She likened a marathon to that of military service, where part of it is a grind, but the rest is an amazing journey of constantly working to get better, turning weaknesses into strengths. Tinkey, the former member of the Team USA junior cross country team in 2014, said the MCM was also her favorite race because of the camaraderie between military service branches she experienced, whether it was the Air Force team she was part of and representing to all the sister services present. “Yes, running a good time or pace is always a goal, but this one was about honoring the 13 we couldn’t bring home.” But this race meant so much more than that,” she said. “For me, when you step to the line to run a race, you’re always pushing yourself to see how hard you can go and what the outcome will be. That’s also when the fun begins, she said. That’s when fatigue starts to set end, legs are tired and mental exhaustion starts to attack runners. A marathon, she said, is an humbling experience, especially when runners get to the 18-22 mile mark. Tinkey fully expected there to be some pain with running 26.2 miles, including an all-uphill final mile of the run. Her overall finish among the entire field of 11,271 was 239 with an average pace of 7:11 minutes per mile.

Tinkey, who received her commission as a second lieutenant in June 2022 and is now awaiting pilot training to being at the 80th Flying Training Wing’s Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, finished her second career marathon in fine form with a time of 3:08:12, taking 6th place among all female military members, 11th out of all females in the 25-29-year-old division, and 24th our almost 4,700 female runners. We all raised our hands to pay the ultimate sacrifice.” What we do could lead to that, but we will never stop fighting for each other, for what’s right, and moving forward for them. “All I can say is that the shock and pain we all felt was a feeling that drives me in my ‘why’ and keeps pushing me forward because this is real.

“We were on the ground the day Nicole and 12 others were killed by the vehicle IED,” she said. Tinkey was a C-17 Globemaster III loadmaster and part of the historic airlift operations. 26, 2021, while providing security during evacuation efforts in Afghanistan. The 23-year-old Marine sergeant was killed Aug. Her race against the clock toward the finish line was for a personal friend – Sgt.

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