Fast flyer
Bird selected to the All Guard Marathon Team for being one of the 40 fastest Guard men in Lincoln marathon
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When one thinks of the Air Force, one naturally thinks of flying and the skies. The last name of Bird only enhances these images, but Polson native Clay Bird, a Captain in the Montana Air National Guard, has been making a name for himself on the ground.
Bird, 33, was recently selected to the All-Guard Marathon Team for his third time. He made the team by being one of the 40 fastest Army and Air National Guard men at the Lincoln National Guard Marathon in Lincoln, Neb., May 3.
Bird crossed the finish line in 3:05.21 – a 7:05 mile pace – to finish 49th out of 1,154 entrants. Bird’s time this year was about a minute slower than his qualifying time last year. And nowhere near his time in 2005, when he finished in ninth place with a time of 2:39.06 – a 6:06 mile pace.
“Age really gets to you,” a humble Bird said. “I wasn’t nearly prepared as I’d like to have been. My long run was 13 (miles), not nearly what I’d like to have run, but I still tried to run four-and-a-half miles, five days a week.”
The All Guard Marathon Team is comprised of the top 40 male finishers, the top 15 female finishers and the top two masters – 50 and older – finishers at the Lincoln race. In a normal year, the team would compete in at least eight marathons across the nation, setting up booths at the races to raise interest in the National Guard. Bird said typically he would go to three of four of these marathons, but because of funding, he isn’t scheduled to attend any races and will have to wait until at least October to see if the National Guard will change its decision. But no matter what, Bird plans to race in next year’s Lincoln National Guard Marathon.
Bird, who graduated from Polson in 1995 and enlisted in the Air Force that December, did a little running in high school, but not much. It wasn’t until he was stationed in Fort Stewart, Ga., that he really started distance running and ran his first marathon. Bird’s and his running partner’s preparation for their first race was less than rigorous.
“We didn’t really train for it; the whole goal was just to finish and we wanted to do it without walking,” Bird said.
Bird did finish without walking, crossing the line in the three-hour, 40-minute range and has been running ever since.
“I just like to compete and running was something I was naturally good at,” Bird said. “It’s just a good way to stay in shape, and I like the competitive nature of it.”
After spending four years active duty in the Air Force, Bird moved back to Montana and tried to walk on to the Montana State University cross-country team in the spring of 2000. He made their training squad and started running marathons.
He joined the Air National Guard in November of 2003 and competed in his first National Guard marathon in 2005.
