36 hours to push yourself and your limits

I did my first 36-hour commando course and loved it!

 

The start of the bootcamp

Gathering time was 11pm! At midnight, we began the equipment review, in 3 groups of 10 people. Once the equipment review was completed, it was time for penalties for groups whose participants didn't have the right equipment, such as a classic compass instead of a compass to the thousandth. And yes, we don't compromise with equipment😉

 

Cardio to get you started

After a few warm-up penalties, it's time for a few hours of intense cardio with the rucksack on your back: burpees, push-ups, the duck walk, even blindfolded stair jumping.

 

The joys of the night

Next, we had to go on a reconnaissance mission, crawling across a lake with our packs on our backs in a hostile environment. According to the instructors, we weren't discreet enough, missing a bit of mud on our faces, so we did the mission in the lake a second time.

 

First aid training 

Once this mission had been successfully completed, we were given a break. We had a short mountain first-aid course to understand and detect heatstroke, training to tie figure-of-eight knots with a rope, as well as learning to read a map, get our bearings and use a compass.

 

The end of the first night

Once these concepts had been explained, it was time to set off for the second part of the night, looking for beacons at 3 diametrically opposed points.

Someone in the group starts to have ankle pain and vomiting. Group support is essential in this kind of situation. A comrade carried his bag all night. We lost a lot of time getting to the first beacon. We realize that it's going to be complicated to recover the 3rd beacon. But we're making every effort to get there on time and recover the 3rd beacon in the allotted time :)

 

The day begins

Early morning dawned and we had to set off for the first activity of the day, caving. Since we didn't have access to a telephone, nor the possibility of keeping our watches, our notion of time was skewed. So, to get to each rendezvous point, we had to walk quickly, but stay in a group and work around the injured. Finding the cave proved complicated, as it was closed to the public. But we arrive early for the rendezvous point. The entrance to the cave is narrow and I'm thinking what a mess I've got myself into 😂 In the end, it goes well, it's quite narrow at times, but we manage to get through. We abseil down and climb back up the whole way out of the cave.

Once the first activity is over, it's time for canyoning. It's very hot and we have to walk to the river. It's cold, but with the temperature outside, it feels really good. We climb rocks and jump into the water. Everything's going well, and we're forgetting that we didn't sleep at night by staying active. Then comes the part I've been dreading the most: my first jump from a height of 4m. The instructor explains how to jump properly without hurting myself. I don't have to, but it's important to me to jump 4 m, even though I'm afraid of heights, and I want to overcome my fears. After taking a deep breath for a few long seconds, I decide to launch myself into the water. What a joy to think I'd done something I was afraid of. A few minutes later, another jump of 3.50 m comes into view. I decide to jump again, and after a few exhalations, I'm able to say to myself that I've conquered my fears not once, but twice. 

After this activity, which taught us a lot, we had to go to the aid of a person suffering from heatstroke, assisting her and carrying her on a stretcher for several minutes. 

 

The trials and tribulations of bootcamp

It's late afternoon and we have to get back to camp by evening. We take a dead-end route. We'd taken the wrong road and had to go back the other way and find our way back. Mentally, it was hard to go back to the starting point, as we still have a long way to go to reach the rendezvous point. Everyone's in a tough spot, but we manage to regain our motivation and confidence, and continue on our way. Night falls and we arrive at camp all tired and exhausted. 

The good news is that we get to have dinner, our first meal in 24 hours. It feels so good. We'll also be able to sleep for a few hours. We have to work in shifts, because at any moment, we'll be called for the night's ordeal. We're woken up with a start, we've slept about 2 hours, we have to dismantle the camp and get to the rendezvous point in 20 minutes.

 

The second night

We're told about the night's ordeal, getting from point A to point B undetected as we'll be passing through a hostile environment. You have to watch out for cars, as they could belong to the enemy. We had no choice but to jump into ravines as cars approached, and to be as discreet as possible - no lights, lots of hide-and-seek. We've lost time again because we got lost during the night and took the wrong route. We arrived late, daylight was breaking and we were about to have two tests of our knowledge. We passed the first, but not the second, so we have to do a lot of burpees.

We meet up with the other two groups and the instructors are in top form, wanting to push us to the limit one last time. We're all tied up in groups with one rope for every two people. The aim is to get to the final point on time, so we have to walk very fast or trot. The backpack hurts so much, all I can think about is the songs we sing to pass the time and forget the pain. Finally, we stop in the middle of the forest, to do burpees, push-ups, squats, running... And then I realize that I still have plenty of energy and that I'm going to finish this course and go home with the medal. In fact, from the early hours of the morning, I knew it was in the bag because the hardest part had been done.

The medal ceremony is so beautiful. Everything I've achieved with my comrades, all my efforts to get to the end have paid off in the end. I feel a lot of emotion when I'm handed my medal. I can still lose the medal, because I have to go down to the village for the chief instructor to ring the bell and signal the end of the course. But hey, I'm not going to let anyone take my medal away from me 😁

 

It was a magical experience, which demanded a lot of my physical and mental resources. I'd definitely recommend it, as it showed me my limits and how far my mind could go.