By Dennis Box-The Courier-Herald

Running has become a special event for Ray Bunk and his daughter Adriana, and the two proved it by running in the 35th annual Sound to Narrows 5-kilometer race Saturday in Tacoma.

Ray Bunk described the race as &#8220a lot of fun and a lot of people. There were so many people we just wanted to pass some of them, but there were also 9- and 10-year-old kids running by me. I don't how they do it.”

Bunk ran the race in 29 minutes, 11 seconds, and Adriana in 30:49.

Adriana is a freshman at Bonney Lake High School and a track athlete. Her dad is a police officer in Federal Way.

Their shared passion for running began earlier this year while Ray Bunk was serving in Iraq.

The 35-year-old Bunk is a firefighter in the Air Force reserves and volunteered to go to Iraq, serving from January to May of this year.

He was stationed near the northern border of Iraq at Forward Operations Base Warrior in Kirkuk.

Bunk said he started running with a roommate while in Iraq and the two even organized a 5-kilometer event on the base.

&#8220I lost 30 pounds running over there,” Bunk said. &#8220And I didn't think I had 30 pounds to lose.”

According to Bunk, running helped him &#8220deal being away from my family and friends. We had to stay on the base and it was a great learning experience. I saw a lot over there. There were terrorist attacks at first almost every night, but it slowed down towards the end. Rockets were flying over our heads sometimes and bullets hitting buildings. It was the classic golden BB syndrome. You wonder if it's your day.”

Adriana described the period of time her dad was in Iraq as &#8220life changing. We got by. We did the best we could while he was there. It was hard with him being gone that long. He's the life of the party around here.”

She said her dad brought up the idea of 5-kilometer races and running in the Sound to Narrows while he was in Iraq.

&#8220I told him I'd like to try it,” Adriana said. &#8220Then when I saw the map I said, ‘Whoa that's a big map.'”

But both were game.

Prior to the Sound to Narrows the two competed in a 5-K run while visiting family in Illinois.

Adriana competed in the high jump this year in track and next year plans to try running the 1,600-meter races.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.