You call this "fitness?"

I took a Physical Fitness Test (PFT) yesterday morning. Yes, it was Saturday, but that couldn't be helped. See, I'd been on the pistol range all week so I missed the PFT that the company ran on Monday. I was helping out with the embarkation of the ship when the company ran one back in late September, so I didn't take it then, either. It's all good. I'm done now. For those who may not know... Marines are required to take a PFT twice a year. The whole thing is supposed to measure a Marine's physical fitness. The first event is a maximum set of dead-hang pull-ups. You may use either an overhand or underhand grip and you can even switch back and forth if you so desire. The maximum points for any event is 100. You receive 5 points for each good pull-up. I did five yesterday, which was pretty lame, but it was better than what I did when I was at the career course back in April, so I was happy with it. The second event is a two minute crunches drill. With your arms folded across your torso and using only your ab muscles, you're supposed to raise your body so that your elbows touch your thighs, then lower yourself so that your shoulderblades touch the ground. That's one repetition. You get two minutes to do as many as you can, with 100 being the maximum. For the first time in a looooong time, I failed to score the 100 points possible. I only got 97 crunches for 97 points. The final event is a timed three mile run. Here on Okinawa, the run course is not quite three complete laps around the most level part of this base. It's not too bad, except I have a devil of a time trying to make up lost time on a course I have to run more than once to complete the distance. Still, I managed to cover the three miles in 24:40. That was not my fastest time ever, but I managed to score 60 points for my effort. The end result is that I scored 182 points yesterday of a possible 300. This score is better than my previous score by five points, but it still falls within the 2nd class category. In order to get a 1st class PFT, I must score 200 points or more. If I were still a young man (under 27 years old) then I would need 225 points to score a 1st class PFT. Eithr way, I'm done with my required running for the year and now I can start training for the longer races that will be taking place back in San Diego next year. Training for these races will have the added benefit of reducing my time in the three mile run the next time I have to take a PFT, which will probably be sometime in March or April.

puff...puff...

Okay, the next time I plan to take a couple of days off, be warned in advance that it may turn into two or three weeks. I finally hit the road again after managing to get caught up enough on my office work that I actually had a couple of hours to get some road time in. I also bought a new pair of shoes (picture coming) and now I think I'm almost ready for my semi-annual PFT. I'm actually going to run the three mile course later tonight, just to check my time. Well, check my time and get some more miles on my new shoes before I need to run for score, which will probably be Monday.