"PASS HIM, BEAT HIM, DON'T LET HIM BEAT YOU!!!"

That's what I heard as I slapped the wall of the pool and started my last lap. The guy I was sharing a lane with, who started 15 seconds ahead of me, was only 2 or 3 lengths ahead of me and the SEAL standing over our lane yelled at me, encouraging me to dig deep and give everything I had. Even though I'd easily completed this swim during practice sessions, when it came time for the real thing, I didn't think I had much left to give.

After just 3 laps, with 7 left to go, I was already drained and fighting a mental battle in my head. I think I let the thrill of starting the competition take me out of my game. Instead of focusing on form and pace I was sprinting right from the start and that wasn't how I wanted to start. After the 4th or 5th lap I re-discovered my form and was able to fight my way through until that last lap. Then, with a SEAL yelling at me to win, I dug deep and swam as fast as I could and beat the guy by a second. That was a small victory for me because my lane partner was in awesome shape and probably about 10-15 years younger than me. On top of that, I wasn't the last one to finish the swim, there were quite a few other's still slogging through their swim which gave me some extra time to rest before the push-ups.

After everyone had completed the swim and we had our 10 minute rest, our group, the Purple Team, headed outside for the rest of the challenge. It was a perfect day for the challenge. The temperature was somewhere around 70 degrees and not a cloud was in the sky.

The next test was push-ups. My swimming lane partner and I teamed up for this as well. He went first and knocked out 83 which was pretty impressive. Then came my turn and when they said "Push 'em out" I started fast and furious. The first 30-35 were pretty easy to get through and all I was trying to do was to get to 42 (the minimum requirements for a brown shirt) as quick as I could. I got to 40 easily enough when my partner said "now it's just sets man, just do sets" so I pushed out sets of 5 before I'd take a rest (in the up position). SEALs were walking among the participants giving encouragement and advice, helping motivate us to do our best. My body finally gave out mid-push-up with about 15 seconds to go in the 2 minutes. After the swim, those push-ups were hard.

We immediately jumped into the sit-up phase, with my partner going first again. He had a good steady pace going and friends of his watching on, shouting support as he cranked out 80+ sit-ups in the 2 minutes.

As I laid down on my back getting ready, I was feeling pretty good. So far I had reached my goals for the swim and the push-ups and sit-ups hadn't been a problem for me in the past, 50 would be achievable. I don't know what happened but by the time I reached 30 sit-ups, my mid section was done. I had to fight with everything I had to keep going and I'm proud to say I never quit, I did as much as I could in 2 minutes without giving in.

On my last 2 or 3 reps there were SEALS standing & kneeling around me yelling "PUSH, DON'T QUIT, YOU CAN DO IT" trying to encourage me. And even as I was struggling, these warriors shouting for me to give it everything I had to laugh inside. All I could think about was how 20 years ago when my boot camp company commander and drill instructors would yell the same things, I thought they hated me or they were making fun of me or how much PT sucked. Now I know my Company Commander and his crew were encouraging me as much as these SEALs were, but just the fact that I was doing this because I wanted to (as much as I wanted to join the Navy, nobody really wants to go through boot camp) made for a completely different reaction.

Unfortunately, I didn't reach the minimum target to get a brown shirt which bummed me out a bit as I got up off the ground. But that dejection didn't last long because I was determined to continue to give it my best as I finished off the challenge with pull-ups and the 1.5 mile run.

Going into the challenge, I knew pull-ups were going to be my weakest event. Even though I've been working on them for 5 months, it's only recently that I've really progressed. I had yet to try any unassisted, always using the weight assisted machine at the gym.

Dangling there in front of your entire team and a few SEALs, I felt vulnerable and exposed, there really isn't a place to hide when you're 1 of 6 people hanging up in the air. Still, as I'd seen in the previous events, everyone was there to encourage the participants. So, even as I flailed about in the air trying to do a few meager pull-ups, there were people supporting me, talking me through the pain and motivating me as I dropped to the ground.

Again, I didn't reach the target for a brown shirt, but I didn't feel bad about it by now. I knew I had been giving it my all through all 4 of the event's I had completed so far and there is no shame in that. And I also knew that every SEAL crew member that was there didn't judge me by my numbers. Each guy judged me on the fact that I was there on a gorgeous day putting myself through this tough physical challenge when I could have just as easily sat around my house and not participated at all.

The final event was the 1.5 mile run. The track we were on was longer than a standard track, it was only going to take 4 laps to complete the run. I actually liked that, because running around the same track doing lap after lap would have been boring as hell for me.

When the group started off, I quickly dropped to the back of the pack, the proverbial tortoise racing the hares. But I had learned from my swim, don't let the competition take me out of my game. So I kept my pace and just chugged along the best I could. I finished my first lap in a little under 3 minutes and settled in to a good steady pace. As each lap went by, my pace actually increased, I knocked about 10 seconds off with each lap. On the final lap I actually started to pass some of the guys who raced off ahead of me in the beginning. As I rounded the last corner I started to run as fast as I could but I was fighting a cramp that started around the beginning of the last lap. Cramp and all, I finished strong and beat a few guys so I was happy. I wanted to through up or pass out, but I was happy.

All and all, I was very happy with how I performed. While I didn't get the brown shirt I wanted, I was close and I'll get it next year. In our group of 15-20 guys, I was probably the 2nd oldest there with most of the kids being high-school or college aged. We had 1 guy (a guy who runs track for Notre Dame, he lapped my on the run) earn the blue shirt and two guys walked away wearing the brown shirts.

Here are my results, the final scores will be posted on the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge web site in the next few days. When they do come out, I'll link to them as well.

• Swim - 11:53
• Push-ups - 63 in 2 minutes
• Sit-ups - 39 in 2 minutes
• Pull-ups - 4
• 1.5 mile run - 11:36 (a 7:44 mile pace)

The Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge was a great event and I'm glad I participated. When I first decided to do this back in January even the idea of me doing all the events made me tired. But over the last 5 months I've trained and got myself into a lot better physical condition than I've been in for years. I was confident heading into the challenge and while I didn't reach my goal of attaining a brown shirt, I can still hold my head high knowing that I gave everything I could.

Being in that environment, around hundreds of other men and women who pushed themselves just as hard, was exhilarating. Having never taken part in even a 5K, I felt like an intruder when I walked through the doors that morning. But when I had finished, I knew I belonged and that challenging myself with events such as this was something I wanted to do a lot more of.

And, even though it may sound cheesy, putting on that Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge t-shirt, with the Navy SEAL Trident really meant a lot to me and I'm proud to wear it and display the Fitness Challenge decal on my car. I know there aren't too many people who would attempt this and I want everyone to know I am one of those people.