Tests of Mental Strength

M

Mr Krepe

Water Chip? Been There, Done That
I know the title sounds cheesy and indeed the topic is cheesy but I felt like mentioning it considering it was the hardest thing I have done in my life so far (it didn't have much competition considering i'm 15). I am talking about the marathon I completed at 16:30 today.

By mental strength, I mean it was bearing down on me like nothing before. By the half-way point I was running solely on drops of water, and my body was trying to convince my mind to give up, and i'll be honest I wasn't the sort of guys who finish the maraqthons in about 2-4 hourse, i'm nowhere near that, but I do small-time athletics for my school and I thought it would be a great way to get more experience.

By the 3/4 mark my body was all over (my legs had hit what was
commonly called the wall)I didn't run properly, I stumbled every 15 or so steps and my mind nearly gave up, but it didn't, it spurred me on to the finish line, and my body was absolutely knackered, but i'm proud of myself for what I have done today, and it'll be one of my greatest memories.

I know this seems like i'm being arrogant by talking about myself, but I posted this here to springboard onto this question, has annoying had moments like these, where the body has all but gave up, but the mind is there to stop it from doing so? If so put down the experience (if you do so choose).
 
That's really impressive, I wish I could have the mental or physical strength to run that long.

Now that I think of it, I really haven't done anything that comes close in sheer difficulty.

I think the closest would be on various canoe trip I took with a wilderness camp based in Minnesota. One year my sternsman was unable to steer effectively on his right side, so I spent the entire 10 day trip paddling for days without switching sides (yeah I know it sounds lame but it hurts after a while).

I think I permanently injured my arm because since then I've always gotten pain there when I play tennis.
 
Mr Krepe said:
I know this seems like i'm being arrogant by talking about myself, but I posted this here to springboard onto this question, has annoying had moments like these, where the body has all but gave up, but the mind is there to stop it from doing so? If so put down the experience (if you do so choose).
Click to expand...

Quite a few times actually. Maybe not with a marathon.

But for example the first time I realised that I loost somewhat like 80 pounds (over the years) in weight (sadly some of it returned : I but at least no fatso anymore!). Lot of sport was here part of it as well.

Or when I went pretty much every day either to the gym or some martial arts (Judo and Jujutzu mainly). Today my workshedule and general unsteady situatoin makes both rather difficult.

But at least I enjoy swiming once a week. And today I managed to swim in 80 min aprox wait let me calculate ... 1600m ? (half of it, 15-20 min brake and then again 40 min). I have no clue if that was good or bad. But at some point I was alone in the pool so I guess I have spend more time in the water than anyone else. That has to be good for something.

Reading your lidle story was entertaining and I think I really should get my body in shape again ! Aiming for a target could help a lot, like some contest.

But even if I am not in my best shape right now I still think sport is a great thing. Nothing really can give you the same feeling. Many compare it with sex in some way and I guess its not that far away.
 
While in mandatory military service i had 75 km march which took my team about 20 hrs to go trough. We didnt march in line or anything like that we just had 5-6 guys and had spesific places to go(we got codes from these checkpoints) and after we had all of them we had to march back to our camp. It wasnt as bad as i expected at first, i had plenty of lube,mp3 player and batteries and we didnt have to carry much more than our backpack with change clothes and gun.(mostly because this was longer than usual marches)
Once the nighttime came with the the cold(we were doing this september IIRC) it started getting worse. we had our last checkpoint left which was also our rest and sleep stop and we realised we didnt have enough time to sleep much more than maybe 1 hr. Which basically meant just grabbing fresh water and stuff like that. We also missed one checkpoint so we had to do extra 8 km or so at one point, plus we thought we made brilliant move by shortcutting by following under power lines. We ended up in middle of little swamp and one guy lost his shoe there. Had to use rubber boot rest of the way.

I cant comprehend how some people can run 50 km when i can barely walk around 80. Hats off to them.
 
well one should not forget when they run they dont have really a lot of gear on them. And they have a lot of training received. Not that its less impressive. Just saying its not exactly the same.

*Though you know whats REALLY hard ? Hell Week with the Navy Seals. Seen that once in TV. And damn! That is some though stuff. Its basicaly one week with almost no sleep and training under combat conditions. Like flares in the night, disorentiation, lots of exercises during the day, drill sergants/instructors always on your neck. They say this is the time where most of the people stop the training (70%? of the recruits?). They give the soldiers ridiculous tasks and always ask questions for details. And that all while beeing always in physical and mental stress. Well if they finished the training they really have achieved something.
 
Yes ive heard about that one, i can imagine it would be quite the feeling after completing that one, if youre still sane that is. We had our rumours about russian military service, which i guess is really pretty tough. But some of that stuff sounded unreal to me. Like practicing taking blows from officers, eating crap and that sort of horror stories. Dunno about validity of that stuff.... most likely untrue.
 
Ever cut your foot off with a chainsaw while your alone in a forrest with no cellphone and have to walk 4 miles with one foot?
 
I know this seems like i'm being arrogant by talking about myself, but I posted this here to springboard onto this question, has annoying had moments like these, where the body has all but gave up, but the mind is there to stop it from doing so? If so put down the experience (if you do so choose).
Click to expand...

Yep, was well into my long distance running a few years back, so I can relate. Never ran a marathon (at the time was underage for entry) but half marathons and 20 mile training runs produced that feeling.

Also, when I go mountain biking with mates (who are largely better at it than me). They tend to take even the most rugged bits of track at high speed and gear, after a couple of hours I have to put a lot of mental energy into a) keeping up and b) not crashing. Doesn't help that I'm often really baked on these rides.

I remember a couple of years back, going for a 40 mile ride where the wind was largely opposing us. Hadn't eaten all day. Get back, so tired, cold and worn. 60mg oxycodone. Fish n' chips. Massive cup of tea. Hot bath and a Lucky Strike. Ahhh heaven.
 
I know this seems like i'm being arrogant by talking about myself, but I posted this here to springboard onto this question, has annoying had moments like these, where the body has all but gave up, but the mind is there to stop it from doing so? If so put down the experience (if you do so choose).
Click to expand...

Yeah, my brain was telling me stop fapping, my hand was tired and i was in pain but i kept at it for many hours until the very happy end... mind over matter...
 
The biggest challenge of the physical/mental variety was a selection process to a polish paramilitary organization which shall remain nameless to the wider public. (Will share the details over PM to interested parties, but I'm guessing those individuals have an idea already)

A long, 50-60-something kilometer march in -12 weather, with lots of snow, moderate wind, food supplies taken away. Doesn't mean we didn't have to carry it - it was all sealed in a ruck provided by the selection staff, which had some extra junk thrown in for weight. Of course it was our job to figure out how to carry it, everybody had a turn.


Add to that intentional deception or misinformation, a deliberately defeatist staff attitude (encouraging people to quit), "bonus" activities in the meantime - like ordering everybody to setup a camouflaged position in a forest. At that point everybody was still in high morale so most people covered themselves with snow, to some extent.

Nobody came to check how well we did, the point was only to get people wet from the thawing snow, induce some hypothermia and lower morale. Especially once we saw the staff drinking hot coffee and eating biscuits - luxuries which would be shared with anyone willing to give up.

Or at the very end of the process, at which point the only thing keeping people on their feet was motivation alone (basically once it was clear nobody was physically capable of going forward for any reasonable distance), an information that we're going back the whole way, that there's no shame in quitting if someone doesn't feel he can handle it, that there's a warm place, hot cocoa and chicken waiting for those who are sane enough to quit this pointless game, that there's nothing to prove by going forward.. you get the idea.

Of course it was a ruse to get people to quit, as the selection ended immediately afterwards.

I remember that was the first (and only) day of my life I was so exhausted that I had daydreams about a warm place to rest and get a meal.

The satisfaction from completing it, however, was immense. Parachute jumping in Lithuania didn't come close to the stress and fatigue I experienced during that time. I remember I had problems walking normally for the next week or so.

Planning to run a marathon eventually but I've got weak knees. I'm a big, fat bastard and three months of moderate running of 10 kilos every other day ALWAYS results in me having serious knee pains that go away in roughly 2-3 months of sitting on my arse. I'll be returning to that sport soon, however I'll mix it with swimming, to give the knees some chance to recouperate.
 
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