(light music) Tell us about the race.

When is it, where is it happening?

- The 4Star 4Mile Race is part of an overall event called the Arms Services Salute.

And it's always held on the Sunday before Veterans Day every year.

We're the only race in the country that I know of that runs alongside a parade.

Same course, same time, same start line, same finish line.

Participants get to run next to a high school band or a Medal of Honor winner or- - Oh, wow.

- A ROTC marching company.

It's very exciting.

I remember the first couple years of this, I would stand at the finish line, and people would come across the finish line in tears because of the emotion.

- How many participants are you expecting this year?

How many have we had in the past?

- We had more before the pandemic.

The pandemic hurt a lot of races all around the country, of course.

So for the most part, races are beginning to come back.

I'm hoping for 300, maybe 350.

- At what point did you decide, "I need to start this race?

It's something that I have to do."

- When I came home from Vietnam, I had just a terrible whopping case of PTSD.

I felt alone and marginalized, and like a lot of Vietnam veterans did.

Let's say for the last, oh, 40 years, I've been trying to do things for veterans, because I did not want people to go through what I went through.

Veterans who come out of the service, particularly those veterans who have been in combat lose three things.

They lose identity, they lose purpose, and they lose community.

Their identity is their rank.

They're no longer Sergeant Smith or Private Jones.

They're just another face in the crowd.

Their purpose, it's a job that they did in the service, which is not often easily transferrable to civilian jobs.

And their community is the comradery that they had with their platoon, company, brigade, whatever.

It is a comradery that is found nowhere else in the world, and it's very difficult to separate from.

I volunteered for many different veteran help groups, but nothing ever really touched me deep enough.

And all of this time, one of the things that was helping me heal was becoming a long distance runner, a marathon runner.

Running that many miles, I did an awful lot of self-realization work because of a lot of alone time.

And I said, "Well, you know what?

Maybe we should have a race that celebrates veterans, and I can get veterans and our community together just to share a healthy exercise that could be family-oriented."

- What is your message ahead of Veterans Day?

- We are all part of one big family.

We are inextricably tied to the past and the future of our veterans, because they represent us everywhere they go.

We want to be part of our communities, and we want our communities to want us to be part of our communities.