GORUCK Tough. [Note: This is my longest post to date because this is my biggest accomplishment to date. Enjoy.]
I posted the following status on Facebook:
"... and miles to go before I sleep. GORUCK Challenge. 1AM."
12:30AM - I am aimlessly driving lost through downtown Cincinnati and attempting to follow the directions on my GPS. I may or may not have driven the wrong way down a one-way street. Right in front of a police cruiser. And how would I explain myself if pulled over. "Don't worry officer. No I am 100% sober. I am actually on my way to meet up with a group of strangers. We are going to fill backpacks with bricks and run for many hours and many miles."
12:40AM - I arrive safely (and ticket free!) at the Boathouse. As I pull into the parking lot I get my first glimpse of the others crazy enough to embark on this adventure. My stomach does a nervous flip. I really just want to hide in my car. Maybe turn around and drive back home. But I toughen up and get the nerve to walk out and join in with one of the groups standing around. I am introduced to a few of the guys and we make general banter - where we are from, what we expect (or don't expect) and how our bricks are wrapped. There are already a few extra ambitious folks stretching and jogging to warm up.
1:00AM - Everyone is there. All 29 participants. Everyone.
Except for our cadre - Jason. We wait.
1:15AM - Still no Jason. Still lots of nerves.
1:30AM - Cadre still nowhere to be found. We all begin to wonder if this is part of the Challenge and he is already playing mind-games with us?
1:40AM - Someone reaches Jason by phone. He is on his way.
1:50AM - Jason arrives! He had e-mailed out the address of the starting point but didn't realize where exactly he had sent us. He was waiting in a parking lot only a few miles away. We get our rucks and begin gearing up. Jason checks everyone's bricks to ensure they are wrapped. Death waivers are signed.
2:00AM - We are given our first team assignment. Jason hands out a bag and tells us to fill it with sticks or gravel or whatever. It easily weighs more than any other ruck there. It is quickly nicknamed the "Party Pack" - although it was truly no party. We are also given a hard sided case to carry our team weight - a case of beer plus four pounds of Peanut M&M's. We put on our packs and take off - not having any idea of the road that comes ahead of us.
[The following account covers many hours and many miles. At times my brain was muddled. I have done the best to recount everything as I remember.]
Start with indian runs. Our group begins at a near sprint pace and immediately fails - miserably. We are quickly and swiftly reprimanded - we are sent into the Ohio River. Flutter kicks and push-ups ensue. Next we exit the water and climb up and down the stairs. Bear crawls. Followed by more bear crawls. And then when we think we've had enough - let's do some more bear crawls. We also lose the privilege to speak. Hours add up. Literally hours down on our hands and knees - scraping along in two lines across the pavement. Pounds and pounds carried on our backs. I have never felt such an appreciation for grass as I did for those few hundred yards or so where we got somewhat of a break from the pavement grinding into our skin. But the grass only lasts for so long. I never did find my LAX gloves so I sported my old SunTrust race pair. Gloves were a god-send. If anyone ever takes the GRC - bring gloves. Let me repeat myself - bring gloves. They will save you. One teammate ended up with glass in his hand and was bleeding only a few minutes into the night. We had hours to go.
Although we are doing bear crawls the indian runs continue - simply on hands and knees. When the cadre shouts "Go!" the last person in each line hustles to the front. If he shouts "Go! Go!" then the last two people in each line move. He can shout "Go!" continuously. (At points he does exactly this.) Although we can't talk to one another whenever I was hustling to the front of the line I saw nothing but smiles from these strangers. Secret encouragements were whispered as I moved by. At one point there was another teammate struggling. She was carrying too much weight. So I took off part of her load and carried it on my back for awhile. This is how the bonding began. We were broken down - literally broken - only to be built back up and become a single unit.
After a time we graduated from bear crawls to lunges. Unsatisfied with the lunges, Jason demoted us back to bear crawls. At some point we came upon a park restroom and were allowed a brief respite to refill our water bladders. At this time I realized that the only snacks I would be able to access throughout the Challenge would be my gels. Jason gave us a pep talk. I can't really describe it. No matter the words I try to use, you can't truly capture the feeling unless you are living in that moment. He tells us where he wants to go. As a team we can determine how to get there. A few Cincinnati natives design a route and we are off - running at a much faster pace than we covered during our bear crawls. A few of the guys in our group keep morale up by leading cheers and chants. We wind through the city streets and begin climbing. Up and up and up among the steep inclines in the city of seven hills. We reach our destination - Holy Cross Immaculata Church on St. Gregory Street atop the Mt. Adams steps. Upon climbing to the summit at the top of the stairs, Jason gives us our next task. We are to climb the stairs. Up and down, up and down, up and down.
He tells us to do it 50 times.
We start. I lose track of the number of times we have traversed the steps. We keep going. And going. And going. Minutes turn into hours. The sun begins to rise over the city. We continue climbing. I am reaching my breaking point. I will wholeheartedly admit that this was my demon during the Challenge. I reached it early. There were thoughts in my mind begging me to stop. I could not breathe. Literally no breath left in me. Yet my legs continued to climb. I was shaking. And my body kept going. My teammates kept me moving. The girl paired beside me was the same girl who earlier I had helped to carry her pack. Now she was pushing me on - encouraging me to continue. Keeping count and rhythm to keep us on pace. At some point Jason told us what he was looking for: he wanted us to improve our best time. After we had been climbing for hours and were past the point of exhaustion. He expected us to go faster. We did it, of course. Because we are tough. Then came a cruel joke and he told the first half of the team to break off from the group and go refill their water. I unfortunately was in the back half and we were told to continue climbing. So we did.
When our teammates finally returned to take our place we were given a brief respite. I literally collapsed upon the nearest step and sat there barely breathing. My team moved around the side of the church to refuel. Jason caught sight of me sitting there and came over to talk with me. I can't recall every word he said, but more or less he gave life back into me. He told me that I was letting my team down by sitting there. He told me to find my group. He forced me to drink water - even though I tried to argue that I would throw up if I drank any more. I felt so angry - I thought I was angry at him for pushing us so hard and making us keep going - really I was angry at myself for showing my weakness. As I sat there, Jason told me stories from when he was fighting with the Green Berets. He offered me a hand to help me up. Being my stubborn self I refused and pushed myself up while he laughed. I found my group and we journeyed back to the stairs to find the rest of our team still climbing. We conquered the stairs one final time. Together. Then we moved on. And I left my demons behind.
We had been at this for many hours. And yet we had only covered a few miles distance from the starting point. Our next route of indian runs took us through the streets of Mt. Adams just as the city was beginning to wake up.
We wound our way towards the Conservatory and ended up at Mirror Lake. Jason told us about Navy SEALS training and we dunked back into the water. Teammates extended helping hands to assist one another out.
We took off towards the woods. Upon entering Jason spotted a log that he wanted to take with us. This tree was huge. Huge. Huge. And it weighed a ton. Quite possibly it weighed a literal ton. But it was carried. Our pace was slow and steady. There was lots of logistics involved as we carried the weight. Trial and error took us along. It someone needed help, they shouted for it. If you weren't under the log itself, you were expected to be carrying a teammate's pack or walking under another's arms to help support them. It was a TEAM effort. I don't remember exactly the route we took but that log stayed with us for more miles and more hours.
We somehow wound our way up and made it to Eden Park - a spot which offers a spectacular view of the city. Somewhere along the route with our log the team lost the ability to talk again - this time with a few more caveats. Only the girls could talk: there were six females in the group (a HUGE count by any GORUCK standard - I feel so proud to be counted among these amazingly strong women!) In addition if you were not under the log helping to carry it, you could not use the straps on your pack. So as soon as anyone took a break from carrying the tree the orders were shouted by the girls "Straps off! Straps off!" It was hard work. I can not give enough credit to all of the strong (although strong is not the right word to use ... maybe superhuman) teammates who conquered that log. Due to my lack of height I was only able to get under the log and carry it at a few points. I honestly don't know how so many of my teammates survived with this thing resting on their shoulders and backs for as long as they did. I hope I was able to somewhat contribute to the group effort by scouting our route, shouting orders when help was needed, offering words of encouragement, directing oncoming traffic around our team, and strategizing with the other ladies. It was definitely a tough position to be in because I was personally hurting (it had already been a long night for me) but to have to watch your team struggling under the weight and know that there was little that I could do to assist.
Somehow we found our way back to Mirror Lake (I have absolutely no idea of the route we took. We wandered in and out of the woods and at times were walking down the middle of Cincinnati's busiest roads.) We got more than a few stares and second glances from the many joggers out on their morning runs. Upon reaching the Lake Jason gave us another challenge. We could see a line of woods quite a distance away. He told us that if we could make it to the treeline in under 2:00 minutes that we could drop the log and be done with it forever. Our team collectively caught our breath and then took off at break-neck speed. I swear we reached our destination in under 00:30 seconds. That's part of the awesomeness that is GORUCK. We had been struggling with the log for miles. We had already asked so much of our bodies in the many hours before. And yet we were all able to dig down done and literally knock out a sprint to the finish. (Not that this brought us anywhere near our finish point!)
To celebrate our victory over the log we hopped back into Mirror Lake. Jason's next destination was Bogart's - a concert venue downtown. For anyone who is not familiar with Cincinnati, let me briefly explain that the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods are not really what you might call "safe." There are local gangs and shootings are a regular occurrence. I was trained by my parents early on in life - whenever we reached a certain exit off the highway my dad would ask us kids what we do now - and the answer was always "Lock the car doors." Here was a group looking like targets - packs on our backs - heading into the dangerous heart of the city. And yet at any minute I never felt unsafe with this group. We were too bad-*ss looking that no one dared to even think of messing with us. As we began the long trek to Bogart's the indian runs continued and sped up. At one point we were waiting at an intersection to cross the street when a thug car blaring rap music rolled up next to us. The windows come down and a threatening looking man asks us "Are you guys a cross country team?" "No sir" we explained "We're just out here doing this for fun and good livin'."
At this point we were just posting miles and make strides. Inevitably we reached our destination. Next the shoulder straps were ordered off and all rucks had to be carried. Our next challenge was to continue indian runs - but with one caveat: the rucks needed to stay in the same order while we switched places. And remember: GORUCK packs are NEVER allowed to touch the ground. EVER. Our team struggled with a few weak attempts and were quickly reprimanded with incline pushups. (Pushups were used as a form of punishment at many many points throughout the Challenge. Jason explained how he thought pushups were actually really dumb but they build character and act as great incentive for the team to form and work together.) After more failed attempts (and more pushups) our team finally figured out a strategy that worked for us: everyone had to carry two rucks at a time therefore freeing up the persons at the back of the line so they could be prepared to sprint to the front. The ruck carries went on and on and on. We went all the way out to the Cincinnati Zoo.
And then all the way back into the city.
I was actually feeling pretty good at this point. I had reached my breaking point hours earlier and was still going - with a smile on my face. Jason says that the smiles were confusing to him. So I tried to keep smiling. Plus what girl doesn't love a good forearm workout? Jason kept us shuffling along and was singing "Doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well" to keep us motivated and moving. The one thing that truly stuck with me through this exercise was the fact that we were literally carrying our teammate's weight. At any given point I had no idea where my ruck was. In fact it got lost in the shuffle and I didn't see my actual pack until many hours later at the finish. Some packs were small and light. Some were twice as heavy as others. And of course the Party Pack was also thrown into the mix. But we worked as a team and strategized and kept going. If you needed water you grabbed the teammate closest to you and drank from their water. If you had a supply you offered it around to others. We were working as a single unit.
Jason gave us the ability to return the straps to our shoulders and we continued indian runs. Our next destination was given to us: Fountain Square - directly in the heart of Cincinnati. Jason also told us that he no longer wanted to be the one shouting "Go!" during our indian runs. So a few of our teammates stepped up and kept the group going. During the actual event I despised those folks who dictated our pace and were continuously shouting "Go!" a little too quickly. In hindsight I can not thank these guys enough. They were beacons that kept us strong even when we were weak-minded. And invariably, whenever you reached the back of the line and were given the order to "Go!" you found yourself sprinting to the front. Amazing-ness.
We were traversing through the unofficial roughest areas of the city at this point. We were shuffling along trying to look inconspicuous while sticking out like a sore thumb. We drew more than a few stares. At one point a huge car pulled up next to our group and someone shouted "GORUCK! GORUCK!" Jason responded with "Hi Mom!" Our cadre was raised near Cincinnati so this Challenge was like a homecoming for him. His father had been with us since the first second of the night, traveling beside us or slightly ahead of the group on a bike. Here his mother joined us for our trek to the Fountain.
When we reached our next point we were given a few moments to use the facilities and refuel our water supply. Little did we know or expect that Fountain Square would be hosting a community-wide fitness event that day. There were free Zumba classes going on at the Square. Our team regrouped and was handed our next task: buddy carries. I believe the direction started out with nine: that is nine people were to be up and carried at a time. If at any point nine persons weren't in the air then we would walk back to a previous point and start again. If we could not coordinate efficiently as a team then the orders were sent down that more people were to go up. We faltered here. It was getting excruciatingly hot and we knew the end was in sight (or so we thought!) We struggled to get a good system down and people argued. It was low and slow. But we made it.
Being a girl I was of course expected to be carried. Again, similarly to the log, I can not even imagine how some of my teammates managed to survive. Thanks are extended to the strong ones who kept us moving. Having said that, let me also mention that it is NOT easy being carried. Essentially it works by your buddy jutting his shoulder blade directly into your hip bone and thrusting you up over his shoulders into a fireman's carry. You get shifted around and it feels like you are being punched in the stomach as the wind is knocked out of you. You don't want to move or complain because it is the guy below you doing all the work. You try to watch your head and legs to ensure you don't knock into anything. And you grasp onto your partner and hang on for dear life while praying they don't drop you.
Buddy carries continued from Fountain Square all the way to the river. Here we finally reached a familiar point in the route. Our cars were parked just a little ways to the left. So of course we didn't go left. We crossed the bridge and headed into Kentucky. I don't know if any other GORUCK Challenge has ever gone through multiple states before.
We sort of knew where we were going. Indian runs continued. More miles were logged. We made a sweeping loop and ended up back near the Ohio River on the Kentucky side. We were ordered back into the water - not as a challenge but as a way to cool off. The sun was high in the sky by this time and we were all overheating. I was posting a negative sunburn on my arms and neck. Upon entering the water we all quickly discovered that we were attempting to wade through quicksand: my right foot instantly sank up past my ankle. We had no choice but to sit down and dig ourselves out and then crawl back to the shore. Thus we were all bogged down with sand in our shoes and clothes for the remainder of the day.
After cooling down a bit - if that was even possible at this point - we were up and indian running along the river. We wound our way through some type of festival and ended up near Newport, KY. As we raced down a steep grass hill and hopped down a high concrete wall I slammed my butt into the top of the bricks. It felt like my butt was broken (as if one can even break that.) I hobbled along struggling to keep up with the group. I looked at my indian runs partner in the parallel line and told him I was hurting. I told him when it came time for us to run that I didn't think I could do it. The order was shouted to "Go!" and I pushed through the pain and made it to the front of the line next to my partner.
We made it through Kentucky and touched down back in Ohio. At this point the team had taken up the cheers again and were shouting (at times incoherently - as I believe heatstroke had set in for some) things like "GORUCK" and "Beer" and the likes. Once we crossed the bridge we again knew where we were: our cars were parked closely to our right. We were ordered to turn left. And then we were ordered up. We started buddy carries with six up. Due to our team's struggle there were soon eleven in the air. And then we reached my saving light and hands down the best point in the Challenge. We came upon a series of fountains in a water park at Sawyer Point. Jason told us to take some time and cool off. All rucks came off. All bodies went into the water. I just stood and let the coolness sweep over me and refresh my body and soul. A little bit of water has never felt so good. All too soon we were ordered back up and continued on.
Jason had long ago told us that we all had completed the Challenge. He told us we had all earned our GORUCK Tough patches. But that didn't mean the Challenge was over. At this point in the day he finally revealed to us the Finish Line: his favorite entrance to the Red's ballpark. It was "nearby" to where we were but struggling with so many persons up - it took us time to get there. Of course it was a game day and there were swarms of people all over the streets heading in for the ballgame. I am sure they all thought we were crazy and more than a few snapped pictures of us.
As we approached the entrance Jason handed us our final challenge: the ending point was a statue right at the entrance to the park. We were to make it there as a team and then we would be finished. The caveat: 50% carried. Everyone wears a pack. If we did not succeed on the first try he was going to take us back two city blocks and we would try again. I have never seen a team pull together so quickly as we sprinted to our finish. We were screaming and shouting and grunting as we reached that end together. We made it.
GRC Cincinnati: Class 045 = GORUCK Tough.
Then came our actual final challenge. While we were in fact complete, our cars were parked about a mile or so away. (Suddenly Jason's struggle with the starting point all made sense.) Our group walked back to the Boathouse and recounted our day together. We received our official GORUCK Tough patches and were extended the invitation to any future GORUCK event: we are all now lifetime members of Team GORUCK.
As I go into my car and prepared to drive home I looked at the clock: it was nearly 3:30PM. Approximately 14 hours later and the Cincinnati GORUCK Challenge was complete. The web-site had advertised the event at 15-20 miles and 8-10 hours. We definitely exceeded expectations.
"Under promise. Over deliver."
Thanks to GRC Cincinnati: Class 045. I could not have asked for better teammates. You are all so amazing and inspiring. Thanks to Jason and everyone at GORUCK for designing this awesome Challenge. You know I will be coming back for more Good Livin'.
