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Oklahoma Air National Guardsmen run virtual half-marathon for fallen Airmen

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This year the Williams "Route-66 Half Marathon" was held virtually this year due to the pandemic.

Several members of the Air National Guard participated on Sunday.

Oklahoma Air National Guard Tech-Sergeant, Cory Shaw, joined by his fellow airman ran 13.1 miles.

Shaw says, “in the military, everyone makes sacrifices, but making that ultimate sacrifice is not something everybody makes.”

For the past four years, Tech-Sergeant Shaw has run the Williams Route-66 Half Marathon in full gear.

He also carries an American flag while running, to honor those who died serving overseas.

This year's run was more personal, Sergeant Marshal Roberts was killed while serving in Iraq earlier this year.

Shaw says, “when we lost Sergeant Marshal Roberts in March of this year this was a way immediately that this is going to happen.”

Sergeant Roberts was the first Oklahoma Air National Guardsman to be killed overseas since 2001.

“He was a brother, he was a father, he was a husband, he was a son, he was all those things", Shaw says.

Shaw says carrying nearly 60-pounds of gear isn't easy, but he knows it's temporary.

Shaw tells us, "the pain is temporary, compared to what sergeant marshal sacrificed which is not temporary.”

Tech-Sergeant Shaw and his fellow airmen finished the race in three hours and twenty minutes, setting a personal record for Shaw.

“This was a way we can honor Sergeant Roberts and his sacrifice, that we could do this was really good", Shaw says.

Sergeant Robert's leaves behind a wife and young daughter, they were both waiting at the finish line to meet the Airmen.

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