Triathletes & the SEALs

Well, as this week winds down...all I can say is: what an experience we had on Wednesday at the Navy SEALS training center! It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To help you understand how lucky this group of triathletes were...I want to explain this: we were the 4th group of civilians to EVER, IN THE HISTORY OF THE SEALS, spend a day training like they do. It's not like a weekend thing that corporate groups, or college teams, etc. can just sign up and do. What happened is: the SEALS hired the OTC's psychologist to work with them...and he said "what can you do for us in return?" So they said, we will allow groups of Olympic athletes come out and spend a day as SEALS. The women's softball team did it, a bunch of USC swimmers did it, and the US rowing team...and now the USA triathletes! Oh yeah...and if you've watched G.I. Jane...that was the SEALS...and guess what: there is a FEDERAL LAW that says WOMEN CAN'T TRY OUT FOR THE SEALS!!!!! So, along with being civilians on the SEALs base...our group was half women...and WE KICKED ASS!! At the end of the day, our instructors told us that they were thoroughly impressed with how tough and strong we were the whole day!
To describe what we did...I will start by saying: if you've seen it in the movies...WE DID IT!! First thing we did (after signing our life away on a release waiver) was push ups in a group for about 20 minutes, getting hosed with cold water, and not getting up until we did 20 push ups perfectly, in-sync, and shouting 'WHOYA' at the right times. Next, we got up, split into 2 groups, and ran down to the beach where we picked up our LOG...yes...just like you see in the movies! We spent an hour with that damn log; doing lunges, squats, sit ups in the ocean (try listening to the instructors and having your head back in the water with waves crashing over your face!) and running races against the other team carrying our logs over the sand burms. We finished with the logs...loaded on a bus...drove to the pool...and did the drown proofing test. Yes, that meant we had our feet and hands tied together, we got in the pool and did bobbing in the 9 foot section, floating for a minute, traveling to the end of the pool and back (required a weird dolphin kick) and front and back flips under water (more strange dolphin kicks to get your body around for a complete flip). We had partners for this 'evolution' (yeah...that's what they call each different exercise: evolutions) that watched from the side of the pool in case you started drowning. The partner wasn't getting off easy...they did pushups and 'chilly dips' (translation: right when the sun was starting to warm you up...the instructors would say 'chilly dip' and you had to jump in the pool and get wet and cold again!). After the pool evolution...which concluded with a 'decontamination' in cold showers at the pool where we had to be very loud in our WHOYA yells and then very fast in putting on our wet clothes and shoes which had been scattered (gee, thanks for throwing our nice piles of stuff ALL over the deck)...we got back on the bus and drove to the galley for lunch! (Yes...in our wet clothes, shoes, etc). I've never eaten soup before but it was the ONLY thing that was WARM...by this time...I'm getting back cramps from the CONSTANT shivering.
The post-lunch evolution was a little laid back...we went to the obstacle course and attempted about 75% of the obstacles (some of them we would have killed ourselves if we attempted them). There was 3 different materials that every obstacle was built out of: wood logs, rope, & barbed wire. The SEALs must be able to complete the ENTIRE course, about 15 HUGE obstacles, in under 8 minutes or they don't pass...I conqured about 2 of them, 4 if you count getting help from teammates...but all that took about 1.5 HOURS!
The laid-back attitude of our instructors ended with the last obstacle...and before we knew it, we were running back to the beach with the instructions: "GET WET & GET DIRTY". (translation: run into the water, sumburge yourself, run up to the sand burms, roll your whole body in the sand). The next evolution was just like the movies again: each team had a boat and we did the whole thing: carry it out into the waves, jump in, paddle like mad into the 8-10 foot surf, try to keep the boat straight because if a waves hits you on the side...you are screwed...paddle past the surf (this was our teams mistake on the first race...figuring out where the end of the surf REALLY is), tip the boat over, tip it back, climb back in, paddle like hell back to shore, carry the boat back to the starting position, arrange the ropes/paddles/handles in perfect position and send the koxswain to report to the commanding instructor. The key slogan at this point in the day was: "it pays to be a winner"...so when our team got back to the beach WAY behind the other team...they got to sit on their boat and rest while we were lucky enough to HOLD THE BOAT ABOVE OUR HEADS!!! Unfortunatly, our team had a VERY obvious size difference so when the boat went above our heads...it was above Kelsey's and my hands, even on tippy toes we could barely touch it...so Doug (6'4'') and Matt (6'2'') were getting most of the load! We had more races with the boats...running on the beach while carrying them...out into the surf again (so much fun getting SHOT out of the boat by the waves:)...and then one more decontanimation shower and the hard stuff was over!
At the end of the day, as we stood in our RANKS and got nothing but praise from our Navy SEALs instructors...I looked back on the day with nothing but enjoyment...except for the fact that I was still shivering at that point and couldn't wait to get dry clothes on! Matt, on the other hand...was standing in the ranks...and passed out COLD! They took him off to the Dr., checked his core temp, pumped him full of glucose, wrapped him in a warm blanket, and declared him okay to go!
As a result of our evolutions, I am closer with a lot of my teammates, and I see a lot of them in a whole new light...I would trust my life with almost anyone here that I am training with. I can't wait to do it all again next year!
WHOYA!!!