It is my pleasure to report that while not unscathed I am in surprising shape this morning considering my age and habits. Covered with burses and scrapes but intact.

Traps, hip flexors and quads are very very very sore. Low back is sore but strong. Hands ache terribly. Feet very sore. Knees and ankles all scraped up.

I maintain a measured 11% body fat and drank so much water that I peed clear ever 30 minutes since the event started and still lost 6 pounds over 12 hours (clearly not water weight). It will take me a bit to get that mass back.

I was a match for the young guys in everything but the heavy lifting. Most of these guys bench around 275 and are way out of my league in being strong. Still, I was as good as the best and better than the rest during the "Welcome Party". It was 3 hours straight of military PT with one for all and all for one. Mess up and the whole team is punished. These people are tough enough but half puked before it was over. I did not.

Unless one is very fit this is a good way to get hurt real bad but was a wonderful way to spend the evening with new fast friends waiting for the sun to come up and sharing the fact that on this morning at this time four years ago the love of my live was killed. Much support from the team.

I believe that it was a good thing for me to do but realize that my hands will still shake when I see her picture. I have saved her last voice mail to me the day before she was killed when she told me she loved me and I cry every time I listen to it.

GoRuck Tough or not that will probably not ever change. Maybe I don't want it to.

The rail was heavy.

You cant buy this patch.

Byron

that rail must have been particularly "fun."

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

I would never dream of trying to stay with the young folks on that level, but I do know what it takes, and I commend you for the work you put in every day to stay that fit. Myself, I'm content, and quite satisfied with outsmarting them, and I am very good at that.

Allow me the pretention of reporting back to you from much farther down the road, so to speak. My date is march 3rd, 1996. 18 years and counting. I remember the 4th year, and it was tough. What you keep with you, however, is that it is not as tough as the 3rd, which was not as tough as the 2nd. That is *all* you have, but it will prove out in the coming years to be enough. A thinking, reasoning mind will simply not allow you to stop progressing, processing, and healing, and you have shown to be more than well equipped in that department. It *never* goes away, but you will reach a point where that is a good thing, to be treasured, instead of a source of pain to be dealt with. Even after 4 years, the *only* way to endure is still, left foot, right foot, tick-tock tick-tock.

JLF

Looks like a well earned pitcher of margaritas!