Goruck Tough

It's approximately a day and a half since Pam and I accomplished our very first Goruck Challenge.  While our bodies are still very sore, our spirits couldn't possibly be higher.  Shortly after I signed us up for the Goruck I attempted to read every single blog post about the challenge I could find.  I wanted to know what we were getting into.  I soon recognized a common theme among all these blog posts.  None were very clear about what exactly the challenge consisted of and instead encouraged the reader to experience this on their own.  I always assumed that this was some sort of "Goruck Alumni" conspiracy to keep the exact details of the challenge a secret.  Now that I've participated in one, I understand why the posts I read were so vague.  The last day has been a struggle to put in sequence everything we did, how long we did it for, and where we did it all.  If you've never stayed awake this long all while pushing your limits physically and mentally, you may not understand why.  I'll do my best to describe what our challenge was all about, but please forgive me if certain details are vague.  I read over and over again that "The hardest part is signing up."  I will tell you that it is my opinion that this is horseshit.  Signing up was easy compared to what we were in store for.

Pam and I started our trek to Boston on the afternoon of Saint Patrick's Day.  We had our bricks wrapped, our hydration bladders filled, and a bag of "energy foods" ready to go.  The meeting point for our challenge was the famous "Cheers" bar and we got there early enough to grab some food, and yes some beer.  Now normally we wouldn't drink beer right before a physical challenge, but we have a weakness for Samuel Adams' Brick Red and it was St Paddy's Day.  Shortly after this other Goruckers started to show up.  There were a few familiar faces, people I'd met at earlier events, and lots of new faces.  We quickly met a lot of new people and began to get to know them, possibly the best part of a Goruck Challenge. 

Every Goruck Class has a class weight and ours was no different.  At 2200 hours (10:00pm) there would be two classes, Class #131 and Class #132.  We did not yet know which class we were in, but our class weights were both large metal washers we painted gold so we added them to the ropes of the rest of the team's washers.  Both teams weights ended up weighing over 25 pounds.  As we waited patiently on the sidewalk outside 84 Beacon Street, our new friend Mark Webb ran up and told us the Cadre were across the street near the entrance of Boston Common waiting for us.  We excitedly ran over to them knowing we were minutes away from getting our new rucks (bags).  Pam got her ruck before I got mine.  Her's was Goruck's "Radio Ruck" named for the size of the ruck that was used to carry radios in the military.  When Cadre Lou took my "GR1" out of the trunk in his rental car and called my name it felt like getting a big present on Christmas morning.  The GR1 is Goruck's second largest pack, slightly larger than Pam's Radio Ruck.  We quickly started packing all of our stuff into the rucks. 

It was at this time we were told it was time to head into the park to sign our "Death Waivers" and have our bricks inspected by the Cadre.  This would be the last time our rucks touched the ground for the next 12 plus hours.  We gathered in close to Cadre Lou and Cadre Devin for final waiver checks and roll call.  Lou instructed us that there were 61 of us and we had 5 minutes to split into two equal groups on our own.  We quickly split into what looked like half and began counting out how many were in our circle.  We had six too many so six switched groups and within minutes our classes were formed.  Pam & I were in Class #131 with Lou as our Cadre. 

We were then instructed that both classes needed to line up in five ranks and space out equally.  The large group struggled with what "five ranks" meant, but we figured it out and PT began.  Pushups, inchworms, burpess, monkeyfuckers, and many more exercises all were performed in cadence with the rucks on.  Once the cadre were satisfied that we were warmed up the two classes had a quick relay race that Class #132 won.  It didn't seem to matter at this point.  The two classes split, and we were off.  Lucky for us my friend Mario joined Lou and assisted him throughout the ruck.  Mario is local to Boston and knew the area.  Don't get me wrong, this was a benefit only to Lou, not to us.  Mario was a great addition to our class and I am truly grateful he was there.  He ran the challenge the night before and was on his second straight day of zero sleep.  how he maintained his fantastic attitude and high energy is still a mystery to me.  I think he is a super hero in his off-time.

We started by "bear-crawling" a block or two away from the park where we'd learn the first rule of the class and possibly what would turn out to be what got us the most laughs.  Cadre Lou told us we constantly needed to be on the lookout for threats and that we'd better spot and call out these threats before he did or we'd pay.  We needed to call out "Threat!" and what direction the threat was coming from, then kneel down on one knee until Lou announced that the "threat was neutralized."  What could these threats possibly be?  Men in tights or skinny jeans would be our threats for the duration of the class.  Cadre Lou exclaimed he "hates that shit."  Not that funny you say? Picture 31 people with backpacks on, in formation, yelling "Threat!" at an unsuspecting skinny jeans guy, and simultaneously all taking a knee.  The looks on the faces of these threats were priceless.  Over and over, and over again.  It was on this stretch of asphalt where we'd spend probably the next hour doing crab walks and Indian sprints.  Time and distance are merely estimates since watches are frowned upon.  We also learned the "buddy carry" here.  It almost went bad when I dropped someone then was dropped pretty hard myself. 

It was at this point we spent about a half hour Army crawling about a quarter-mile.  After we made it to a large statue someone noticed that the US and Ireland flags we were carrying and we left at the bottom were being taken by some drunken kids.  Rucks were passed off and about a half-dozen of our more rugged members chased them down to retrieve the flags. 

From here we moved to the Massachusetts State House where we'd take our first class photo.  It was also about this time we were instructed how to respond when a passerby asked us what we were doing.  As loud and as clear as possible we were to exclaim "GO-RUCK!!".  As we left the state house Lou informed us that we needed to get to the Boston Garden and we had 15 minutes to do it.  If that wasn't hard enough we couldn't go the way one of our Goruckers that lived in Boston said we had to go, and we weren't allowed to talk or use the shoulder straps on our bags.  It was on the trip to where the Bruins and Celtics play where i had my first experience with the "bitch bag.".  This bag was just like mine and weighed just as much.  So for about 2 miles I carried two bags, that weighed around 40 pounds each, at arms length.  After we got there and took another class photo we were allowed to refill our hydration bladders.  By my best guess it was just after 3:00am because I caught a glimpse of a clock on the wall of a store on the way there.  I almost wished I hadn't since i realized we weren't even halfway finished.

We were told we then had a short time to get to Fenway Park.  Once there our team suffered a "casualty" and we had to carry a member of our team in a portable stretcher.  At this time Lou found a cinder-block.  This cinder block would become our first "coupon" for "Good livin".  We had to carry that as well.  Lou took us to the Emerald necklace where six logs were dug out of the woods.  These "nuclear devices" had to be carried by the team about 3 miles all before the sun came up.  Once again our team came through and we got to Jamaica Pond before the sun rose.  The next couple hours were spent getting back into the city.  All while in formation and still calling out threats.  We made it past what seemed like dozens of threats at the Boston library and back to Beacon Street. 

We weren't done yet.  For the next hour or so, we had to bear crawl across a bridge, do some exercises in the frigid Charles River, and more buddy carries.  Lou told us to meet him back at Cheers, but we had to buddy-carry each other there.  We got there and in typical fashion we weren't finished yet.  Another few hundred feet of buddy carries into the park before we were finished.   Once we were all in the park Lou told us we had finished and could take our rucks off.  I think we were all apprehensive to set our rucks down, but we realized he wasn't toying with us and we had, in fact, finished the challenge. 

After a quick speech where Cadre Lou told us how impressed he was with how fast we came together as a team, he started handing out the patches.  Every patch came with a handshake and a compliment.  Originally we had thought we'd be receiving the "New Arrowhead" patch, but that wasn't the case.  Lou handed us limited, this weekend only, clover patches.  We were exhausted and on top of the world.  A few more Class 131 photos were taken, and Pam & I were off to find "Eagles Diner" for some pancakes.