. But I am definaly glad I went and now I'm and even more determined to get in. I'm going to start swimming and going to the gym and running everyday. Definaly a great expirance, but I'm a bit annouyed at how I failed...the 3 miler, but I'll come to that in a bit. I won't write a diary as I can't spell and I was only there 1 day but I will write what happened to help some people who haven't been there before. Of course your expirance may differ.To start off, on my way there, I got off at the wrong train station so I was already 2 hours late. In the 1st hour of waiting I was crapping my pants but in the second I relaxed a little as I couldn't do anything about it. So I went to one of those old cafe's and brought a American Style Breakfast at 2.00pm. I really just wanted the pancakes that came with it but thought I might as well eat the egg, toast, hashbrowns that came with it. They gave me the pancakes last and after eating all the other food I felt sick. But I couldn't resist the pancakes so I ate them. Anyway enough of my mistakes, after a 1 hours ride and changing trains at exeter, I was at lympstone commando. Nothing much happened for the next few hours, had food, and did the brain tests even though I had my cetificates. Skipping to lights out, the covers are heavy, and the beds are uncomftable. And also they sqeak alot, if you are unlucky you will get a room where everybody is talking till late. On top of that, the heat which will keep you up anyway. A few people got to sleep but most, like me, lye in bed continusly moving about to get comfy untill 2ish in the morning. I can't remember what time we woke up, but it was before our instructer (he was ill), we had gone to breakfast and come back and he was only just getting up. Drills basic but I found it hard to hear him, and then a little bit of waiting about untill a small lectur from a corpral about what we would be doing over the next few days. After that got changed into a green t-shirt, bib, combats and trainers. Marched a little outside to the road, went across the road on a bridge and then started doing a warm up in a car-park. I think the warm-up lasted about 15 minutes, just running in circules and doing high knees, spriting on the spot and streches, no as hard as I thought it would be. Then came the 3 miler, done in 22.30 seconds. First half was as a group in 12.30 seconds, second half on your own. I've told this story 1000 times now so I will keep it short. I was tired out when running but when I got near the end I started sprinting, at the end I felt I could sprint more but it was to late, and I was 15 seconds late, but it was my fault because I did not put 100% effort in all the way otherwise I would have started sprinting earlier. The guy in front of me passed and you have no idea what the time is. After that I decided to go home and wait the 6 months because even if I had continued and only had to wait 3 months, I would have probably delayed it to 6 months anyway. Next time I want to go back very fit.
My top tips:
If you have your own cheap boots, the ones with rubber stiching, take them, just so you know you have boots that will fit you, thats the only good point about that.(easier for marching)
Tips 2:
Don't try and skim the line with the 3 miles (like I did
), you should at least be able to do the 3 miles in 22 minutes with the warm up beforeAnd finaly 3:
Take something to block your ears from the noise at night
The worst part is I never even came back aching all over. But I'll be prepared next time. Definaly glad I went there though.
