Norwegian Foot March

Me & Tracy before we began.

This morning I woke up at 0300 to draw my weapon and have my ruck sack weighed for the Norwegian Foot March. This is an 18.6 mile foot march with a 25lb pack. Now, I know what you're thinking... "You are a huge failure when it comes to road marching, why on Earth would you want to put yourself through this?" Well, although this is a true statement, I wanted to push myself to prove I can win.

 

And I won today.

 

I completed the 18.6 miles in 4 hours and 25 minutes. This time is within the parameters set for males in my age group. All my hard work, sacrifice, and long road marches on the weekends to prepare has paid off.

 

I'm very proud of myself. And of my battle buddy, Tracy. She put in a lot of hard work and hours with me.

 

We're going so fast we're blurry!

Trekking along...

The MEDCO crew who went out for the badge.

Although I don't ever want to do 18.6 miles ever again, I am going to continue to improve my 12 mile time. All I have to say is, EFMB you better watch your back when I get home. I'm going to pass that foot march next!

 

Sausage fingers.

The foot march took its toll on my body. As does every road march. My fingers were swollen sausages by the end. I got a blister on the side of my right big toe and my hips were screaming. But I wasn't nearly as crippled as I have been in the past.

 

When I crossed the finish line, everyone was standing on the sidelines cheering. It felt amazing. I've never experienced that before... usually I collapse just before the finish line and fail. Not this time.

 

The Norwegian Foot March Badge I can wear on my ASUs now.

I earned the bronze badge. If I do the Norwegian a total of 4 times, I'd qualify for the silver badge. And a total of 6 times for the gold badge. But I'm cool with the bronze.