GoRuck Challenge Adventure Race

Anticipation and expectation can make all the difference in how a person reacts to a situation. I went into the GORUCK Challenge expecting hell but what I found was trial designed to test your limits, encourage teamwork and make you think outside the box. Though designed and led by members of the Special Forces, there was no yelling or berating by the Cadre but our leader, Dave, never hesitated to let us know when we dropped the ball or how we could have done better.

The whole concept of the GORUCK Challenge was to load up a backpack with bricks and march with your team for 15-20 miles following orders and enduring the challenges of your Cadre. In addition to your rucksack, the team carries “coupons” redeemable for extra good living. Once the challenge begins, your rucks and coupons can never touch the ground. You also finish carrying each other. Though everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, the goal is that a team that starts together finishes together.

GORUCK CHALLENGE TRAINING

GORUCK GEAR

I bought a used Marine ILBE Assault Pack on eBay for $50. I decided if it was good enough for our Marines, it was good enough for me and I would just hope my performance wouldn’t embarrass the pack. It had two compartments and an area to hold a hydration bladder. It also had a waist belt and sternum strap that the GORUCK packs didn’t have. I cut a foam garden kneeling pad to put in the bottom to spread out the weight of the bricks. There was a semi-rigid plastic sheet zipped into the back of the pack to act as a frame and help the pack maintain its form. It also was one more barrier between my back and my masonry cargo. The pack held up like a champ during the challenge, though the shoulder straps could have had a little more padding.

I wore a pair of older running shoes, shorts a compression shirt under a short sleeved dry-fit shirt. It was unusually warm for March in Chicago making this an easier decision. Gloves were recommended and I used a simple pair of Mechanix gloves. Headlamps were required for the night challenge but downtown Chicago is pretty well lit and it wasn’t really necessary.

My six bricks were standard paver bricks that were duct taped in two stacks of three. I then wrapped these in bubble wrap and covered them in another layer of duct tape. They weighed in at right around 40 pounds.

During normal runs, I would usually use Clif Shot gels for nutrition – using them about every 45 minutes. I wasn’t sure what to expect for a challenge like this so I brought 7 Clif Shots Gels, 1 Cliff Shot Bloks, 3 power bars, 2 Cliff bars and a bag of peanut M&Ms. I put the M&Ms in a metal water bottle to make sure they stayed dry. I started out with my hydration bladder filled with Gatorade since it would be a convenient source of calories and electrolytes. The rest of the food went into ziplock bags. It ended up being way more than I actually ate. There aren’t any real stops to eat so you need to have easy access to your food and be intentional about eating whenever you can.

GO TIME

• Look good
• Don’t get lost
• If you get lost, make sure you look good doing it

Our team coupon was a 25lb metal shamrock that one of our talented team had made. Dave also distributed our other coupons: the “love sack” (another GORUCK bag filled with about 50 lbs of sand), a webbing net used for air drops and two flags. Though we could use the net strategically to carry gear, most of the challenge it was bundled up and worn like a 25lb messenger bag. The American Flag and the POW/MIA flag would always stay at the front of our group as we proceeded through the city.

When 1am arrived, the twenty eight challenge participants lined up in two lines of fourteen. Though a very simple formation, it would prove quite difficult to maintain over the next twelve hours. We were given our first destination, a local park and our team had to navigate our way on our own. Fortunately, there were enough Chicago natives to make this leg of the journey pretty straight forward. Our pace began fairly slow as we all realized we were in this for the long haul and wanted to be ready for the challenges ahead.

Once we arrived at the park, the PT began. We were told to split into two groups and line up across from someone about the same size and weight. We ended up back to back doing partner squats for a bit before each half of the group moved to opposite baselines of a baseball diamond. One by one, a member from each group would have to bear crawl, crab walk, and low crawl from base to base. Dave did not tell us what would happen to the team that finished last but our imaginations were enough to motivate us to hustle. Under the pale light of the moon, doing a belly crawl in the dust of the baseball diamond the reality of the challenge set in. At the end, we were met with a stern message about teamwork, thinking outside the box and never leaving someone behind. This was not boot camp, there was no yelling or disparaging but it was clear when we fell short and over the duration of the challenge, we learned not to let Dave down.

The punishment for the losing team was that they had to buddy-carry the winning team to the baseball diamond at the opposite end of the park. We struggled to get moving at the same pace and eventually were given an impossibly short two minute time limit. We definitely struggled to come together as a team during this portion of the challenge and were met with more PT. After using this new baseball diamond for some more Good Livin’ we turned our attention to a tackling sled… with no pads. We had much more success working together moving this apparatus though our numbers certainly worked to our advantage. I’m sure it would have been much harder on a smaller class. Buddy carries up hills, box jumps and more running passed the time before we received our mission.

GORUCK Mission

Dave kept the journey interesting by continuing to challenge our problem solving skills by adding twists to the standard Indian run formation. Figuring out the best strategy for keeping our packs in the same order while we changed positions wasn’t a huge problem but executing was a different story. Dave also decided that anytime we crossed paths with a hybrid vehicle, one person from our group was killed and would have to be buddy carried. We quickly lost two men before we learned the value of sending scouts ahead. After a while of carrying two smaller members of our group, Dave decided they were alive again but our two biggest were dead. The logistics of carrying a couple two hundred pounders was a real test. We were eventually offered a deal to bring our team back to life but it cost us several blocks of lunges. The deal was accepted but no one was sure that was the right call.

Without being able to keep track of time (and not knowing exactly where we were going), it was hard to judge whether or not we were on pace to make our meeting time. All the added challenges and tasks did help the time and miles pass by quickly. Dave gave us a twenty minute warning and we hustled the final stretch to the park and arrived with just six minutes left. We sent out a couple small groups to locate our contact person which was successful but we struggled with some of the finer points of the validation. It was a good learning experience and gave more insight into the reality of covert operations. We traded some inchworm pushups to receive four 50lb sandbags to carry for the rest of the challenge in the deal. Good Living!

MORE GOOD LIVIN’

After the break for water, we started shuffling off to Millennium Park for our obligatory picture next to the bean. Dave was disappointed to find that the wall of water wasn’t up and running yet for the season. We had to settle for running stairs instead of whatever devious ideas intentions he had planned for those fountains. At this point in the day there were more people on the streets which meant more gawkers trying to make sense of our ragged group. Every time a stranger grabbed for their camera or gave us a perplexed stare, I found it strangely motivating, reminding me of what this challenge was all about. In a world that tends to look for the easy way out, we were doing hard things simply because they were hard. We came here to test ourselves and see how far we could push our limits and the rest of the world couldn’t help but notice.

Moving on, we headed toward Soldier Field with a couple new twists. Occasionally, we would lose the use of the shoulder straps on our packs during this portion of the trip which made managing our coupons a little trickier. We also went a period where we had to maintain our Indian run formation without any speaking. After struggling so much to keep in a tight formation earlier in the challenge, it was satisfy to see how well we were able to move without any talking. We really had come a long way. At this point, Hybrid vehicles no longer seemed to be a threat but if we came within 50 feet of someone wearing green, a member of our team would need to be carried. Any time, any place, this would have been a challenge but being downtown Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day was crazy. It didn’t take long for Dave to take pity on us and change the criteria from wearing green to wearing a silly hat.

Once at Soldier Field, we had another challenge involving bear crawling and crab walking that we made a lot harder than it had to be since we weren’t thinking creatively. The sun was now high in the sky and the unseasonable heat began to set in. As we ran to our next destination, the toll of the challenge began to set in. We had team members who were struggling with the heat and some who were dealing with knee and joint pain. We did what we could to help them out but ultimately it was up to their heart and determination to keep pushing on to earn that GORUCK patch at the end.

From Soldier Field we were told to make our way to Navy Pier. This was one of the only points in the challenge where our next destination was so clearly visible and the distance was intimidating. I tried to keep my mind focused on following our instructions and following them well but every time I looked up, that famous Ferris wheel stood mocking us. Once we got close, we diverted to our true destination – the beach.

We all knew at the start that at some point, we would get wet. I checked the temperature of Lake Michigan before we began the challenge and it was in the mid-30s. By the time we arrived, the lake had warmed up into the low 40s but after trekking so long under the sun’s heat, the idea of wading out in to the chilly waters was inviting. Our crew of 28 GORUCK comrades lined up parallel to the shore and crab walked our way down to the shore and into the icy waters. There was a lot of PT waiting for us in that lake but none of us could have anticipated how meaningful this time would be. Each exercise we performed was done in honor of a division of the Special Forces and each repetition represented a soldier Dave knew from the unit that had been lost. Each pushup, burpee, flutter kick and other exercise carried a sobering weight far beyond the bricks in our backpack. We had no idea how many reps we had to do – we simply kept pushing until Dave told us to stop. Our muscles burned while our hands and feet went numb from the frigid grip of the lake but out of respect for those fallen soldiers, none of use dared to slow down.

Eventually, we were called back to dry land, low-crawling our way up the beach before rinsing off and moving on. After over 10 hours on the move with our loaded packs and team coupons, the cold waters were refreshing but waterlogged shoes filled with sand wouldn’t make the miles to come any easier. Even more worrisome, I was officially out of water. The sun was high, the streets were lined with St. Patrick’s Day revelers, and our spirits picked up as we called cadence. I say Go, you say Ruck. Go RUCK, Go RUCK. I say Good, you say Livin’. Good LIVIN’, Good LIVIN!

It was clear we were approaching the starting point but we hadn’t quite earned our patches yet. Several blocks out, we received our orders that 50% of our team had to be buddy carried the rest of the way. With weary legs and coupons to manage, it was a tall order but our well practiced teamwork helped up us make our way slowly but surely. With 12 hour and 20.6 miles behind us, we made our way back to the gym where our challenge began. Though each of us was tried and tested in our own ways, we started together and finished together. Twenty eight men and women had earned the right to be called GORUCK Tough.