GORUCK

[ScoobaDawg]

Any other weirdos out there done one of these? I'm hooked now. I did a light in February and a Tough on July 4th.
Just signed up for 2 more. One on Veterans Day weekend here in DFW and another in OK City for the anniversary of the OK City bombing.

If you don't know what a Goruck is, it's about bridging the gap between civilians and the military.
There are 3 different events. Alll events are lead by a Cadre. The Cadre is a former Special Ops military member. All done while carrying anywhere from 10-30lbs (based on weight and event level) and doing PT while wearing said ruck and weights. It's also about leadership, team building, and CARRYING HEAVY SHIT for long distances.

Yes. It's not for everyone. But it's FUN. It's a physical and MENTAL workout.

A light is 4-6 hours, and 7-10 miles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_ZLq3-pPSU

A tough is 12+ hours and 20+ miles.
a Heavy is 24+ hours and 40+ miles


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uPg_OSzICI

The Goruck Heavy video was taped at the Goruck heavy at Fort Brigg NC this past year. If i ever do a heavy I think I would travel to this one. Doing a heavy at the same location, on part of the Special Ops course that your Cadre and many other Special Ops members training and used. I think would just be a special feeling.
The only other Heavy I would consider would be the Normandy France, which is done as part of an HCL.
An HCL is for people I consider crazy who do a Heavy, Tough (formerly called a challenge), and a Light. Back to Back to Back with only a few hours of rest between during the 42+ hours of events. Or the 9/11 HCL in New York.

[ScoobaDawg]

Two lights and two toughs are coming up in the MS/AL area.
9/11 Memorial, In Huntsville. Tough starts on the evening of 9/11. Light is on the afternoon of 9/12
Oct 16, weekend of Homecoming. Oct 16, Tough. Oct 17 Light.

More info can be found here.

http://www.goruck.com/event-landing

and I forgot. Im signing up for a 3rd tough. Goruck just announced the annual GORUCK reunion tough event will be in New Orleans on May 6. It will be a large crazy party after one large event lead some of the best Cadre's and other Cadre's taking part as a participant.

[TUSK]

God bless you Scoob...

It ("humping") is a terrific workout, great for self confidence, etc.

If I never go on a "forced march" again, however, I'll be good with that.

Please keep us in the loop, esp. distances, weights and speed... I'd be interested.

[SapperDawg]

OK Tusk, spill it. What branch, years, specialty, etc?

[ScoobaDawg]

Tusk,
Since you asked... Here is my After Action Report... beware it's Lengthy.
And yep... gonna do some more....

Goruck Challenge recap from Saturday now that i can finally think clearly. A Goruck event is not a race. A Goruck is about working together as a team through adverse conditions and putting team members in leadership positions. It is lead by Goruck Cadre's who are former or current Special Op memebers. This was my 2nd Goruck, I moved up to a Challenge (12+ hours and 20+ miles) and this time I joined a class of 20 others to Embrace The SUCK.
Friday Night July 3, 9pm at Revchon Park. It begins. Standard admin stuff with Cadre Heath introducing himself and doing roll call while Cadre Larry checks our bags for the required gear (30lbs of bricks, 2l water, reflector belt, ID and $20 cab fare if you quit) . After that, we move on to one of the Special twists of it being Independence Day Ruck, we were required to know the Declaration of Independence. The group had made a document for people to pick lines to memorize. While the person read their lines we had to hold our rucks in front of us. If they paused for a moment or during changing of people rucks had to be held over head. If the person didn't know the lines we got to Learn Heaths favorite words for the first time GET LOW by performing thrusters. This took a while and the majority of the time was spent with our rucks above our heads or with us in the squat position. Nice warm up for our lower bodies.
From there we moved in to an open field and played a lovely game called Jeeps and Tanks. Never heard of it you say? Well Cadre Heath LOVES IT. First off two Rookie Goruck members were selected to be Team Leads. We then had to pass everyones rucks to the right 7 times. Well to drive a jeep or a tank is similar. First you have to be LOW, so GET LOW and hold your ruck in front of you. If you a jeep the steering wheel is close... Ruck in Front of you, if you are driving the tank your arms are fully extended with the ruck. You then drive your "vehicle" in a circle doing a duck walk. BEEP BEEP I'm a JEEP. CLANK CLANK I'm a TANK.... While the Cadre checks everyones height to make sure noone is cheating and standing up. After this we are told to run out as hard as we can till he tells us to the drop the ruck and get back. Once we all come back we are all to come back and run back out and find OUR ruck and be back in allotted amount of time. We fail horribly. I know personally someone had picked my ruck up and brought it back to the circle so I could never find it. Well what do you do when you Fail at something and It sucks? YOU DO IT AGAIN and IT SUCKS MORE. We played the game 4 more times before we Finally got it right. This is where I realized how much the night might suck.
We then learned how to properly perform a buddy carry. I'm 6'3 and 220lbs so I looked around and saw the other tallest guy there, Connor and paired with him. He is a beast and picked me up with no problems. Now maybe I should of thought this through better... I had to pick him up. It wasn't comfortable for either of us. Luckily though no buddy carries were performed other than practice as we answered all our Questions about the History of the Declaration of Independence correctly. If not, someone was getting buddy carried up the narrow stairs we were about to ascend and come right back down. Cadre guided us towards the water where I had watched another Challenge group do Hydroburpees so I kinda of expected it. But the water was over waist deep so I didn't complain when he told us to line up in two lines and backs to each other. Indirect fire. Cup your hands and throw water over your head. Then of course came Direct fire, turn around and throw water in each others faces as fast as possible. Nice cool down from Turtle Creek. We continued down the creek to where the was a bridge and crossing overhead. Between the flood wall and the railing it was close to 15' up. Cadre told us to remove our rucks and Taught us the first lesson on the night. How to build a two tier human wall to get out and then pull our rucks up with ropes. He gave us a 20 minute time hack and we knocked it out with about 30 seconds to spare.
Now it was time to head out of the Park and put some miles in. As we got to the top of the stairs heading to Katy Trail, the TL was told we had 12 minutes to get to our next spot a mile away down the Katy Trail. The pace quickened to a very fast jog but we made the Time Hack with seconds to spare. This placed us at another park that was part of Turtle Creek near Hall St. We followed Cadre to the waters edge and he introduced us to another Fun game. Duck Duck Penguin. A member of the team had to place their head under water and hold their breath while we ran out of the squishy muddy shore to a tree that was around 200 ft away and then back in the water. After 3 tries, Cadre allowed the veteran of the group who had played before to hold her breath and we completed the game.
Then it was time to go find some more weight. We walked a few streets away to a rough gravel pit and Cadre tossed out 3 large sandbags. As a reward for meeting our previous time hack we would only have to fill the bags 1/3 of the way. They weighed around 50lbs I would guess. He told us this was the revolutionary time and we needed to transport food and supplies to the colonies. On we rucked, down Cedar Springs Rd with no idea what time of the night it was..But the bars were full and people were all it in the streets which made it fun to weave in and out and around plus the smells of food coming out. I believe we were tasked with a 15 minute pace but not certain how many miles. The bags were getting passed around a good bit along with the 25lb team weight, a duffel bag full of equipment, and 2 coolers full of water and 1 empty. For a portion of the ruck, a teammate pulled out a gurney and the gravel bags were placed on it. We all rotated through the weights and tried to keep the pace, towards the end a warning was given for time and we had to kick it again. Gravel bags were pulled from the gurney and people pushed faster and we made it with I believe it was 9 seconds to spare.
We are now at Weichsel Park and are allowed to set our rucks down, fuel up on any food we brought (Thanks for the Almonds CJ and whoever had the NUUN tablets) and hydrate. Cadre tells us for completing a challenge earlier we had earned a team challenge. If we all complete it we can dump the bags of gravel.
The Team Challenge is to Rappel off the side of a bridge down into the creek I would guess 30' below. First he dumps the ropes and carabiners out of the duffle bag and shows us how to tie a harness out of a rope and then hook on using the carabiner. Cadre Heath rigs the rope to be used to rappel to the guard rail and makes the proper knot to hook onto. One by one we all go down. It took a little while since there weren't enough ropes for everyone. But it was a lot of fun and something I had never done before. Once we finished that it was time to pay off some Penalty PT we had earned. 100 4 count flutterkicks in the water. Being in the water felt great. 100 flutterkicks at one time.SUCKS
Next Task, it was my turn to be Team Leader. (After each task, the TL and APL are fired and replaced to give most of the team of not all a chance to work on leadership skills) Cadre and I discuss the next task. He shows me the concrete chunk that he has discovered and will be the new team weight. Its akward and rough so not something that could easily be carried on shoulders and it was 4 feet or longer and almost like half a large column. I knew it was heavy. Cadre Heath asked me how long I needed to move 4 miles with this weight. With previously discussed weight and time metrics, I deemed it to be a heavy weight and asked for an hour 40 minutes at a 25 minute pace. He said we would need to do it at a 20 minute pace and had an hour and 20 minutes. He also gave us an additional 5 minutes to get the team to the road from the park with the new weight. I ran back gathered the team and showed them the weight and encouraged the use of a gurney again. Extra hand holds were cut. the middle was zip tied around the concrete. A small pvc pipe was found to create a handle. Now we were moving albeit slowly as people got used to being uncomfortable on the heavy weight and swapping in and out. This task was very difficult for me. I had to try and push the team and get subs in and out all while trying to get the weight pushed as fast as I thought they could. Mean while I could not carry any weight. In addition, if we miss the time hack we would have to carry this weight and additional weight that was going to be added for the rest of the night. Cadre tells me several times we are behind and I need to push them harder and I try in the only way I could figure out by trying to rotate people off the gurney as fast as they signal and trying to get the front and back to push the pace. Once we got past the first mile or so we really settled into a good pace even with the constant changing terrain (This area was missing sidewalks for most of the ruck). Then Cadre pulls us into a parking lot and tells us our time is expired. I FEEL HORRIBLE. The team sits for a few moments as Cadre talks to me. We are given two options. Either Do some Horrible PT which will suck and then be given another time hack to try and rid the weight or continue on with the weight for the rest of the night. We had no option. The Rest of the Challenge was going to be pure Hell if we had to keep that concrete weight. The required PT was 30 little man jumping jacks. Get LOW and stay low. You have to perform a jumping jack motion while staying squatted. These kill your lower body so much. We made it to 13 I believe before one was not counted. then we tried to 5 more and got 4. Then tried 3 and got two.It got to the point we only did 1.(Dark Place #2) I know I personally was in bad shape and falling over and was on the front row. We finally worked our way back up to 2 then 3 and finished. While everyone was stretching and trying to work out their legs to prepare for whatever was about to come, Cadre Heath showed me where we were. Then Again where we needed to get to. He said we had 20 minutes to get there. I had 3 minutes to get everyone back on their feet and going. We did NOT want to waste any of that free time if we could. This mile sucked (Dark Spot #3 as I'm supposed to be setting the pace and be TL) The whole group stepped up and rotated in and out to push the pace for that last mile and we made it to the Levees of the Bachman Branch of the Trinity River just off I35e and Round Table Dr. We had less than a minute left and WERE FREE OF THE CONCRETE BLOCK.
Now it was time to head down and take a dip in the Trinity River. I'm just glad we didn't get stuck in the mud as Cadre is not from around here and I was explaining to him how this area was completely under water until a week or so ago. Into the water we go. And needless to say it was slick and dropped off fast. Swimming in a weighted ruck not a good idea. so we all pulled together and stayed towards the shore as best possible. Our next task was to fill 10 minutes of what Independence Day meant to us or a story. Several told about family members fighting another told about being from another country and what America means to him. Great sharing moment. As we watched the sun come up in a Muddy Ditch. I failed the first time hack but we achieved the second time hack (Which If you add 20 minutes to Cadre's time you get the time I suggested) so we got to dump the weight and I'm fired as TL as normal.
We head up the hill out of the floodplains back to the road where we have been told we will find our next team weight. We arrive at a stockyard of railroad ties. Cadre tells us about what a Quaker Canon is and how we must deliver and place this one on the river front to scare the British Navy. We load up short people in the front and tall people in the back at any time there was 10-12 people on the 15' chunk of wood. We were given I think an hour and 40 minutes to move I believe it was 4 miles. With CJ and a few others taking this on as their specialty and PUSHING the pace we smashed the time hack and did it in an hour and 10 minutes. We place the Quaker cannon in place to scare our enemies and the Party glasses are broken out for a picture on the levees with the Dallas skyline in the background. Cadre Once again cracks a joke that it is PAST 9pm.. and finally gives in since we know the suns been up for a while and lets us know it's past 9am. And still we have many miles to go before we can sleep....
We are now free of all heavy weights and are assigned a 15 minute pace to get to our next point which is under a bridge a couple miles away. The sun was gaining intensity quickly almost everyone was out of water and the team water was gone also. I know at one point we stopped due to the team spreading out a lot from people slowing down and when I stood back up I got a horrible cramp in my left quad. One of the girls took my ruck for 5 minutes or so until we reached the bridge so I could stretch it and walk it off. By then I was also out of water. Once we reached the bridge Cadre allowed us to sit under the shade or go get in the water again if we wished. It might of been the trinity river but Mar and I went and sat in it for a minute to get our core and muscles cooled down. Cadre Heath told us several interesting stories about his training and trips overseas and food that he was given to eat. (Oh its so horrible, maybe If I puke it back in a can it will be better) All while Cadre Larry heads up the hill in search of water for the group. after a good 30 minute break he returns with a couple gallons of water which the group shares. We resume our trek back down the trinity river Levee. We reach one point where we have to stop. Cadre Heath decides to line everyone up in a straight line and continue it up the hill. We had 100 more PT to work off for something. 100 more flutter kicks which was hard enough but for us that were on the hill trying to not roll down the hill was worse. Next he pulls out his gurney and tells us ever person on the team will be carried across the make believe River that was between where we were standing and the next flood plain bridge. You had to be on the gurney for at least 5 feet and once it touched the ground the next person had to be in the air in 5 seconds or bags were going over our heads. Everyone moved their rucks to their chests and this made it a much easier transition.
Once we reached this point we finished the water off and He put one last time hack on us of 30 minutes to go around 2 miles but he wasn't sure because it depended on the route we took. We saw Cadre Larry walking off in a direction and decided we were going to follow him and that lead us to the Street. A last tough push over some uphill and people fading and we make it back to the park with seconds to spare before Cadre was going to start giving out Casualties (Having to carry another person for the rest of the distance).
Cadre Heath tells us how wonderful a team we were and gives us our Patches. It was an even more special Challenge for Meghan who earned 3 patches for Doing all 3 levels of Gorucks and completing 3 out of 3 under Cadre Heath... a very impressive Feat.
So on the Day. 14 hours 20 minutes. 21.5 miles. and one bad ass patch and Friends I'd do it with again any day.

[TUSK]

OK Tusk, spill it. What branch, years, specialty, etc?

USMC, 90-96, Amphibious Asslt. & Embarkation NCOIC.

also coached rifle marksmanship & stayed drunk a lot.

[TUSK]

Tusk,
Since you asked... Here is my After Action Report... beware it's Lengthy.
And yep... gonna do some more....

Goruck Challenge recap from Saturday now that i can finally think clearly. A Goruck event is not a race. A Goruck is about working together as a team through adverse conditions and putting team members in leadership positions. It is lead by Goruck Cadre's who are former or current Special Op memebers. This was my 2nd Goruck, I moved up to a Challenge (12+ hours and 20+ miles) and this time I joined a class of 20 others to Embrace The SUCK.
Friday Night July 3, 9pm at Revchon Park. It begins. Standard admin stuff with Cadre Heath introducing himself and doing roll call while Cadre Larry checks our bags for the required gear (30lbs of bricks, 2l water, reflector belt, ID and $20 cab fare if you quit) . After that, we move on to one of the Special twists of it being Independence Day Ruck, we were required to know the Declaration of Independence. The group had made a document for people to pick lines to memorize. While the person read their lines we had to hold our rucks in front of us. If they paused for a moment or during changing of people rucks had to be held over head. If the person didn't know the lines we got to Learn Heaths favorite words for the first time GET LOW by performing thrusters. This took a while and the majority of the time was spent with our rucks above our heads or with us in the squat position. Nice warm up for our lower bodies.
From there we moved in to an open field and played a lovely game called Jeeps and Tanks. Never heard of it you say? Well Cadre Heath LOVES IT. First off two Rookie Goruck members were selected to be Team Leads. We then had to pass everyones rucks to the right 7 times. Well to drive a jeep or a tank is similar. First you have to be LOW, so GET LOW and hold your ruck in front of you. If you a jeep the steering wheel is close... Ruck in Front of you, if you are driving the tank your arms are fully extended with the ruck. You then drive your "vehicle" in a circle doing a duck walk. BEEP BEEP I'm a JEEP. CLANK CLANK I'm a TANK.... While the Cadre checks everyones height to make sure noone is cheating and standing up. After this we are told to run out as hard as we can till he tells us to the drop the ruck and get back. Once we all come back we are all to come back and run back out and find OUR ruck and be back in allotted amount of time. We fail horribly. I know personally someone had picked my ruck up and brought it back to the circle so I could never find it. Well what do you do when you Fail at something and It sucks? YOU DO IT AGAIN and IT SUCKS MORE. We played the game 4 more times before we Finally got it right. This is where I realized how much the night might suck.
We then learned how to properly perform a buddy carry. I'm 6'3 and 220lbs so I looked around and saw the other tallest guy there, Connor and paired with him. He is a beast and picked me up with no problems. Now maybe I should of thought this through better... I had to pick him up. It wasn't comfortable for either of us. Luckily though no buddy carries were performed other than practice as we answered all our Questions about the History of the Declaration of Independence correctly. If not, someone was getting buddy carried up the narrow stairs we were about to ascend and come right back down. Cadre guided us towards the water where I had watched another Challenge group do Hydroburpees so I kinda of expected it. But the water was over waist deep so I didn't complain when he told us to line up in two lines and backs to each other. Indirect fire. Cup your hands and throw water over your head. Then of course came Direct fire, turn around and throw water in each others faces as fast as possible. Nice cool down from Turtle Creek. We continued down the creek to where the was a bridge and crossing overhead. Between the flood wall and the railing it was close to 15' up. Cadre told us to remove our rucks and Taught us the first lesson on the night. How to build a two tier human wall to get out and then pull our rucks up with ropes. He gave us a 20 minute time hack and we knocked it out with about 30 seconds to spare.
Now it was time to head out of the Park and put some miles in. As we got to the top of the stairs heading to Katy Trail, the TL was told we had 12 minutes to get to our next spot a mile away down the Katy Trail. The pace quickened to a very fast jog but we made the Time Hack with seconds to spare. This placed us at another park that was part of Turtle Creek near Hall St. We followed Cadre to the waters edge and he introduced us to another Fun game. Duck Duck Penguin. A member of the team had to place their head under water and hold their breath while we ran out of the squishy muddy shore to a tree that was around 200 ft away and then back in the water. After 3 tries, Cadre allowed the veteran of the group who had played before to hold her breath and we completed the game.
Then it was time to go find some more weight. We walked a few streets away to a rough gravel pit and Cadre tossed out 3 large sandbags. As a reward for meeting our previous time hack we would only have to fill the bags 1/3 of the way. They weighed around 50lbs I would guess. He told us this was the revolutionary time and we needed to transport food and supplies to the colonies. On we rucked, down Cedar Springs Rd with no idea what time of the night it was..But the bars were full and people were all it in the streets which made it fun to weave in and out and around plus the smells of food coming out. I believe we were tasked with a 15 minute pace but not certain how many miles. The bags were getting passed around a good bit along with the 25lb team weight, a duffel bag full of equipment, and 2 coolers full of water and 1 empty. For a portion of the ruck, a teammate pulled out a gurney and the gravel bags were placed on it. We all rotated through the weights and tried to keep the pace, towards the end a warning was given for time and we had to kick it again. Gravel bags were pulled from the gurney and people pushed faster and we made it with I believe it was 9 seconds to spare.
We are now at Weichsel Park and are allowed to set our rucks down, fuel up on any food we brought (Thanks for the Almonds CJ and whoever had the NUUN tablets) and hydrate. Cadre tells us for completing a challenge earlier we had earned a team challenge. If we all complete it we can dump the bags of gravel.
The Team Challenge is to Rappel off the side of a bridge down into the creek I would guess 30' below. First he dumps the ropes and carabiners out of the duffle bag and shows us how to tie a harness out of a rope and then hook on using the carabiner. Cadre Heath rigs the rope to be used to rappel to the guard rail and makes the proper knot to hook onto. One by one we all go down. It took a little while since there weren't enough ropes for everyone. But it was a lot of fun and something I had never done before. Once we finished that it was time to pay off some Penalty PT we had earned. 100 4 count flutterkicks in the water. Being in the water felt great. 100 flutterkicks at one time.SUCKS
Next Task, it was my turn to be Team Leader. (After each task, the TL and APL are fired and replaced to give most of the team of not all a chance to work on leadership skills) Cadre and I discuss the next task. He shows me the concrete chunk that he has discovered and will be the new team weight. Its akward and rough so not something that could easily be carried on shoulders and it was 4 feet or longer and almost like half a large column. I knew it was heavy. Cadre Heath asked me how long I needed to move 4 miles with this weight. With previously discussed weight and time metrics, I deemed it to be a heavy weight and asked for an hour 40 minutes at a 25 minute pace. He said we would need to do it at a 20 minute pace and had an hour and 20 minutes. He also gave us an additional 5 minutes to get the team to the road from the park with the new weight. I ran back gathered the team and showed them the weight and encouraged the use of a gurney again. Extra hand holds were cut. the middle was zip tied around the concrete. A small pvc pipe was found to create a handle. Now we were moving albeit slowly as people got used to being uncomfortable on the heavy weight and swapping in and out. This task was very difficult for me. I had to try and push the team and get subs in and out all while trying to get the weight pushed as fast as I thought they could. Mean while I could not carry any weight. In addition, if we miss the time hack we would have to carry this weight and additional weight that was going to be added for the rest of the night. Cadre tells me several times we are behind and I need to push them harder and I try in the only way I could figure out by trying to rotate people off the gurney as fast as they signal and trying to get the front and back to push the pace. Once we got past the first mile or so we really settled into a good pace even with the constant changing terrain (This area was missing sidewalks for most of the ruck). Then Cadre pulls us into a parking lot and tells us our time is expired. I FEEL HORRIBLE. The team sits for a few moments as Cadre talks to me. We are given two options. Either Do some Horrible PT which will suck and then be given another time hack to try and rid the weight or continue on with the weight for the rest of the night. We had no option. The Rest of the Challenge was going to be pure Hell if we had to keep that concrete weight. The required PT was 30 little man jumping jacks. Get LOW and stay low. You have to perform a jumping jack motion while staying squatted. These kill your lower body so much. We made it to 13 I believe before one was not counted. then we tried to 5 more and got 4. Then tried 3 and got two.It got to the point we only did 1.(Dark Place #2) I know I personally was in bad shape and falling over and was on the front row. We finally worked our way back up to 2 then 3 and finished. While everyone was stretching and trying to work out their legs to prepare for whatever was about to come, Cadre Heath showed me where we were. Then Again where we needed to get to. He said we had 20 minutes to get there. I had 3 minutes to get everyone back on their feet and going. We did NOT want to waste any of that free time if we could. This mile sucked (Dark Spot #3 as I'm supposed to be setting the pace and be TL) The whole group stepped up and rotated in and out to push the pace for that last mile and we made it to the Levees of the Bachman Branch of the Trinity River just off I35e and Round Table Dr. We had less than a minute left and WERE FREE OF THE CONCRETE BLOCK.
Now it was time to head down and take a dip in the Trinity River. I'm just glad we didn't get stuck in the mud as Cadre is not from around here and I was explaining to him how this area was completely under water until a week or so ago. Into the water we go. And needless to say it was slick and dropped off fast. Swimming in a weighted ruck not a good idea. so we all pulled together and stayed towards the shore as best possible. Our next task was to fill 10 minutes of what Independence Day meant to us or a story. Several told about family members fighting another told about being from another country and what America means to him. Great sharing moment. As we watched the sun come up in a Muddy Ditch. I failed the first time hack but we achieved the second time hack (Which If you add 20 minutes to Cadre's time you get the time I suggested) so we got to dump the weight and I'm fired as TL as normal.
We head up the hill out of the floodplains back to the road where we have been told we will find our next team weight. We arrive at a stockyard of railroad ties. Cadre tells us about what a Quaker Canon is and how we must deliver and place this one on the river front to scare the British Navy. We load up short people in the front and tall people in the back at any time there was 10-12 people on the 15' chunk of wood. We were given I think an hour and 40 minutes to move I believe it was 4 miles. With CJ and a few others taking this on as their specialty and PUSHING the pace we smashed the time hack and did it in an hour and 10 minutes. We place the Quaker cannon in place to scare our enemies and the Party glasses are broken out for a picture on the levees with the Dallas skyline in the background. Cadre Once again cracks a joke that it is PAST 9pm.. and finally gives in since we know the suns been up for a while and lets us know it's past 9am. And still we have many miles to go before we can sleep....
We are now free of all heavy weights and are assigned a 15 minute pace to get to our next point which is under a bridge a couple miles away. The sun was gaining intensity quickly almost everyone was out of water and the team water was gone also. I know at one point we stopped due to the team spreading out a lot from people slowing down and when I stood back up I got a horrible cramp in my left quad. One of the girls took my ruck for 5 minutes or so until we reached the bridge so I could stretch it and walk it off. By then I was also out of water. Once we reached the bridge Cadre allowed us to sit under the shade or go get in the water again if we wished. It might of been the trinity river but Mar and I went and sat in it for a minute to get our core and muscles cooled down. Cadre Heath told us several interesting stories about his training and trips overseas and food that he was given to eat. (Oh its so horrible, maybe If I puke it back in a can it will be better) All while Cadre Larry heads up the hill in search of water for the group. after a good 30 minute break he returns with a couple gallons of water which the group shares. We resume our trek back down the trinity river Levee. We reach one point where we have to stop. Cadre Heath decides to line everyone up in a straight line and continue it up the hill. We had 100 more PT to work off for something. 100 more flutter kicks which was hard enough but for us that were on the hill trying to not roll down the hill was worse. Next he pulls out his gurney and tells us ever person on the team will be carried across the make believe River that was between where we were standing and the next flood plain bridge. You had to be on the gurney for at least 5 feet and once it touched the ground the next person had to be in the air in 5 seconds or bags were going over our heads. Everyone moved their rucks to their chests and this made it a much easier transition.
Once we reached this point we finished the water off and He put one last time hack on us of 30 minutes to go around 2 miles but he wasn't sure because it depended on the route we took. We saw Cadre Larry walking off in a direction and decided we were going to follow him and that lead us to the Street. A last tough push over some uphill and people fading and we make it back to the park with seconds to spare before Cadre was going to start giving out Casualties (Having to carry another person for the rest of the distance).
Cadre Heath tells us how wonderful a team we were and gives us our Patches. It was an even more special Challenge for Meghan who earned 3 patches for Doing all 3 levels of Gorucks and completing 3 out of 3 under Cadre Heath... a very impressive Feat.
So on the Day. 14 hours 20 minutes. 21.5 miles. and one bad ass patch and Friends I'd do it with again any day.

Sounds like a pretty good work out, Scoob... I would NEVER want to do that with your size (6-3, 220)... I think when I finished MCRDPI I was 5-11, 155...

[ScoobaDawg]

Sounds like a pretty good work out, Scoob... I would NEVER want to do that with your size (6-3, 220)... I think when I finished MCRDPI I was 5-11, 155...

Freaked me out..I was like wtf hows he know my size... I forgot I put that in my facebook post.
Yea..and people pay good money to do this stuff (That was a GoRuck Tough which costs around $140)
But I'm sure you can understand, when put through hell (which in no way am i comparing it to any experience of a military man) you can learn about a person and make good friends.
The team we had that night was amazing and kicked butt. I look forward to doing another one with some of those same people.

I'm in decent shape thanks to all the OCR races I have done over the past year but still want to drop / exchange for muscle about 40lbs.

[ScoobaDawg]

Last 26 minutes of Goruck Selection. 48 hours of hell
Goruck Selection was this past weekend. 62 signed up. 33 showed up. 1 finished after 48 hours of hell.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6JgsmfrrNo

[ScoobaDawg]

Did another one (light) for Veterans Day, Shadowed another tough a couple weeekends ago. Cadre Machine is the only Cadre from outside the USA. He is from USA but served in the Israeli special forces. Complete badass who smoked them all night long.

Need to sign up for my next one in March, at the Alamo.