2nd PT Test

Saturday February 16, 2013- Today we had the 2nd PT test. We were weighed last night and I officially gained 21 pounds because of the old scale they used the first time. This time they used a new digital scale and it was correct. I lost 8 pounds since I got here and I suspect that I've actually shed more than that but have added muscle mass. About the PT test though...

Our wake up time was 0400 with formation at 0430 and the first push ups starting at 0500. As we lined up to begin the push up portion of the test, I felt a slight twinge of nervousness, but I squashed it and reminded myself that with preparation, hard work and confidence comes success. The line moved up and it was my turn next as out 1st sergeant said "Ready... Begin!" and I got to pushing. I did pretty good for most of the two minute time period and then found out at the end that I DID pass the mark to score the minimum of a 50% score but was ONE push up short of the 60% score that I was hoping for! Next was the sit ups component which I passed pretty easily. I've always been better at sit ups, so I wasn't too concerned with that part of the test. I did score over 60% on the sit ups too, which was great. Then came the hardest part, for me specifically. I've always been a poor runner since I was a child and seeing how people run here, I think a lot of it was due to poor form. So, the two mile run has been the hardest adjustment for me to make. It has been interesting to see my endurance slowly increase. When we did the first PT test here, I scored a poor 19:47 on the two mile. This time, I pushed myself and actually shaved more than two minutes off of my previous time! I finished the eighth lap with a time of 17:44, which wasn't a 60% score, but it was over the 50% which means I passed the overall PT test! I was so happy when I got my scores. I know I might run slower than most of the young guys here and sure, some of them can do twice as many push ups. But understand that, for me, coming in with less than a month to train, and having been so sedentary in the past, this was a big accomplishment. At one point, during the fourth or fifth lap of the run, my knee was hurting so bad it felt like a twig about to snap. Three things kept me going at that point. One was thinking of my wife and kids and how they are the reason I'm here. It doesn't matter that my knees had been hurting for a week or that I couldn't catch my breath or that I had a cramp in my side. I was still here for them, and I imagined them at every corner of the track, watching me run. I can't fail them. I won't fail them. Failure just wasn't on option.

The second thing that kept me going was the fact that I was running with someone. PVT Intel is a couple of years younger than I am but still in the same group for PT requirements. Intel is also from Texas, coming out of the Houston area. There's a couple other guys here in my platoon from my hometown of San Antonio, but they're all young and fresh out of high school. Intel and I can hold a mature conversation about home and what we miss. Somewhere along the way, we found out we're both on about the same physical fitness level and decided to start running together when possible because we push each other to try harder. His nickname, by the way, comes from the fact that he's somehow always knowing what's going on and letting us know some kind of info about which rumors are true or false around the company. It's hard to get reliable info with so many kids puffing up their chests and exaggerating things around here, but I generally trust it's true if Intel says it. Regarding the run, Intel and I pushed our way through it, encouraging each other and finishing a second apart. He was just recovered from torn ankle ligaments a few weeks ago, so I really had no excise to fall off his pace. Lol.

The third thing that kept running through my mind were the recently spoken words of one of the other drill sergeants from our company. I'll call him DS Poker Face because he has the absolute best blank stare/ poker face I have ever seen. You just can't guess what he's thinking or what he'll say next. But about two weeks ago, when we were messing up as a company and acting dumb at hydration formation, he said to us "99 times out of 100, your mind will quit before your body does. You need to build mental toughness." For some reason, those words stuck fast in my mind. So, when I was about to slow down, start walking and tell Intel to go on without me, I remembered those words and forced the spirit of failure out of my thoughts and mind. I pushed through it and actually began running a bit faster once I had regained my mental focus. I finished out the run feeling proud of myself for not giving up. It was a great and defining moment for me personally. For everyone else, it might have just been a test, but for me, it was a victory! :)

The rest of the day, we did training in combatives, learning how to defend ourselves more on a hand to hand level. We were specifically instructed by our drill sergeants to stay down on our knees during the exercises and not to rise to our feet, but two females did not listen to instructions and when they came down to the mat, one of them landed on the tops of the other one's head and neck and she had to be taken to the hospital because she couldn't  recognize how many fingers the drill sergeant was holding up in front of her face. It seemed like a concussion, but I'm no doctor. It was good to see the drill sergeants take it seriously and ensure quick medical care was given, but I couldn't stop thinking that the whole thing could have been prevented by them simply paying attention to detail and following the instructions given to them.

So then, as we're getting ready for hydration formation, it started snowing! Not anything heavy, but still snow flurries are snow flurries. We have a couple of guys from Hawaii in our company and they were all looking around like kids because some of them had never seen snow before. It was fun. Merry PT test day, boys.