August 2007 Fitness Test

For the last 7 months four friends and I had been planning a Summer Ball in memory of a friend killed by a ‘drug driver’ in a car accident, we use the ball as an excuse to raise lots of money for a charity in South Africa too. It was getting closer and I am getting busier and more stressed with it all.

I received a letter at last telling me that my Fitness Test date had come through, yippy, that means I passed the Assessment Centre. I make what seems like hundreds of calls to my family telling them that I have basically got in. The hard part is over. There is not really that much physically wrong with me so the fitness test and medical should not be a problem. And to my knowledge I am not a terrorist nor have been involved in any sort of crime that would fail my security checks. When I tell Dad over the phone I can literally visualise him punching the air as he shouts ‘yes, well done girl’ down the phone at me.

However, the fitness test is the same day as the Summer Ball. Do I reschedule the fitness test or just go for it? I call up the recruitment team and ask them when the next fitness tests will be, not till November. Humm, sod it, I will go on the Saturday before racing back to decorate the Hall and then throwing on a dress for the Ball.

Like I said, the ball was getting close, as was the fitness test and I suddenly come down with a sore throat and heavy chest. I rush to the doctors, I CANNOT be ill this week! The very nice Doc tells me to take the rest of the week off work and rest up. Apparently I am run down and my body needs sleep and I need to relax. Yeah, like there is any chance of that happening. I do take 2 days off however.

Test Day
Up and out nice and early I race to the station for my scheduled and pre-booked train. I am no a tight time schedule today. If anything over runs that will make everything late! Putting my trust like this into the Great British Rail service turns out to be a very silly thing to have done. As the train arrives at halfway station (1hr into the journey) an announcement is made telling everyone we will be sat there for 45 minutes as the police have closed the lines ahead. Great! I make an emergency call to my dearest Daddy who comes flying to the rescue (how useful he only lives 10 mins away). Then I call the recruitment team, no answer, so I call another number. The poor guy has no idea what I am talking about, I tell him it is imperative that he gets a message to the recruitment team or fitness instructor to tell them I am late. Dad pulls up and I jump in. I call the police recruitment number again and this time get someone who seems to know what I am talking about. 3 minutes later I get a call telling me not to worry lots of people are running late, so they have put my test back an hour! This is partly a good thing, and partly bad. I will now miss my return train.

Fitness!! If you can call it that. A warm up, light jog and some stretches. Then the dreaded bleep test, wow this chest infection / run down illness thing has really taken it out of me. However, I successfully get to the level required (which is well below my average (8.5) and even further below my personal best (10.4, aged 15)). Then I am the first to be called into a tiny room where a strange looking bit of gym equipment awaits me. The push and pull test! I am not sure I got the timing right and not even sure I pushed enough weight, I had my eyes closed with all the effort I was putting in.
The Fitness Instructor comes out after testing everyone and congratulates us all on passing. I am just leaving off when a random guy walks in and says ‘sorry I am late, the trains were delayed. I am here to do the fitness test’. I giggle to myself knowingly as I rush down the stairs.

Back into Dads car, back to the train station and jump onto a train luckily with no ticket check. 1 hours later I rush home, run to the venue an hour late, help finish off the decorations. Then home, shower, throw on an old shirt and drive the hair dressers. While she does my hair while I do my make up and we have a good gossip, but she does burn my ear on the tongs, OUCH! Then home again, where all my friends are already drinking, put on my dress and shoes where they have been neatly laid out for the last two days. And then the Taxi arrives. Rush over, we held an amazing ball for 300 people and raised nearly £8,000 for the charity. All in all a very productive day!