Hi,
I've been thinking of joining the army for some time now, mainly looking towards Rifles or possibly Paras. I'm just curious as how fit I should be before I apply(my 1.5 mile time is 9:50). Am i fit enough to get the ball rolling for Paras or should I wait before applying?

All advice appreciated.

Para's run time is sub 9:16 iirc, however the faster the better, i'm sure i'll be corrected by more knowledgeable people. I'm sure if you start the application now you'll have enough time to get it down further as applications aren't exactly blisteringly fast at the moment but really it's down to if you feel ready. Check out the fitness/running sticky.

Agreed. I think you should get the ball rolling now but begin to train really hard to pull your time down. It'll be at least a month from applying to getting onto pre-selection and then possibly another month after that before selection so you've plenty of time to bring your run time down. If you get deferred for any reason then you'll wish you applied earlier if you delay.

Good luck.

Jimmy, suggest you apply now & then see how you are when you start your training.
With the drop in manpower & cuts etc it may take you sometime to get in anyway.

Im in the same situation as I know Im not at the standard needed yet however the AFCO by me apparently ask people who are intrested in the Paras to do a 1.5 run with them first before anything.

Originally Posted by Hendrix

Hi,
I've been thinking of joining the army for some time now, mainly looking towards Rifles or possibly Paras. I'm just curious as how fit I should be before I apply(my 1.5 mile time is 9:50). Am i fit enough to get the ball rolling for Paras or should I wait before applying?

All advice appreciated.

You'll get that time down quite a bit just because you'll be running against other people, but yeah to reiterate the above, start the application process now and up the training.

Cheers lads, need to be in town next week anyway, so i'll pop in to the AFCO and see what they say.