Today was my annual wildland fire crew training day. Each year I get certified so that I can represent my state as a wildland firefighter. I've been to Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Arizona and Nevada with the crew over the past ten years.
I normally run 5 to 6 miles at lunch on Tuesdays, but my schedule didn't allow for it. So at about 6 :00 am this morning, I got ready and headed over to one of the state wilderness facilities to attend the training. The annual refresher training usually is 75 % class room and 25 % field work. Not today though. The crew management decided to make the training this year 95 % field work, which was fine with me. They actually integrated class room material out in the field too. We had to find an imaginary fire and then grid for hot spots, which were carefully placed white buttons in the middle of nowhere. My crew did well. We used a GPS to help with our navigation. We must have hiked about 3 or 4 miles through all types of terrain. It was a very good simulation of what we might find ourselves doing at a fire out west.
I got home about 5:00 pm. I then immediately threw on my running clothes and headed out the door for a 4 mile run. There's a nice nature trail about .5 miles from my house that follows a small river. The sun was shining as I made my way along a 2 mile mixed trail and then turned around. I covered the distance in 29:13. It was a good day for sure.
Fun read! Thanks for sharing :)
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