RACE REPORT: South End Shuffle 5K & GORUCK 9/11 Light Charlotte

TRAINING LEAD-UP

After the overnight 20 mile ruck and before the 5K, I only did one workout.

Tuesday, Sep 4:
"Six is Sexy" ruck workout.

6 rounds of

• 6 burpees
• 6 pushups
• 6 squats
• 6 lunges
• 6 thrusters
• 6 overhead squats

6 rounds of

• 6 situps (ruck on chest)
• 6 4-ct flutter kicks (ruck overhead)
• 6 leg lifts (ruck overhead)
• 6 crunches (ruck overhead)
• 6 6"then knees to chest (ruck overhead)
• 60s hold at 6"

6 rounds of

• 6 ruck curls
• 6 ruck ground to overhead
• 6 overhead tricep extensions
• 6 overhead ruck presses
• 6 ruck swings
• 6 upright rows

Then a 6 mile ruck.

The workout took me 43 min, and th eruck took me 114 min (18:59 pace).  It was a well-designed workout, with each group of exercises focusing on a different area.  The difficulty level was perfect, too, since my form would start to deteriorate during the last round of each group.  

During the ruck, I stayed on asphalt and off sidewalks, having learned how hard the sidewalks can be on your legs during the 20 miler.

SOUTH END SHUFFLE

I don't do many 5Ks these days, but when I do, it's usually sponsored by breweries!

I don't think I realized that I had double-booked this 5K with the GORUCK 9/11 Light, but fortunately, the Light started at 2pm, and it was more important for me to be fresh for the 5K, so it worked out.

The start was at 9:30am, at Wooden Robot brewery.  They had street parking, and choices between unisex and tank shirts, which was nice.  It was a little bit of the walk to the car to put away my packet, but not bad.  They also had sunscreen, sponsored by a family who was honoring their daughter who had passed away from melanoma.  I waited out the time before the race.  When I tried to do my warmup 15 min before the race, my legs felt heavy.  However, after I finished the warmup, they started to loosen up a bit.

At the start, a bunch of people streamed forward, and I couldn't even tell how many females were in front of me.  It's normally not too hard to count, but either I wasn't paying as much attention, or the crowds were dense.  

The course went through South End, which I have some familiarity with from the South End Pub Runs sponsored by the Ultra Running Company, and from previous races in the area.  I caught some of the racers, up through about mile 1.5.  I was maintaining pace, while they seemed to be fading.  After that, I didn't really see any more women ahead, so I figured whatever place I had was pretty secure, since I wouldn't fade.  

It did get really hot in the second half of the course.  I don't remember the last time I did a road race in heat like that.  The Fayetteville Spartan open on Sunday was super hot, but that wasn't a road race.  

Near the end, a spectator told me that I was in third.   A nice surprise!  2nd was nowhere to be seen.  Made the final kick into the finish line.

After the race, we got "Overachiever Pale Ale" from the brewery, plus bananas.  The prize was a gift card to a clothing store, plus a nice beer glass.  Score!  The finishers' medals were also cool - a bottle opener, with a neat design on it.

GORUCK 9/11 LIGHT

9/11 is a special event in the GORUCK community.  9/11 is a big deal in general, but it set off a series of events that led to the company's founding.  NYC is the best place to do a 9/11 event, of course, but you can't pass up an opportunity to do it in your town if it comes by.

After the race, I drove to a parking garage by the start point, and met up with some friends.  A few of them had done the Tough the night before, and a number of us were joining them for the Light.  The crew from the 20 miler was there, which made for a nice reunion.

We had 80+ people!  I think that's the biggest event I've been a part of.  The closest I've come to that is maybe the 60+ person Tough that I did, my first Tough in 2016.  The normal number is like 30, and some smaller events are half or even a third of that.  I suppose the turnout was in support of the memory of 9/11.  

Admin took a little while longer because of the big group, as did a parking situation that was slightly more challenging than normal.  Some people turned up late, but it's usually less of a big deal in Lights.  Once it was time to start moving, though, the Cadre imposed mass casualties.  A portion of our class no longer got to move themselves, so we had to carry them and their rucks.  It mimics the chaos that occurred that day, on a small scale.  

It was a big group, with lots of moving groups teaming up to 3-man-carry the casualties, so it was slow going.  People helped each other as they could and traded off, though.  Even before the end of our first movement, there was a poor guy whose non-GORUCK bag had already broken one of its shoulder straps.  At that moment, you really appreciate GORUCK quality.  Must've been a tough rest of the event for him.  Eventually, we got to a park with a baseball field, our first stop.

There, we did a 9/11 memorial WOD, with 9 types of exercises with a certain number of reps, and then 11 sets of box jumps to the top of the amphitheater.  We had a time hack, too.  It was challenging, but we made it through.  After we finished, we gathered around to hear the first of the memorials to those who lost their lives as a result of 9/11, either that day, or in the war to come.

Then, we did some more PT to honor the Port Authority police where were KIA.  It was a pretty hot day, despite the cloud cover that started to form to give us shade.

After that, it was time to set off for our next evolution.  We had to link up all of our rucks to form a giant log-like thing.  It was my first time doing this in an event (with rucks, at least... we have had to link sandbags before), but I had seen some video of this being done the previous night during the Tough, so it wasn't a complete surprise.  I was glad that I chose to grab a carabiner and attach it to my ruck, before the event.  Hip belts worked well and gave some extra wiggle room, but carabiners were useful to those who didn't have hip belts to use.

With 10lb plus water, it wasn't that bad... maybe a little awkward to keep on your shoulder, but that's it.  I saw my Pathfinder Course Advisor go through with a sand-filled beer keg on her back, though, running like it was nothing.  I would partner carry that thing a little bit later on, though, and I don't know how she did it.

Because of the heat, people called out for medics numerous times during the event.  It was nothing serious, I think... maybe cramping... but it shows you how hot it was.

Our next stopping point was in front of a parking garage. We got to unlink our rucks, but we had casualties again, along with a time hack for getting to the top of the parking garage.  It was chaotic as different groups formed to do the 3-man carry and make the push up with spiraling ramps up the garage.  When most of us got to the top, Cadre asked us where our TL was.  The TL and like 7 others were still down below, and we had left them behind, so we had to do some PT.  

Next, we did suicides (called "tributes") along parking lanes, followed by a bear crawl back.  Then, we heard about some more of the fallen.

We had a time hack to get back down, and then we started out next movement.  We got in two columns, and we'd pass back a full jerry can plus either the team weight or the keg, then take turns Indian running it back to the front.  I was in the back, and the Indian run part never got to me.

During the event, we always had to stay within arms' reach (within 4 seconds) of each other.  "Reach" is a phrase we'd often hear and have to react to.

We went onto the Greenway, and made our way to a nice grassy park where we had to do buddy carry bear crawls.  Some people got some severe grass burns right below their necks, from being dragged like that.  Fortunately, my shirt took it instead of my skin, but I could feel the heat from the friction.

After that, we walked to a fountain, where we did some Monkey Humpers, followed by another little workout where we did 2 laps to a smaller fountain, followed by 20 sets of Burpees, Pushups, and Squats, followed by 2 more laps to the fountain.

We made our way to another park.  This one was more rocky, and the grass was really sharp and rough for some reason.  We did the Tunnel of Love.  I had time to either put on gloves or put on my arm sleeves, and I went for the arm sleeves, for the crawling.  Just having to put my hands on the rocky sharp grass was not pleasant at all.  I can't imagine crawling through that stuff without protection.  Somehow, I avoided having to crawl, too.  I did have to hold the tunnel for a while, but that's much better than crawling through the rough ground.  People helped to hold up the tunnel, too, once they finished crawling.  I didn't know it, but people were being patched as they finished the tunnel.  At the end, the final part of the tunnel just got to stand up and get patched.

This event was very well planned and executed.  The Cadre were well-prepared, and had thought through what they wanted us to learn and do.  I feel like we didn't cover a lot of mileage, but we did get 5.5mi, which is more than it felt like we did.  There weren't any extra coupons like at Fagan's events, but they made good use of the ruck log, and of casualties, in the place of coupons.  That was a good idea. 

There was also more PT than I've seen at my past 3 lights (small sample size, especially because 2 of them were run by the same Cadre, on consecutive weekends), with 3 workouts.  Maybe it was due to the large class size.  It would be hard to get such a large group to cover a lot of mileage through the streets of Charlotte, so PT was a good alternative, for helping to keep everyone together.

Pathfinder 20 Mile Overnight Ruck

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Aug 27-28 ended up being a bit of  personal life craziness, but I needed the days off from working out, anyways.

Wednesday, Aug 29:

I started the evening with a run, because after the slogging through of trail running, I wanted the feeling of flying again.  It was short, because I was still feeling the effects of the weekend, but the 4.0 in 31:35, 7:53 ave felt good.  Splits> 8:08, 8:00, 7:50, 7:35.

After the run, I still wanted more of something, so I got in a ruck workout for Pathfinder.  It would also be a chance to test out my makeshift Voodoo Tactical Hip Belt rig on my ruck.  I chose a manageable-looking workout called "Toasted Shoulders", since it seemed doable, and would complement the run.

4 rounds of 5 reps each of

• 8-count Body Builders
• Squats
• Curls
• Swing Press
• Flutter Kicks
• Crunches
• Pushups
• Plank Jacks
• Mt Climbers

with a 25 yard crab walk or bear crawl at the end.

It took about 5 min per round, so I finished this in about 22 min.  It didn't really toast my shoulders, but it was good to get something in.  I didn't need to go too crazy so close after a big event weekend, anyways.

Thursday, Aug 30:
On the way back from giving training in South Carolina, I hit Crowders Mountain again.  I had been hoping to squeeze in the 10 mile Mountain Challenge for Pathfinder, but I didn't get there until 6pm, the park gates closed at 9pm, and a sign at the trail said that just a 6 mile loop would take 3 hours.  I started off from a different trailhead this time (Sparrow Springs), but I still went back towards the tower summit that I had gone to a few weeks prior.  I wanted to familiarize myself with the trails, so that I'd know what routes to take for the mountain challenge when I would take it on.

I went by trails that I remember hitting during the GORUCK Operation Red Wings Tough.  I did some Pokemon Go along the way.  I also took some obligatory ruck pics.  I drank about 1.5 L of H2O, but I didn't need any food during the ruck.

The view was beautiful near the top.  I like how stuff like sunsets and sunrises are always different-looking.  Each one is a unique experience.

For the route, I went on Rocktop, including the giant rocks that we had navigated across during the night, to the Tower, to the Summit, and down the stairs to Backside trail then Crowders Trail again.

By the time I got back, there was barely any light left, so I did the last 0.5 mi or so with the iPhone flashlight.  I did have a real headlamp this time (I'm learning!), but decided to save its battery, since the phone had plenty left.  

6.0 in 2:17, 22:31 ave.  

20 MILE OVERNIGHT

One of the options for "challenges" in the Pathfinder program is a 20 mile overnight ruck.  I had a schedule planned out to make sure that I hit all of the mileage, the workouts, and the challenges in the prescribed time period, based on when I had events and travel planned.  I had to get in the 20 either this weekend, or 2 weekends from then.  Finding a course where you're motivated to do 20 miles, and that's safe enough for your car and you to get through takes some planning.  The neighborhood is one option, but there's the temptation to quit part-way, since you'd end up doing lots of loops.  There's also the potential for barking dogs, legit coyotes, and startled neighbors.  Many parks are closed at night.

I asked a local rucking group for suggestions on Facebook, and they were great with sharing ideas and support.  I was encouraged to set up an event so that others could join, as well.  I went with a 2-loop suggestion, since it would be helpful to stop at our cars halfway through.  There was also a 24-hr Walmart on course, in case we needed re-supply or restrooms mid-way.  

7 people, including me, made it out.  Of the 5 challenges I had planned to fulfill the requirements of Pathfinder, this one was the one I was most intimidated by.  My shoulders used to be fried after 4 miles of rucking.  If I sucked it up, I could withstand 6 miles.  I've done like 13 miles before during events (maybe even 18, at a HH12HR), but that was with breaks along the way, and varied activities (albeit with coupons), and at events, the adrenaline and motivation to succeed allows you to push through the pain and not notice it so much.  I wasn't sure how my body would handle the 20.  It would take a while, too... going at a 20 min/mile pace, you'd be out there for like 7 hours walking with 20lb on your back.  I sit most of the day at work, so even walking without weight for a few miles isn't something I'm used to.  On the other hand, I'm familiar with running 20 miles (usually in 3:15) and have a good endurance base, so worst case, I could push myself through... maybe painfully, but I knew I could do it.  

The other good thing about a 2-loop course is that people who can only stay for the first half can head out when they need to.  Not everyone needed a 20 miler, so that worked out nicely.  4 stayed for the full thing.  

We debated about whether to ruck with the flag, thinking about the safety pros and cons.  We ended up using it, and traded it off during the night.  It was fun rucking with a group.  A few of them are doing the 50 mile Star Course in Jacksonville Beach, and were sharing strategies.  The Star Course is on my list of things to do next year, and I love planning for stuff like that and hearing about peoples' experiences, so I soaked it all in.  It was also great to just talk about rucking and to share training and gear tips.  It's what we're all passionate about, after all.

There's also the exponential growth in the craziness of conversation topics as the night goes on, haha.  That made the whole thing a bunch of fun.  Our feet got tired, but we boosted each other and helped each other through.  Honestly, the 7 hours flew by.  It felt more like 2 hours.

Along the way, we stopped at gas stations a couple of times for drinks, and at Walmart, where we saw a hard-core street sweeper.

20.0 in 6:55, 20:45 ave.

Learnings:

1. Looped course is great, to open it up to more people.

2. Reminded that sidewalk is much harder than asphalt.  I care about that in running, but had never thought to apply that to rucking.  It did feel better towards the very end when we used a bit more asphalt.  

3. I went 10lb heavier than Star Course weight for this ruck.  I had debated whether I wanted to go 10lb dry or 20lb dry here, but I decided to go with 20lb, because a) it's my challenge weight needed for Toughs, b) I want to better prepare myself for a Heavy, c) the Star Course mileage may feel easier when I go to 10lb after training with 20lb, or at least give a confidence booster. 

4. Rucking is better with friends.  I love these people.

RACE REPORT: Spartan WV Trifecta Weekend 2018

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday after the GORUCK Light in Winston-Salem, I took my mom to the movies, to see Crazy Rich Asians.  One of my earliest memories when I was a kid was my mom taking me to see 101 Dalmations.  I don't remember much of anything about the movie itself, but I do have a snapshot flashback of being in front of the movie theater, I think.  It's interesting that I'm now taking her to see movies.

I took her to my favorite theater (albeit the only one I've been to in Charlotte), one with reclined seats.

Monday, Aug 20:

I had planned on doing a slow run, and I wasn't sure I could run at all because my legs felt a bit used.  But, I stretched, and my legs felt ok once I got going.  I could've potentially pushed for a 4th rep, bt I didn't want to overdo things before West Virginia.

• 1 mi warmup in 8:09
• 3 x [0.75 mi @ 9mph (5:00), 0.25 mi @ 7.5mph (1:58)

4.0 mi in 29:07, 7:17 ave.

Tuesday, Aug 21:

I've been wanting to take my mom to the rail trail in South End, since she likes taking pictures, and there are lots of cool things to discover along the trail.  I was going to ruck it.  However, I was super tired after work and napped.  When I got up at around 11pm, I decided I still wanted to get my ruck in, so I went out at midnight. 

7.0 in 1:30:00, 18:20 ave.  I could've pushed on for another mile, but I started at like midnight, and after rucking, getting back, showering, and calming back down, it would be really late, so I stuck with 7.  Pokemon Go along the way.

WEST VIRGINIA BEAST (NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS)

Spartan has been going crazy with Championship events... stadium series, national series, regional series, mountain series, trifecta WC, ultra WC, WC... anyways, this was one of them.  The main difference for this one is that you had to qualify to get into the Age Group and Elite Heats, and the medal was slightly bigger than normal, and it had an event-specific ribbon.  

I loved the venue (Summit Bechtel) from last year.  It's very scenic, with mountains, ponds and islands, and bridges.  It's pretty spectator-friendly.  I wore leggings, arm sleeves, my sleeveless USA Legendborne tank, and my Merrel Crush OCR shoes.  The shoes gave me blisters for a second event in a row, but they popped some time during the race, anyways.  I did get scratched up on my deltoids from the sleeveless part not covered by the arm sleeves.  I don't know if it's poison ivy or just sharp grass and stuff.  It does make me more inclined to go with sleeved shirts in the future, though.  You don't notice much during the race, but it itches afterwards, and is mostly a bit annoying.

There was 2400 feet of elevation gain.  The terrain and course was changed up, in terms of sequence, but the overall feel of the course, and many of the paths were the same as last year.  I don't care, though... they're all pretty much the same... bushwhacking, some actual trails, same obstacles each time.  I brought along a mini Clif bar that I ate, and eagerly accepted Clif Shot Bloks at an aid station near the end.

I did pretty well with obstacle completion.  Failed Spearthrow and Olympus.  They did have a Swim obstacle (with mandatory life jackets), which is rare.  It was nice to get off your feet for a while.  The water was chilly, too, which felt pretty good.

Another small twist on the usual obstacles is that they had "Monkey Twister Monkey", which is what it sounds like.  1 set of monkey bars, followed by 1 set of twister, followed by 1 set of monkey bars.  To me, it's much easier than Twister, since you can go really fast on monkey bars using momentum, whereas my Twister technique involves using every single rung, with 2-hand touches on each.  I'm hanging for a long time when I do Twister, but I make it through.

I was only mid-pack in my heat, but I did win a plank competition hosted by the DJ afterwards.  I lasted about 10 min, including periods where we had to switch to only using 1 leg or 1 arm or 1 arm and a leg.  Those periods actually helped, because they gave the other arm/leg a break.  

After finishing, washing off, and getting a beer, my dad picked me back up, and we went to New River Gorge, which is just 10 miles away.  He went there last year while I was racing, but I hadn't had a chance to see it yet.  Apparently, we went through on a family vacation when I was a kid, but I didn't remember that.  I guess a bridge wasn't exciting to me back then, compared to stuff like Mammoth Caves and Chicago, which I think was the main part of that big road trip.

I'm a huge fan of the National Park Service, though, so now, every chance I get, I try to squeeze that stuff in.

After looking at the bridge from the overlook, we did a driving tour called "Coal Heritage".  I didn't seem much that was coal-related, but the placards talked about how this area used to be a big coal mining area.  Towns grew up around that industry.  Before the new bridge was created, you used to have to drive way down into the gorge to cross a small bridge.  The new bridge cut down the travel time over that span from 45 min to 4s, pretty much - crazy!  Now, this area's main drive is all of the outdoor recreation.  We saw whitewater rafters.

WV SUPER

Gotta love those back-to-back event weekends.  At the motel, I got in a breakfast (lite yogurt, orange, apple) and went back out to the venue.  I had another 8am start time with the Age Group Heat, and after I finished that, the Sprint would start at 12:15 (the first Open heat).  

They switched up the locations of the photographers on day 2, which is good.  Similar course, still tons of obstacles.  I did fail Monkey Twister Monkey during the Super, because it started to rain a misting rain a few minutes before I got to MTM.  Unfortunate timing.  It didn't rain any other time during that event.  Other than that, failed Olympus and Spear again.  I did at least brush the hay bale, but my spear was parallel to the bale by the time it hit it, when it's supposed to be perpendicular.  Womp-womp.

I had time between the races to rinse off, change my shirt (I ended up racing in the Super's finisher shirt, since it was dry and already dirty anyways), have a beer, and pick up the packet for the Sprint.

Results... way worse percentile-wise than yesterday, but yesterday was my main focus, anyways.

WV SPRINT

By the time you get to the Sprint on a Trifecta Weekend, all you care about is just getting through and finishing.  Since it wasn't raining at Monkey Twister Monkey, I did make it this time again.  Failed Olympus and Spear.  Oh man, the Spear hay bales were completely trashed by the time I got there.  There was only about 1/4 of hay left on the bottom by then.  A couple of stations had 1/2 of the hay left.  They really should've anticipated that.  Everyone was failing even during the Super, if I remember correctly, but it was a joke by Sprint time.

I met someone who had drawn smiley faces on his calves, to cheer up other runners.  That was fun.  I ran into him later, towards then end, too.

I was happy that I didn't put the bucket down on the ground during any of the three races.  I rested it on my hips (both hips at the same time, in a squatting position, for most of the breaks, and on one hip on uphills).

After the race and cleanup and beer, my dad and I drove back down to NC.  Another Trifecta Weekend in the books!  They did have a special Trifecta Weekend medal this year, although they didn't really publicize it, so unless you heard from other racers, you wouldn't have known about it, unfortunately.

Rain Ruck & GORUCK Light - Winston-Salem 2018

TRAINING LEAD-UP

The day after the Extortion Light, my right knee was a little iffy.  I figured that I might've tweaked it a bit the previous day.  I didn't recall doing so, but it was enough for me to not be able to get in a long run that I had planned.

Monday, Aug 13:
My knee was good enough to try an easy run on.  I didn't feel like I could do a trail run, since that throws odd angles at your legs, but I could handle something on the treadmill.  The run felt harder than it should've, but the second half was a little better, once I got used to the feeling of pushing through.  I realized that the difficulty was maybe from warm temps.

Tuesday, Aug 14:
For Pathfinder, I did ruck workout #2 (for a stand-alone workout, not counting Lights).  I found one that seemed less intense than the first one that I had tried (11s & Penalty Holds), called JARVI.  It was an AMRAP of the following series:

• 20 flutter kicks
• 20ft bear crawls
• 20 lunges (ruck front)
• 20 pushups
• 20 squats (ruck overhead)
• 10 burpees (not sure why this is the only exercise that's not 20 reps)
• 20ft crab walk
• 20 monkey fers (yes, that's a real thing, which I first encountered at the July 4th Tough in Chapel Hill)

I ended up getting 3 rounds in, nearly on the dot... 10 min per round.

I followed this up with rucking around work.  I got in 4 mi in 82 min, 20:32/mi.

 

I do like my workplace... and lots of Charlotte area business parks, for that matter.  They invest a lot in fountains here, it seems, which spruces up the views.  It's kind of nice.

My mom's been visiting this week.  We tried to go to the Apple Store to get her iPad fixed, but it was closed for rennovations, but we went out to dinner at Cowfish Burger.  Good portions, good food, and decent prices.

I did go on a GORUCK shopping spree at lunch that day, to get in some last purchases before a big, unprecedented price incrase announced by the company.

Thursday, I felt sore from Tuesday's activities.

Friday, Aug 17:

This day got super interesting.  GORUCK has been having "ruck club callouts" to help build ruck club communities by encouraging some friendly competition between clubs for a chance at a patch, and to get people going out to do exciting things with each other.  I had recently joined the Team Spearhead facebook group, which is one of the main groups in my area.  They posted about a Rain Ruck, where you cover at least 5 miles with at least 5 people.  They announced it Wednesday, maybe.  We met at 5am, 13 people strong.  My mom thought I was crazy for going out that early to "go on a walk with my backpack", as I told her.  

We stepped out, and found some sprinklers to do PT in.  Of the 13, there was one other girl, plus a dog (unofficial member #14).  We started out gentle, then a fast group went out at a blazing speed.  I kept up with them, before we merged back with the other group during an out-and-back. 

It was cool to get in some miles with some strangers (plus one guy who I had done an event before) on an impromptu event, so early in the day.  No guarantee of a patch, which I'm competitive about wanting to get, but it didn't even matter so much to me, since the experience in itself was a treasure in itself.

Since we started so early, I had plenty of time to drive to work, shower at work, and get dressed.  I normally try to taper before events, and I was doing the Winston-Salem light the next day, but this was worth it.  Lights are less intense than Toughs, anyways (or at least shorter, even if the intensity is the same).

WINSTON-SALEM LIGHT 

We had Cadre Fagan, with a second cadre in training (don't remember his name, maybe Brett, but he was a good guy).  It was my second weekend in a row with Fagan... fun with Fagan.  Maybe he can make a patch out of that.  I knew from last week that his lights were like short Toughs... all of the coupons, half of the time.  It's a good way to get in some good training without totally destroying yourself physically.  

Just as we were finishing the welcome party (ruckless PT, tunnel of love, conveyor belt of people, I'm up / I'm down, running laps plus some casualties because the group was split), it began to pour down rain, heavier than a shower.  

For coupons, we had 1 wooden stretcher, 2 ammo cans, 1 jerry can, 2x60lb, 1x80lb, 2 flags (he adds a state flag), fire hose team weight.  We had 9 people at the start, but one had to drop for medical reasons part way into the first movement.  He had wanted to do it to honor his fallen friend, and we all could tell how much he wanted it, and he was doing what he could to push through the pain, but his body wasn't going to cooperate that day.  It was sad to see him go.

As we were going out, swapping on the stretcher, with others on the sandbags, we had just gotten to the top of a hill (worst place to be) when there was lightning and thunder really close by.  We sought shelter under a church awning.  It was my first time having a weather-induced break during an event.  We took the opportunity to introduce ourselves and also talk a bit about events that we like.

The rain was no longer pouring, but the stretcher was still wet, which made it hard to grip for long periods of time, for me.  Before we got all the way to the first destination, we made a stop at a gas station to refuel, and called it good, since the traffic lights were not conducive to crossing in any reasonable time.  

We set off towards our next target.  We tried doing 1 person per corner of the stretcher for a couple of miles, rotating on that and the flags.  We swapped between stretcher rotation duty and sandbag duty.  After a while, people were getting tired on the stretcher, so we started doing 2-man stretcher.  I much preferred that to 4-man stretcher, since your body could at least be even.  Each of your arms would be holding the same amount of weight whether or not the other arm had something, so you might as well be even.  

We went through Salem College, which was kind of fun.  We had the cops called on us, too, from someone reporting people with a stretcher and flags going through their campus.  The cops were nice, though... just wanted to do their duty and check it out to make sure nothing crazy was happening.  We tried to convince them to ruck with us, even.

There was a guy on the team named Ben who is a total GORUCK beast.  He's not ex-military, but looks like it.  He had done the Tough, but was still pulling all of his weight in the heavy Light.  We got to the far point of our journey, which was Winston-Salem State University.  No ceremony once we got there... a quick shoving of food into our mouths while we were standing, a couple of people went to the restroom, a change in TL, then we were off again.  

On the way back, Fagan played Baby Shark on his phone.  And the two Cadres took turns asking trivia questions about the US (mostly military-themed).  Looking back, I wonder if it was them trying to help our small team psychologically, since it kept your mind off of the suck.  It was a nice distraction, in any case.  The new Cadre also helped us out with the 80lb sandbag a couple of times, which was good, because that was the worst.  He must've seen us struggling despite doing our best.  

I even took a turn on the 80lb.  It was my first time with that.  You put that thing on, and you immediately start sweating just from trying to hold it up.  I went maybe 50m, up a hill, before Ben offered to take it over again.  That thing is no joke.  It's no fun standing around with that.  All you want to do it get moving, because the more progress you make with it, the sooner you'll be able to get closer to the next point or swap it off.  

We pushed on to our next pit stop, which was the park where we had started from.  When we were a tenth of a mile away, we were told that if we hustled there within a certain amount of time, we'd get to drop weight on our next leg.  We made it!  We switched TLs, then we were told that we had to set off again, and that we had X amount of time to get moving.  We didn't make it.  We were all very tired, and getting started again after pretty much no break was hard.  We were going to be punished with PT.  We all got in position, getting ready for a beat-down, and then surprise - it was the end!  We had made it!  

It was my first time getting a surprise finish.  I've had a false finish before, where we thought we were done, but we had to do more after that (Charleston D-Day Tough), but I never expected a surprise finish.  It was great ;)   

 

Another "tough" Light in the books!  Take a moment to admire our unplanned color coordination, too.  6 mi in 4 hrs, 45:30/mi.

My first standard event patch!

GORUCK Light - Extortion 17 - Charleston, SC

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Wednesday, Aug 8:

I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week recovering from Asheville.  My Course Advisor recommended at least attempting the Army Phyiscal Fitness Test in the first week or two.  If you pass with a score of 250, then you've knocked out one of your challenges. Even if you don't pass, you can get your baseline and make 3 more attempts during the program, and as long as you show improvement, you're good. 

Based on the standards for my age and gender, I'd probably be fine, but I was super nervous beforehand, anyways.  Excited during the day, then nervous, like I get before 5Ks, in the hour beforehand.  I did 33 pushups in 2 min, then 68 situps, then a 13:46 run.  That was good for 79 + 85 + 100 points = 264, based on my age and gender.  Next year, I'll get a significant bump in points if I can maintain current performance, just by aging up, though!

It's kind of as I expected... weakest on pushups, ok on situps, crushed the run (in light rain, but ok temps - 76* wasn't too hot, and I was glad to not have sun beating down on me).  The APFT kicked my butt... I was pushing hard and running scared.  I followed that up with a 2 mile ruck, to fill out the day a little bit.  I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.   

Thursday, Aug 9:

The next day, I gave my first Ruck Workout a try.  I did the one that my Pathfinder Course Advisor (CA) had recently done - 11s and Penalty Holds.  I was giving IT training for work in South Carolina that day, so I decided to stop at Crowder's Mountain on the way back to do this and get in a few miles on the trail.  I did the workout at the trailhead, in a grassy area.  OMG, it was brutal. 

• 11s
• 11 reps repeatedly, with ratios tilting between two exercises (ex: 10/1, 9/2, 8/3, etc)
• Plank Jacks & Pushups
• Burpees & Squats
• Jumping Jacks & 4-ct Mountain Climbers

• Penalty Holds
• Hold the following stress positions for 5 min, and if you break form, do a penalty of 20 burpees and 20 ruck thrusters each time
• Overhead Ruck Hold
• High Plank Hold

I did one set of penalties, mid-way through the overhead hold... after doing the penalties, I was determined to not have to do them again, since they were as painful as the holds.  My form might not have been perfect, and I was a bit contorted at times, trying to shift weight from one hand or another, but I pushed through to make it through the rest without another set of penalties.

It took only about 45 min in all, but it was a painful and intense 45 min.   Even though it was cloudy with no sun, there was sweat streaming down my face the whole time. 





After that ordeal, a gentle 4 mile ruck up and down Tower Trail, to the summit of Crowder's Mountain, in 95 min.

GORUCK LIGHT EXTORTION 17

I drove down to Charleston for my next event, a Light.  With OCR race season and not wanting to risk injury or impacting my running workouts, I only had 4 Lights planned during the 12 weeks of Pathfinder, no Toughs. 

I grew up in Charleston, but I haven't lived there in 14 years, so it was nice to re-visit and be a tourist in my old town again.  We met at the famous Pineapple Fountain.  I saw a couple of ruckers that I knew from previous events.  There was a good number of rookies, too.

We had Cadre Fagan, who I knew from Expedition 12 in Rock Hill, SC.  I had only done one Light before, so I didn't have a good sample size to know what to expect.  This Light was much more physically challenging than the previous one.  The previous one had some Special Ops lessons mixed in, and some V-day Massacre history lessons mixed in, which I enjoyed.  This one didn't really have either of those, but there were more coupons, so I got much more of a workout.  Every Cadre and every event is unique... that's part of the fun.  It'll always be different.

 

We started off with a Welcome Party of some PT, plus group activities like Tunnel of Love and Bridge of People.  Some people at Waterfront Park were intrigued by us and filmed us on their iPhones.  We also low crawled through the Pineapple Fountain.  Normally, I don't enjoy getting wet in normal clothes, but it was hot, so I was appreciative of the opportunity each time it came.

We first went out to Brittlebank Park.  It was a Saturday afternoon in Downtown Charleston, so many people were out and about.  Downtown's nice.  I enjoyed going by the palmetto trees and the pretty buildings.  During the first leg, I carried an ammo can for the first mile, then switched with someone who had done the Tough, for a 60lb sandbag which I carried for the rest of the leg.  It had been getting heavy, so I was glad when we finally made it to the park.  We stopped for a bit, someone briefly described what happened at Extortion 17 (I had done a little bit of research beforehand), we ate, and then it was time to go again.

 

 (photo credit: Shawn Whittington)

For the next leg, we pretty much went the whole time until we got back to the start point.  I had the ammo can the whole time, and got practice switching up ways of carrying it.  It got tough towards the end, and I was switching way more frequently, but we eventually made it back to the parking garage!  Another group took turns on the stretcher, but nobody was my height, like with most events.

 (photo credit: Shawn Whittington)

At the end, we finished with a rendition of Spongebob Squarepants and Baby Shark, in the Pineapple Fountain.  And beer... macro lagers somehow always taste amazing after events.  The cooler that the stretcher people carried around all over Downtown had goodies in it!

In all, we covered 7.2 miles.