Quarter-Ruck III: BACKBLAST

33 ruckers gathered for the F3 Quarter Ruck III on 3.27.15 for many reasons. Some are training for the Crossroads GoRuck Light taking place in April, some are training for the Race City GoRuck Challenge taking place in October, and some are fresh off completing their first ever GoRuck event, the F3 Heavy 001 in Charleston a few weeks ago.  33 started and all 33 finished the Quarter Ruck, and in doing so they came together as a team, got stronger mentally and physically, and got to enjoy some 2ndF with ACRT in the cold hours of Saturday morning. Here is the story:

8:00 PM Stumpy Creek Park Parking Lot – 5 ranks

Three of the 4 Cadre (Free Pass, Calypso, and Dallas) met the men and decided that starting this adventure around the family and children might be a bad idea so YHC instructed Nymph to move the team to the soccer field and form back up into 5 ranks.  YHC went through a few housekeeping details, reviewed some rules, and informed the team this is for their benefit and they will get out of tonight what they want. It’s all up to them. Most important thing was all the rules matter all the time.

YHC had team take their weights our of their rucks for inspection by Cadres Dallas and Calypso. Weights were moved to overhead position and then some Sumo Squats were done. Team failed first time hack to reload rucks within time allowed.  Punishment was Merkins single slow count.

After team got gear back together and rucks repacked time for Welcome Party/COP to start. First TL, Blackbeard stepped up to the plate. Cadre Calypso asked TL how long to low crawl to other end of soccer field. TL said 5 minutes. Not long enough. Bad choice from TL. At three minutes the team had moved maybe to half field. YHC gave them ability to negotiate for something else. SSH IC was next punishment followed by killing off half the team so they had to be carried across the field.  Team left Flags at half field which is a no-no. After a few solo attempts to rescue the dead men and flag team learned that the rule 4: always be within arm’s reach of a teammate does in fact matter. Silver-Bullet was first to take the bait and was glad he fell for it.

New TL, Tricycle, was appointed and given the task of moving the team then to Stumpy Creek Loop to gather first coupons and next time hack to reach next AO, the Boat Launch. At bottom of hill Cadre Calypso noticed a tunnel that was perfect for team to move through along with newly found coupons (Atlas balls courtesy of Landshark). Once team made it through the tunnel they formed up into 2 columns and began to move out with all newly found coupons. Approx 1.5 miles to Boat Launch.

During ruck Tricycle was able to appoint an ATL so Ray-Ray was now his ATL and helped Tricycle with organization and coupon switching.  YHC told ATL no one crosses double yellow lines or 5 men will die. A GRH vet crossed the line about 2 minutes later so they lost 5 men for the rest of the ruck up to the top of the hill.

Team continued down towards the Boat Launch, but it became clear they would not make their time hack so more punishment was given. Quadrophilia behind the baseball field followed by belly-back rolls in the wet grass.

9:13 PM – The team finally arrived at the boat launch, 13 minutes past time.  Time hacks matter so they were punished.

At this point Big Mean was elected as new team lead with Nymph as the ATL. Their new mission was to find the downed pilot, fuselage & extraction vehicle.  Then, they had to return all coupons to the extraction point in 1 hour.

The extraction device was found easily as it floated right up to them and then the pilot was located.

Crack thought he had the fuselage when he brought back two small sticks.  Since he brought extra coupons, he was allowed to keep them.  The team still needed to find the fuselage.  The team found it and used about 28 people to get it out.  On the way back, the TL was asked for his count, the answer was given as 32.  The TL was given another opportunity to confirm.  He confirmed 32.

When the team returned to the boat launch, they were asked again and now the answer was 33.  Nobody saw Snoopy join the team.

The team was punished for their lack of attention to head count by some weird bear crawl thing that didn’t work.  We got tired of it and moved everybody to the dock.

They were given an opportunity to avoid the water if they knew the mission of F3 and the 5 rules of F3.  Team was successful and they were awarded with 3 minutes of break and then moved out to the extraction point.

10:20 PM. Boom! It’s on! Friday starts to question them and set the tone.

New TL was appointed. On the field we started with duck walks but for some reason even though Cadre Springfield demonstrated, the PAX, except about 3, insisted on doing some weird movement we could maybe call squat walks? After 1 1/2 times across the field we moved to Jack Webbs instead. We pealed off 16 to help with fuselage. Reaming PAX did coupons carries across field.

Team formed back up and gave mission to rescue two downed pilots, moved out toward cadre’s truck. Wow what a cluster but as we reached the truck they were starting to think and get it. New TL, new mission to move equipment and pilots to boat ramp. Much better team work here. New mission given at boat ramp. Cadre Friday threw a few floats out into the water and wanted a 4 man team to use the boat to retrieve them. After numerous failed attempts that mission was aborted. Time hack failed so team minus the 8-10 involved in mission embarked on plan B.

Move by low crawl in inverted V formation to take the top of grassy hill. Chief did a great job as TL of this and team moved very well. As a reward they were allowed to Bear Crawl back down hill when comments were heard by Cadre Springfield of “this grass is cold”. Oh really the grass is cold? No problem, stand up and walk down here. Team is instructed to enter body of water for some “warm up”. Team told if all faces stay under water for a 10 sec count that will be the only “down”. To Springfield’s pleasant surprise they apparently pull this off on the 1st try. We then went for 20 flutter kicks in cadence for good measure. Exit water and they are given 3 minutes to get gear right and form two ranks. Springfield took this time to brief the PAX on the right way to create a formation and encourage them on their improvements. Team then turned their formation and marched up to meet the rest of the team.

Rest of team met up for some tunnel of love in the grass to end Quarter Ruck III. Lots of tired, wet, cold, and dirty men went 4 hours through a training event that will prepare them for their upcoming events.

Moleskin:

1. YHC probably forgot some stuff so please chime in via the comments.
2. Thanks to all PAX, the families that support the crazy stuff we do, the Cadres, and even the shadows for taking time out of their lives to participate in the 3rd Quarter Ruck. The Quarter Ruck has become an awesome training event for F3 men to prepare for their upcoming GoRuck events.
3. TClaps to Race City and Nymph for organizing the 2ndF at his office that featured burgers, ACRT, and a ghetto trash can fire. Nothing but the best from Race City.
4. If you’re curious about GoRuck and think you might wanna do one but are not sure. Just sign up and HC now. Figure the rest out later. Signing up is the hardest part.