For 2020, the GRT reunion became a beta test for a new event format called the "Tough Star", which was supposed to be like a Tough mixed with a Star Course. We'd do WODs, and then ruck somewhere, and repeat, but with a self-formed team, as opposed to as a big group. It was actually a concept that DS had thought about pre-pandemic, but it's actually a decent format for pandemic times, since you are in pods of your choosing instead of a big group, and formations aren't a big deal, so you can separate as needed. I was interested in testing this out. They asked that we each bring our own sandbags, too, and recommended a 40#. I also wondered if this was related to COVID safety, or if it was going to be like this anyway for logistical purposes of having enough sandbags to go around.
For the team, I had my reunions buddy Bridget, plus my TA partner Anna, who was going with Jeffrey. I was looking forward to getting together with Anna for another event, since Bragg was the only other event that we had done together, and I didn't interact with her much there, since it was such a large class, and she was in a different squad. I had put together a list of questions that I planned to ask her, to help us get to know each other better going in to TA. The weight requirement for the squat cleans in the PT test had recently gotten updated two weeks earlier on July 31st, and for the first time, I actually felt like I was going to be able to go to TA for sure. Before that, things were looking grim. I had made it to a couple reps at 75#, but I felt like it was going to take a miracle for me to get to a point where I could meet the standards. I'm not really the type to show up if I know that I'm not going to be able to make it past the first 5 minutes of the event, since this was a must-pass thing. I had told Anna that it was OK for her to start looking for a different partner, based on how things had been looking. She stuck with me, though, which amazed me, and now, we actually had a shot!
SHARK TEETH HUNTING AT MICKLER'S LANDING
I arrived at Jax Beach early in the morning, and went straight for Mickler's Landing at 7am. I appreciate that they have a restroom there. It was August 14th, so I wore a light hooded jacket and a visor for sun protection while I searched for shark teeth with my body facing away from the sun. I found my first tooth after about an hour of searching.
I found my second tooth about 20 minutes after that. I found 5 more in the hour after that. I remembered to bring some kind of container this year, to hold and keep the teeth without the risk of me losing any or breaking them.
It's physically demanding to hunch over and search for teeth, and it was hot, so I called it at 10am and went back to my car to catch some sleep. I needed the sleep anyways, after the drive down, and to bank some before the overnight event. Sleep is a good way to get past the hottest parts of the day, too. I had a shady spot under a tree, which helped a little, but even with windows down, it's still very very warm.
After my nap, I decided to go back out at 2:30pm, to take advantage of being there. By 3pm, dark clouds had rolled in. It was wild, because the right half of the beach was dark, and you could see rain and lightning in the distance, although it wasn't raining on the beach yet. On the left half of the beach, it was still sunny! You could feel that a giant storm was coming.
I had brought my umbrella for sun protection, but it ended up being good for rain protection if I had needed it!
During this time, my teammates were driving into town. They got caught up in the crazy rain.
LEADER'S RUCK
At 7pm, there was a Leaders' Ruck. I became a Ruck Club Leader for CLT in January, so this was the first time that I had the opportunity to be a part of this. Emily was hosting us for a sunrise ruck where we'd get to know each other a little bit and enjoy some beverages. We introduced ourselves at the beginning, and Emily pointed out that I was training for TA, which I might've mentioned to her as I was dropping off my rucks at SCARS for side handles and one set of grommets. I do remember telling her how glad I was about the 60# Squat Clean announcement. I don't remember if she had already been aware that I was going to TA before then.
We rucked to a pizza place where we ordered beers and such to go. Jax allowed to go sales of alcoholic beverages, if food was also ordered, so we ordered bruschetta along with it. We walked to the beach and then along the beach, before turning back. Nothing formal, but it was a good time together. You don't get many opportunities like that these days with COVID, but we were outside the whole time.
We got to enjoy the sunset, which came with a rainbow!
There wasn't a leader patch this year, but Emily gave us GRHQ club patches, which was cool.
TOUGH STAR
I met up with my team for the Tough Star. The class was much smaller this year than last year, due to COVID. There were about 33 of us, as opposed to 173. We started off with roll call, which involved doing 10 slick squats for any no-shows. We had been told to bring phones and a power bank, since this was supposed to be Star-like, I was able to take some pictures during the event.
The event would consist of a series of short rucks, followed by Hero WODs. We were able to chose whether or not we brought our sandbags with us during the rucks. I ended up bring it about half of the time. We didn't venture too far on the routes, maybe to keep everyone closer to HQ during COVID times. We went within our pods, too, so it wasn't a giant class movement, although we were all in the same routes and similar enough paces that no group was ever significantly separated. We were encouraged to take slightly different routes in vs out, and on one trip vs the next, since Special Ops people do that for safety reasons. The main requirement was that we needed to go around Gonzales Park. One team ended up bringing unfilled sandbags, since they thought that we were going to go to the beach right away and fill up there, so they ended up having a very easy time with their coupons.
The first Hero WOD we did was Holleyman. Originally, the whiteboard in the parking lot in front of the Annex said 5 Rounds of 5 thursters, 5 pushups, 5 cleans. Then, Rich came out and added a zero behind it, so that it was 50 Rounds! I suspect they had that planned, haha. That was a lot of rounds. I counted using the decorative rocks that lined the side of the building by HQ. Jason joined in to do the work, as he blasted music. It's always cool seeing the Cadres practice what they preach, and it's motivating, although I tried my best to avoid eye contact and just focused on the work, haha. I was maybe the last to finish, but I wanted to do the workout in its entirety. Some people finished much faster, but you have to kind of expect that, if you ask everyone in the class to bring the same weight of sandbag, and some people are bigger and stronger than others. I wonder if they took my slowness as a lesson learned, to make the workouts more time-based instead of round count-based, so that the sandbag weight differentials didn't cause some people to be finished way sooner than others. That is the point of beta events, to figure out what parts work and what needs to be adjusted based on reality.
We went on another ruck, and the second Hero WOD was "JT", which consisted of 15 rounds of 10 Ground-to-Overhead, 10 Freedom Twists, 10 Pushups, and 50m SB Farmers Carry. I learned that some people do twists while holding the ruck against their chest, sideways, which makes the exercise a million times easier, although it probably means that it does less to provide strength gains. The Farmers Carry was tough. Part way through the workout, based on where everyone was and how long it was taking, Jason turned the Farmers Carry section into a run, instead. We were still behind schedule after a while, so he capped the workout. His goal was to get us out to the beach for sunrise, and the sun wasn't going to wait for us.
We went to the beach, and we expected to go through surf PT. Instead, Jason told us to take off our shoes (out of kindness). He then told us to just go into the water and enjoy for a while. It was kind of hard to believe. But we had been getting smoked with PT for a while, and it was nice to change it up. The sunrise was beautiful. It was lovely not having to exercise for a while. All of us GRTs were happy to be with each other, and not to be doing PT at the moment.
I took my phone with me to take pictures, since the phone is a little bit easier to replace for me, than for others, and I guess I felt confident about my ability to be careful enough with it. Emily asked me afterwards if the phone survived, haha.
After the swim, which lasted for a while (I didn't feel like it was rushed), we did do another Hero WOD, but it didn't involve surf PT. It included 3 rounds of thrusters, lunges with ruck held in front, and squats with ruck front... 15 reps each, maybe? Each of the workouts had overhead work, which I remember distinctly, because my left shoulder still had to be careful with overhead work. I wasn't able to do much holding my ruck in front by that time, so I just wore my ruck in front.
On our way back to HQ, we stopped for a picture.
Although we came in teams, it didn't end up being a competition between teams, the way Star Course is. It ended up being more of a way to be comfortable being closer around people of your choosing, during COVID times. When it came to doing the work, we were near the people in our teams, but everyone was kind of going at their own pace with all of the workouts, anyways.
Back at HQ in the back parking lot, we had one more Hero WOD to complete: Holbrook, which was 5 rounds of 10 SB Thrusters (again!), 10 SB rows, 10 burpees, and 10 farmers carry movements to a nearby fence and back. We were near the finish line, and afterwards, we were promised food!
Afterwards, we chilled for a bit, while HQ started up the grill. Jason made a speech and patched everyone. Emily got a kiss to go with her patch, haha. It was really sweet.
I got people to sign my Snow White rucker. I also used the time to ask Anna the TA partner questions that I had brainstormed. It was the first time we really got to talk in-depth, since we had mostly been texting each other up until then. Cadre Mocha Mike's curiosity was sparked, since he was going to be at TA, and made comments intended to jokingly psych us out, I think. He had been part of the Tough Star as a participant, and it was my first time being at any kind of event with him, to my memory, although who knows if he was there last year in the giant reunion. Cadre Fagan was there as well, and was slated to be at TA as well, although he ended up not being able to go in the end. I left feeling optimistic about it, though. I was more motivated than ever to meet up with Anna to train together more. Now that the PT test was doable, things could go to a new level. We could also start taking advantage of the fact that we lived within hours of each other.
I close with a cool video that Bianca made during the event, with her GOPRO... haha... I just noticed that GOPRO is similar to GORUCK. I typed GOPRO and it looked like some characters were missing, but it was just because it wasn't GORUCK.
