Being in New Mexico this weekend was such a pleasure. We packed the weekend with adventures starting with the celebration of Dary graduating as a Combat Rescue Office in the USAF Pararescue, that others may live. He has been training for the past year and a half to become one of the few who will be called into action to rescue and save another. Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of this job before. Everyone recognizes the name Navy Seal or Green Beret, but few know about the Pararescue team.
The Pararescue job was created 60 years ago when a Doc and two medics jumped into the Vietnam forest by way of airplane to save the men on the ground. At the time, there was no other way of accessing the men and there was no one to call if you got stuck. The effort was successful and after a month of treating the men on the ground all were able to walk out alive. Today, Dary is one of only 500 men who serve on the Pararescue team.
To become a CRO (combat rescue officer) or PJ (pararescue jumper) you must endure 1.5 to 2 years of training. Since Dary is already an officer his training was compacted into 1.5 years. The major difference is that the PJs have more extensive medical training. All endured INDOC, which is as brutal as you can imagine it to be and it has been portrayed fairly well in movies. To get through - you must be able to complete a million push ups, sit ups, pull ups, running, and lots and lots of water exercises. The point of the training is to see how well the men act and survive under stress and discomfort. They do exercises like tieing your hands and feet together and bobbing to the bottom of the pool or putting your feet up on the side of the pool and continuously dunking your head underwater. The tasks become more and more complicated when the boys work together as a team to share air. By the end, you know how to blow the water out your face mask under water and untangle breathing apparatus and backpack cords while holding your breath under water. It's during INDOC that many of the men drop out. In the next two sessions, the rest of the men quit or give up.
The training continues with resuce and survival tactics including land navigation, mountain operations, jumping out of airplanes at 1500 feet, jumping out of helicopters, water operation, weapons, and medical. To sum it up, the training is brutal.
Dary will be stationed in Vegas and can be deployed at any time. His mission can be anything that involves rescuing and savings civilians or our military from any category. The US Air Force Pararesuce is the only group in the military that has the mission to save others. The saying goes - even a Navy Seal or a Green Beret need to call 911 sometimes. That's when Dary comes in.
The graduation was very exciting and they did a great job informing the families of what our boys have been up to for the last couple of years. After the men put on their maroon berets they all lined up and we got to shake every person's hand. That part was awesome.
The next day we went to Old Town, Santa Fe to enjoy the serenely beautiful adobe architecture and outdoor museums. The adventure was so fulfilling for me. Beginning with the 60 mile drive from Albuquerque over the rugged terrain to Santa Fe the ground was covered with sage brush and the mountains stood up tall. I couldn't decide if the brush covered terrain was more beautiful than it is in Colorado since I actually enjoyed seeing it here, sparse and dry, or if it was that I missed Colorado and appreciated this type of landscape more than before. The land, hot sun on my skin, and high elevation air felt good.
Walking around the beautiful museums and seeing local craftsman work was such a pleasure. It was a pleasant surprise to find work from an artist that I particularly liked from fairs in Boulder, named Sweet Bird. Her work is functional and machine-like sprinkled with inspirational themes and pretty things. She can't be mistaken for just-a-chick-artist though, she's a real badass. Check out evil by nature.
Feeling good and seeing brilliant colors and art done well is enough to send me over the edge. It pours so much inspiration into my soul that I think about doing crazy things like living more simply and deviating from the norm.
Our final day in New Mexico was spent doing a backwards sprint triathlon in Rio Rancho. The town has sprung up from no where since HP built a new office there and it boasts modern facilities like the Aquatic Center, from where the race started. The race was super fun since it went in the opposite order - run bike swim. The run and bike were super hilly with lots of climbing and the run even featured a 1 mile trail run through soft dirt. The views of course were spectacular featuring red dessert dirt and sage brush with big and powerful mountains in the background, almost too far to reach. The sun shone through them and the colors were deep, vaguely green, and orange and red.
At first I thought the swim would be easy since it was only 400 meters and in a pool, but after I jumped in and began my serpentine swim I quickly realized how thin the air was. Holding my breath for even one second was impossible and I don't even think I did one stroke before I flipped over and completed the swim on my back. It sucks to be the one coming from sea level when I used to train at 5,000 to 10,000 feet daily. Regardless, the feeling of ectasy following the race was enough to make me want to sign up for a triathlon every weekend.
The whole weekend was so amazing. From spending time with my family, celebrating Dary's incredible accomplishments and the beginning of his new career, feeling, seeing and breathing in the west, experiencing a new place filled with light and beauty, talking through the possibilities of metalworking with Tommy, basking in the sun with ink still tatooed on my arm from my tri...I could go on and on.
I'm so happy for such a wonderful experience. Everything happens for a reason and inspiration comes from everywhere. It's so hard to capture it during the daily grind and I've been desperate to find it lately. For now, I'll take my sun tanned skin and oxygen deprived air ... memories of beauty and the happiness that came with it... I'll mull it around in my head for the next few days until I fall back into the normal humdrum life and routine that I live. I just have to decide what the trick is...go back for more and replenish my soul with all of these good things.... or make changes.
Spring Fling Triathlon
Rio Rancho NM - April 18, 2010
5k run, 30k bike, 400yd swim.
Results
4th AG, Abigail Porter
31 Winchester MA
1:49:10.30
Run 27:12 Bike 1:13:53 Swim 8:07
1st AG, Allie Duba
24 Albuquerque NM
1:33:41.50
Run 22:47 Bike 1:04:15 Swim 6:41
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