100 Days of Pain - day 1

Bare with me Linkedin. Sharing this here so some of my brothers can see it.

Oh by the way, if you want correct my grammar, I appreciate that sincerely, but its not necessary.

I hate running. I hate running. I hate running. Running sucks… Excuse me. I’m not sure if you heard me. I hate running.

I want to get this off my chest, so here comes my internet blog. But I’m not a blogger. Please don’t call me a blogger.

I’ve actually made fun of bloggers quite a bit. Sorry bloggers… My wife says I should work on my niceness.

I just finished a run. And it got me thinking. By the way, I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but running is not my favorite.

I can not tell you the last time I went for a run. And it shows. I ran 2 miles in a jaw dropping 20’ 07”(first mile was 9:25). Some people won’t even call that a run. Rabit hole- my mind goes back to when I lived in Coronado. If you live there you know what I am talking about. I used to always see this guy, people said he was an Olympian; he definitely looked like it in the onesie he was wearing. But this guy, he was one of those super speed walkers where his feet never leave the ground. I bet his 2 mile is like half my time. I don’t mean to be self deprecating. That is not my style. And for some, that is a good time. For me, its not.

When I qualified for SEAL training in 2010, I ran 1.5 miles in 8:57. Faster then the first mile I “ran”. So before you go all “hey man, be positive”, first, thank you, but secondly, If I want to beat myself up a little bit I have that right, and then some. I had the great honor of serving as a SEAL for just over 6 years. You won’t ever hear the stories of my valor and heroism though. Thats not false humility, you just won’t ever hear them, because I never… Nevermind I’m not guna go down that road. I’m 6’1 1/4. Yep, six one and a quarter. People try to tell me im 6’2”, I’m not. So I’m not short. But when I walked the halls of SEAL Team 3, I was small in stature compared to the many great men that have walked those halls. Back to running. If you know anything about SEAL training, BUD/s is hard. You’ve probably heard stories. If you read any books or watched something, you heard about boats and logs. Most guys, whether they made it or it didn’t make it through BUD/s will tell you how either boats or logs was the hardest thing for them. And there is also that handful of guys who will tell you the timed swims were their nightmare. Well not me…

Literally running a timed four mile was my crucible. All the pain and punishment of BUD/s I took in stride, but I nearly didn’t make for what to the average athlete, is a very mediocre event. Did I mention I hate running? I’m also not very good at. I’m naturally a sprinter. 400m was my race in high school. My time was around 50”, I want to believe I broke 50”, but that may be fantasy. The point is, I’m not a snail. Unless its more than 400m. I like metaphors. I am a metaphor guy. Metaphorically speaking, I’m kind of like a muscle car. Lots of horsepower, way too heavy, and horribly efficient on gas. Like seriously, If I had a gas mileage, its less than 5MPG. So literally and metaphorically, on long runs, I run out of gas.

Why am I telling you all this? Let me break it down. I went for a run today, and my results were extremely average, and for my personal standards way below average. My SEAL brothers, depending on where they are at in their journey, whether they are still in or they have transitioned, they may be scoffing at my weakness, or you might be right there next to me. Either way, I’ve gotten to a place I’m not proud of. Thus, I’m telling you about it. I’m telling you about it, and I’m making a change. I may suck at running, but I’m good at making change. Flashback: to MC Lastra in the Donnel  classroom(did I spell that right? one of my boys please correct me) “ How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

I may not be impressive right now, but I did something impressive once, with one simple tool: choice. So I’m pulling that “tool out of the toolbag” again.

Have you ever seen that youtube video where the guy tells another guy, meet me at the beach if you want to be successful? Then he tells the guy to go out into the water, and he keeps telling him to go deeper, and I don’t remember completely, but I think he goes out there and holds the other guy under the water( thats always fun). Then he says, what did you want when you were down there? Obviously he wanted to breath. Then he tells the guy, when you want success as bad as you want to breath, then you’ll be successful. Thats all fine and great and yayyyy motivation. But it doesn’t quite resonate with me. You see when I was in BUD/s, In second phase, (this is more for my boys, not everyone will understand this part), during pool comp, the thought of drowning didn’t really jack me up that bad.  I don’t have gills, I’m just giving you some context. By my seventh attempt. Yes, I got rolled. I’m one of those guys. Thank you BUD/s gods ( INS James and  LT Warlick). By my seventh attempt, I had spent a combined 1 hour and 45 minutes under water in pool comp. If I would have got it right the first time I would have only suffered for 20 minutes. James wanted to pass me, but I was 19 years old and still learning attention to detail. Stupid twisted strap. Point being: drowning doesn’t motivate me(maybe I should see a doctor). I can honestly tell you, right after watching another student get the slap of life, I confidently stepped up to the edge of the pool, ready to “Enter the water”. Unfortunately my attention to detail at that time did not match my confidence. You know what I hate more than drowning though? Yeah you guessed it, running.

IF YOU ARE JUMPING TO THE BOTTOM LIKE I DO, DON’T SKIP THIS PART

So I’m going to bend the fake success story a little bit and make it my own. When I want to succeed more than I hate running, then I will “be successful” . Plot twist, this isn’t just about me being less of a fatso. One other blast from the past story for you then I’m done. Before Hell Week I made a really bold claim. I won’t give you the long story on Hell Week, but here is the break down, start on Sunday night, Finish on Friday morning. No sleep except for two dedicated 1 hour naps on Wednesday and Thursday. And you run more than 200 miles in that time. It’s a real ball of fun. Well before Hell Week, everyone is super super nervous, its a major test gate and people are talking about who will make it and who won’t. Well I didn’t say I was guna make it. I said the Saturday morning after I made it through hell week I was going to go for a recovery jog. Doubters beware: I took that jog. I only told a couple guys, but that didn’t really matter. The important part was I told my dad that (thats another story for another time).

Moral of my story: in the face of a challenge, make extremely bold claims (take advice at your own risk)

IF YOU SKIPPED ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM AND DIDNT LISTEN TO THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER… THIS IS THE BOTTOM

SO here is my bold claim. I will run everyday for the next 100 days. i.e. 100 days of pain. And believe it or not, I think I’ve never actually done that. Even in BUD/s which is 180 days long. There was always a Saturday or a Sunday where you are off and don’t run. I’m 99.99% confident I’ve never run 100 days in a row before. Time to make a change

MODERATION IS FOR COWARDS

Disclaimer: I wrote this for me, but I truly hope it helps someone. If it somehow helps a SEAL brother, bonus points. Hopefully I was entertaining. If not, sorry no refunds. If you got the cojones feel free to join me.

P.S. you know that scene in the Matrix (2 or 3 I’m not sure) where Morpheus says “some see coincidence, I see providence.” I love that scene. Well here is some providence for you. Last week I signed up for a 10 mile tough mudder with some friends from church which is what inspired me to lace up the running shoes. Well I just checked and… Race day(Sep. 29) is 99 days from now. So just like before, (on day 100) Ill be going for a “recovery jog”. 

Running is for cowards | Im not a coward | Im just chasing the cowards | make a change | room to grow | be better than yesterday | WAKE UP | get out of bed | PAIN IS GOOD