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all righty so this part of the video I'm
going to apologize in advance there's
not much to see you're just looking at
the trail ahead of me as I walk and talk
to you for a little bit uh the Trail's
lit up with my headlamp normally I can
actually see well
enough without the head lamp that I
don't need it on but I figured I would
turn it on so you guys had something to
look at while I talked for a little bit
uh this particular stretch I've got
about 3 or Four Mile Stretch where I'm
walking
alone I started
yesterday uh at 400 p.m. I set out with
a group of friends to complete a 50 mile
ruck march I'm currently a little over
24
miles in and of the three guys that
started with me well the four people
that started three of them have had to
bail out uh one of them one of my good
friends that I was in the military with
he he only intended on doing the first
little stretch he actually going to
drive home get some sleep and be in his
deer stand in the morning uh the other
two guys that started with me um they
just they were not physically able to
continue
and they they really when they when they
signed up for this they had no
intentions of doing the full 50 they
both told me they would walk as far as
they could and a little over 20 mi was
about as far as they could go so they
got me this far now I have 3 or four
miles to go by myself to link up with my
younger brother and one of his friends
and then we're going to walk just the
three of
us uh for 20 miles or so and then my
wife and my daughter are going to join
up with me with about 10 miles to go and
then I have another friend that's going
to do the last five CU I think he lives
up by there so I've got a little bit of
time to
walk and just kind of be alone with my
own
thoughts some of the things I'm thinking
about while I'm walking alone down this
Trail in the middle of the
nights a little bit after
midnight kind of
evaluating what I'm doing and thinking
about my friends that weren't able to
continue
and thinking about my current situation
I'm tired I'm really tired I've been
walking for over8 hours um my feet are
really starting to hurt got some
blisters that are
developing on the inside of one of my
heels
and my toes like My toe where my toe
meets the base of my foot it's also
starting to hurt my hips are hurting my
knees are hurting I'm tired it's getting
cold it's actually just now just dropped
below 40° and I'm wearing a t-shirt with
a long sleeve basically
t-shirt over top of that so I'm starting
to get a little bit cold
I had plenty to eat I just had a poptart
which believe it or not that poptart had
a tremendous effect on my mood put me on
a good mood it's help me helping me
think a little bit more clearly but the
main reason why I wanted to record this
and I don't know if I'm ever going to
release this to the world or
not it's because just a little bit ago I
was really I was really seriously
thinking about
quitting I was thinking about the
consequences of
quitting how I was going to call the
people that were supposed to meet me up
the
road I was going to call my
wife and
daughter and my in-laws and everybody
and my support vehicle I have a support
team with me this year it's kind of
funny because I have a whole support
vehicle full of food and water and I'm
the only one currently
walking but I've got a a lot of people
involved in
this and also I was trying to think
of if I were to quit right now what
would I tell to the people that donated
money how would I explain that to them
would
they
understand and then uh it kind of dawned
on me that I was thinking about all the
wrong
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people and I'm going to kind of revert
back to something that I heard Chad say
or that Chad with uh 50 for the Fallen
says all of the time when he's leading
these 50 F the Fallen 50m Ruck
marches he ask
people and he warns people at some point
over this journey this almost 24-hour
Journey you're going to really doubt
yourself you're going to be in a lot of
pain you're going to be really tired
you're really
really going to want to quit you have to
dig down and you have to think about
your
why we talk about this a lot what is
your why we talk about it at work we
talk about it in business we talk about
it in life what is your why what is it
that keeps you
going when you're doing something like
this when you set out to walk 50 miles
in a
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day and everybody that set out to do it
with you or that committed to do do it
with you it's no longer with you you
find yourself by yourself you have to
really really think about why are you
doing
this and that's really what popped into
my head as I was walking all by myself
with nothing but my
feelings trying to
think why am I doing this in these
moments of
weakness a lot of Doubt really creeps
into your head
but then I
really
honestly I thought about
Todd he's the reason I'm doing
this Todd Bates my machine
gunner who lost his life December 10th
2003 the day that was supposed to be our
last day of
missions what happened to him and what
he did that day
changed my life
forever something I promised I would
never forget and that I would
always do what I could to help his name
his
reputation his memory live on for as
long as I
do and I was thinking
about what Todd would
do if he found himself in this situation
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Todd
literally spent his last
breath trying to save another
man Todd didn't give up he had no quit
in him there is no choice but to move
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on I think about stuff like that I think
about
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Todd that he's the reason I'm doing this
and I'm
reminded that there is no quit it's not
an
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option
so no matter how much my feet hurt no
matter how tired I
get I'm going to keep
walking I'll see you guys at the end
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[Applause]
h
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