*Too Fat To Run*
(This is another survival story from an Alpha Group member who learned a
valuable lesson.
Images added in 2008 by Warlord at Author's request)
I was over-weight. I knew better, the guys gave me subtle hints about my weight and about my decreasing stamina, but I continued to gain. Food just tasted so good and I was in love with that "full feeling", my life was going good, I was relaxed and fat and happy. I increasingly found myself on the firing line instead of out training in the field with the rest of the group. I kidded myself into believing several lies... "I could be a survivalist at 60 lbs. overweight. I had guns and lots of ammo, I am a very good shot, I *KNOW* a lot about survivalism and tactics and military things, and it is all "mind over matter" anyway... "if a crises came I could push myself into action and I would loose the weight as I went", As I said, it was all lies my mind was telling me so I could take the easy way out and remain sedentary and lazy...
More and more I found it harder to walk distances, my cholesterol was way up but my blood pressure was ok so I figured that meant I was still in decent condition. Looking back at it now I can see how stupid I was.
During Hurricane Hugo I elected to stay in my home, to guard my family's possessions from looters. I was ready and willing to help my neighbors guard their homes, clean up debris after the fact, and in general be an all around model survivalist... then the wind started.
The wind outside was incredible. The howling of the wind was all you could hear inside the house except for the punctuations of trees falling and wind blown objects striking the house. I opened the back door at one point and was almost sucked right out, the scene was indescribable. I had this really BAD feeling that I may have made a fatal mistake in staying with the house. I had time to remember what my friend, Warlord, said about "A survivalist SURVIVES by being smart enough to stay out of survival situations". All I had thought about up to this point was the thrill of stopping some looters after the fact, or being a hero with the neighbors for helping out. But as something large smashed the front of the house I realized that this was getting scary.
Trouble came when the storm shutters on the east facing side of the house blew right in through the windows and a big chunk of the wall ended up in my living room. The roof began to creak and water was everywhere, It was time to get the Hell out of Dodge and I knew it! I grabbed a Bug Out Bag from the closet and opened the side door to see my Power Wagon with a large tree across it. There was so much debris that I knew right then the roads were impassable. I was on foot. I tried to make it about half a block east where one of my buddies lived, but with the wind blowing in my face I was exhausted before I even got out of the Yard! I couldn't breath, my legs felt like rubber and I was scared. I realized right then that I was REALLY in a survival situation and I was too fat to run. I turned around and went back to my damaged home... found a closet in the center of the house, hauled all of the crap out of it and got in and closed the door. That's where I stayed until it was over.
Clean up was a nightmare in itself. I was so out of shape it was a Miracle I didn't have a heart attack and die just trying to clean up my yard. Helping my neighbors was out of the question. If I had to fight at that time I would be dead right now, no doubt in my mind. Every muscle in my body hurt so bad I couldn't even sleep at night, even though I was exhausted. I vowed right then that this would never happen to me again. This is a promise I have kept from that moment on. I used the disaster to begin getting back in shape, I got out and forced myself to be active again, and started eating like a normal human again.
Of course I have MANY recollections about that disaster, But the one that really changed my life (and has probably saved it since) was that I was too fat to be effective at anything pertaining to the rigors of a survival situation. So, please take a lesson from my experience if you are out of shape. NOW is the time to lose weight and get back into physical condition! Don't let laziness make your mind believe the common lies.. otherwise, when TSHTF you will be too fat to run!
(Warlord's Note: Huricane Hugo was a strong Category 5 hurricane that struck Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, South Carolina and North Carolina in September of 1989, killing 82 people and leaving 56,000 homeless. It reached its peak intensity as a category 5 hurricane, and moved toward the United States. Hugo made landfall in South Carolina as a category 4. Damage could easily be seen as whole mountainsides of fallen trees in NC, VA and West Virgina were clearly visible for months afterward
In McClellanville, a small fishing town, residents took refuge in Lincoln High School, and were surprised by the sudden tidal surge which flooded the school. With water pouring into the rooms, the refugees helped one another in pitch darkness to climb into the space in the hanging ceiling above the rooms. All survived.
According to Governor Carroll Campbell, there were about 3,000 tornadoes embedded within the hurricane, which accounts for extensive damage in some areas not within the path of the eyewall. The term "tornado" was a misnomer; the intense localized winds are more properly referred to as vortices. Campbell also stated that enough timber was lost within South Carolina to build a home for every family in West Virginia. - Source "Wikipedia"
As of July 2008, Bluster still has the weight off, and is as of this update, training for a Marathon in the Fall)
Bluster
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