So much of my life is about time right now, and I don't deal with time very well. In the language of movement analysis, I undulge in time, which means that I like to use all the time that I have, and I don't keep track of it very well. In the language of pathology, I'm ADD.
This last week flew past and now I just have about 8 days left.
The test starts at 8 AM. Most of the events are timed. I don't get anywhere usually get anywhere before 8 AM, and I don't do much fast, so these are major elements for me.
I've managed to get my run down into passing range. At least, I've done it once, but not today.
The other timed events include the stair climb "obstacle course" in which you have 70 seconds to couple 2 hoses, climb stairs (96) and hoist a hose up to the window ledge, all wearing a 50 lb weight vest. A friend at the gym told me he knows someone who failed the test on this event by going over time by 1 second. I have a 40 pound vest I've worn a bit and climbed some, and I know I can haul, so I'm not terribly worried about this. Fifty pounds is a lot of weight, though.
There is the maze in which you have to crawl through a trailer and find your way out, wearing both the weight vest and a blackened face mask. Luckily, I have been in a maze at my friend's firehouse. I wouldn't want to do this totally unprepared. When I did it, the guys let me put on the turnout gear including a facemask. It took me a minute to get used to, because the air filter requires a little extra effort to breathe.
I remembered my process learning to SCUBA dive in during which I completely had a panic attack. I didn't feel comfortable donning heavy equiptment on a bouncing boat, feeling rushed, jumping into the water and again being bounced around in big swells, and then yet again feeling rushed to descend with all the other divers. I never got a chance to acclimate. So I resorted to beach diving in Bonaire. Not a hardship. But there, you drive up, donn your equiptment standing on the beach and walk into the water. Swim out until you feel like descending and you're good to go. Easy.
Anyway, back to the maze. I knew I could breathe, even though it was odd and uncomfortable, and I knew that when SCUBA diving, once I wasn't thinking about it and instead was looking at the fish and swimming around underwater, I would be fine. So in I went. First, I went in with the lights on, and it was just interesting, because it was set up to look like rafters in an attic, there was a little door I had to open, and the floor was uneven so that twice I had to reach down to find where I could climb down to another floor level. I came out, took a little breather... Then they turned the lights out. Now, it's the same maze. It's a simple maze. But this time going through it as I neared the end I was a little hot, and a little tired. I got to the place where I had to reach down pretty far to find the lower floor. The ceiling was really low there and I knew I would have to get my legs around to climb down, and I started to feel the panic rise. I had to stop and take a few breaths before deciding to just get the hell out. I had actually moved through the maze in less time than the first time, and the guys congratulated me. I told them of my moment of scare and their response was, "Sounds like you're ready for us to start pumping in the smoke." Um, really? (More on this later.)
So I have been doing some combat crawls wearing a 40 lb weight vest to get used to moving low under all that weight. I know what can happen when I am hot, tired, and cramped in an unfamiliar dark place. For this you have 5 minutes, but no one wants to be in there that long.
The ladder lift and climb are the other two. I have to lift one end of a ladder, which will require me to clean and press it since I can't muscle the weight. And I have to climb a ladder to prove I'm not afraid of heights. I think I've got both of these under control.
The bane of my existence now is the dummy drag in which I have 40 seconds to drags a 160 lb body dummy 100 feet. I am really at a loss. I haven't figured out to simulate this, short of dragging my own husband around out back yard, and he hasn't exactly been begging me to let him help me practice. It was a beautiful day today, and while the kids played, I dragged a large branch across the yard. No hand holds, too much damn weight; I can't get any momentum.
Eight days. Much work to do.
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