When I used to run the Boston Marathon, the best part was threading my way through the crowd to get back to the hotel. Clutching a foil space blanket around my shoulders, finisher’s medal around my neck, strangers would congratulate me, say ‘way to go, man’ and generally treat me as a hero. Which of course I was not. Just another middle aged guy with endurance and, okay, the body of a 30 year old.

Let’s be real. Doing marathons, Iron men, century bike rides or any of these indulgences are just that — fun for people with enough leisure time and the blessing of sufficient health to train for them. I did one of those “warrior dash” races through obstacles, mud and flames a few years ago. I won my age group. But it was hardly the stuff of “warriors.” Nobody was shooting at us.

If you want to see the actual stuff of warriors, I recommend the Defense Department’s year in pictures gallery. DoD produces pretty good photography. It always has. As a one-time photojournalism major (still have my Nikon Fs), I love the galleries.

Some of the pictures have a definite PR quality. Yet even in these, the human qualities of those pictured come through. For instance, I wonder what a tough old bird like Joe Dunford, Marine Corps commandant-cum-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is really thinking when poised beside former community organizer (President) Barack Obama or egghead Ash Carter. Yet I also feel for the somewhat awkward Carter when he’s pictured chatting in casual shirtsleeves with a group of bundled paratroopers, members of the 82nd Airborne, about to do practice jumps over Fort Bragg.

More genuine in appearance are the pictures of service members who have lost limbs participating in sports. One shows legless Army soldier Ivan Sears at the 6th Military World Games in South Korea. He’s putting a shot while strapped down on a metal platform, steadying himself by gripping a pole. I occasionally throw my 12-pound shots at a nearby high school track just for an alternative exercise. It’s not easy. Given that conventionally, shot putters rely on leg strength, what a marvel to witness Sears, even if only in a still photograph. Or seeing Marine Kyle Reid sprinting at the track at Quantico. He’s missing an arm. Sprinters typically use an arm-pumping motion for momentum. Reid appears undeterred.

You’ll find the real power of these photographs, though, in the faces of the athletes. It’s the same concentration and determination you see in all athletes. Even the dude tumbling out of his wheelchair facedown onto a hardwood basketball court is smiling. If there’s anxiety from war, self-pity or cynicism, you don’t see it in these faces.

Really, look through the galleries. No one, not even the Defense Information Activity, can fully summarize the year of an organization incorporating millions of people spanning the globe. The wounded, the olive and battleship-gray backdrops, the uniforms, the exotic equipment — they do all add up to convey the uniqueness of the military world.  Also its connection to us all.

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