On the March

My body simply refused to cooperate any longer with significant jogging. It’s just as well, since my personal interests are moving in another direction. Perhaps the number one survival skill is what the military calls “road marching.”

Aside from jogging, hard running, biking and race walking, I find the military style fast hiking is the most comfortable way to exercise. It’s also the most realistic, in the sense it has a great practical value. If you really had to get somewhere else as quickly as possible, and wheeled transportation was not available, or the terrain too rough, good old boot marching is the best hope. Right now, I’m just a bit shy of 5 miles per hour in my pace. That’s over hilly terrain, not all of it paved. For now, I’m trying to get used to a daily hike of about 4.5 miles. Next week I bump it up to 5 and 6 miles.

When serving in the US Army, even while I prospered and promoted ahead of my peers, I knew underneath it all uniformity was never a real need. It serves only to fuel false pride and a sense of power, while enslaving the whole process to a bureaucratic framework which rendered the whole enterprise awfully close to impotent. The amazing thing is just how successful the military is at getting anything done at all, since the whole thing nearly chokes on unnecessary regimentation. A primary element of all this was the military physical fitness experience. Far, far too much effort was wasted on running in formation, when under no combat circumstances would anyone be jogging anywhere, much less in formation. The one military fitness component that had any bearing at all on the actual purpose of having soldiers in the first place was road marching. We did way too little of that.

Even the very boots we were required to wear were nearly the worst for the job. Cheap, mass produced and pleasing to the bureaucracy, it is utterly impossible to make them actually serve the need of road marching. Sure, guys do it every year, by the thousands, but a lot of time is wasted on recovery because the boots are so poor. That type of marching requires padded boots to minimize blisters, stiff soles with metal shanks for stability, and a good hard material to prevent significant wear too soon. Current issue boots are completely worn through on the soles and heels about the time they start to get beaten into proper shape for the foot and ankle.

So choose carefully your marching boots. Unless your hide is nearly leather itself, you’ll need padded linings. Hard soles are necessary for durability and protection. The whole point is to walk rapidly over any terrain with minimal attention to the surface. Good ones are expensive, but so much worth it. We were permitted to buy a narrow range of optional boots, and I have paid as much as $160 for something I wore all over the Europe hiking in uniform. I have absolutely no regrets and would buy them again if I could afford them (Matterhorn 8″ with Gortex lining).

Instead, I’ve settled for a cheap pair of Herman Survivor hunting boots. They’ll do for now. At times I also enjoyed Jungle Boots, but only if they could break in properly. It requires wearing at least two pairs of thick socks to emulate the padded lining. If you go that route, be sure to pay the extra and get what’s called “MILSPEC” because the cheaper stuff will come apart the first time they get damp. The whole point in having Jungle Boots is they are light, very tough, and can work okay even in swampy dampness.