To the Recruiting Office...

Ok so yesterday (Thursday) I went up the the recruiting center to finalize some paperwork with my recruiter and for some good old PT (physical training). Normally, every Thursday the recruits go up to the office to get in some work. They make us do push-ups/sit-ups and all that jazz. They'll ask us questions about ranks or if we know the Warrior Ethos (I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade). They do this to prepare us. From what I've heard, there are a lot of recruits that head down to Basic with no knowledge of anything that they will have to know eventually. A lot of recruits also head down very out of shape which is why we always do some form of PT when I stop by the recruiting office.

Note to self, chocolate milk even an hour before you work out is not a good idea. I read an article on Yahoo! that discussed the advantages of chocolate milk as something that helps you hydrate and helps with muscle recovery. I will never do this again.

So on this occasion they decided it would be good to get out in the heat and work us in to the ground. Basically it was just a little taste of what I'll have to do when I leave Tuesday. So we run to this park as a warm up, probably around 3/4 mile. Then we form up and commence in PT. Push-ups, Sit-ups, Scissor kicks, Flutter kicks, Wide armed push-ups, Close grip push-ups, and then sprints of about 1/4 mile and then 1/2 mile up a hill. Another thing the Army loves about PT is that just going up and down does not constitute 1 repetition. Everything is a 4 count. So down, up, down, up = 1. So a count to 10 is actually 20. You do this for every exercise, then they have us do it on our own for 30 seconds. Needless to say you get pretty tired, especially when you're lying on the ground with your legs stretched out 6 inches above the ground for what seems like forever, but is probably around 2 minutes when its all said and done. It's miserable.

Before we started our sprints, I had to take myself off to the side and "release some fluids from my mouth" It wasn't pleasant. There were also about 4 or 5 guys that fell-out. Basically they were lightheaded and dizzy from dehydration. So we do the first sprint and I go "release" some more fluids and then we do the sprint up the hill and around the field which is probably close to 1/2 mile. About half of the guys in the group even attempted this one. Then I did more push-ups because the no one came back to help the last guy in the group when he was finishing. I was cheering him on and clapping, but since I didn't go back and actually run with him it didn't mean anything. It's all apart of the Warrior Ethos "never leave a fallen comrade". Then we ran back to the recruiting office. All said and done, about 1 hour 30 minutes of PT with some breaks for water.

It was a rough afternoon, but I did everything. For as much as it sucked, it felt good to go through all of that and finish. I know I have many, many days of this ahead of me, and it will probably be worse, but there's a sense of pride when you accomplish something difficult. When it's all said and done, I know I will have accomplished the most difficult thing I have faced in my life so far, and it will be well worth it.

I have one weekend left and half a Monday. Time to embrace what little freedom I have left.