GRAFENWÖHR, Germany – Dismounted patrols during 14 months in Iraq helped prepare Army Capt. John Dreher for victory in the Installation Management Command-Europe U.S. Forces 10-Miler, held here on Saturday.

The 26-year-old Glencoe, Ill., native crossed the finish line ahead of more than 130 runners from all over Europe with a time of 57 minutes, 25.73 seconds.

After the race he said his job, as a scout platoon commander with the Friedberg-based 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, kept him fit during the stint in Iraq.

After returning from Iraq in February, Dreher, who’s headed to the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion in Heidelberg, hit the road to get ready for the 10-Miler — a race he finished second in two years ago, he said.

During this year’s race he motivated himself by thinking about soldiers from his unit who couldn’t run in the event.

“I was thinking about all my guys who I went downrange to Iraq with. The guys who didn’t make it back. The guys who didn’t make it back the same,” said Dreher, who ran in high school and competed on the cross country and track teams at West Point.

The top female runner in the 10-Miler, Army Capt. Stephanie Feagin, 26, has also served in Iraq and ran her first 10-Miler while serving in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2003.

“I love being outside. In the Army I like to run a lot of different places,” she said after finishing the 10-Miler in 65 minutes, 48.61 seconds.

These days Feagin, who has competed in the Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C., twice with a best finish of 13th place, works at the Army Health Clinic in Livorno, Italy, and runs every day except Sundays, she said.

She credited her win in the 10-Miler to “God and my faith,” adding that her best distance is the 10-miler but that her next goal is to run a marathon.

IMCOM-Europe 10-Miler race organizer Jim Mattingly said 121 people registered for the race with about another 15 showing up at the last minute to compete.

The race – over a course along an on-post road between Grafenwöhr and the nearby town of Tanzfleck and back – was run in perfect conditions with warm weather but overcast skies that kept competitors from overheating.

In recent years Grafenwöhr has been the home of the race, Mattingly said.

“There is very good support from the command and MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) staff. The course is easy to mark and it is a straight run down the road,” he said.

The top six male and top six female runners qualify for the Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C., in October, he said.

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