Passed GRC class 871 Saturday in Birmingham. Good God, the cadre put a royal beating on us. Our group was supposed to be 8 people, only 4 showed up. So this meant we ALL got something to carry. Flag, 25-pound team weight, or one of two chunks of concrete.

All total, we put in 10 hours, roughly 20 miles, and a large chunk of that was in monsoon-type rain. Almost none of the photos taken by the guy shadowing us to take pics are worth a darn due to all the rain.

We ran more flights of stairs than I can remember, I got to actually sit down once the entire time and that was for about 10 minutes. I tried to quit a few times but the cadre and my teammates would have none of it.

We did have one guy quit about 2/3 of the way into the event. I felt so bad for him as we had come so far already. I've been taking Motrin and covering myself with Aspercreme ever since I got home Saturday, also been in the tub with epsom salts.

I'm darn sure not 18 years old anymore like I was in boot camp back in 1988.