Although blogging is more talking then walking, and the only walk I walk is to the bed at the end like I did the other time.Let me continue with my super guide, which I'll split into 4 sections, with the information basing on different type of studies.
Physiology
The first thing you have to do is to manage your body, so that it doesn't fail you during your march. You may think that, this is done by having enough rest and regular working out. Yes and No, Yes they are important, but No, that is not the tip I am going to give you. On the route march day, you'll never know if your body can handle the load for that long hours, because you've never tried before. You cannot change the long hours and you may or may not change your body ability too. BUT! You definitely can change the load you will be bearing. Therefore, the tip here is to make your load as light as possible, don't bring anything additional, you are not going to war... Hmm.. Let me correct myself, in fact, think that YOU ARE going to war. If so, will you bring additional slippers or body spray with you? NO, so throw everything extra away before your march. I meant EVERYTHING, even things that seemingly has no weight. Because it's the little things that adds up to a huge load on your back and in your bag. There is this Chinese saying that goes like this '冰凍三尺非一日之寒' please go find out what it means.
Alright, at this point you might thing that it is very wasteful to throw everything away, so let me give you a few suggestions of what you can do with your things. Give it to a gay friend and pray he don't fall in love with you, leave it in your locker and give to the next person that will use your bed, hold an auction in hope that your section mates will buy from you, give it to your sergeant and probably get punished for your senseless act, throw them into the water bodies in Tekong and make a wish, trade them for food and eat all the food, trade them for food and feed it to the Tekong cats, give it to your sergeant again to leave a deep impression of your stupidity, google some ways to make things disappear and try it on your 'barang barang'... the possibilities are endless so please just make sure they disappear somehow before your commence your road march.
TWO MORE TIPS! #1: Before your march is to apply the miracle liquid. NO! It's not SKII, it's vasaline, although one can argue that it's solid. Well, It's actually a semi-solid with properties of both, so we're both correct (Checked Wiki). Apply it all over your body especially on these areas, armpit, shoulders, nipple, thighs, between your legs and your foot. Alternatively, you can apply it on the floor and just ROFL (Not tested and proven). #2: Your head might itch somewhere during your road march, it happened to me, don't scratch your helmet.. I did that and I felt really stupid. Move your helmet around as if you are washing your hair. Works everytime.
Hydrology
If you have followed the first step, you will feel reasonable good during the first few kilometres of your road march. But London weight management is not enough to make your look like a tireless hero during entire march. You have do manage your water properly, when to use it, release it and refill it. They are all very important and will be included here. When to use it? There are many ways of using it, but the most common and commonsensical is to drink it. When to drink it is simple, just drink when you are thirsty & drink when instructed to down half full water bottle, but if you're feeling really full and uncomfortable, don't drink anymore, because you know yourself better than your commanders do. There are other usage of the water too, to clean your hands, wash your face, wash your friend's face or some other funny ideas, things get crazy when you're a soldier just have fun but don't waste water.
When to release it? By release I actually meant going to the toilet. It may seems easy, but it's actually very tricky, especially if you tend to go to the toilet quite often. There are 2 types of toilet and available to you at different checkpoints. They are, latrine and portable toilet, whenever a latrine break is given, please go, because it is really convenient and has no queue, so your resting time will not be affected. If portable toilet breaks are given use them when you feel a need to. During the last 2 stops before your marching end, try to use the toilet, because that is when your body has accumulated a lot of water from drinking and if it hits you halfway through your march, you will be really shaq, trust me, #beentheredonethat.
Lastly, when to refill your water? At every checkpoint after your drink up half full water bottle as instructed, the next instruction would be to refill your bottles with the jerry can provided, here's where my tip comes in, so listen up and read down. Refill your green canteen with your waterbag water, you might have to do it discreetly because it isn't really allowed, but once again, you can do anything you want, but just don't get caught. This is to lightened the total load on you will be carrying, so even as you march more and get more shaq, the decrease in load will offset that shaqness. Additionally, it gives your more time to rest. From my experience, you may run out of water during the last 2 checkpoint, so my advice is to refill your water during the first 2 checkpoint when you don't need much rest yet.
Bromatology
Food actually comes as a bonus, I meant you don't really have to eat during the middle of the night, but eating definitely helps distract you from the march, as much of your concentration will be on chewing, tasting and digesting. Here are some of the tips on what kind of food you should bring. Firstly, don't bring heavy (in weight) food, actually I can't thing of any, but if you happened to come across one before your road march, don't get it. This applies to drinks as well; do not bring any additional isotonic drinks, because these are heavy items, the water you have with you is more than enough. You may think it'll help but you'll just end up regretting.. true stories according to my other friends. The design of your ILBV (Integrated Load Bearing Vest) has 5 pouches, 2 small ones and 3 big ones, they are meant for ammunition, but during the march it is pretty much meant for food storage, so use them wisely, you don't want to store your food anywhere else cause it's inconvenient and if you have to store it somewhere else it prolly means you are bringing too much food.
Okay, so here's how you manage the 5 pouches, or how I manage it which you can learn from. In one of the two small pouches, put a super nice sweet that you won't get sick of. You can use it during the march, but the actual time to eat it, would be during the POP itself, it'll distract you from everything else, and help you get through to the whole parade. You should also include some lozenges in the same pouch, as you just came out from Tekong, you prolly have some sore throat or cough, it's good to have a remedy when your throat is irritating you. For the other small pouch, slot in a energy bar, eat it when you feel really tired, prolly in the last few miles, I ate it during the last rest point and it helped alot!
In the first big pouch should contain a biscuit that can last for a real long time, I meant really long, and not just 5-10mins. I would recommend you get the Bee-Bee Prawn Curry Biscuit, it can really last long and it taste good too. 2nd big pouch is where you put your fried food, provided you were allowed to get them beforehand, nuggets are one of the best IMO, I had 6 of them. As you walk through ECP, there will be lots of people having BBQ, whenever you smell it, eat a nugget, and imagine you are having the BBQ too. Sounds really stupid, but I'll say it's one of the most important object I brought along with me. As for the last pouch put nothing in it. That pouch is reserve for any food you will be receiving during rest point, you might not feel like eating every time, but don't waste them, they might come in handy, so just keep them in your empty pouch and consume it for later. Most important thing for this chapter is to not bring excess food, not waste food and eat like a ninja (don't let the public see it, SAF image).
Psychology
Alright, IMO the last section is the most important. Something which I strongly believe after completing BMT is that, if you put your mind to doing something, you definitely can do it. It is a special powers that all humans got, just that most of them do not realise this power. Although I've made this great discovery, I can't really put my mind into everything I have to do, so I'm not very successful either. At least for this road march, I did it and as you can see, the results were amazing. I strode through 24km not sweat one bit of sweat (figuratively). So how to boost your mentality? This can be done on 2 phase, before the march, and during the march.. After the march you can just lie on your bed and tell everyone 'I'm dying!" and hang 'do not disturb' sign on your door.
This is what you can do before the march to tune your mind to the right frequency for the march; listen to some inspiring music, or music that you can sing in your mind during the road march. For me, the songs I tried was all national theme song (BMT does make you patriotic, really). Especially the song 'We Will Get There" by Stephanie Sun, I remember singing that softly during the march, and my friend beside, Wee Liat could hear me and he sang along. We were both motivated afterwards. Other inspiring music I could think of would be 'Hall of fame' by The Script. In fact, I always listen to that song before I go for a run nowadays, because running is a difficult thing for me.. Let me correct myself, running FAST is difficult not running. Fortuately, road march pace isn't that fast, but it is still quite fast at times, especially when you are not conditioned properly. I wasn't at a 100% when I did my march too, I was sick and my phlegm was greenish with tinge of brown. It was quite bad and if not for the mind, I think I could have died somewhere along the way, and they would have thrown me into the sea at east coast, because SAF is all about image and they won't want people to see the headlines saying 'Recruit dies during exhausting road march'. I'm just exaggerating, but I can't stop emphasising how powerful the mind is.
After being mentally prepared before the march, how do you maintain a strong mental during the march. Here's what to do; stand at the right place, those people that walk side by side with you, got to be people you want to talk to. It's good to stand by people who motivates others. but it's okay otherwise too. Just motivate them instead if that is the case. You are a team, so help each other and be sincere in everything you do or say, that's the most important during the entire course of BMT, not just the road march. TALK COCK SING SONG, that is a crucial thing to do during the march, do it and enjoy it. Tell stories, true stories fake stories. Especially when you tell stories that really matters strongly to your heart, every other part of your body goes numb except your heart, so you march like a zombie and that is what we want because you don't feel the pain. #beentheredonethat. Last but not least, think that you're doing this for good causes, your parents, your friends, your country, your name, pride, honour and integrity. Just put everything in it, imagine the march is the linchpin that holds all your values and you die die have to finish it. Also don't just think about it, act on it, you can use your phone discreetly, so use it and text those who matters to you. It really helps a lot, and I thank all those whom have replied me during my march.
I bleed
claret and
blue,
gold and
purple.
I hope there are some good advice and tips you can take home from here.
And for those who haven't gone through it I wish you all the best, it isn't as hard as you think and with my guide it is a lot easier.
Anyway, just one short incident to share before I end my time here.
Yesterday I went out with KL, CS and WM (WM came later on).
I went to WM house to get a controller from him, so got to talk to him alone when we were walking there also when he was sending me to the bus stop. (Reminds me of the old times, he always sends me to the bus stop)
Sending me actually means he cares, and maybe that is why I always think of WM is a good brother, even though he have been very irresponsible of his presence.
He told me his difficulties that he has many groups of friends to manage, US, JC friends, Jingie group, army friends and also ELAINE.
And I can truly understand that, because sometimes I feel it too, and socialising will be prioritise as one of the last thing during my university after money, fitness, romance and grades. (ORDER: increasing importance)
He told me that it's more convenient to fly our planes, then to fly ELAINE's plane because she would have made a big fuss, yet on the other hand, we would still stand by him no matter what.
That made me feel guilty of the times where I criticised of his constant absence during our outing, but nonetheless it's a good example of taking things for granted.
He also confessed to me that sometimes he is just really tired and want to rest at home. I guessed that beforehand, but I'm really glad he could tell me the truth.
Because that is part of being a brother; to be able to tell everything to one another.
After talking to him yesterday, although just a short while. I feel he is a brother that I will hold onto strongly, and I believe he will change one day.
I honestly do, because one ought to realise the importance of good friends one day or another, but let's just not that day be too late.
So that's pretty much all I have to say, so by by and xia #2! Gonna go out with CS and YK and hopefully more BROs.
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Blogger the Tumblr of the day, Hell Yea!
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Being taken granted for is a compliment, it means that you have been a trusted and comfortable element in another person's life.
I have been on both side, perpetrator and victim.
