We all started in one wave. I had been working on this one so I figured that I would be in the lead group so I got to the start line quickly and was able to be right on the line. They said GO and we were off. After about 30 yards, I could see about 2/3 of the group just fall back. Then after another 20-30 yards the rest of the group fell back. I consider myself a good runner but not an "out in the lead" kind of good runner. I actually slowed down just slightly a few times on the first lap just to see if someone would catchup. Finally, after 3.5 laps a woman (late teans early twenties) passed me and I knew with the way she was going and with another 2.5 laps left I probably would not catch her. Then around lap 5 a teenager passes me. I watched him go and decided to kick it in the last 100 or so unfortunately it wasn't enough. I had a great kick (that I probably should've started sooner) but it wasn't enough to catch him.

I would not back off the pace I wanted just so I could run with the pack. Also I would push myself to start my kick sooner.

We were allowed ample time to change as we were waiting for our whole group to finish before moving on. We then walked out of the rec center and on to an ajoining field where different stations were set up. We lined up in two parallel lines facing the person that would be counting our reps. I could see out of the corner of my eye some people just banging out the pushups as fast as they could. I had practiced a bit slower and controlled. I think I took a break around 30 or so and then started doing them by 5s after that. I had gotten up to 47 and I went down for another one but when I was coming back up my arms just froze at what I think was a 90deg angle. I feel like I held it there for a long time but it was probably only a second before I fell back to the ground. After my friend finished his pushups then we went straight in to situps.

I was hoping for some sort of mat to do the pushups and situps on but we were just on the "grass cut down to a knub" ground. It was hard and bumpy which did not make it too comfortable on the hands or the behind. I followed my same routine on the situps that I had practiced. I got up to 35 and then started doing them by 5s. Nothing too fancy here just followed the plan until we were told to stop.
Now normally we would have switched and my friend would've done his situps but it just so happened that this was the time at which the Navy Leap Frogs (Parachute Team) was scheduled to come in so everything stopped as we watched them parachute down into the field next to us. That was a lot of fun. I think three of them came down with smoke, one with a POW/MIA flag and the last with an American flag. It was great that they landed in the field next to us. I don't think I've ever been that close to a parachute landing before and it was awesome. Once that was over, it was back to situps (not my own but my friend's). The next station was pullups. They had about 6 or 7 pullup bars lined up and just said have at it. There was no time limit for this portion but most people that attempted it were done in under a minute. Then it was on to the run.
47 pushups
58 situps
9 pullups
1007 score

The only two strokes possible were either the side stroke or the breast stroke. I had tried the breast stroke one day while preparing for this race and it just didn't feel comfortable. I'm not that good of a swimmer anyway. After watching the side stroke video of the SEAL Fitness Challenge website, I gave it a try and liked it. Since I was spending half of my time watching the people to my left and half of the time watching people to my right, I got a pretty good idea as to how I was doing. The two women in the closest lanes to my left both had Ironman swim caps which was a bit intimidating. I was keeping up with them off the wall but I could tell that they were slowly pulling ahead of me. I think my the end I was about 10-15ft behind them or so. The people to my right weren't doing so well and after the first 3 laps or so I could see them falling further and further back. They finished well after I was out of the pool. The only problem I had was on my first lap I pushed off the wall and a bit of water seeped into my goggles. I HATE THAT!! I was a bit less aggresive on the other pushoffs for that reason so that may have slowed me down a bit. During training I was swimming 500 meters in a 25 meter pool. I didn't realize until race day that it was a 500 YARD race in a 25 YARD pool. It seemed really short and my time seemed really fast for what I was expecting.

Tighten my swim goggles up a bit so that they could handle a bit more force on the pushoff from the wall. Other than that, I was very pleased with my performance.

Alot of huffing and puffing after the run was over. The sun was starting to wear on me. Stayed in the shade over by the water. They provided water bottles, oranges, bananas and two or three types of energy bars. I got the first energy bar I saw (Tiger's Milk) and ate it chasing it down with some water. By the time I got done with it I realized it was not what my stomach wanted. For the next 10-15 minutes I was feeling nauseated. Luckily that passed. Went with the kids to pick up posters, cups, frizbees, etc. After a LONG wait (30-45min) we had our awards ceremony where everyone got their T-shirts. I was one of three in my group to get a tan T-shirt and there were no blues. They we took a group photo.


Nothing. I performed to plan and my abilities at the time. Very pleased with how things turned out.


Although everything started late, once things started they kept up a good pace on going to the next event. The one thing I did not like was the long wait to the awards ceremony. It took forever. Also, even though they show how to perform each exercise and tell you what is acceptable, they did not enforce any of the rules. People were barely going back down on the situps. People were kipping on the pullups and not keeping their backs straight on the pushups. If you are going to have rules at least enforce them. I know this is a PR event but when you are working with SEALs you kind of expect to get yelled at, etc. There was even one woman in our group that asked the SEAL to call her a "maggot" and "scum of the earth". Besides that it was a lot of fun. Would definitely do it again and go for a BLUE T-shirt.