Day 68

Day 63 of Basic

Today is the company run! Yes. Our whole company is going to run together in one big formation. I was definitely nervous with my knees still sore from the week in the field and with the big blister on my right heel. The said the run would be really slow, but would be probably 3-4 miles. Yikes!
Wake up was at 0500, formation at 0520, then we headed over to the PT field for our usual pre-run drills. Then we formed up and headed out. Our 1SG said he wanted to take us to go and wake up some others. I had a feeling we were going to be running over to battalion, which is probably 1.5 mile away. And I was right. We ran around towards our DFAC, then down a gravel road to Battalion, and then back around on the main road to our company PT area. The pace was slow enough that it wasn't too hard to keep up, but I still found it mentally tough. My knees didn't really bother me until we stopped. Then they started hurting! I do have to say it was pretty cool to be running as an entire company, each platoon yelling out cadence the whole time. Since our company is known as the Gators, our 1SG had us clapping our hands yelling chop chop as we ran through battalion. He also had the speakers set up playing music as we arrived back to our own PT field. Our platoon made it back with no one falling out. My DS asked me if I thought it was hard. I said yes! He then asked if I wanted to do the battalion run. I said no. I did not want to take my chances of my knees hurting too bad to keep up if I had the option! Our run ended up being 3.3 miles in about 30-35 minutes. The longest I've ever run!
After the run they gave us time to shower and change before my DS took those of us giving blood by bus up to battalion. They sent us with breakfast, Jimmy Dean MRE's. It's chicken salad in a can with Pringles, canned fruit,  granola bar, sucker, and raisins. It was actually pretty good. Once the blood drive was open they marched us over and we then had the joy of waiting. :-)
It was actually a nice break. They didn't mind us visiting quietly so I ended up getting to know one of the guys in my platoon a lot better as we were the last two in our group. I do have to say the whole process took much longer than when I've donated through Oklahoma Blood Institute, but it beat spending the whole morning cleaning my rifle.
As soon as our group was done donating, my DS picked us up in the bus and drove us across post to the theater. I guess we were already late because they gave us exactly 4 minutes to eat an MRE. I scarfed down the spiced apples, ate 2 bites of the energy bar, and a handful of M&Ms. We then sat in the back of the theater for our Sex Symbols presentation.
It was basically education on how to avoid and prevent sexual harassment and assault. They had a male and female actor that presented it in the format of improvisation. They were pretty funny and engaged the crowd while still making their point. The sad part is that there is even a need for the education, as date rape is all too common in the military.
Our DS's then bused us back to battalion (I guess they got the joy of driving bus because it was a Saturday?) where we found out they were doing a concert for us. It was quite warm, so our company took our soda's and candy bars and just chilled off to the side visiting amongst ourselves. I did get to catch up with the SSG that I traveled with from OK. He had been put in Company C. Our company was definitely not interested in the concert, so we left early. It was warm enough outside, there were no complaints. They threatened us that they were going to do a shakedown on us as soon as we got back to ensure we weren't hoarding candy so everyone was quick to hand over anything while they had the chance. Of course, they never did shake us down. :-)
The rest of the afternoon was spent working on our weapons and re-cleaning some of the gear. I guess they're hoping to get issued new rifleman kit's so they had to be clean enough to turn in.
We then had our pizza we pre-purchased the week before. I didn't want to eat a Hot-A, so I had bought one, but knowing it would probably make me sick, I only ate some of the pizza and shared the rest.
We then went back to weapons cleaning until Hydration Formation with just enough time to change beforehand. Then off to bed. No fireguard for me! Yay!