Well, I did it. I completed a GORUCK event. After last years Medical DNF from the Halloween Tough, where I got further than I thought I would but still mentally messed me up, I signed up for a GORUCK Light and completed it. Not exactly apples to apples, but it’s a completed event none the less.
I got to the starting point with about 2 minutes to spare. I hadn’ t seen anything about a need to wear a costume, so I went wearing my normal endurance event gear. Sure enough I see 3 or 4 people out of 30 or so people in costume. My first thought was “what did I miss, oh well can’t change it now.” Sure enough. 2 hours prior to the start Cadre DS posted to the events facebook page to be in costume. Note to future Halloween GORUCK participants: Expect there to be a costume requirement. Bring something light and easy to pack. It may save your butt!
The Start of the GORUCK Light
We started off running from imaginary zombies from the Battleship memorial to the beach not too far away. Once at the beach we lined up and did the check in there. Being a minute late meant you missed the event. After check in, Cadre DS said to take off anything we didn’t want to get wet after being told to leave our rucks at the beach. Some people removed shoes and socks. I hesitated to take off my shoes and I’m glad I did. We moved across the beach to the rocks and bear crawled down a dock ramp to a dock where Cadre DS told us to get into the water. We did. It was cold.
Not as cold as the North Plains Warrior Dash pond earlier this month, but close. We then got out of the water and had 120 seconds to get back to the beach. Once we got there we had 15 seconds to get ready to leave. Everyone that took off shoes and socks were not ready to go, so we got punished as a team. We got the opportunity to lift a large log up over our heads 10 or so times and go sit ups with the log. After we were done, it was the first time hack, to (City) Target.
We trekked our way from the waterfront to Target, but missed our time hack to we lost our ruck strap privileges for the remainder of the time to Target. Once there, we pulled security around Cadre DS and he told us that we needed to send two people into the store to aquire bags of candy, or what we were calling brains for Zombies. Zombies were defined as any law enforcement, fire fighter or anyone who appear to be down on their luck and needed a nice pick-me-up.
Out next destination was Providence Park, which we made really good time to get to. Next was the Testing Rose Garden, which we also beat our time hack. Once there it was PT time. Sprinting races, various buddy carries, tunnel of love, bear crawl races and question/story time.
After the Rose Garden, we made our way through the city, making our other time hacks as well. At one point we all missed a few police cars going by (missed a passing horde of zombies) and were punished by doing many overhead ruck presses. This is when we found out that Cadre DS’s favorite number is Zero.
After the final time hack, Cadre DS lead us around second and first street and we ended up at the World Trade Center where we were told that we had reached ENDEX. Cadre DS thanked us and handed out the GORUCK Light completion patch by handshake.
Completing the Pathfinder Forward really helped to get me used to a ruck. I highly recommend PathfinderRuckTraining if you want to get ready for a GORUCK event.
