six miles.
“The military forces you to love to run,” Hoffman said.
She returned home to South Dakota in 2004 having lost all passion for her banking job and with the desire to work for the military full time. She also wanted to run more, and run for longer distances.
Not long before she ran her first half marathon, on Sept. 11, 2005, Hoffman tattooed the Japanese symbol for “warrior” on the inside of her left biceps, signifying her new outlook.
“It’s not just fighting wars, it’s having that drive, that motivation, and being that example, and it’s about being able to persevere,” Hoffman said. “My goal is to have my body totally worn out by the day I die. I don’t want to save anything.”
On Sunday, Hoffman, whose personal marathon best is 3 hours, 40 minutes and 8 seconds, will be running with a fellow National Guardsman, Sgt. First Class Mike Hagen, the coordinator of the National Guard’s All-Guard marathon team. Colfax will be Hagen’s 12th marathon of 2011.
Hoffman, through her performance at the Lincoln National Guard Marathon, has earned one of 15 spots for women on the All-Guard team each of the past two years, although she gave up her slot for 2011 because of her pending deployment.
The All-Guard marathon team, which also includes 40 men, travels throughout the country competing. Team members, wearing their coveted neon green team jackets, set up booths at race expos as a way to recruit new members.
“It also shows that we’re not all about fighting wars and the other stuff we do. There are other aspects of the National Guard, with military competition programs,” Hagen said. “It’s an avenue that we can go down and relate to people. There are a lot of runners out there, and we share a common aspect and that’s running.
“It’s also a good retention tool for people already in the National Guard, people who want to make the team every year, or assist people with fitness-related goals. It really helps out within the unit level, to make the unit stronger.”
Hagen is used to his team members leaving for missions overseas. He said the runners almost always promise to return home in better shape than when they left.
That is certainly the case for Hoffman. She said she hopes to be able to compete in at least one “shadow race” while deployed in Iraq. In a shadow race, military members run at the same time as a race that is being held back in the United States.
Hoffman is also trying to plan her one mid-tour leave to coincide with a marathon. She’s hoping to schedule it for early December so she can run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon. Last year, she ran the half marathon there dressed as Elvis.
“For me, the goal isn’t really so much time — it’s a great measure of achievement,” Hoffman said. “I want to be able to maintain my running passion and share my enjoyment of the sport with others.”
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
