Illness, Rain, Helicopters & a Pig Roast

So Wednesday was our 6th challenge, a 4 mile run on tank trails, called the "Munchkin Run." Don't you just love the Wizard of Oz theme? At any rate, I woke up with what I suspected was the beginning of a cold, the same one that has crippled about 1/3 of our session. To make matters more interesting it decided to rain during our 4-mile trot, which probably didn't help my situation any.

At any rate the run went well and I managed to beat my "nemesis" Fred from Austin, although I have little hope of ever catching EJ our P.T. instructor. It took us about 28 minutes to cover the distance, and we almost managed negative splits for all four miles! However it took close to an hour by the time I went back and forth running in the rest of our classmates. That's okay, that's the teamwork part that people so often miss.

After that it was a warm shower and nap! Then we took a tour of the facilities of the Bureau's elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), although that's a bit of a misnomer since they rarely actually resuce hostages any more. We saw what an unlimited budget will get you...something to the tune of 14 helicopters, state of the art training facilities and more specialty vehicles than you can possibly imagine.We got a run down on the capabilities of the team and got to explore all the helicopters (the dream is still alive!). Anyway, while most of what we saw was classified and super-secret, here are a couple photos from the tour. Thoroughly enjoyed the gadgets and gizmos!

Finally, it was time for the pig roast. Our section sponsored a pig roast at the local lake/park and a local guy came out and made the most amazing pork and brisket, ummm, yummy! Followed up by a brownie and fudge (courtesy of Alexis and Viana), some Tylenol for the ensuing cold and off to bed by 9:30!

Today, of course, I spent the majority of the day battling my cold. Although three naps, a bag of cough drops and a pretty tasty beef stew for dinner seemed to have worked wonders. Just have one more day to get through, including another P.T. session, then rest for the weekend...and two remaining papers to write.