The friends raved about this 2015 reality series 'Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week' on BBC Two. I had to watch it, and straight-binged all six episodes of Series 1 in a night. Woah! 30 amateur athletes from the UK volunteered for this show to train like how the various Special Forces train recruits. Volunteered. My gawwwd. Their two-week boot-camp was more than grueling. If the reality show didn't lie to the audiences, these athletes went through seriously brutal exercises.
I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Cringed at many junctures and felt their pain. So many push-ups (or press-ups if you're British), so many burpees!! Sleep deprivation and the cold, and friction burns. Eeeeks. Many dropped out and many more got kicked out. The unrelenting instructors whittled the initial 30 down to six to compete in the final challenge led by the British SAS. There were older men and an older woman, all 50-somethings and they were fantastic in matching up to their younger team-mates. Mad respect there. British champion obstacle course race athlete, and by profession, haematology doctor, Clare Miller won it. She had carried Bergens and extra weight that comprised more than one-third of her body weight. She's a tiny woman, and it's amazing how she pulled through physically and mentally, and won. Such grit.
Yeah, I know everyone measures fitness in different ways. But... Sometimes, I need to remind myself that it's OKAY if I don't hit every fitness goal. There isn't a need to. Age isn't really an excuse (for me) because I know fellow forty-somethings who're ridiculously fit and flexible. You know how in the past I don't bother about triathlons (the cycling, never) or duathlons because that level of fitness is way out of my league. Now, I'm a little bit like, oh a 1.5km swim and a 10km run? It's exhausting but I think can do it. BUT I'm not good with crowds and I really don't fancy being elbowed or kicked by hundreds of people in the water or on the road. So I chickened out of an aquathlon next month. 😔
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