GORUCK celebrated the 10th anniversary of holding events with a series of Toughs around the country. They chose various cities based on their significance in GORUCK history. San Francisco was the site of the first Tough. DC and NYC also hold special significance, although pandemic conditions might've caused one or both of those to be postponed. Austin also held one. These events were capped, perhaps to keep the original small class feel, so I was quick to sign up as soon as I saw the events open up.
Originally, there was only a St. Augustine event, but that one filled up, so they created a second event in the area, in Jax Beach, for the day after. I ended up signing up for that one, as well. It would be my first double Tough. It would be about a month before my first Double Heavy.
On my way down, I first stopped at Academy Sports to try to get some ammo. While waiting in line, I did some masons twists (Russian twists without the weight) for the 10K core challenge. I made it a point to stop at each state along the way during my drive down, so that I could say that I did twists in 4 different states that day (NC, SC, GA, FL).
(NC)
(SC)
(GA)
(FL)
My first stop was Mickler's Landing, where I did my customary shark tooth hunting.
In the evening, they had a Ruckoff, which meant beers and socializing. The location wasn't announced until that day, but it worked out well for me, since it was held at GRHQ (vs an hour away in St. Augustine where the first event would start the next day). My hotel was just a couple blocks from there. Because it was at GRHQ, not as many people were able to easily attend, but that made for a more intimate event. Matt page and a first timer friend were there, as were the Larrys and Christopher Alberts. Jason was there, as was Monster. I also had to take my obligatory Monster selfie. Jason advised me that I eat a bunch more if I wanted to continue doing harder and harder GORUCK events.
There was a really cool team weight for this event. It was a steel plate with many pictures representing different aspects of GORUCK throughout the years, covered in enamel. A GRT made it.
The cadres were Jason and Dan. Dan has been with GORUCK for about as long as GORUCK has been around, and he's played a big role in events throughout the years, like the creation of the Heavy, and with his famous love for history and the D-Day events.
ST. AUGUSTINE 10 YEAR TOUGH REUNION
The start point was Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, which was pretty cool. We couldn't park right there, since it only allowed limited hours even with paid parking, since there's a big tourist area right next to it. We parked a couple blocks away at a garage. Since there were some GRTs already around at the SP, like Troy Diggs, I could drop off my ruck there, park, and walk back slick.
After admin, we began with a welcome party on the grass. Lots of PT, with coupons if you happened to have one of the sandbag. It was all about teaching us to do things in synch, and to work together to swap out coupons to share the load. The hardest was the pushups. Starting in the down position helps a lot. We also did skedco drags in circles, along with some sandbag toss relays. We were there for a decent amount of time. One new guy puked up Waffle House. You can see the spot in the picture, I think.
Jason said that this event would give us a little walking tour of St. Augustine, which I was excited about. It was my first time in the city (at least since I was a baby).
We walked towards the Ponce de Leon fountain of youth, after a quick stop at the visitor center for a restroom break. At the time, some people sitting out in cafes on the sidewalk for outdoor dining weren't happy that we weren't wearing masks.
One unique rule about this event was that we weren't allowed to shoulder any of the coupons (mostly 40#ers, plus the team weight and flag), so we had to bear hug or farmers carry them the whole time. That added to the challenge, even though the weights weren't anything crazy. At the fountain entrance, which was situated on a scenic road where mossy trees made a sort of tunnel, we did some PT where we took turns choosing exercises to do 10 reps of as part of intros, and then we did a quick in and out at the entrance.
We turned around and started moving back towards the start point, but stopping at a mission. At the waterside, we did more intros and exercises. It was there that a photographer naved his way to us, over fences and stuff, and took some footage.
Our next stop was the Castillo again, where we did the Robbie Miller WOD. The first half or so was very deliberate, so that we could keep everyone together. It was taking a while, though, so Cadre had the newbie TL speed things up, and the pace quickened. Not everyone kept up, necessarily, but everyone was working harder.
As we moved on from there towards the bridge, we stopped for a team pic by the Castillo.
We walked along the waterfront and stopped right before the bridge. Another theme of this event was "SEEK PAIN", which would become the theme of 2021 and the new "GORUCK Tribe". We did more PT. When doing events with Jason, hold nothing back when it comes to enthusiasm. No hesitation, unless you want to do a bunch of PT to find whatever motivation you're missing.
We then had to cross the bridge and navigate to a Lighthouse. We got a little relief, plus a unique experience, when the bridge lifted up to let a boat pass.
After dues were paid, we went back on a shorter route. When we got back to the famous bridge with the lion statues, though, the new rule was that we lost strap privileges on our rucks. We now had to farmers carry the sandbag plus the ruck. That was hard. The Cadre had picked up a case of beer at one point, though, so that was a good coupon.
When we made it back to the Castillo, it wasn't all celebrations, though. Jason told us that events should end with a bang, not a whisper, so there was a bunch more hazing, including lots of overhead holds and finding the bottom of a squat. He was going to make you earn it. And if you think you'll just skate in or wait it out, you're wrong, because he'll just extend it and have you keep going.
Finally, though, we earned it, and got to enjoy beers and celebrate. 8 miles in about 7 hours.
POST TOUGH 1
Afterwards, I decided to stick around and see a bit more of the city, especially the downtown area. We hadn't gone through it during the event, since it might be crowded. I walked around the Castillo again, and then along the waterfront to the bridge again.
Then, I went through a grassy plaza where there were a bunch of people, some vendors, and even a wedding at the gazebo. The Christmas decorations were nice. I finished with a walk through a pedestrian street lined with shops, restaurants, and lots of people. So many people during a pandemic.
Day 2 of the pain train. It was nice to have it in a different city, since you already knew that it would be a different event. The first day was city, and now, we were going to do the beach and GRHQ.
At the start of it, Jason re-iterated that he never could've imagined what the Tough would become, 10 years later. He was nearly tearing up, and it made me tear up, too, because GORUCK is such a major part of my life now. It was a special moment. He had said it yesterday, too, but there was so much more emotion in it today.
This second Tough with a welcome party in the annex parking lot. I knew the tips on how to do pushups in synch with the extra sandbags, so I guided the group in that.
Next, we made our way to the beach, where we got a little taste of surf PT.
After we got out, we lined up and had to make forward progress by having the majority of the group do sandbag tosses. About three people at a time were responsible for dragging the skedco around the group doing the tosses, so the tossing group had to stay tight. I think Cadre Dan called it the circle of pain. When strap privileges were taken away, it became even harder to do the tosses.
A couple of times as we went along, I offered to carry an extra 40#SB, on top of the 40#SB that I already had, or drag the 120-180# Skedco. I'm kind of used to guys underestimating me and declining my offers to do stuff, but this time, it was girls (maybe Crossfit girls? and first timers at GORUCK, I think?). They told me that I was too small. I'm not so surprised when guys do it, but I feel like girls, especially girls who do Crossfit, would know what it feels like to be told that you're not able to do something because of XYZ, so this was surprising. I wasn't in the mood to debate it or prove them wrong, though, and it meant that I didn't have to carry that extra weight, so I didn't fight their insistence. It was good that they were eager to do the work and were strong contributors.
We got back in the water at some point. We might've also gotten punished at some point for not showing enough enthusiasm.
At the turnaround point at 15th Ave, we broke up into groups and did an SRT WOD with stations that included bear crawls, shuttle runs, jump over rucks, rest, step-ups, and suitcase carries. We turned around and made our way back, although I don't remember with what method. Overhead carries are popular with Jason, though. At the time, I had a kit bag that was huge, so getting the center of mass over my head wasn't really possible.
Back at HQ, it was another "finish with a bang, not a whisper" scenario. You want to celebrate because you're back at HQ and you know that the end is near, but it only ends when they say it ends. We did another workout with stations, which included pushups & flutter kicks, shuttle runs, sandbag presses, jump over ruck, and bunny hop hurdles over ruck. We got hosed off at the pushup station... it's dual-purpose, I think. You get sand and salt off of you and the gear, which is good for the gear and any places you're going to walk through afterwards, and you get some discomfort. After a couple of rounds, we also started getting our rucks hosed off.
It wasn't over yet, though. We moved our rucks back and fourth in pyramids with time hacks.
You just had to grab a ruck and move. You couldn't worry about finding your own ruck, without missing the time hack. That meant that I got stuck doing ruck PT with a guy's ruck at some point, I'm pretty sure.
We did get a little relief when Jason decided to ask a yoga instructor who happened to be there to lead us in a quick little practice. Jason, Dan, and Dan's kid did it alongside us. It's great how they're evangelizing the benefits of mobility for performance.
It still wasn't over, though. We got put through our paces with lots more overhead holds and overall thrashing. We did a lot in a circle of pain, going round and round. Emily and others showed up to watch, so we knew we were going to get there soon. Eventually, we earned our patches!
Here are pics of the TT finishers, of me and Emily, and of me and my very first HDT buddy, James Carlson. When I finally saw James in the parking lot the morning of the event, it had been like seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time, even though we had never met in person before.
During the St. Aug event, we didn't go into water, so everything was still intact. The mailers' paper outer layers didn't fare so well when we went to the beach on day 2, though! When my ruck was getting rinsed out, there were shreds of paper coming out, and I didn't want to cause issues with the trash, so I tried to pick them up as much as I could.
POST TOUGH 2
The next morning, I did a sunrise beach ruck. 6 miles in 2:47:45. I used the Salomons since they were already wet from yesterday, and the MACV1s were irritating the protrusion outside the pinky toe on my right foot. I stuck with the 20# of bricks in my Rucker v3 20L, since I wanted to let it dry in the wind some more.
The sunrise was awesome. I made discoveries along the way, which is one of the reasons I love the beach ruck.
That morning, a gift card special for $25 off of $100 dropped, so I bought about $1,000 worth of cards, and it's only about a fourth of what I ended up spending this year so far.
I also made my first instagram story.
After the beach ruck, I tried to go to Fort Caroline National Memorial, but it was closed on Mondays, and Google Maps didn't know that. I was disappointed, but at least I didn't drive too far out of the way to try to go. I kept going north and stopped at Fort Frederica National Monument in GA, near Savannah. That one was open.
I walked around slick for a couple of miles around the grounds where the fort and supporting town once stood, and some small trails in the area. There were placards all around, explaining what kind of building used to stand in each spot. There were still some active archaeological sites there, too.
The fort was a British outpost built to defend against the Spanish. It was in a strategic location because the curve in the Mackay River there made it very defensible. It didn't last long term after the war ended, though, which is why nothing is there anymore. Note: Whenever I visit a national park, I feel compelled to read pretty much every sign I come across, even in museums. FOMO, I guess. I can't help it.
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