When I first walked into the office, a girl was ahead of me, waiting her turn to talk with the LT. I got my weight and height measured and drove over to the highschool to do the fitness test. "Say, Lieutenant, I wouldn't be able to swim the PRT, would I?"
"Ehhh, nope. You can swim, bike, run, but none of those are actually guaranteed except for the run, because it's not that hard to find a mile and a half to mark off. An exercise bike and a pool are kinda hard to come by."
"Gotcha"
That was sort of my last hope if I didn't pass this PRT. Because my best time for the 500y freestyle was 6 minutes, which is 20 seconds under the time needed to achieve the highest PRT score. The LT asked me if I swam for UNC, which I replied that I didn't; but I did swim 3-8 miles a day in college. His eyes bugged out at that, and he said, "No wonder you wanted to know if you could swim the PRT!"
Pushups and situps and the foot grab went ok, but I had to urinate very badly. I'd been drinking water all day and when I pulled into Raleigh, I was hot and very thirsty, so I went to a drugstore and got the cheapest bottled water they had. And it wasn't until I got to the track that I realized just how much water I'd had. Unfortunately, all of the doors to the bathrooms by the track were LOCKED so I got to run 1.5 miles wondering if I squeezed my legs tightly it might put less pressure on my poor bladder. My original plan was to run a 1:50 per 400 meters, because 1:50 isn't exactly booking it, but it would cut an entire minute off the run from 12 minutes to 11 minutes. That idea went to hell as soon as the first lap since I ran a 1:37 in no pain. My first mile time was a 7:35 and I sandbagged the last two laps to get an 11:48. I know what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks: distance running.
Anyway, I finished with a good time and scored and overall good "low" on the PRT. The LT said my application was being reviewed mid-February and that I'd probably be shipped out mid-April to OCS. Good deal.
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