Blog from 40: daily life at 40 Commando as the weather turns wintery…
Here is our first 'Blog from 40' – from a ‘shy and anonymous’ officer who has kindly decided to write us a few lines about life at Norton Fitzwarren from time to time…
It is a Monday morning in January at Norton Manor Camp and I am milling about in the courtyard of the old mews building, which now serves as 40 Commando’s HQ, with two dozen others about to go for a run. For once this winter it is bitterly cold and the issue ‘phys’ t-shirt has no insulating properties to speak of so we are glad to set off down the hill toward the front gate.
As a Naval officer, who has now worked with the Marines for the last three years, I initially faced mornings such as these with trepidation – this after all is the Royal Marines with a fearsome reputation for self-destructive levels of punishing exercise. However, today’s group consists of the Headquarters staff who are generally more mature and rotund so I don’t think I will be smashed into an exhausted, vomitus heap at the end.
We jog out of the front gate, past the Argentinean Howitzer that was captured in the Falklands War and up the A378 towards Norton Fitzwarren. The pace is still gentle – I dread to think what this run must be like with the young Marines in the fighting Companies. The average Marine at 40 Commando does two hours’ exercise every day (usually a mixture of running, gym work and team sports) and consumes 3,000 – 35,00 calories (the average for an adult male is about 2,500). On top of that there are exercises involving carrying weights you can see why they eat so much ‘scran’ – i.e. food! (Did you know that the term ‘scran’ derives from sultanas, currants, raisins and nuts? Royal Marines, being part of the Navy, use Naval slang and not Army slang which in this case would be the less lyrical ‘scoff’!).
Continuing running we take a track off the side of the A378, up the side of the paddock then down past Norton Fitzwarren Church. Already our group is strung out with only half a dozen Marines (and one Naval Officer) managing to stay with the pace. The Unit photographer, Si, hasn’t even broken into a sweat – he usually does phys with a couple of cameras, running ahead of the group to take photos as demonstrated by one of his shots shown here!
We snake along in single file up the A378 and into camp. Back up the hill and into the mews courtyard we finish off with a few squats – 50 in fact and all so that the backside drops below the knees.
Walking back to the office my legs feel tired but not ‘hanging out’. Two days later I am still hobbling around the camp with delayed onset muscle soreness. It seems as though I got ‘smashed’ afterall.
31 Jan 2012
