End of Week 9 Saturday

Well it almost done.  This time next week I will be sitting in my chair, in my house, with my wife and kids, watching something on TV, thinking about my experiences at the NA.  And I will not be hurting like I do right now!!!!

The Yellow Brick Road Challenge...it was supposed to be this past Wednesday.  The YBR is the granddaddy of challenges and the culmination of past challenges.  We found out a couple weeks ago the Marine Corp would be using it on that date so we needed to reschedule.  Our Yellow Brick Road is their E (endurance) course and it belongs to them so as far as rescheduling for Tuesday no big deal right?  Well then last week it snowed...that threw off their schedule.  So that meant we got rescheduled...again.  Session 252 ran the YBR yesterday...it was a blast!

For those that don't know...the YBR is a 6+ mile course.  The first three miles are obstacles and the last three is just a straight up run.  And I when mean straight up I mean straight up...at least that how it starts.  I'll come back to that in a minute.

A quick run down of the obstacles...a 6 foot wall to go over, a couple different windows to go through, down a bank on a rope, then up a rock face on a rope, then down another bank on a rope, then down another bank on a rope, then up yet another bank on a rope, then to a couple obstacles that have 6x6s attached to trees that you climb up and over (guys beware...use your chest to cross over the top, have you ever straddled a 6x6 with your feet not touching the ground?), then we have our first "slick" log that's about 5 feet off the ground.  This log is parallel to the earth and if you don't hit it just right your body is going under it instead of over it and you're landing on your back.  Then there's the bear pit, it's basically a small pond under some teepee looking logs...have I mentioned yet that it was 28 degrees when we started?  Then we come to great cargo net...climb up one side on the net, reach the top, grab the other side over the top and flip yourself over to land on your back...that was cool!  Then there's a couple different sets of walls that you have to wind yourself through in a serpentine type run.  Then a set of 5 parallel, slick logs that start off about 3 feet off the ground and they are about 3 feet apart, the ground slowly drops off as you move further into the obstacle, watch out for the last one.  Then there are a couple more 6x6 walls to climb up and over.  This is the only place that I heard where someone got hurt.  Last I heard they completed the challenge and then went to the hospital to be checked out.  Good job to whoever that was and I hope you recover quickly!!

After the climb over the 6x6s there's another parallel log to clear.  It's 4.5 feet or so off the ground.  I jumped it first and cleared it.  My running partner this morning, Steve...well let's just say he doesn't have much of a vertical jump...Sorry Steve, but I'm glad you didn't get hurt!  Then there's the low crawl under barbwire...again, another small pond.  That pretty much finishes it up for the first three miles.

Remember the straight up run?  Welcome to "Cardiac Hill."  I will say, at least for Georgia, the law would probably not allow you to run radar on this section of the roadway because of the steep grade and it's not a very short hill either.  From there it's a nice little run through the countryside, with a few rolling hills here and there back to where we started just outside the Academy.

Everyone was glad to have completed this last challenge.  Just 9 weeks ago it seemed like it was so far away it would never get here.  I heard it in several voices afterwards..."Hey!!, we did it, we finished it!!!"  But at the same time I heard some voice inflections saying "hey, it's over, we're done, we don't have that to look forward to anymore, our time here is almost up."  I'm not really sure how to describe it other than it was a joyous celebration, but also a somber reminder that our time here is almost over.  Don't get me wrong...I am definitely ready to get out of here, but at the same time I'm going to miss a lot of the people that I have gotten to know and have come to call friends.  I wish them all great success in whatever they choose to do in their life and in their career!!

The coming Monday and Tuesday will finish up our classes with finals and whatever presentations some of us may have left to complete.  Wednesday and Thursday will be various administrative functions, graduation practice, etc.  Then Friday morning at 10am Graduation ceremonies will begin.  By noontime I should be on the road headed back to my babies.

I'll probably check back in with you one last time on Thursday, but till then...Be Safe!

                                                                           

                                                          

 

                                                                                        

 

Week 8 Wednesday

Woke up this morning to about 6 inches of snow, continuing snowfall, and an email telling us that the base was closed and to report to our homerooms at 9am.  So far so good...an extra hour of sleep.  Reported to the homerooms where our FBI NA 252 golf shirts were handed out along with a few other small things, discussion about upcoming section events and we're done for the day right? 

Somebody in the session, in their infinite wisdom, decided that there needed to be a volunteer Challenge run of the 5 miles.  We were supposed to do that anyway this morning, but with the base closing we were told that there would not be an "official" challenge and we would need to do it on our own.  About this time I'm thinking these folks are crazy...not only is there 6 inches of snow on the ground, it's continuing to fall very heavily!!!  I see a few folks headed toward the locker room with their running gear.  "Harry, you coming?"  "NO!" was my response with a few other words added for effect.  Until I see my roommate and one of my suitemates headed in that direction and they are asking.  At this point I'm in a dilemna...do I go back to my nice cozy, warm room and wait out the snow and get my 5 miles in later?  And suffer the wrath of my roommate and suitemate for the remaining 2.5 weeks?  Or do I join the knuckleheads and get it done...well just call me a knuckle head I guess.  That was the first and quite possibly the last time I will ever run 5 miles at one time.  Oh, and did I mention it was snowing a blizzard? and it was uphill both ways?  After the first three miles I guess my body became numb and it couldnt tell I was still running!  Everyone was done in about 60 minutes!

Anyway, I'm sitting here in my dorm room thinking about how bad my body is going to hurting.  But at the same time thinking...I'm glad I went.  I came here for a once in a lifetime experience and as far as I'm concerned that will be a once in a lifetime experience!! 

Week 8 and I'm still meeting new people.  For anyone that may be in the position to experience the National Academy, push yourself and make it happen.  Eight weeks away from family and friends has been quite difficult and I have no plans of doing anything like it in the future, but I will not trade the experience for anything!!

I think I'm going back to bed now!

Till next time...Be Safe!

Week 8 Sunday

Well this weekend has been busy!  I completed my 34 mile swim on Friday!!!! Looks like there are about 65 people that are working on their bluebrick.  I was the 27th person to complete the 34 miles.  I am so glad to be done with that.  I will admit though my freestyle stroke has greatly improved.  I started the first night I was here.  I think it took me about an hour and 15 minutes to swim that half mile.  And as I reached each end of the pool I would end up walking the last 10-15 feet.  I finished Friday with my last mile.  That mile took me about 45 minutes.  Several 1.5 miles were done in that 34 and those would take me about a hour and 15 minutes.  Now I just need to put in a pool when I get home!

It has been fairly quiet around here this weekend.  Just about everyone that I have talked with has been busy trying to finish up all their papers, projects and presentations; me included.  I have spent pretty much the entire weekend working on my stuff.  I am just about done with everything.  I have a one page paper to do for PT class and a group presentation powerpoint to finish; my part is done and I'm just waiting for everyone else's info.  Tom on the other hand, still has several things to complete...poor guy. 

Three weeks to go....can't get done fast enough!

Till next time...Be Safe!

Week 7 Wednesday

We experienced the Winged Monkey Assault this morning!!!  It actually worked out better than I thought it was going to.  From the description I was given by a couple different people I was expecting something along the lines of a middle-of-the-night drill experienced by Gunny Highway (Clint Eastwood) in Heartbreak Ridge (if ya know what I mean).  This took place on the track.  We had Steelbells, Kettle bells, jump ropes, TRX straps, Rubber bands, rubber straps, dumbbells, pullup bars, dip bars, hills, agility ladders and cones, sandbags, and of course the track itself.  The only instruction was to stay busy for 30 minutes!!!  And I did!  It was a good workout.  I sweated a lot but didn't feel like a trip to the morgue when I was done (like last week!!!!).  And for the first time since we started I forgot my camera!!  It's just as well, I don't know that it would have fared well with this circuit!

This past weekend was the trip to Philadelphia.  I actually used to live not to far away from Philadelphia, of course that was 40 years ago (man I'm getting old...I did something over 40 years ago!).  I still have family there...A shout-out to the McCann's in West Chester and surrounding area!!!!  And I will apologize now for not making contact...we had a pretty tight and very busy schedule.

We left out Saturday morning and went straight to Philadelphia PD where we were supposed to meet with Commissioner Ramsey.  Unfortunately, he had other business that had to be attended to.  We met with one of his Deputy Commissioners.  After a quick talk with him and tour of the facility we headed out to Northeast Philly to the new FOP Lodge #5.  This was a brand new building and our class was the first NA class to visit.  It was a beautiful building and great lunch...philly cheesesteaks!!!!  Thanks to the FOP members for their hospitality.  We then went to I guess what could be considered Philadelphia PD's special ops.  We were given a bomb demo; it's always great to see stuff get blown up!  then a short K9 and a SWAT demo.  Philadelphia PD has some cool toys!  Another thank you to the guys of Philadelphia PD.  From here we finally checked into our hotels and then went for dinner.

The next day we started about 8:30 and went to Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, and the National Constitution Center.  From there we went for lunch at Tony Lukes...Philly cheesesteak and fries!!!  After lunch we were given a tour of the Phillies stadium.  And of course you can't take a trip like this to Philly and not stop by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Some of you may be thinking "ART?"  Don't think art...Think Rocky!!!!  Yes, we all ran up the steps while someone was playing the theme to Rocky through a small, but fairly loud external speaker for their iphone!  We finished up the trip with dinner at Table 31 at the Comcast Center.  I was about as impressed with their dinner as I am with the prices of their cable service!

Overall it was great trip to Philadelphia and I'm glad I went.  I have visited family up there several times and have never seen some of the stuff that I saw while I was there this weekend.  Thanks to Tom Fitzpatrick of our class and Philadelphia PD...you did a great job putting this together!

We've only got about 3.5 weeks left with only the next 2.5 weeks being solid classwork.  From some of the rumblings I have heard I think I'm doing pretty good with the classwork I have left to complete (which I plan on doing this weekend!!!).  And I am down to 3.5 miles left in my swim!!!! I will be done Friday!  Bring on the blue brick!!!!

Tonight is International night.  We have 27 students in our class that are from other countries.  In week 7 of each class the International students get together and provide the rest of us with a sample of their country; food, drink, uniform, and culture.  We are all looking forward to this evening!

Till next time...Be Safe!

Week 6 Wednesday

Holy Smokes!!!!  And that's what I am right now....smoked!  Somebody had said that our challenge from a couple weeks ago with the bands, hills and stairs was going to be the worse challenge we had....they just flat out lied!!!

Today we started out with a short run, 3/4 of a mile or so.  At that point we were to do 50 walking lunges...I might have got twenty before my hamstring started screaming at me to stop!  Then we ran a little more.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I almost killed a couple people trying to get to the outside of the group to take some pictures.  I was in the middle of the pack and tried to move to the outside and as I started for the gap lo and behold a leg was in front of me...Sorry Savannah!!! 

Anyway, we ran to the next station which was a small hill that we had to bear crawl up AND down three times.  Then we ran to the parking garage were we ran up the stairs to another station that was a set of 20 burpees!  From there it was across and down another set of stairs.  We ran down the road a little further to the next station...a set of 20 4-count mountain climbers.  After that small bit of torture...er...exercise we ran to the next station, pushups!  And of course another of our great PT instructors, VanVorst, is manning this station and inviting us to do these pushups...DOWNHILL!

Then we ran to the last station.  Do you remember the hill from a couple weeks ago that we were running up?  Well this time we had to crabwalk up it....backwards!  But it still wasn't over, sadistic trainers!   We crabwalked down the other side and finished up with a set of 20 divebombers or downward dogs!!!  Then ran the last 200 yards or so to the finish line.

You know...this was the first time I noticed the EMS vehicles on our challenge.  I should have known!  I usually get my swim in after our challenge so that it's done for the day...not today!  I will also mention that last week the pool was packed after the challenge with swimmers, again, not the case today.  I think everyone got a good workout in today.  Overall it was a little over 2 miles and somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 minutes.  I am just glad "The Wicked Witch Hunt" is over.

Till next time...Be Safe!

Week 5 Thursday

Well we had our 4th challenge yesterday; Lion's Leap, 3.1 mile run.  Because of the way I was feeling I did NOT want to get out of the bed yesterday.  But, I did it anyway.  I ran the entire route and felt pretty good after doing it.  I could tell the batteries ran down as the day went on though.  I think I finished somewhere around 32 minutes.  I didn't realize there was a clock there until several minutes after finishing, go figure!  My brain was depleted of a little oxygen at the time!

I had my first mid-term this morning in Labor Law.  A whole bunch of first amendment rights in the work place (religion, speech), Garrity issues, privacy rights issues, Due process rights, etc.  I think I did ok on it, I'll find out later this afternoon for sure.

I knew I forgot something in the last post.  On Monday I received my first "care package" from the great folks I work with at the college.  Thanks to all that participated it was very much appreciated.  And thank you Terri for the purple rooster.  He's hanging out in the dorm room.  As for the ton of chocolate that was sent...several of my classmates are enjoying it (I haven't given it ALL away, but I am trying to be good!).  Besides, they got kind of jealous when they saw all the stuff I got from folks at work!

I'll add a couple pics to the post later on.  Till next time...Be Safe!

Week 5 Tuesday

It's been almost two weeks...I can't believe that it has gone by so fast.  At the same time I haven't had a chance to slow down.  That may be why I ended up at the doctor today.  Prednisone and Z-pack...I should be on my way back to good health.

I got to go home for the weekend (Feb 1st)...my son turned 10 and I was not going to miss that for anything.  He had a lot of friends at his birthday party and he had a great time with all of them.  I was glad to be home with my family and can't wait to get back home again!

Last week's challenge..."The Cyclone!" Six stage circuit inside the gym...yes, all 270 of us doing a circuit in the gym. The entire circuit runs at 35 seconds on and 15 seconds off (just enough time to get to the next stage). Resistance band flyes, air squats with sandbags, burpees, "hip unders" (basically in a one arm push up position rotating one side of your hips to the floor, switching arms and rotating the other hip to the floor, and just continuing back and forth for the time period), knee to elbow pushups, and finally a squat - lunge each leg - jump. Each one of these are done 4 times. I was glad to see that circuit end!

This past weekend was the trip to New York.  During each session there is an officer in the session from New York PD.  They are able to organize a weekend trip to NY for 100 members of the session.  I was lucky enough to get chosen in the lottery to attend this trip.  This was the first time I have ever been to New York and it was awesome!  Even though we pulled into NY under a threat of 35 inch blizzard I was looking forward to it!  The main purpose behind this trip is visiting the various operations of the NYPD, learning about those operations and the equipment utilized by officers within the PD.  And we ended up with about 12 inches of snow on the ground!

Entrance to Central Park at the end of 7th Avenue

Another learning aspect of this trip was a visit to Ground Zero.  Just thinking about what I saw while I was there conjures up emotion.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit the memorial don't miss it.  They are still in the process of building a permanent memorial building, but the two pools and small memorial building is still something to see.  They are still in the process of constructing the Freedom Tower, but we have connections!!!!  The group was able to don hardhats and orange vests and go up to the 90th floor.  The site of New York City at that height is simply amazing!  There is no other word or words to describe it.

We also had the opportunity to visit with the NYFD.  On this visit we were able to see one of two fireboats that were recently purchased.  This "boat" cost 34 million dollars.  The name of the boat "Three Forty Three" was so named to represent the 343 firefighters that were lost in the collapse of the two towers.  The name on the side and rear of the boat was made from steel salvaged from the towers.  Not only were we able to view this boat and speak with the firefighters, they were kind enough to give us a tour of the Hudson River.  First we went by the Statute of Liberty, then we went down and visited the Brooklyn Bridge.  They were great sites to see. 

 

The best part of the trip though....the continued camaraderie built amongst the members of Session 252.  We had been here for a solid four weeks at the time we left going on this trip.  Prior to that, I had the opportunity to meet many new people and make many new friends.  However, in just a two day trip I think I doubled that number of new friends.  I look forward to continuing those relationships and building new ones in the continued weeks here.

I'm sure I have forgotten something that has occurred here in the last two weeks.  I hope it didn't drag on too much.  I will try to update a little more often so it isn't quite so long next time.  Till next time...Be Safe!