Thursday, January 21, 2016

A Mile High


Please welcome Lakewood Police Recruit Joe. He is a member of the Combined Regional Academy Class 2016-1, which started on January 4th. Academy physical training is grueling, but by helping each other the class can endure the hardships. 
 
Week 1 of the academy hit pretty hard. Not in the “beat-your-face” (as in “off of the floor” by doing push ups – military jargon from my past) type of way, but it soon became very clear that there was a long, hard road ahead of my follow recruits and I. Standards would be high. Attention to detail would be paramount. We would, in fact, be beating our faces when our instructors felt that we needed to be redirected. And although the academy hours officially run 8am to 5pm every day, success would require extensive after-hours studying and preparation. Personal time, and sometimes sleep, would be minimal.

This was hard for me to hear. In our class, I'm one of a handful of "transplants" (a local word meaning "not from here; not native"). Born and raised near Pittsburgh, PA, I had been looking forward to doing every outdoorsy thing Colorado has to offer, and doing it every day if I could help it.

While I was slightly disappointed that I'd have to put off a few of those adventures, I did get the chance to enjoy the great outdoors in the academy early on. We were taking what would be a challenging run for some, a leisurely stroll for some of the fitter recruits, and a horrid, fast-paced death march for someone who was out of shape and not at all acclimated to the altitude. Someone like me.  

While there was no chance of me stopping or giving up in any way, I did find that the longer I put out, the slower time went by, and the heavier my feet began to feel. I found myself falling behind the main group. I felt discouraged and ashamed, and breathless and in pain, to boot.  As I kept pushing on, my thoughts turned dark.

"This is dumb."
"I could use a walking break."
"I cannot believe that we have another workout to do after this run." Because that's what we do at the academy. We work out. And, then we work out.

Running wasn't new to me. I knew that a positive attitude made all the difference when every step seemed to hurt, and I knew that positive thoughts were what I needed if I was going to finish the event. But I'd never been winded at a mile above sea level before, and I couldn't shake the negativity. "Come on, Brown," someone said from ahead of me. A fellow recruit had ran back, basically volunteering to run extra distance, and was soon pressing me to press on.

"Keep going."
"Lengthen your stride."
"Not too much farther."

It was still hard, but my feet felt a little lighter, and I didn't care as much that my lungs were on fire. We caught up with the group, pretty much just in time to begin our next work out. There, I had the chance to give back by encouraging other recruits throughout the exercise. Lesson of the day: no one is equipped to make it through alone. Teamwork got me through that run, and it will get us all through this academy.