I'm writing this 8 months after the event took place, so I'll just have to do my best to remember everything. There were only 13 who finished the second heavy, so there's not a big pool of participants from whom I could draw to recollect what happened. On the other hand, we did have a great shadow crew and official GORUCK media staff, whose pictures help to jog memories.
The Double Heavy seemed crazy but was one of the events that I had yet to tackle. I knew how tired I felt by the end of a single 2020 Bragg Heavy, especially after the fast-paced forced ruck march at the end. I had completed TA, though, so a HH should be within my reach.
THE LEAD-UP
I feel like I recovered from TA just in time. I was finally starting to get back into normal training. I had had a good week of training in CHS. I might've even overdone it there, but some serious "listening to my body" and going easy afterwards helped me get back to where I needed to be going into the HH. For training leading up to the event, I didn't go with Heavy Drop Training, which I had used for one round before my first HTL(s) and for TA (for 3 rounds), because the 6-week plus 2-inter-round cycles didn't line up well with the timing of the HH.
Around Thanksgiving, Joe Baker Fitness, the new rucking fitness training program run by my friend and TA Class 001 open division champ Joe Baker, ran a promotion. His programs are also 6 weeks long, and I could start as soon as I wanted. Starting immediately lined up perfectly with the calendar leading up to the HH, with some time to taper. In physical training, the body makes bigger gains when it experiences something new, and that was true here. What distinguishes JBF in my mind is the variety of workouts in his programming. You have tests and retests that help you monitor progress every 2 weeks. You have sandbag work, ruck work, cardio plus PT, animal movements, and some workouts taken from real events, to give you a taste of what you may encounter from different cadres. It was fun to see gains and to try something new.
Leading up to the event, there was a decent amount of chatter on FB regarding the weather. People were trying to figure out what to wear. Those who have done colder events before shared a lot of advice from Lisa Stephenson from RuckStrong. Shannon used that as her guide for getting Omniheat and it worked for her, which is why I brought a non-hooded Omniheat for the first heavy and a hooded Omniheat for the second heavy. I got both versions so that I could try them both out and have options.
Bragg is a flagship event, so it draws out-of-towners more than the usual events do. Since I have amassed a ridiculous number of ruck plates, I happily offered to let out-of-towers borrow them, to avoid airplane hassles and fees, which are just ridiculous. $30 for a check-in each way, and you can pretty much buy a used ruck plate or a good chunk of a new one. Letting others borrow the plates may me feel less bad about having so many, too, haha. How did I come to have so many? Three reasons - I've jumped on some deals in the past, and then when there's a new design or color, I want it. I also like to test different kinds of gear to see what works best for me in different scenarios, which is why I have a couple of GR1-sized plates as well.
Since you don't want the stress of showing up to the event without required gear, I posted updates for the borrowers on the event page with pictures for visual confirmation, as the ruck plates were earmarked and then later loaded into the car. I waited for the night before to put them on the car, to reduce the stress on my car tires from holding all of that extra weight.
Fortunately, people kindly helped me unload and reload the plates from the car, and the pickup and dropoff process seemed to go smoothly. Everyone got their plates for the events, and they all came back.
The event would take place at the Special Forces Association grounds again this year. Due to COVID and curfews and that kind of thing, the entire event would take place there... all the miles. About 3 miles of trails are accessible, so we'd be seeing a lot of that over the next 48+ hours. There had been some questions about whether the event could continue, in the months and weeks leading up, but the Cadres had a good plan.
We got to set up base camp. Shannon Bass & Brian Baute were going to be Team Mom and Team Dad over the weekend, as shadows and as support crew between the two events. We chose a meeting spot where we'd all park together, since that's where our between-event support station for the CLT area ruckers would be set up. Oftentimes, I carpool with SB, but with my plans to sleep in the car between events, and all of the gear I'd be hauling and all the support gear that she'd be hauling, we drove separately. I got there early, since I like to get to places early, and I wanted to make sure that I got a good spot. Apart from the U-shaped arrangements of cars, the shadows set up tents in the middle so that they could try to catch a little bit of sleep when they could, along with their table of goodies. We also posted up flags.
Leading up to the event, there's the usual anticipation. There's stretching, double-checking and possibly reconsidering your gear, catching up with GRTs you haven't seen in a while, and even getting a visit from Jason. I try not to interact with the cadres before events, at least historically. It's a little weird to talk to someone right before you're about to get a beat-down from them. They have lots of planning to do, anyways.
HEAVY 1
We ended up making use of the "base camp" USA flag right away. Someone had volunteered to bring the USA flag at the event, but they were a no-show, and they didn't communicate that to anyone or arrange for a backup. Thank goodness for SB! We did get an HDT alum pic prior to the first Heavy. That's when we'd have the most people around.
With Heavies, you have more time for everything. That's why it's a favorite event type for some people. You aren't rushed. After admin, we walked up the dirt road a little bit to where Dan brought out a huge collection of coupons... 10# sandbabies, brass knuckles, sandbags, litters, rope, our team weight (two missiles), 4 newly debuted "bitch bags" - 25L Rucker 3.0's loaded with 80+#, water jugs, cones.
We went on a recon loop around the 3-mile path that we'd be seeing over and over again throughout the weekend. For this first loop, the large class just carried water jugs and cones, which we placed along the route as en route water resupply for later, and to help people know where to turn. On the "out" portion of the loop, we'd follow a gas pipeline easement in a pine forest area. It had rained recently, so there were large puddles. Some had side paths that you could take to get around them. Others you just had to wade through. On the "back" portion of the loop, we went along a sandy powerline. There wasn't as much water here, but there were a couple of hills, and the terrain was more uneven from erosion.
When we got back to the SFA, we got introduced to caterpillar pushups, which we'd see again later.
Jason wanted to instill the fact that the new mantra for GORUCK would be "SEEK PAIN", and he spotted a good photo op in the drainage ditch on the side of the SFA, so we all got in there, did flutter kicks, and low crawled. Throughout the weekend, Jason and Cadre Dan told us that we should answer questions in the affirmative with the phrase "SEEK PAIN", instead of "yes". It only takes a few times of getting it wrong and getting correction, before you internalize it. The funny and unfortunate thing is that not all Cadres were around when that rule was established, so later on in the event, when Chuy and Cleve had us and a guy kept answering "SEEK PAIN" and they had no idea why and thought that the guy was just being moto or a smart aleck about some instruction that he was getting, he got smoked for it.
For our welcome party, we split into groups and did the Robbie Miller WOD. We did the ruck getups about a block away from the playground where we did either 40/60# SB rows or ring pullups, so there was extra rucking involved. We had a good group, including AT, MR, JS, and AE. Somehow, despite having a good pace, we found ourselves in the last 3 groups. I don't know about other groups, but I feel strongly that you should not cheat a hero WOD. Seems like bad juju. I can only control what I do, though. Cadres warned us that we did *not* want to be the last group to return from the final 3-mile ruck. That was scary, so we moved fast on the ruck and managed to catch at least one team, and we stayed ahead of the others.
It grew dark during the ruck. We got back. I think Chuy had us do picnic table log PT and sing the national anthem with the tables over our heads. One lesson that Chuy taught us was on humility. If you don't know the words to the anthem and the class is asked if anyone doesn't know the words, step up and admit it. Once we knew who we had to teach, our mission during the event would be to coach each other so that everyone to know the words and be able to sing it loudly and in unison. We'd fail many times throughout the event before we'd finally get it right at the end of the first Heavy.
We did centipede pushups with ruck. That took quite a few people out. It was raining. It was cold. Those pushups are hard, with not only the weight of the ruck, but also the weight of someone else's legs on your shoulders.
We did laps around the immediate SFA area, which was about 0.5 miles per lap. This was done with casualty carries. It was cold, so being a casualty wasn't necessarily a good thing, since you weren't moving, and you were exposed to the elements. The teams were racing, and it paid to be a winner because winning teams got to stop. Losing teams had to keep facing off against each other with more and more laps. It could be frustrating and a morale crusher to keep losing and to have to keep doing work while other teams got to rest, but our team never caved. We kept trying our best. I think I had Bobby on my team. I admire his willingness to push hard and suffer for the team.
The teams that did finish early had to deal with being cold, anyways. There were many penguin huddles during the event. COVID or hypothermia, you pick the risk. Team members had to look out for each other during this evolution, because a few were really affected by the temps. It's intriguing to me how some people were more affected than others. Is it clothing choices? Peoples' metabolisms and heat regulation? Mindset? Movement? It's not purely a matter of natural insulation, since that didn't correlate with outcomes. And there are breathing techniques that people like Wim Hof use to endure extended immersions in cold water. This
article makes sense to me.
The pathway was already a bit hole-y in parts, but as we rucked around loop after loop, with rain saturating the ground and turning it into a mud pit, it became even trickier to walk on.
Props to the shadows for multiple reasons. First, the cold and rain is much more miserable when you aren't able to keep warm by exercising, so they endured more miserable conditions than us, in some ways, and with no reward like a patch to look forward to at the end (they do it for other reasons). Second, they provided care to those who dropped from the cold or from other issues, making do with limited resources. They helped to contact family members and check that the ones who dropped were able to get home safely. This was all before we even got to the end of the first event. Even though they had tents, good sleep is hard to come by when it's that cold. SB and I have been pretty careful about the COVID situation. I remember seeing her with a buff face covering in the kitchen on our first visit, doing everything she could to help others in spite of the situation.
We did more rucking on the big loop, I suspect. With the cold drops, they let us warm up a little bit and even have a mandatory slice of pizza at one point (which the shadows had suggested). I used the time to stretch on the ground.
We did PT with a variety of sandbags under the picnic area shelter at one point, to warm up. We all got in a big circle. The sandbags of various sizes, from 10# to 80#, were distributed to everyone. We'd do one exercise with whatever sandbag we happened to have, then we'd rotate the sandbags clockwise, do another exercise with whatever we had, and repeat. Fortunately for me, I got the lighter sandbags for the harder exercises, and heavier sandbags from some of the easier exercises. Like in life, you always just do the best with what you got, though.
In the morning, we split into 2 groups and did log PT. We raced the logs around the SFA compound. Our group thankfully won, so the other team, which had more disfunction, had to go to the fenced entrance of the gas pipeline trail to get small chunks of logs to do individual log PT, since they weren't able to handle doing log PT as a group. After doing PT, the other team said that their log was heavier, so we swapped logs. It did seem heavier, but we got it around, thanks to some real workhorses on the team. I'm never able to contribute a whole lot to log PT because of my height, so at times, I walked in front to help steer the group, trading off with another girl about my height. There was a stake sticking out of our skinny end of the log that we had to look out for, to avoid impaling the carriers on that end. I think it did get tangled in Liz's hair at one point.
We finally get to a point where we could sing the anthem to Chuy's satisfaction.
There were some shennanigans involving ruck pyramids and rucks getting swapped around as a result. We actually got patched with rucks other than our own.
We ended a little late, but the cadres still gave us 2 hours to get ready for the next event.
After patching, the cadres asked who was coming back for the second heavy. Not many people were raising their hands. Some had only signed up for the first one, but many more had gone into the event targeting the HH. I was definitely not 100% confident at that point, but I raised my hand anyway, because it would be weird if almost nobody was raising their hand, and there was a second 24-hour event to go.
BETWEEN EVENTS
For back-to-back events, the time to celebrate and chat with people is not between the events. Do that at the end, when everything is over and all patches are in hand. Some of the support crew (I think Bob Carr for me) helped to bring our rucks back over to our cars. Minds think slowly after such a long event. SB brought me tea and broth (I'm not a big noodle person). Teresa Diehl and Melissa Roth helped me get changed. I put my bare feet up on the dashboard and caught a little bit of sleep. The sun was now up enough that the car was pretty pleasant to sleep in, and it wasn't cold at all.
(you're welcome... I had already lost that outer layer of big toenail prior to the event, thanks to side effects of TA)
Some hung out outside, but I wanted to maximize sleep and warmth. It's quieter in the car, and you don't have wind and bugs and stuff bugging you. I don't remember what I ate between events... my credit card statement doesn't show anything (I draw on all kinds of resources to construct this AAR, haha), so maybe I brought something from home.
I had been offered, and had set up a spot with a tent for my sleeping bag, but the car was comfortable for me. I actually like sleeping in my car, because it's cozy and quiet and feels safe.
I was debating about what ruck to bring, and how much clothing to bring to the second event. I had used the 25L v2.1 Rucker for the first heavy, but now it was gross. I decided to go with the 20L v3 standard Rucker. SB encouraged me to bring an extra fleece layer, which ended up being clutch. It was a stuffed full ruck. When SB told me that AT and JB were going back out, that gave me some strength. I had somehow forgotten that they'd be with me, and that I wasn't going back out to face the second Heavy alone.
I was moving super slow and had no idea how long I was going to last, but I was going to at least try.
HEAVY 2
As was hinted previously, not many came back for the second heavy. It was a slim crew. We did have maybe 3 fresh bodies join us, among them Jonathan Metze. It was a low enough number of fresh bodies that the Cadres didn't feel like we would have a big advantage. I was glad to have Metze there, since he's a stud and had previously completed a HH with Cadres Dan and Bill. The individual logs and big team logs were still out from the endex party of the previous Heavy, so we expected to see them in one way or another in the second heavy at some point.
I know I was uncertain about how this would go and if my body would survive, but I did feel good about the crew that was there. The people who were brave enough to show up wanted to be there.
We started with a little PT to warm up our muscles. I'm kind of guessing at chronology based on how clean my clothes are in this picture.
We did some laps around the SFA compound with the individual logs. Some people had bigger logs than others. One unique feeling about this event was that everyone was kind of in survival mode for themselves, but there was still a team aspect to it. You wanted to share the burden and be fair about distributing the load, since everyone was kind of hanging on.
There would be no slow roll start this time. We were given an opportunity to prepare our gear for some water. We were strongly encouraged to use dry bags for our stuff.
The hazing started pretty immediately. As soon as we passed the fence and onto the gas pipeline trail, we had to start low crawling, with sandbags and bitch bags. Face-scraping-the-ground low crawls that Chuy enforced and yelled at me once for. The puddles were still there, so we got wet. We went for a while, working as a team to move the water-laden sandbags and mud-coated bitch bags. I remember pulling from the on a 60# while Joe was pushing from the back. I think Bobby had a Bitch Bag tied around his ankle so that he could drag it along while he crawled.
We turned around, and got in four rows for caterpillar pushups again. I think I was second in line initially, but the skinny guy in front decided to quit after a while, which meant that I got to take front position, which most importantly meant that I didn't have legs on me anymore, so I could do pretty much normal ruck pushups with a little bit of extra ab action.
We did bounding. Bounding seems simple... get up from prone, sprint, get down, repeat. With a ruck is hard. Doing it in thick mud is even harder. Doing it in the cold at the beginning of the second heavy is even harder. Like I mentioned before, the dynamic at the second heavy did feel a little bit different. You were among many other studs, and the cadres were not going to lower the standards. They were not going to just give out the HH patch freely.
We lost one or two more when we were told to repeatedly submerge ourselves in the water. I didn't even realize it at the time, but the Cadres, who are good about only asking us to do what they would be willing to do themselves, had fully submerged as well. The water is shocking and cold, but you can mentally get yourself used to it, and you become immune. It all will end at some point. With all of the waves caused from bodies going in and out of the water, I did swallow mouthfuls of fully saturated mud water twice. I was curious how agreeable my stomach would be to those big gulps of mud water. If you don't submerge, they'll splash you so much in the face that you wish you had submerged instead. Fortunately, I submerged enough to not get picked on. Only one or two did, I think.
We crawled to a place where we'd get into a battle. We had been racing as two flanks up until now, with the low crawls and bounding. Half of the class was on each side of a puddle. We faced away from each other and had to sling mud backwards, ACFT-style, while on our knees. I probably didn't throw very far at all, and Chuy expressed his disappointment in me. Bobby was sort of turning around to throw at one point, and got blasted for it, haha.
The Bitch Bags got a nice photo op when they were placed in the middle of the melee.
Rucking was a good way to keep us warm. When we hit the sandy trail, we took an extension of it rather than heading back to the SFA. At the far side, we got to reconfigure our clothing and do some warmup PT. There was a funny instagram video of Kyle trying desperately to change shirts with zero dexterity in his fingers. Getting skinny long sleeves on was a challenge for him, even with a buddy trying to help him. I think I switched into my fleece then, the one that SB had encouraged me to bring. It ended up being my dry warm layer that would get me through the rest of the event. We were timed and were encouraged to help each other out. I wasn't able to help others because I was busy trying to get all my stuff to fit in the 20L ruck, which it did eventually.
We rucked loops, and we also got to go in the warming hut (the kitchen) every now and then. Something was giving me GI issues (which I sometimes get at Toughs and beyond), so I was very glad that a real restroom was nearby, and that my battle buddy Anna was willing to come out into the cold to go to the restroom with me every time and sit through whatever was going on down there. Barriers were put up after some time within the hut, to keep the participants separate from the shadows. Somehow, the outside didn't feel a ton different to me than the inside. That's a good thing. It made going outside again afterwards not feel so that bad.
We did the Jerome WOD. I was paired up with France, since she was the closest match, I think. The buddy drag and carry part was more challenging than I expected and is something that I need to practice.
We did a variation of the APFT at one point. You had to meet a certain minimum number of situps and pushups, but it wasn't timed. At one point, I remember carrying a 60# around the SFA solo. I think the cadres had said something about how to be a good team member, you first have to be a good individual, so we had to prove ourselves with some of these individual tasks.
I was TL for one of the evolutions were we didn't have many coupons... we just had to keep a good pace. The sandy trails on the power line had a couple of unmarked turnoffs, and I didn't take us on the right one, but we were allowed to bush whack, so we eventually got to the desired turnaround point. Since it was cold, they were keeping us moving as a group, and there was no traditional individual 12 miler.
One difficult evolution came when Jason was around. We each got a sandbag. We worked within a small area near the coupon zone, under the headlights of a truck. The old TA duo of Anna and I was back together again for partner tosses, each of us grabbing one end's handle and throwing the bag together in unison.
As a big group, we had to do various sandbag movements in unison with all of the sandbags linked. That's difficult with height differences, and some of the sandbags were different weights.
Then, we did the wheel of death, doing carries in one direction, then the other direction. It took everything you had to not let go of the bag before time was up. Somehow, there was a lone 40# among all of the bags in the pile, and that was my saving grace, because even that was right on the edge of my ability. There were many cadres, and not many of us, and anyone falling behind would be very noticeable. This stuff was not easy, and it was all literally under the spotlight. The Cadres might've joked that they could just have us do this all night long. We didn't even need the SFA compound... we just needed that little 20-foot diameter circle.
We rucked more, I'm sure. Jonathan was a good TL as he took us back on the sandy path extension. Motivating and able to take command of the situation.
We did the deck of cards. Apparently, the Cadres had placed bets on how many would finish the HH. Chuy bet 7, I think, but despite the fact that he'd lose money by helping more of us succeed, he played music from his car and did PT alongside us to motivate us.
We did a run for jokers, with slowest up in front as we started, until we got to the turnaround at the top of the drive into the SFA, and then everyone was at their own pace. My running legs weren't there by that time, but I could help to push rucks just fine. Since there were so few of us by then, we had enough sandbags to go around. Trying to remember the exercises now... SB back squats with 60# was one of them, because I remember that it took a lot of effort just to get the sandbag on my back each time. Squat cleans were no longer an option, so I'd lift, get it to one shoulder, then jump shift it to the other. Occasionally, if the rep count was low, I'd just squat with the SB just draped on a single shoulder. Another one might've been presses? There was one that some of us couldn't do with the SB by that time, and that others had to reduce SB weights for, and we were allowed to do it with the ruck instead.
It was during the deck, particularly after the runs, where we noticed that our bladder hose nozzles had frozen. When we left outer layers of clothes during the joker runs, the clothes had the embedded sweat and leftover puddle water would freeze, leaving a crusty solid shape that you had to coax back into becoming usable as clothes again.
While I don't remember the suits now, I did during the workout. While others had trouble remembering which exercise went with each suit, my mind was surprisingly clear and sharp, and I was amazed. I remember how sleepy I was at night during a few hours the Tough of my first HTL, and I remember how I mumbled to myself to stay awake during TA, so this kind of late-event clarity was a new feeling.
Unfortunately, we lost a member of the team during the deck, due to injury. He was training for real Selection, so he had to make the smart decision. It sucks to lose someone, especially so late into the event.
When we finished the deck, we got to take a break, and we were told to prepare for a mental challenge. The break was lengthy (not that that's a bad thing, although we were outside for all of it), so we got cold. The Cadres did let us get bottled water so that we had something drinkable with the hose freezing situation. I asked Cadre Cleve about tips for mitigating this in the future, and he taught us a trick of blowing into the hose tube to get the water out of it. Unfortunately, the squad leader for my group was mentally gone and wasn't acting on any of the instructions that were given. I think I tried to help get things moving and became an ATL acting as TL.
We were split into two groups, each with a stretcher, 2 bitch bags, and some sandbags. Having sat out in the cold, the bitch bags were covered in frost. We'd start by coupon rucking out to the main road and back, and each time, we got to send a different person to the back of a pickup, so that that person could try to memorize as many objects as they could within 10s or something short like that. Alicia was first up to bat, and she got maybe 11/16 items down. On our next coupon lap, she shared what she had seen and where she had seen it, so that the next person could figure out what their strategy would be for getting the remaining items. She remembered that the first few items all started with "C", and then there were some similarities in different groupings for some of the other items. She hadn't really covered the lower right corner of the area.
Between each lap, we had to do a series of PT in unison... 3-4 different ruck-based exercises of maybe 12 reps each, to give you an order of magnitude. Initially, I was counting the reps as the ATL, but after the first or second time, I delegated that to others, so that I could focus on reciting the list in my mind to reinforce it.
France went next, and she noticed 4 more. The three girls, who shared the bitch bags while the guys carried the litter on their shoulders, did most of the strategizing and collaboration, and then we tried to share the list with the guys, since if we didn't get the 16 on the next round, we'd have to start sending them, and they weren't as confident in their memorization skills. I went third, and thanks to the work of the two who came before me who totally crushed it, I only had to ID the one item that they hadn't already mentioned. I found it, so when it was time to recite them after one more lap, we got all 16. They had been playing blaring music during the challenge, and it was meant to distract us while we were thinking, but I don't think I even noticed that there was any music because I was 100% focused on the task.
Next up, we had to coupon ruck a shorter distance, to a white sign near the gate of the SFA. It hadn't actually been clear to us where the turnaround was for those laps, so we ended up going way further than necessary, back up to the road, the first couple times. We'd get a number each time. We ended up with three numbers after three trips, but we had a lock with 4 digits. We weren't sure what we were supposed to do to derive the fourth digit.
We all had to hold high planks while figuring out what combos to try, and we sent one person at a time to try combos. There were some debates about what to do, but Jonathan had an idea of doing one of the numbers twice. He had figured out that there would be only so many possible combinations that we'd need to try with this technique before we'd eventually get it. I was skeptical, but he felt strongly about it, so we sent him to try it, and what do you know? It worked! Jonathan helped to save the day.
We had blown the other team away in the item memorization challenge already, so by that time, they were secretly rooting for us to figure it out quickly so that the game could end.
Later on, we formed up and had to do a large number (maybe 60?) ruck presses in unison. It was a large enough number that I wasn't sure I'd make it, even when it was broken up into sets of 20. I was falling behind the pace of the rest of the class, so Chuy made us stop. He pointed out that I should've said something, and reminded me about the earlier lesson about humility. We began again, but it was getting to a point where I was able to do sets of 1 before my form started deteriorating rapidly, pretty much.
It was taking a while, so he sent us over to Cleve on the road by the parking area, where we'd do maybe ~77 8-count body builders (with more added for good measure once they reached it). There was some significance to that number, but I don't remember what it was anymore. The cadre called out the cadence, and after a while, he'd dictate specific numbers in the steps to jump between. A 5 and a 6 would be a pushup, for example. At least on the asphalt, we could warm up more easily because we were on a black surface. It also helped to dry us out as our bodies hit the ground and transferred moisture to it.
During the 8-counts, for whatever reason, Chuy pulled Joe, me, and one or two others out. We helped to reduce the load of the bitch bags to our typical weights, and we were told to start working with the bitch bags instead of our usual rucks. At the time, the weight that I had in mine seemed typical, but after you start working with it for a while, it feels heavy and makes you think that you might've underestimated it, haha.
Things felt like they were starting to wind down. The Cadres weren't in pure cadre mode anymore. We dumped sandbags back into a big sand pile on the far side of the SFA, opposite to the coupon zone. Fortunately, we didn't have to do log PT again. There weren't many of us left, and those were two huge logs. We did help to put them back in place, but with the help of Dan's truck! Using the trusty skedco, the truck did the dragging, and we just made sure the bottom end stayed on course with the skedco. I felt like I was walking a dog.
We rescued a Cadre ATV that had gotten stuck in a giant mud pit. We rucked out to it with ropes, infilling from a patch of grass (where we. had staged coupons at one point at some evolution during the night) on the driveway leading out to the main road. To get to the ATV, we had to avoid getting stuck ourselves, because the mud would pull you in waist deep and keep you, if you didn't get some more solid footing on the tall grass growing from the mud. A group pulled the ATV out, and I got to steer the ATV as people pushed and pulled it back to safety, since I was the lightest. I was coached along the way, since the steering radius and degrees are different from what you'd encounter in a car. Since we were going uphill and downhill, and around some taller bushes, good communication and use of the brakes at the right time was required, so it made for a good unplanned team building activity, too. That was pretty neat as a Heavy experience.
Next, Cadre Dan took us on a loop to collect the cones and water jugs. During that loop, I started to get super sleepy-tired for the first time all event. I was struggling to stay awake. Jonathan must've noticed, because he graciously offered me a Bang. He had to have been carrying it around for the past 20 hours. I drank it and felt better. Cadre Dan warned us to mentally ready ourselves for what was waiting for us back at the SFA. Most participants were expecting a shark attack.
For the shark attack, we circled up for PT. There was overhead work, as expected. You were encouraged to give it everything you had, even if there wasn't a ton left. That meant using my legs to help get some momentum to get the ruck up, even if it only stayed up for a millisecond sometimes.
Jonathan started doing some war cries, unprompted, haha. This impressed the cadres, who wanted to hear everyone's war cries. They went around hosing us individually, hearing our best war cries with rucks overhead, and when they were satisfied, we got patched in the mouth.
("F U Cadre" was his war cry)
("I live for this $h!t" was mine)
There were 11 or so finishers of the HH? Maybe 2 second H finishers? This was one tough, never-give-up group of MFers.
The cadres took turns giving speeches at the end, giving their reflections on the event. That's always a special time. Hearing from guys you have a ton of respect for, hearing that they're proud of what you've accomplished.
I was especially proud to be among the women who finished this grueling event. There were some true badasses who I got to work with and struggle alongside.
AFTERPARTY
All Heavy finishers from either of the two events were welcomed back for an afterparty. I love BBQ, so I was really looking forward to this. We had BBQ after Team Assessment, too. Unlike after
TA, I didn't try to nap while eating.
I received Cadre patches from Dan and Cleve afterwards. Completing the HH got me #2 and #3 for Dan. With Cleve, I had done the Mog HTL and TA.
Mission accomplished for the NC TA group! It was interesting to me how the TA alums made it through while others didn't. Was it that this was so hard that it took TA-level strength to get through? Or was it the confidence that we had gained in doing TA, knowing that we could suffer through a lot, that helped us get through the HH? Maybe there's some merit in both of those, but I lean a bit more towards the second one. A lot of this event was more mental than physical, from a difficulty perspective. It was about whether you could suffer and endure. TA was more difficult physically, and the low moments were lower and tougher at TA, too. When Cadre Machine asked me the following weekend which one was more difficult between TA and the HH, I told him TA.
The Heavy is known as "the Ultimate Team Event," and we felt that this weekend in many ways. The most unexpected and impactful one was with the tremendous work of the shadows. Before, during (in the form of capturing memories with pictures), and after the event (whether the event was cut short for some, or whether it went for the 48), they were there to support the team in every way they could. The event literally couldn't have happened without them.
AFTERMATH
As a reminder, here's what my feet looked like after the first heavy. Even after the second heavy, they looked about the same. Wrinkly from being wet the entire event, but with no blisters, and normal-sized.
This is what my feet looked like at 5:30pm on Jan 17th:
This is what it looked like at 9p on Jan 17th:
About a day later, after some research, SB excitedly declared that based on what all of us were saying about our swollen feet, we had trench foot. It was good to be able to put a name to this odd phenomenon, and be able to look up ways to help it get back to normal. It would take a month for this to fully get back to normal.
I got some bad chafing in the underwear region. Maybe because we were wet the whole time, from the rain and from the immersions. Wet skin is easier to break through. Chafing isn't typically an issue for me, but I guess it's more likely in longer and wetter events.
Our second heavy ruck had gotten especially dirty after the mud battle.
I noticed when I got home that my Smartwool had collected tons of bug bodies, probably during the low crawls and immersions at the start of the second Heavy. You wouldn't realize that they were bugs until you looked closely, since the legs are long, and it just looks like tree stuff at first glance. I didn't know what they were at first and was worried that they may be something bad for me, but people on FB said that they were just water bugs. It was really hard to get them off of the wool while the wool was wet. Once the wool was dried, it became a little easier to pluck them off. You still had to do it one at a time, and there were hundreds and hundreds. I had thought about trashing the baselayer at one point, but am glad that I took the time to get the bugs off and keep it, since it's fine now, and it's a good baselayer that's served me well at many cold weather events.
Here were some videos that GORUCK created to recap the event.
