Since the early days of my GORUCK career, doing a 9/11 event in NYC was on my bucket list. By 2021, I still hadn't made it out to one yet, but this year was the 20th Anniversary, so that was going to be "the one" to go to. It was going to be big. We had 142 people signed up for the Heavy (122 showed up), broken out into 4 platoons, 277 for the Tough (213 showed up), broken out into 8 platoons, and 204 for the Basic (163 showed up), broken out into 4 platoons again. The event was going to be led by a number of Cadres with deep roots in the area, so it was going to be very meaningful to be led by them as we made our way through the city, heard stories, and honored the fallen.
It was going to be a "first HTB" for a number of people, too, so it was good to be able to join them for it and support. The hardest part of an HTB is making it back out for the Tough, so it helps to have Battle Buddies who will keep you accountable and drag you out, if necessary.
Pre-Event Logistics
With that many people in the event, finding a good start point and ways to move all those people around crowded streets in the city was going to be challenging and was going to require coordination. In past NYC 9/11 events, they've split the group off into separate groups with opposite routes before, so they had a playbook for that. The start point situation was more in flux, with initial plans being made around Astoria Park, and the start of the Tough did stay there, but the Heavy ended up starting at New York Vietnam Veterans Park in lower Manhattan, and the start of the Basic was moved to Rockefeller Park.
To those of us used to doing events in other parts of the country where you have to drive a personal car to get around, having three different start points may seem like a logistical nightmare, but it's not so bad at a place like NYC where you have public transit or Uber options. That also gives the Cadres flexibility to do point-to-point routes, so even if you have to travel a bit to get to a start point, routes can be designed so that you always end at the same general location (in our case, lower Manhattan, near the WTC memorial). A big benefit is that you get to see more of the city, instead of being in the same area for 48 hours.
After we had a more or less final list of start and end points, my travel group settled on getting a room at the Holiday Inn Manhattan - Financial District. We had a boy's room with Eric M, Brian B, and Nick P, and a girl's room with Alicia T, Shannon B, and Amy T. Shannon and Amy would be shadowing the Heavy, so we'd miss getting to spend the entire weekend with them, but they were able to help us out with logistics and be fresh for us going into the Tough. Shannon had been debating about whether to include the Heavy. She wanted to, but with Rucking World Championships coming up as a major goal, and a nagging hip issue to not aggravate, she made the smart call. She'd still be able to participate in other unique ways and still feel 100% like part of it. It turns out that the Cadres and GRHQ staff were also staying at the same hotel, so it was kind of funny running into them all weekend in the lobby and elevators.
Shannon and I flew in together. With COVID still a thing, this was my first personal (non-work) travel on an airplane since the pandemic started. It was worth the risk to me, though, and you take the precautions that you can. Upon landing, we got an Uber from LGA to the hotel, and met up with the group to grab dinner at Clinton Hall's outdoor seating, diagonal from the hotel. We ran into Bridget, as well as Brandon N and his wife, which was nice. It was a big city-wide GRT reunion / meet-for-the-first-time-in-person. The hotel room was on the corner and had nice views from two directions. It's so different from what I'm used to. I could spend hours just taking in those views.
(Cauliflower crust pizza with chicken)
The Day Of
The priorities of the morning were sleeping in and having a good brunch. We walked a couple blocks down the street to George's, where the boys were finishing up. I had eggs, and saved the toast for later.
(the group bill)
Afterwards, Shannon, Alicia, and I (Amy wouldn't land until night time) rode the Staten Island Ferry. It was a way to do some sightseeing while we were in town, without being on a feet a whole bunch. Plus, it's free and offers a unique experience with some nice views of the Statue of Liberty. It turned out to be a special day for a ride, because there was a parade of boats to honor the many boats that had helped to evacuate people from lower Manhattan on 9/11. A fire fighting boat was also spraying a bunch of water from many different nozzles, creating a floating fountain.
The Heavy
About an hour before the start, we walked half a mile to the Vietnam Veterans Park. We didn't go super early, because we'd have to stand around a while and deal with restroom needs. We took a "before" picture with our travel group upon arrival.
Many people were already there... so many GRTs from all over the country, and even some flying in from other countries. I like to save my energy, so I mostly chilled on the steps and said hi to a few people who came by. Cullen M had noticed me massaging my left shoulder, which I had messed up doing a mile of OH hold rucking in
July of the prior year. He kindly helped me try to work it out, because he's a certified massage therapist and TA Class 002 finisher. Many people eventually had to use the restroom, and we tried to find places that would let us, but the buildings nearby put a stop to it after a while.
We started to form up, with pre-arranged platoon coordinators calling off the rolls, which had previously been emailed to everyone. We wanted to maximize our time together, and it's tough getting everyone in large groups on the same page, so the communications from Cadre Mocha Mike helped. Sarah Johnson, who I had known virtually through Heavy Drop Training, coordinated our platoon. Of course, even though she wasn't part of the event, Shannon somehow found herself in a lead position, when she helped to coordinate all the platoons for a group picture.
There was a girl GRT there, whose dad was a first responder and survivor when the towers fell. That day impacted her family's life forever. Her dad came to speak at the beginning of the event, making it very real for all of us. Robert Reeg was a firefighter from Engine Company 44, with 19 years of service at the time. He was there when the first tower fell, and he found himself "body surfing" and getting hit by rubble. Despite hits to the head, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, he managed to find and crawl into a running police car for safety. He was taken to a hospital for many surgeries, and made it.
After gear inspections and roll call, we were allowed to arrange ourselves into platoons how we liked, as long as the platoons were evenly sized. This allowed people to be with their friends if they wanted to, which was nice, especially if you've travelled a long way to do the event with specific people, and you didn't want to be separated for 24 or 48 hours. I had pre-arranged a strategy with our travel group, to maximize our chances of being together, and to not get lost in the shuffle or be forced to re-distribute in case the platoons were uneven. It worked well, and we were all together.
Cadre Norwich led Platoon 4. While coupons were being assembled, the different platoons and cadres had started the welcome party. I led our group in some enthusiastic exercises until it was time to rotate Cadres. Cadre Cleve came along, and we did more exercises.
It was time to head out, and the four groups went over the Brooklyn Bridge and went into the DUMBO area.
Shannon was shadowing for this part, before she left to meet up with Amy. It felt kind of surreal being in NYC with a huge group of GRTs that night. The memorial lights of the Twin Towers beamed over the brilliant skyline.
Different platoons had slightly different activities. We got rest breaks where participants had the opportunity to share stories about the fallen. We did step-ups to honor the 343 firefighters who lost their lives. We did bear crawls and other movements back and fourth across the field at a park.
We went back over the bridge, and walked the streets with our coupons. Among them were large drums that were awkward, but not too heavy, until later, when some rocks were added to it. We also had water pillos, ammo cans, "Black Betty" (a 60# slam ball), some 40-60# SBs, and a 120#SB that I shared for a bit. I remember walking through Chinatown. Again, it felt so different doing an event in NYC!
Eventually, we wound up by an aircraft carrier, although during the event, I'm not sure that I even noticed that it was there, haha. It was only in the pictures afterwards that I realized that the USS Intrepid was right there. We did the 9/11 memorial workout in synch with Tough events from all over the country, including Charlotte. The Cadres went onto FB live for it. The organizers had different well-known GRTs from the community lead each round of exercises... Selection finishers, Team Assessment finishers, and the like. That was kind of cool. You get to work out "with" people you know and admire. Poor Bobby, though, since everyone knew he was training for Selection, his turn leading the exercises was made extra challenging with the addition of a sandbag, but with expectations on perfect form still in effect.
(Fortunately, I was picked to lead in one of the earlier rounds, so my form was still half-decent at the time. It was a privilege to get to lead.)
9/11 Workout
9 rounds of
- 11 step-ups with ruck
- 11 thrusters
- 11 ruck rows
- 11 ruck cleans
- 11 ruck pushups
- 11 ruck swings
- 11 ruck V-ups
- 11 deadlifts
- 11 push jerks
At some point in the night, we found ourselves at a park with a big set of stairs leading up to the Riverside Park Fireman's Memorial. In our four platoons, we lined up in four columns up and down the stairs, and had a bucket brigade competition, to honor those who tried to clear the rubble as search and rescue efforts went on in the early days after the attack. We transferred our rucks up and down the stairs a few times, using the conveyor belt technique. You get to learn the wide variety in how heavy or light people pack.
We rucked along the Hudson, motivated by the cadres to go for speed and to dominate the other platoons.
Eventually, it was daybreak, and we earned a break.
And Cadre Cleve came by to give us some motivational words (I kept expecting PT).
Then it was time to continue on.
We found ourselves approaching Freedom Tower. The sun was shining brightly, and with the tower standing tall in the middle of the clear blue sky, I kept picturing people choosing to jump to their deaths, to avoid a fiery end. I got very emotional.
We stopped at a corner of Freedom Tower and were allowed to put down our coupons. The Cadres had timed it so that we'd be there as the bells tolled at 8:46 an 9:03, when the planes hit. Shannon and Amy had linked up with us by then.
I can't imagine what it was like for those with more significant ties to 9/11... people who lived there at the time, who knew and lost people.
One lesson we all learned: It's never a good idea to leave your ruck unattended at an event, period, but especially on 9/11 near Freedom Tower.
Our next stop was Pumphouse Park, where we had a moment of silence that coincided with when the plane hit the Pentagon at 9:37, and another one for when Flight 93 went down at 10:03. I visited the 9/11 Museum on a
previous trip, and listening to the recordings of people on that flight calling loved ones wrecked me. This was an opportunity for more people to share personal stories.
Next, we had a surprise trip on the Staten Island Ferry, which AT, SB, and I had ridden the day before. We must have been some sight, all coming in with coupons and everything, into the terminal and onto the boat. While on the ferry, I noticed that my open and exposed hydration bladder bite valve had been rubbing all over the ferry seat. Gross.
On the other side, we reconsolidated and had a short break.
And then we rucked down to the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial. Most of us, even those who are from the area, didn't even know that this was here! We were given some time to walk around the memorial, which had profiles of citizens of Staten Island who were lost that day.
We walked further into Staten Island. We weren't able to reach the originally intended destination, so we stopped at a series of benches along the road, to complete another 343 step-ups.
We had a very real time hack to finish it, because we then had to rush back to the ferry, to avoid having to wait an extra 30 minutes for the following one. We booked it. Those who weren't able to finish 343 in time could make them up on the ferry with squats. On the ride back, we got to see a parade of helicopters, which was cool.
Back in Manhattan, we stopped again at the Vietnam Veterans Park, to give people a chance to make up the step-ups.
After that, we rucked up along the East River to Corlears Hook Park. They asked for 3 volunteers from each of the four platoons. You typically don't know what you're volunteering for at the time. Our jobs were to read the biographies of the 13 who were killed at the Kabul Airport during the withdraw from Afghanistan, and then lead the group in exercises. That was another emotional time for me.
Then, it was time to head back. We knew it was getting later in the day. We got to get rid of some of the coupon weight in exchange for more speed. We pushed each other on towards Ground Zero.
We got there and were patched. Subtract about 12 miles from the distance, to account for the ferry ride, and we got about 37 miles in.
Between the Heavy and the Tough
The next part is a bit of a blur now, 11 months later... but I think Shannon and Amy helped us carry our rucks back to the hotel that was a few blocks away, we took showers, we looked for food or ate what we already had brought, we might've laid down for a bit, and then we ubered to Astoria Park for the start of the Tough.
The Tough
The park was really dark at night. I don't know who normally uses it at night, but we had to look for GRTs wandering around and gathering. Fortunately, there was a set of real bathrooms near the start, so we stopped there before going to the big field where the event would begin. With 8 platoons and no lights, it was especially challenging to find the right group this time, but clusters had gathered, we asked each other for last names, and Sara J started calling out roll for us again.
We had some intros...
And for our welcome party, we took turns with each of the Cadres: Cleve, Norwich, Jason, Sanchez, Machine, JC, LDB, and Mocha.
Fortunately, Caitlin E from Steel City Ruck Club was more timely about putting together an AAR and has more details about the stations recorded:
Cleve: I do remember running out to the edge of the field and coming back, multiple times.
Norwich: Wouldn't be surprised if he had us do Burton Heartbreakers in honor of his buddy who could easily hoist grown men overhead into choppers
Jason: Introduce yourself and why you're there, and lead the group in an exercise of your choice
Sanchez: Repeat instructions for the rest of the team to hear
Machine: Name your favorite rock band and go crowd surfing across your fellow GRTs (Maybe it was then that I lost my hair tie. Fortunately, Shannon had an extra, although I'd go on to lose that later, too.) It is a different experience doing a "legacy event" with Machine!
JC: Tunnel of love and low crawl
LDB: Jogging in place, arm circles, face/front/back roll
Mocha: closing your eyes, finding Mocha who had reappeared somewhere else, and forming up quickly, messing that up, and having to repeat.
We went to the spot with the real restrooms, where people got to refit. We then went to a soccer field, where we did movements like down one way, and jogged back (maybe lunges, crab walks, bear crawls... that kind of thing).
In our platoons, it was time to set off on our first movement. We somehow lost Brandon N in the mix, but everyone else was able to consolidate in our planned group, which would be led by Cadre Sanchez.
Our first stop was at an underpass, where we collected pre-filled sandbags that a volunteer group had helped to set up, I think. Fortunately, there were some fresh people in our group. Alan and I started off as TL and ATL, which gave us some additional opportunity to recuperate. It is hard motivating people to keep moving and swapping on coupons after a Heavy. Some need more help and attention than others. Some are at a point where you have to stay with them the whole time because they're rucking with their eyes closed while they're carrying an 80# SB.
There was a guy who kept accosting us, but Sanchez stepped in and made him go away. We had a break by a museum. It is harder to find good stealthy restroom spots in the middle of a city.
The 8 platoons were taking very different routes at this time, from what I could gather, because we ended up at Times Square at different times. We were one of the earlier groups to arrive. We took a break, watched an altercation between some dudes, took in all of the lights, did some PT, and shared more stories. For the second time, I noticed my exposed water bladder nozzle, this time being dragged along the grates on the ground of Times Square. Gross. I'll be lucky if I don't get sick after this.
This event was different from others in that we were allowed to take out phones and take pictures throughout (when it made sense). It's cool that GORUCK encouraged that. This is a special event with important meaning for many. There are official photographers there, too, but it's good to be able to capture individual memories, too.
We had to leave in style, though, which meant doing walking lunges as we exited Times Square. I was very fortunate to not have a sandbag on me at the time.
We walked through the streets of New York. There was a surprising amount of trash scattered throughout the streets, like tumbleweed. I don't know what happened, and how normal it is, but it was huge amounts. Are tourists not taking good care of the place they are visiting and just trashing it? Is the city having a hard time finding workers to keep the streets clean? I didn't remember it being this bad on past visits, but maybe it's area- or time-of-night specific.
We switched up TLs, so I was only ATL for the first third. For coupons, I carried the 40#SB, water bladders, and a bit of a shared 120#.
We got to take turns with buddy carries, and it was nice to have a buddy my size who I could comfortably carry and share longer sandbags with. It's nice to run into other badass Asian GRTs, since it's kind of rare. I'm lucky that Bridget lives close by, but there aren't many others, and they're scattered around the country.
We went to Washington Square Park, and got a cool picture there. Then onwards with the buddy carrying!
Our next and final stop was at a fire station. We got there first, and the fire department kindly let us use their restrooms while we waited. We did some exercises and competitions while the other groups platoons continued to arrive.
Dustin S led us in exercises. His crew from JTM Ruck Club was really impressive, and were strong teammates all weekend long. They were always first to volunteer for the heavy sandbags and help others.
We did body surfing, using rucks as chest protection:
Then, the Cadres got competitive with each other, so JC's platoon and Sanchez's platoon each sent 4 representatives for a plank-off. As people from your team dropped, it was an 8 burpee penalty. In spite of JC's attempts to get into her head, Shannon outlasted everyone else and hung on for the win!
Once everyone was there, we finished with expressions of our love for the FDNY. The station was presented with a special flag, and then we were patched.
Between the Tough and the Basic
From Engine 7 Ladder 1, Amy ordered us some big vans to take us to the hotel. The time in between was a blur again. I must've eaten something, showered, maybe laid down for a while. Then, we got Ubers to take us to Rockefeller Park. Since you don't know how quickly an Uber will be able to come, and what kind of traffic you may run into en route (especially on a weekend where there may be street closures), it's good to leave early.
The Basic
There were people lounging around in the shady spots at the park when we got there. Fortunately, there was a public restroom nearby, too. The park wasn't huge, but we got into our 4 platoons. Sarah wasn't there, so I started calling out names to get us in the right sequence for Platoon 2.
Right after formations, they pulled all of the people going for the HTB aside, for a special welcome party. The Cadres gave a speech about how we weren't about to coast in for a finish. They were going to make us earn it, starting from the welcome party, and they were true to their word. We held the downward dog for the tunnel of love for a long time. We held overhead squats for a long time. Much was expected of us.
After that was over, we got into our four platoons (again with our choice on how to organize ourselves) and moved out. As a member of Platoon 4, were with Cadre Norwich again. We had 40-60# SBs and water pillows.
We soon ran into a parade of ambulances, and had to stop at an intersection for a while. Moving through the city during the day, during 9/11 weekend, was going to take a bit more time than usual.
We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge again, but in daylight, this time.
We made our way to Engine 205, where fire hoses and some brutal PT was waiting for us.
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We did countless high plank to low plank transitions. With the weight of your ruck on your back, you get appreciation for Mocha's words as he asks you to imagine being trapped under a pile of rubble. Will you persevere? The ground was rough. Our arms were toast. The ruck was heavy. Hose water was raining down on us. You give it everything you have, though. While some parts of the weekend are a blur, I won't soon forget that feeling.
Our next stop was Engine 4, which had a little museum, which we took turns going in to visit in smaller groups. The exhibit honored those that they lost that day. It also had artifacts, such as the call ticket for the initial response.
At last, we made our way to the Horse Soldier Memorial again, where we received our Basic and HTB patches.
For this picture, my travel buddies who made this event possible each held one of my patches. It was very symbolic.
After
O'Hara's is an NYC GRT staple, and it's conveniently located near the WTC. I first visited after the
D-Day Light in 2019. Many met up there after the HTB this time around, too, for drinks. It was good to celebrate and say goodbye to those we got to spend 48 hours doing hard stuff with, some of whom we didn't get to see as much as we would've liked, but that's the nature of huge events.
SB and I went to pick up some more pizza, afterwards. When in Rome...
The next day, I took a subway to get to a bus to get to LGA. It helps to have good coupon carrying and rucking skills when you travel!
Other Good Recaps to Check Out
Video from GORUCK's Instagram Account -
Caitlin E's AAR -
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