Run, run, run!!
Whew, It has been a long, tiring week. I am so glad it's the weekend! Our barracks were inspected last week by the new Battalion Commander so we had to clean and rewax all the floors. Because the SGT's wanted to make sure that the floors didn't get messed up we were not allowed to wear any shoes inside the barracks. It is a pain to have to take off my boots everytime I go inside. :P
The commander was really impressed with the way our barracks looked. We were all relieved, because if he hadn't been happy we would have lost our weekend last week. When we got back on Sunday we assumed we'd get to start wearing shoes in the barracks. Unfortunately we were told that we couldn't because we were going to be inspected by the Brigade Commander sometime this week. Sometimes I wonder if they say things like that just to make us keep things even cleaner than normal.
Last week I had been told by one of the Sgt's that they wanted me to compete in the Iron Soldier competetion. They didn't tell me anything else about it. I kept asking different SGT's when it was and what all it involved, but they didn't know. The 1st SGT asked me if I was ready to compete. I told him yes, and asked him when it was going to be. He didn't even know! On Wednesday morning I went out to do PT and the 1st SGT told me not to work out too hard because the competition was the next day! He didn't tell me anything more than that. I told him that I had an optometry appointment on Thursday at 0900. He told me to go ahead and change it because he didn't know if I would be finished by then.
I got up at 0340 to get ready on Thursday morning. Adams, Cobena, Pepper and I were going from our company. Adams thought that we would be doing a PT test. I thought we might be doing a regular triathalon. We left the barracks at 0415 and walked over to the staging area. There were some soldiers in ACU's and others in their PT's like us. We didn't know what was going on. Turns out that we were competing as a Brigade. Each Battalion picked soldiers to represent the Brigade in a certain event. We were doing a relay race. One Battalion had 3 people for the swim event, another had 3 for the ruck march, another had 3 for the obstacle course and then the final battalion had 3 for the run.
Fortuanetly for me our battalion had to represent the brigade in the run portion. There were 7 different teams. 5 Army brigades, 1 Marine team and 1 Navy team.
The way the relay worked was each swimmer had to swim 600 meters. Only one could swim at a time. Once all 3 finished they would hand off the baton to they ruck march team. The 3 marchers had to stay together. They marched 4 miles over to the obstacle course. They then handed the baton to the obstacle course team. The 3 of them had to get through the course together. Once they were done they handed the baton to the run team. The 3 runners had to start together and finish together.
Our brigade had a lot of miscommunication, because we thought there had to be 1 female in each event, but it turned out that the only event that had to have at least one female was the run. The other Brigades also had tryouts for their teams and gave them 1 month to get ready!! We were so under prepared. I had the best female run time in the Battalion so I was picked to be the female runner Cobena was one of the males picked and Peterson from Charlie company was picked as the other male runner. Adams was picked to be an alternate in case one of us couldn't finish the run. The other soldiers who had shown up from Charlie company went back to the barracks.
We also had to run with the Brigade guidon (flag). Because I had the slowest run time we decided that I would set the pace an the two males would switch off on carrying the guidon.
Our ruck march team arrived 30 minutes after the 1st place team had already begun the run. So they had finished running before my team even started! Fortunately for us each event was timed, so even if we didn't win the overall competition we could still win for the best time in our event.
Our obstacle course team finished just ahead of the Navy team so when we began running the Navy was right on our heels. Our 1st SGT said he didn't care how we did just as long as we beat the Navy. When we first started off Peterson took off in a complete sprint! I yelled at him to slow down. Then 1st SGT yelled too and reminded him we needed to pace ourselves. The 1st SGT got into his truck and drove ahead of us during the first 1 1/2 miles. During that portion we had 2 really big hills to run up. While we were going up them I could hear the Navy team breathing behind me. I really wanted to go faster, but I knew if I did that I wouldn't be able to finish the race.
Once we hit level ground we had to circle around the PT field. Our 1st SGT parked his truck and began running with us. Several other soldiers from the brigade started running as well to encourage us. It turned out that the Swing and Mid shift soldiers from my company were doing PT so the 1st SGT cut across the field. He said he was going to get some encouragement. Once we got to the other side of the field he had all of them lining the track. After we passed them they fell in behind us and started running with us. By this time we only had about 1/2 mile left to go. They kept telling me to catch up to the guidon because he was about 20 feet ahead of me. I just couldn't do it. I had been running flat out for 3 1/2 miles already and was exhausted.
The guidon finally slowed down a bit so I could catch up. When we got about 40 feet from the finish line the 1st SGT had Cobena hand me the guidon. I was so afraid I would drop it because I was exhausted. They told me to hold it up high! I managed to make it there. After I crossed the line someone took it from me. I was glad because I didn't want it to get dropped. We finished a good 1 to 1 1/2 minutes ahead of the Navy. Our final time was 4 miles in 31 minutes. Not as fast as I had hoped for, but still an excellent time. The 1st SGT was really happy with us. We don't know if our run time was good enough to place.
I don't feel too bad even if we didn't place because we found out that we were competing against SGT's and officers! We were the only brigade that had AIT soldiers competing.
The commander was really impressed with the way our barracks looked. We were all relieved, because if he hadn't been happy we would have lost our weekend last week. When we got back on Sunday we assumed we'd get to start wearing shoes in the barracks. Unfortunately we were told that we couldn't because we were going to be inspected by the Brigade Commander sometime this week. Sometimes I wonder if they say things like that just to make us keep things even cleaner than normal.
Last week I had been told by one of the Sgt's that they wanted me to compete in the Iron Soldier competetion. They didn't tell me anything else about it. I kept asking different SGT's when it was and what all it involved, but they didn't know. The 1st SGT asked me if I was ready to compete. I told him yes, and asked him when it was going to be. He didn't even know! On Wednesday morning I went out to do PT and the 1st SGT told me not to work out too hard because the competition was the next day! He didn't tell me anything more than that. I told him that I had an optometry appointment on Thursday at 0900. He told me to go ahead and change it because he didn't know if I would be finished by then.
I got up at 0340 to get ready on Thursday morning. Adams, Cobena, Pepper and I were going from our company. Adams thought that we would be doing a PT test. I thought we might be doing a regular triathalon. We left the barracks at 0415 and walked over to the staging area. There were some soldiers in ACU's and others in their PT's like us. We didn't know what was going on. Turns out that we were competing as a Brigade. Each Battalion picked soldiers to represent the Brigade in a certain event. We were doing a relay race. One Battalion had 3 people for the swim event, another had 3 for the ruck march, another had 3 for the obstacle course and then the final battalion had 3 for the run.
Fortuanetly for me our battalion had to represent the brigade in the run portion. There were 7 different teams. 5 Army brigades, 1 Marine team and 1 Navy team.
The way the relay worked was each swimmer had to swim 600 meters. Only one could swim at a time. Once all 3 finished they would hand off the baton to they ruck march team. The 3 marchers had to stay together. They marched 4 miles over to the obstacle course. They then handed the baton to the obstacle course team. The 3 of them had to get through the course together. Once they were done they handed the baton to the run team. The 3 runners had to start together and finish together.
Our brigade had a lot of miscommunication, because we thought there had to be 1 female in each event, but it turned out that the only event that had to have at least one female was the run. The other Brigades also had tryouts for their teams and gave them 1 month to get ready!! We were so under prepared. I had the best female run time in the Battalion so I was picked to be the female runner Cobena was one of the males picked and Peterson from Charlie company was picked as the other male runner. Adams was picked to be an alternate in case one of us couldn't finish the run. The other soldiers who had shown up from Charlie company went back to the barracks.
We also had to run with the Brigade guidon (flag). Because I had the slowest run time we decided that I would set the pace an the two males would switch off on carrying the guidon.
Our ruck march team arrived 30 minutes after the 1st place team had already begun the run. So they had finished running before my team even started! Fortunately for us each event was timed, so even if we didn't win the overall competition we could still win for the best time in our event.
Our obstacle course team finished just ahead of the Navy team so when we began running the Navy was right on our heels. Our 1st SGT said he didn't care how we did just as long as we beat the Navy. When we first started off Peterson took off in a complete sprint! I yelled at him to slow down. Then 1st SGT yelled too and reminded him we needed to pace ourselves. The 1st SGT got into his truck and drove ahead of us during the first 1 1/2 miles. During that portion we had 2 really big hills to run up. While we were going up them I could hear the Navy team breathing behind me. I really wanted to go faster, but I knew if I did that I wouldn't be able to finish the race.
Once we hit level ground we had to circle around the PT field. Our 1st SGT parked his truck and began running with us. Several other soldiers from the brigade started running as well to encourage us. It turned out that the Swing and Mid shift soldiers from my company were doing PT so the 1st SGT cut across the field. He said he was going to get some encouragement. Once we got to the other side of the field he had all of them lining the track. After we passed them they fell in behind us and started running with us. By this time we only had about 1/2 mile left to go. They kept telling me to catch up to the guidon because he was about 20 feet ahead of me. I just couldn't do it. I had been running flat out for 3 1/2 miles already and was exhausted.
The guidon finally slowed down a bit so I could catch up. When we got about 40 feet from the finish line the 1st SGT had Cobena hand me the guidon. I was so afraid I would drop it because I was exhausted. They told me to hold it up high! I managed to make it there. After I crossed the line someone took it from me. I was glad because I didn't want it to get dropped. We finished a good 1 to 1 1/2 minutes ahead of the Navy. Our final time was 4 miles in 31 minutes. Not as fast as I had hoped for, but still an excellent time. The 1st SGT was really happy with us. We don't know if our run time was good enough to place.
I don't feel too bad even if we didn't place because we found out that we were competing against SGT's and officers! We were the only brigade that had AIT soldiers competing.
posted by Misty aka s_aurius at
3:13 PM
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