Fan Dance - After Action Review

Original Notes

So it finally came and went. Exercise High Walk. Fan Dance. Brecon Beacons. Pen y Fan. 24km with about 20kg. Highest peak @ 868m. Up and down and up and down again. Curious in the start, I soon found myself in an enjoyable place. The scene turned from foggy and gloomy to beautiful and absolutely outstanding as the sun came up and the fog whisked away. Oh, wow. No wonder this was - is - a national park I thought to myself. Absolutely beautiful. Before the event, I read up on the origin and the formation of the SAS (Special Air Service, British Special Forces) to better understand, respect and appreciate the Brecon Beacons and their fit and place as a training grounds for the SAS as they spend weeks doing aptitude-testing in just this place. The way back.. The Roman Road was the longest walk, it was demotivational how the scenery suddenly went monotonous, never changing and the road never seemed to end. A SAR-helicopter spent at least 5 minutes going in for landing on a nearby grassfield and it just reinforced the feeling of slow motion. It sucked as everything can suck in the moment. I easily found myself thinking back to the book I had read, and ofcourse this couldnt hold a candle to the light that was the SAS roaming, crossing and living in the Egyptian desert, working with the Long Range Desert Patrol. The stories were inspirational and captivating. It's far from the longest walk Ive had, very far. The extra element of appreciation was nice. Back up Jacob's Ladder.. a false summit took me by surprise and that was halfway up. The climb got devilish steep real fast, or rather, real slow, as people were barely trudging on. I offered up 'sunshine and rainbows' aka skittles and/or m&ms to anyone I found sitting down. Sometimes all you need is that little ---sunshine. Small things, great effect. All in all, I clocked in at 5hrs10min without stressing. I walked away from the event with some serious sunburns on the arms (surpriiiise...) and a real bad case of chafing on the inner thighs that started about 2hrs in (as red as my baselayer, larger than the size of my hand). Other than that, Im all good. Bit stiff in the lower back the day after but thats to be expected. Its the shortest event Ive done and its a weird feeling at that, that keeps coming up. Naturally, it gets harder as one push for time. Our pacer (62yr old 2nd generation SAS "Jamie") this time were dropping people who spent more than three hours one way, and quite a few got dropped. Jamie was an absolute joy to speak to after the event about the SAS, training and indoctrination and the like, and we finished off getting a photo taken with him. Now, Im sitting on the train back to London, and I realized I quite like trains. Here's to great people and the best of experiences.