The Marine Recruiter explained to me that the Army is always late and sucks at communication. He told me that I didn't want to join something like that. He asked me if work out and run at all. I told him that I lifted for many years, but I hadn't lifted much since I got married: I worked a lot and ate a lot--I was fat and happy. :)
He said, "You're not tough enough for my Marine Corps!" We both sat there silent after he said it and my temper started to boil. He told me that I probably couldn't do 3 pull-up, 5 sit-ups, and I'd fail their run. So, this guy was obviously trying to motivate me by challenging what I could and couldn't do. This was his hook, and it worked fairly well on me, because at was at a stage in my life where I didn't allow for myself to be "disrespected" or challenged to do something.
I decided not to answer him at all and he was intrigued by that. To this day, I still don't acknowledge, or react to someone provoking me. He said, "I see you're a quiet one, so how about you get on that pull-up bar over there and pump out more than 3; I bet you don't get past 1. What he didn't know was that I had been lifting weights since I was 11/12 and despite my extra weight and smoking, my back muscles were one of my strong points. At Gold's Gym, back in the day, my friends and I would do hanging pull-ups with weights strapped around our waist and compete. Okay, I'm done with the brag session, but I kind of laughed to myself, because I was going to love to pump them out with east to shut this guy up. :)
With all my heavy clothing and boots, I pumped out 20 pull-ups for this joker. When I hopped down, he was speechless, and responded with, "I bet you fail your timed run!" Again, I didn't respond, and told him to tell me the course I could run on. He scheduled me for a run the next day (I believe), and it snowed, and the sidewalks were icy on this course. I got about half a mile into this run and I was already dying. Not only did I not pace myself, I was "fat" and started to chaff, and my lungs from smoking and the cold air (air is dense and less oxygen is available) killed me. The proverbial wheels of my car were coming off and I was a hurting unit.
As I huffed and puffed crossing the finish line, the Marine Recruiter was shaking his head. I had failed the run portion by 2 minutes. It was at this point that I took a mental/personal note for myself: Medium distance running is nothing like the sprinting I had done from the age of 12-18. I would actually have to train for this 3 mile distance and it was very humbling. He said, "Well, your fat-ass failed the run by 2 minutes, but I think you'll pass the running test in Sacramento in a few weeks."
I ran as much as I could without hurting myself over the next couple of weeks and we drove down to Sacramento and I took the whole PFT (Physical Fitness Test: pull-ups, sit-ups, & 3-mile run). I noticed the difference being lower in elevation, but I was still pretty darn nervous about the run (I kept thinking about how I wished the run portion was 100-200 meter sprints). I got the highest scores possible on the pull-up and sit-ups which was really nice for the overall score. On the run, I paced myself better, the weather was about 65F, but about a mile into my run I had to crap. This was my worst nightmare knowing that I had 2 miles more to go and that I was about to have an "accident."
By God's grace, I "stomached" through the run while touching cloth, didn't crap myself, and passed the 3-mile run about 2 minutes under the max time allowed. Somehow, I had improved 4 minutes in two weeks and I thank God for sea-level. :)
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