December 11th, 2017 By Heatstroke

I figured that since one of the more valuable ways I was able to research what to expect at my first GoRuck event(s) was to read AARs (after action reports) from those that have done them, it is only fair that I provide one of my own.  I completed my first, and second, GoRuck events in Savannah, GA this weekend, the Tough and the Light.  It was certainly memorable.

Preparation:

I have been rucking off and on for most for a good bit of 2017 as much for general exercise as anything.  I also regularly attend F3 workouts (bootcamps, kettlebells, runs, etc.) – about 3-5 times per week.  A little over a month before the event, I started the Pathfinder endure program and hit it pretty hard to the point that I was mostly done with it in the first month (its a 3 month program.) I also did a bit of weight lifting, but not a lot.  I did not work out with coupons/sandbags much, which fortunately did not hurt me much at all during the event.  I actually started the training more for an F3 customer Tough in March 2018.  I originally signed up for only the Light in Savannah as a way to get my feet wet before the Tough in March.  After my Jerry Maguire invitation of “who’s coming with me?” down to Savannah, where I had reasonably close by lodging, for the Light got crickets, I just said well why not make it a big ole weekend and do the Tough as well.  Big thanks to my wife for being cool with me running off for a weekend by myself to be a weirdo.  If I had known the weather forecast for the Tough before I signed up, I probably would have just stuck to the Light, but that’s life right?

GoRuck Tough – 12/8/17 9pm – 15-20 miles, 10-12 hours

Our team (those that signed up for this event) coordinated our 25# team weight (which turned out to be an awesome large, green, metal shamrock) and what our service project would be (pet food donation to Savannah Meals on Wheels) on the event FB page. The forecast for the evening was not kind.  A cold front had just come in (low 40s temps) which also brought rain.  It had been raining for about 24 hours already and it was still coming down fairly steady when we all arrived early to the Forsyth Park parking lot.  We got ourselves organized and as we headed to the start point the bottom fell out and it absolutely started pouring down rain.  The start point was not covered, so when Cadre Fagan retrieved the 11 of us to go to a covered pavilion, we were completely drenched.  The admin phase was conducted to make sure everyone had what was needed, no issues.  Ready to begin.

 I’m the guy in the bright yellow raincoat.

The rucks were left behind and we all headed out to the enormous field at Forsyth Park, where we ran the length of the field and back and stretched.  After that, it was time for PT (commonly known as the welcome party.) Cadre Fagan sang us a fun song of “on your belly, on your back, on your feet, clap, clap” to the tune of “if your happy and you know it, clap your hands” and you can guess what we were doing on the waterlogged field as the song was recited.  Various other exercises like push ups, army crawls, superman burpees, bear crawls, etc. were done for a while as the rain continued to pour down.  We finished up (the PT was helpful in warming me up on the cold rainy evening, so not too bad) and headed to the Cadre’s truck to gather the coupons that would accompany us on our journey through Savannah this evening.

There was a litter (military stretcher), ammo cans, jerry cans, our team weight, our pet food to donate, weight plates, eggs (not to be broken,) mystery package (12 pk of beer,) a US Flag, a GA flag, and maybe another item or two.  A team leader was chosen and the TL had the freedom to choose a number from 1 to 4, and whatever number he chose would be the location we headed to.  The TL would be provided with a laminated map of where to go and the team would decide the best way to transport our coupons to that location as quickly as possible, as we had a time hack to meet.  The coupons were not crazy heavy, but there were a lot of them, and no one was empty handed.  The litter was also pretty heavily loaded down with coupons and we would have to stop fairly frequently to rotate teammates in and out, or just get a quick rest.  We reached the first objective point within our time hack and took a break.  It was still continuing to rain heavily, it was cold, and we were at the Savannah River now and quite windy.  One teammate approached the Cadre and decided to withdraw from the event.  After a few minutes, another teammate decided to do the same and withdraw.  The conditions were pretty awful, but I admit I was surprised by the early exits.  Cadre Fagan gave us the choice to return to the start point (his truck) to return some of the coupons or continue on.  We decided to return to the start point as we were pretty loaded down with coupons already.  We arrived back and a third teammate said he was freezing cold and was not getting warmed up even when we were moving, and decided to withdraw as well.  I felt quite fortunate as I was not experiencing any issues with being cold and had pretty much accepted I would be soaked all night, so I was good.

We drew another number and continued on with the remaining eight.  We made our way through various parts of Savannah and eventually ran into a random shopping cart.  We are allowed to use things we find to aid our trip, but they must go with us for the whole trip if we choose to use them.  I had heard horror stories about shopping carts being used but that the wheels fell off and had to be brought along anyway.  I was wary, but we chose to use the cart.  It turned out to be a great call, as we dumped all of the coupons in the cart, including strapping down the litter, and took off.  It was a great break as we only had to carry the flags and the eggs while someone pushed the shopping cart.  It held up until the Cadre told us to leave it behind for our last leg.

Right before we had to give up the shopping cart, our US flag hit the ground.  A huge no-no.  A penalty was coming.  We had a shovel flag that was in two pieces, but not secured together (won’t make that mistake again, as it was the flag I provided, will at least put duct tape on it or something.)  On the way, the flag got caught up in a tree and was lifted out of its base and fell to the ground.  We reached our objective point in a small park and were told our penalty would be 200 burpees for our team of eight.  We were then given the option of transporting one egg per person across the park via bear crawl without putting the egg in our pocket or ruck, we chose this option.  Most of us, including myself, chose to transport the egg via our mouth, and we slowly all made it across the park and put the eggs back in their cartons.

We slowly made our way back to the endex point as the sun started to emerge.  No more shopping cart, so it was tough sledding with our litter having to be put down frequently.  We arrived at about 7:15am at endex.  10 plus hours and 17 miles.  We were patched and drank the beer we had brought along (upside of cold weather, the beer doesn’t get too warm).

 The Tough group – Endex

 Getting my Tough patch

Thoughts on the Tough:

The conditions were about as awful as they could possibly be for Savannah in early December.  Our team was frequently group hugging, or asking to keep moving, so as to keep as warm as possible.  That said, completing the event in spite of the conditions, made it all the more rewarding.  I wore a wool base layer shirt, long sleeve under armour cold gear shirt over that, and a yellow LL Bean raincoat.  I had done quite a bit of reading on what to wear in rainy cold weather, and came up with wildly different opinions.  The combination of clothing I went with worked great in keeping me warm.  So when I finished the event, I made sure to wash and dry all of my clothing to put back on for the Light later in the day.  We largely carried the litter at waist height (not on our shoulders) and it smoked the hands and forearms.  We had carabiners and climbing straps that were used extensively to help carry coupons, definitely bring these.  My feet held up perfectly with a pre-event covering of Trail Toes, Injinji liner socks, Darn Tough wool socks and $20 Fila trail shoes from Costco.  Not even a hint of a blister or hot spot, which is impressive as my feet were soaked for the entire event.  I wore some pants I had picked up that were dubbed as travel pants, but I could tell they would shed water as they sound like trash bags when I walk in them.  They held up great and dried quickly.  Cadre Fagan did a great job managing the event, he admitted that due to the poor conditions he made adjustments.

Time between the end of the Tough and the beginning of the Light: 

I grabbed a bagel, a scone and coffee at the coffee shop right near the parking lot where my vehicle and then took off.  My lodging was an hour from the event (not ideal) so I got back, washed my clothes, took a shower, put the clothes in the dryer, then tried to take a 1.5 hour nap.  I couldn’t fall asleep, but I am sure the rest helped.  I probably didn’t sleep because I was subconsciously worried if I fell asleep, I wouldn’t wake up for the Light.  So I changed back into same clothes, socks and shoes worn for the Tough and drove back to the same parking lot where spots were fortunately still available.

GoRuck Light 12/9/17 2pm 8-10 miles, 4-6 hours

Our team used the same Shamrock team weight we used for the Tough and all brought toys for an 11-15 year old to donate to Toys for Tots as our service project.  We met at the Civil War Memorial once again where the rain was no longer an issue or in the forecast and the sun was starting make an appearance.  It was still in the mid 40s, but still much better than the night before.  The area had really dried out quite a bit.  The Light basically went just like the Tough except half as long and without the terrible weather.  It didn’t hurt my feelings that I was able to drop down from 30# in my ruck down to 20#. Cadre Fagan checked to see that everyone had everything that was required and we headed back out to the field (without our ruck) for similar PT to the Tough, which got us wet as the ground was still soggy.  We then got the coupons out, which were the same as the Tough, but just a few more as there were more people present for the Light.  Myself and two others were holdovers from the Tough and we recommended not loading down the litter too bad so that we didn’t have to put it down so often and could keep moving.  This worked well as we hardly ever put it down, but it did mean that once again that no one was empty handed.  I mostly carried a full jerry can of water the entire time and it pretty much sucked, as even with a strap, it never was comfortable to carry…but I guess that’s the point:)  Even after refilling water with the can, it still didn’t get a lot easier.  We were once again given the ability to choose between numbers 1-4 to determine our location and we took off hitting two separate locations and then returning to Endex.  Nearly 8 miles over 5 hours was the final tally.

 The Light group – Endex

More thoughts…gear, etc:

Well, after all was said and done, I didn’t feel all that bad physically.  I was able to take a short nap before the Tough, so that probably helped as I did not really fall asleep between events.  I was certainly tired and sore, but I was not a complete wreck or anything.  My feet were definitely sore and I had some pain in my upper left calf and behind my left knee.  Nothing bad, but it was there.  I write this a couple of days later and I basically just have general soreness, particularly in my legs, shoulders and traps.  I should be good to go in a couple of days.  I mentioned what I wore (except for the fact that I wore a beanie for the tough and a regular hat for the Light) but not the rest of my gear.   I brought a 20L Rucker, 3L Source bladder, weight plates, nalgene bottle, 8L dry bag, extra gloves (changed in middle of tough, very wet,) extra socks (didn’t use,) band aids, moleskin, snacks (clif bars, beef jerky, gels, snickers bar, etc. I brought a good bit of snack food,) cheap headlamp, and Nuun electrolyte tablets with caffeine.  I feel I packed well for the event in that I used most everything.  I ate something every time there was a break.  I thought the Nalgene bottle would be empty and just taking up room in my bag, but I did use it for the electrolyte tabs quite a bit and just generally tried to keep it full by refilling out of the jerry can with water to lighten the load.  I probably ended up getting quite a bit of caffeine into my system through the electrolyte tabs and gels I had.  I found through some of my longer rucks that I like to eat and my stomach pretty much can handle anything from energy bars, gels, candy, doughnuts, beer, etc.

I found it interesting that throughout it all, I basically was unconcerned with the weight of the ruck.  I was just focused on the coupons, and I think our whole team felt the same way.  We were hooking carabiners with ammo cans attached to them to our rucks and were fine with our ruck being 60# or so.  It was just easier than carrying them, so that is what we did.  Both teams were great and worked well together.  There was no complaining from anyone at either event.  We would get spread out on occasion, but we always tightened up and really were not assessed any penalties for not working well as a team.  I also was fairly “up” mentally for both of the events.  I never went to a “dark place” like people have talked about…maybe another time for me perhaps.  It was a grind to be sure, but I knew it would be going in and that helped mentally.

Well, that was quite an adventure for yours truly.  Almost 25 miles and 15 plus hours of good livin’ in a 22 hour period.  I have never put forth that much physical activity over such a long period of time.  This 42 year old still has got something left in the tank:)  Hey, I’m an official GRT now.  Many thanks to the GRTs that were out with me for these events, all were a pleasure to team up with.  Also, a big thanks to Cadre Fagan, who did a great job with both events.  The idea for both events was pretty simple, pick your location/route and figure out as a team how to move all the stuff there quickly and you would be successful.  From what I understand, this scenario is typical for most GoRuck events.

I hope this lengthy recap (credit to whoever reads all of this) can be helpful to anyone that comes across it.  I especially put this together for some of my F3 brothers who are signed up with me for the custom Tough here in the Charlotte, NC area in March 2018.  I know there are quite a few who have never done an event before (like me, before this weekend) and wanted to at least share my thoughts.  If you get in some training with your ruck and bring a great attitude of embracing the suck as a team, getting through a Tough and/or a Light should not be a problem.

Rob Sinclair – F3 Heatstroke

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