There are a number of things about today's road march worth noting.

1) Attendance was very poor again. I was genuinely surprised that more people were not able to attend given the extra day(s) off this weekend. Perhaps New Years is a more popular time to travel then I anticipated. My reasoning in proposing the date was that people had time to return from holiday travel.

2) Kudos to Pennekamp! He practically double-timed 5 miles with his ruck and LBV, a future Ranger School candidate if I ever saw one.

3) It sucks to be last! Yep, I was That Guy today. Of course, when your slowest soldier is still 20 minutes ahead of the standard you were moving out pretty good. But even on a good day, you never want to be That Guy who's slowing his battle buddies down.

4) If you're shorter than me you are going to have a tough slog rucking. My legs were pumping pretty hard the whole way and I could not keep pace with my taller compatriots. If you are shorter than I am you are going to have to work even harder to make your time. I am 67 or 68 inches depending on who's doing the measuring.

5) If you haven't put on a load and humped it in a while, you need to get out there and do it. I hadn't ruckmarched in four months and I felt it today. I think I'm going to start going out on my own every Saturday morning, probably on the Mt. Vernon trail. If nothing else it is terrific fat-burning exercise. Anyone who wants to join me is welcome.

6) Nobody was injured. I think Warren got a blister but it didn't seem to slow him down any. Ironically the only hot spot I got was on TOP of my little toe. That was weird, but it was the first serious march for my winter boots. I don't think that will be a problem going forward.

Aside from the attendance problem, I characterize today's march as a success. Drive on 2PLT!

Reed

Hey I ran the last 2miles with pennekemp and it was my idea! lol ok ya so i didnt have a ruck on but still!

DUDE!!!

You did not have a Ruck on! Don't steal Pennekamps thunder bro. Thats basically a PT test without the pushups and situps to tire you first.

HAHA

Well I went out 06 JAN to improve my speed and endurance and was successful. I started out at Mt. Vernon and marched north 3 miles, rested for exactly 5 minutes, and marched back. My times were 45:30 out and 47:54 back. Including the 5 min. rest, that comes to six miles in 1:38:24 or 16:24/mile. Which is not too shabby.

When I initially planned the march, I was hoping that cold weather would make the trail sparsely populated. Of course as you know this past Saturday saw record high temperature. The irony is I had a really great time with all the joggers and dog walkers on the Mt. Vernon trail. Since I don't go out in public in uniform very often, I am always humbled by how much this country appreciates its Army. My favorite comment: "That looks hard!"

I got a blister on top of my toe again. This time on the left foot instead of the right. Before I was inclined to blame it on my cold weather boots. But the weather was so warm Saturday that I broke out the warm weather boots, which were thuroughly broken in at Sill. I never had this friction on top of my little toes before. Perhaps it is the sock liners I've been using; guess I should stick to Army issue, eh?

Thanks for the props, Reed. Compliments are always much appreciated, but let's not wish Ranger school on anybody just yet. It might be in the cards down the road, but we've all got a few OCS drill weekends to get through before we take a shot at the Airborne/Ranger thing.

Great march, for all who showed. Thanks again for putting it together.

Good luck this weekend! See you all on Friday...