GORUCK Veterans Day Tough Charleston 2019

This Tough was scheduled a week before my HTL.  I wouldn't have planned it that way, but I had been signed up for the Tough before I had signed up for the HTL.  There wasn't an option to transfer or do a refund for me, and I figured that although it was not the best idea in the world, but that it would still be doable.

I realized a few days before the event that this would be my 3rd anniversary with GORUCK.  My first event had been the Veterans Day Tough in Columbia, SC, in 2016.  That was pretty cool.  A lot has happened to me GORUCK-wise in 3 years, with most of that action taking place in the last 2 years, since I only did a single Constellation in 2017.  So, it was a special event because of that, and it was special because the Cadre for the event was DS.  He makes his events memorable.


TRAINING LEAD-UP

Wednesday, Oct 30:
I finished my requirements for PATHFINDER Endure a few weeks early, so I didn't have any pressing work to do from that perspective.  I took the opportunity to get in some non-ruck work, with a 5 mile run.  Splits> 8:22, 8:13, 8:04, 7:55, 7:23.  5.0 in 40:03, 8:01 average, 2 degrees of incline.

I also signed up for my next PATHFINDER class, where I'll do Endure again, to get ready for the Fort Bragg Heavy in Feb 2020.  I'm eager to do the new Horizon program again, especially with some Star Course goals in 2020, but for now, I'll get in another Endure.  PATHFINDER has great Course Advisors, who provide guidance and motivation during the program.  They help to foster the great community that you find in the groups and on the class page.  I decided to sign up with a CA the I haven't had before (but who I know personally), since it'll be good for me to learn from different CAs, to see what their training philosophies are, and techniques they use to help their groups succeed.

Friday, Nov 1:
With the new PATHFINDER class underway, I was ready to start getting some work done, especially since I was fresh from a couple of weeks of relative rest and ease.  I did a nice session of a yoga routine, plus the Army Physical Fitness Test (47 pushups, 71 setups, 14:49 2-mi = 299 pts), followed by a 2 mi baseline ruck in 26:53, followed by a Horizon ruck workout and another mile ruck in 14:05.  One nice thing about getting older by an age category - you get more points for the same amount of work!

Saturday, Nov 2:
Ruckingchallenges.com's November challenge was "Ruck the Summit".  It so happens that a mountain ruck is one of PATHFINDER's challenge options, so I rucked a mountain that I had been wanting to try for a while - South Mountains State Park.  NC's state parks and other public areas never disappoint.  They're well-maintained and free of charge, which encourages more people to be active.  There were lots of trails to choose from.  I picked a strenuous waterfall trail because it would be scenic, followed by a hike up to Chestnut Knob Overlook.  You can actually see the CLT skyline waaaaay in the distance from the top!  I had to tack on a little bit of extra at the end, but I got in the required 10 miles.

I used the opportunity to test out some replacement Salomons that I'll use for rucking.  I forgot to put in the insoles with arch supports that I've been trying to use to help my foot situation, and I did feel it.  The hike was great, though.  I'll have to explore more of the trails there in the future.

I also took the opportunity to gain more experience with my watch.  The map feature is pretty cool, though it didn't always think that I was on the trails that were pictured.  It doesn't seem reliable, as a result, but at least it can give you a general sense of what's around.  It did better plotting me against streets when I did a ruck through the city.

The whole weekend was a nice surprise because initially, I was anticipating having a Light weekend, followed by a Tough weekend, followed by the HTL weekend.  It was good to have a bit of a breather at least somewhere in there.

Tuesday, Nov 5:
It was about 11 days out from the HTL, and GORUCK had publicized in their monthly rucking challenge that the Hard Hitter HTL crew would be doing 3 workouts during the event: the Robbie Miller WOD (expected), the 300 (never heard of it before), and the Will Buddy Hero WOD (had seen it referenced before at the Crossfit Games sponsored by GORUCK, but had never done it).  The 300 looked fairly straightforward, so I used this day to test out the Will WOD.

10 rounds of

• 10 Ruck Squats
• 10 American Ruck Twists
• 10 Ruck Pushups
• 10 Ruck High Pulls

1 mi coupon ruck (I used a 30# SB)

This honors his 4 daughters, and his wife.  It was a good workout.   It took 35 min for the rounds, and 19:30 for the mile.

GORUCK Veterans Day TOUGH CHARLESTON

All but one of the Charleston events that I've done have started at Waterfront Park, by the Pineapple Fountain.  At the D-Day Tough in 2018, we started at Patriot's Point, which I loved because it was closer to where my parents live, and you don't have to deal with driving through and parking in downtown.  That, by the way, had also been an event that included DS as one of the three Cadres.

This event was even more unique, and it started even closer to home.  At first, I was thinking that we might be going to the beach at some point for surf PT, but as I waited in my car for start time to arrive, I realized that it would've been a 10 mile ruck directly to the beach, using the highway, and the max distance for Toughs tends to be around 20 miles, so that was an unlikely route.  

The start point was a soccer complex, which had restrooms that were open for night-time soccer players, which was great, since I used it like 4x waiting for the start.  I debated whether or not I wanted a caffeinated energy drink before the event, since I didn't want to desensitize myself from the effects of caffeine one week before the HTL.  I did it anyways, because I felt like I could use it that night.

A friend that I had met at the Jax Beach Reunions event in 2019 was now in-state, so I was excited that she was coming to this event, as well.  We started with 16 people, and a minute or two after start time, the soccer complex's lights turned off.  It was all dark, it was chilly (upper thirties/lower forties to upper forties or upper fifties?  I don't remember now), and DS's dog Maya was dashing around super fast.  

It started with gear inspections.  Then, we had to completely empty out our rucks, run out, run back, and re-pack them.  Selection wasn't too long ago, so I wouldn't be surprised it that inspired this activity just a little bit.  It went OK for me, so I had time to help others afterwards.  My ruck still had some extra space, and some of the contents (but not all) were modularized.  I decided that I would modularize more next time, though, because it would've helped me gather my food and stuff it in the front slant pocket more quickly.  I can see why that activity is stressful for the people at Selection.  It's the first time that I recall doing that activity at an event, in recent memory.

After that, the welcome party started.  We moved from goal post to goal post in the large soccer field complex in various ways (animal movements and crawls or rucking), and we took turns introducing ourselves and leading some sort of exercise selected by DS, at each goal post.  Unfortunately, we had one GRT drop during the welcome party, due to some violent-sounding puking.

This event was the coldest rucking event I've done so far, so I wanted to test my clothing choices before the HTL, since the HTL was forecasted to have similar temps.  I did get really warm during some of the exercises, so having jacket layers that could unzip, and a base layer that I could lift up to provide ventilation, helped.

After the Welcome Party, it was time to rock and roll.  Cadre DS chose me as the first TL, since I was experienced.  Different Cadres take different approaches.  Some intentionally pick newbies to throw them into the fire and have them learn leadership stuff fast, by trial and error.  I was fine being the first TL.  Our first task was a surprising one... pushing all of our cars in neutral out of the parking lot, and up half a mile to a school parking lot, since the soccer complex's gates needed to be locked.  That was pretty unique.... car coupons.  We had 15 people and 8 cars, so we made 2 trips.  We met the time hack by less than a minute.

Our first destination was about 2 miles away.  A TL typically picks a navigator.  This time, I was pretty sure that nobody would know the area better than I would.  I didn't really know the area, since this area was built only in the past year or so, but I would know some of the broader areas better than anyone else.  We only had empty sandbags, our team weight (a "Ruck of the Fallen" that I brought), and a flag, so I used our fairly fast-paced ruck to the first destination to train everyone.  More than a third of the group was new to GORUCK.  Since we didn't have the added stress of coupons, we could practice staying in a tight formation, learning what "half step" meant, talking through how to swap sandbags later on, taking appropriate care of the flag, and so on.  The pace was maybe a wee bit fast for some, especially the newbies, so I was a little worried what would happen once we got coupons, but we had a time hack, albeit a fairly lenient one for a slick-ish ruck.

Once we got to our destination, we lined up to do 300 8-ct body builders, but fortunately, split up among the group.  I demoed the 8-ct and then led the group in the 20 reps, making sure everyone was together and not overwhelmed.  We got through it on the first try without being zeroed out, so that was a success.  We had a little break, and then it was time for new TLs.

DS led us through to a trail system.  We had to go into stealth mode, so no lights.  We also practiced using hand signals to communicate, with ones like "stop" and "rally point".  We'd pull security when we stopped.  I like trails.  They're soft.  These trails weren't too technical, which was good, especially since we weren't using headlamps.  We eventually got to a point maybe a mile-ish later where we stopped for a special activity.  DS brought out a box and arranged a series of objects.  We had a certain amount of time to memorize the contents of the box.  In case he was going to ask, I also tried to remember the positioning of the items.  That helped me memorize the contents of the box, anyways, since I could visualize the items and remember each one in series.

Before we moved on, a couple of scouts went to retrieve a camera sensor from a downed unmanned plane.  They weren't allowed to touch it, so they had to use other items to help them carry it.  It turns out that the ball-shaped thing was 62#, too.  We decided to transport it with a stick.  We didn't find any suitably sized sticks in the area, so we rolled the dice with an unsuitably sized stick that bowed a little under the weight.  We didn't have time to look for something better, so we went with what we had.

We retraced our steps about halfway through the trail before we turned off onto a power line.  Fortunately, the trail there wasn't bad, either.  We'd take turns carrying the "camera sensor" and the other coupons.  This reminds me of the time that DS took us through a power line that was much more rugged, with creek crossings, at the Expedition extra.  We eventually got to our turnoff back into civilization, where we walked along a road in a major subdivision.  Each time a car came by, we had to continue to be stealthy by getting down on the ground.  Cars didn't come too often, but often enough.  We also had to low crawl through mud, and go out of our way on some uneven dirt mounds at one point, to make sure we got appropriately dirty.

We kept going through the neighborhoods, on our way to a small airport.  We were on a mission, so we weren't going to take any easy ways... we were going to take epic ways.  This involved bushwhacking, walking through some shallow swampy mud, a bit of crawling, pushing through briars, avoiding barbed wire, etc.  It was pretty special and memorable.  Not a typical Tough, but 100% DS.

We made it back onto a road, where we were now allowed to touch the sensor.  It was a kettlebell whose handle is embedded in the middle of the sphere, so the only way to carry it is to single-arm beast that 62# thing.  Some courageous people took turns carrying it.  Our next mission was to go to a helipad at a hospital (real helipad, real hospital), where we got a little break.  After that, we had to procure some rice for people who needed food.  We rucked to piles of sand, and proceeded to fill the sandbags.  We now had a healthy set of coupons to carry around.  The sun was rising now.

We took it to a parking lot where we linked together the sandbags and did group lifts together.  After that, we were individually tested on the contents of the box.  We didn't know what the reward or punishment would be for our performance.  Supposedly, I got all 16 right, which was pretty cool.  SF guys have to be able to think and remember stuff clearly even when under pressure, so that was an interesting challenge to throw into the Tough, which is normally 100% about physical work.

A nice surprise was that afterward, he let us visit the donut shop in the parking lot, using our quitter's cash.  Some nice teammates treated the rest of the team to donuts, too.  It was time to go back to the endex, so we continued on with all of our sandbags another 1.5 ish miles back to our cars.

Just as we were putting away our coupons in the back of the truck, though, the flag dropped.  We had been planning on getting patches... instead, PT.  DS's rule is flag drop = 500 8-cts.  The perpetrator (who happened to be a newbie, too, so I felt bad for her) led the group in the 8-cts.  It must've been hard yelling out the counts for that long, especially if you're smoked by the PT, and also feeling bad about what happened.  The group kept at it, though, and stayed encouraging through it.  Eventually, we got to stop, and we got patches and brews while sharing what we learned during the event.

17 miles, 15 teammates, and another memorable DS event in the books!

RACE REPORT: Rugged Maniac NC II & GORUCK Fallujah Light Raleigh

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Friday, Oct 11:
I hadn't planned on rucking or exercising for another few days, since I had done the HTL over the weekend.  Monday at work had been less productive than usual.  I remember staring at the computer screen but not processing anything that I was looking at.

The car inspector had a lunch break to go to, though, so I had about an hour and a half to kill before I could get it inspected.  Driving back home and going back out again would've taken a decent chunk of time, and I happened to have a ruck with 20# worth of plates that I could group together, so I rucked.  I even forgot to transfer my arch supports to the shoes that I wore, and suprisingly, the left foot was ok, and it was the right one that complained, if anything.  I rucked to Belmont Abbey College.  It was fun to explore the campus a little bit, and I even blended into the crowd, since there were a bunch of students around who also happened to be wearing red shirts around their gym that day.  It must be their school colors.

4.0 in 83 min.

Saturday, Oct 12:
My body was ready to start getting back into the groove of training, so I went on a trail run at Latta Plantation.  The limiting factor for the run was actually little blisters starting to form on my pinky toe and heel, which was really odd.  It was nice running there, though, with less technical terrain than the USNWC, and no bikers to have to worry about, and it's something other than the USNWC trails for a change.

Sunday, Oct 13:

Now that I had started getting back into cardio, I felt like I was ready to get back into strength training.  I tested out two of the Horizon workouts that I hadn't tried before - a full body one and a core one.  It started out with a 1 mi ruck in 15:16, and then about 55 min of strength work between the two workouts.  

Tuesday, Oct 15:

To prepare for the Hard Hitter HTL, I wanted more practice with the Robbie Miller WOD.  I had done half of the full Robbie Miller WOD with Cabarrus Ruck Club slick, as part of a larger workout that included half a deck of cards.  This time, I wanted to do the full thing, with ruck (except for pull-ups), so that I could be prepared for the worst.

3 mi in 46:32 (15:27)

12 x [6 pullups, 6 burpees with squats, 6 4-ct mountain climbers, 6 ruck getups] - in 44 min.

3 mi in 46:05 (15:21)

It was nice to do a negative split on the 3 miles.  The workout wasn't terrible, even with the ruck, which was good to realize.

Thursday, Oct 17:

I had signed up for a Women's Networking Event hosted by work at a brewery.  I was excited about it when I signed up, but when the day actually came, I was dreading it a little, because I didn't feel like I had the energy and courage for it.  But I convinced myself to go anyways, telling myself that I'd treat myself to a ruck afterwards in South End.  It ended up being not as difficult as I was fearing, and I even won a beer-related raffle prize at the end.

That flowed nicely into the ruck, since I needed to work off the abv's anyways.  I rucked to uptown along the rail trail, covering 6.5 mi in 98 min, 15:04 average.  Not bad for a post-beers ruck!

Friday...

Went to a conference in uptown (my first conference?).  Ran into a GRT (he spotted me first), who I had done an event with before.  I had planned on rucking in uptown afterwards, but I was tired and done by the end of the day, so I just went home.

Saturday, Oct 19:

CLT is an awesome city for anyone who's into rucking.  The quantity and quality of the GRTs here is something special.  I joined LNK Ruck Club for the GORUCK monthly ruck club callout for October, which was for the pumpkin ruck.  I went in a Gryffindor Robe, met some great ruckers that I didn't know before, including a visitor from NYC.  It's wonderful to come together with people of all ages and backgrounds for a little walk around the neighborhood.

2.5 mi in 48 min, 19:33 average.  Since I was in a part of town that I hadn't visited before, and I was at a nice park by the YMCA, I decided to stick around and do a ruck workout.  This was Selection Weekend, so I was inspired to do sandbag bear crawls with a 40# SB and 20# ruck for 5 min, followed by a 15 min HDT AMRAP with a 20# ruck and 30# SB (5 rounds), followed by 5 more min of SB Bear Crawls, followed by 5 min of slick pushups (65) to round things out.  I was hungry afterwards, and ready for a shower.  It was an enjoyable workout, though.

Monday, Oct 21:

My friend had an idea of honoring Ashley White, who was killed in action 8 years ago while serving as a member of the Cultural Support Team attached to a Joint Special Ops task Force.  It was really moving to learn a little about her story, and women in the facebook group rallied to do a hero WOD in her honor.

45# is legit.  It was a challenge to even get the ruck on, though the lunges weren't quite as bad as I expected, as long as I was slow and deliberate about each step.  Those rope climbs (I did 6 climbs up the rope at the USNWC for each of the 5 rounds) were tough, too.  It was tough to grind through, but thinking about Ashley's sacrifice inspired me to keep going even though it was hard.

I tapered the rest of the week, so that I'd be ready for Rugged Maniac.

RUGGED MANIAC NC II

I had some decently high hopes for Rugged Maniac, since my most recent interval treadmill workout had gone so well.  The weather held up, fortunately, so the obstacles weren't wet from rain.  They could still (and some were) wet from mud once racers started going through, but at least it was manageable.  

I got a decent start, and was able to be in the mix of top 3 from the beginning.  That's less stressful than the usual races where more people end up being ahead from the start, and I have to pick off the rest over the rest of the course.  

Technique, patience, and experience wins the day again on the slick obstacles.  

3.0 in 29:41, 11:01 average.

GORUCK FALLUJAH LIGHT RALEIGH

Originally, I hadn't had plans to do the Fallujah events, since it was on the same weekend as Rugged Maniac.  I realized later on that I could be done with Rugged in time for the Light, and conveniently, the Raleigh Light was only an hour away from Piedmont Dragway, where Rugged was, so I signed up.

I got there a little early, even after a stop at Subway for some post-race fuel.  There were 13 at the Light, half of whom were first timers, which is awesome.  I love seeing first timers at events.  New people coming into the fold.  You get to watch people overcome their fears and push past what they thought were their limits and learn about teamwork and all the other good stuff that GORUCK teaches.

It was my first time with Cadre Dan.  I had listened to a couple of his podcasts where he was interviewed by All Day Ruckoff.  It's interesting when you finally meet someone in person, after only having heard them on a podcast or on a conference call before.  He was way more chill than I expected, but it was a Light, after all. 

There were a couple of unique firsts for me.  For one thing, we got our choice in which direction we'd go for our route.  Cadre Dan knew the area well, so he had a few options for us.  We chose one that went into a forrest area, for some variety with trails and creeks, plus some Greenway.  The alternative would've been greenway leading to a lake at the end, for 10 total miles, or going through neighborhoods.  We chose the trails.  For another thing, we got to suggest what set of coupons we'd bring, from the collection that he had in his truck.  We did one 10# sandbag per person, one or two normal sandbags, giant brass knuckles, a hammer for the TL, a team weight, the flag, a med bag.  He actually put one back, so that we could move faster.  

I loved his approach to the Light, which was to give us a taste of everything that you'd typically encounter at a GORUCK event.  PT, water, miles, themed event history, coupons, etc.  We started off on the greenway.  There was maybe a 2:1 ratio of people:coupons, so we got to switch off with each other.  After maybe half a mile of greenway, we found ourselves on a trail that went parallel to the main road.  We picked up a log "missile" along the way.  We learned the 5 principles of patrolling (which would come up again during the HTL the following month): Planning, Recon, Security, Control, Common Sense, and practiced how we'd approach a potential enemy spot that we'd have to clear, on uneven terrain with high ground on one side and a river bed on the other side.  We also practiced clearing a bridge, sending scouts to either side of the near end to check for danger, then sending scouts to the far side to do the same check then signal back, then sending the team over and pulling security, and having the far side security fall in as well.  

We learned about how mortars are used.  We learned about how to stealthily traverse.  We learned how to cache our gear so that it would be safe while we rucked along a river bed.  We did a little water work pretending to let mortars fly in knee-deep water.

We got out of the river bed, then were challenged to carry our "missile" along challenging terrain.  We cleared more bridges, and for fun, let the bridge burn after we crossed it.  But, we found out that we now had to find a new log.  We weren't able to find a suitably sized one by the time we got to the end of the trail.  

We learned about Claymores, and since we didn't have a log, we each had to carry a rock the size of a Claymore.  It was 20-30#, probably.  Along with the rest of our coupons.  The team was fantastic, though, and everyone was fully dedicated to doing what they could to help find a way to carry all the stuff, doubling up and everything.  There were never any arguments or complaints or shirking from work, which was so impressive to see.  

It was getting dark by the time we made it back to the start point.  We weren't done yet, though.  We went around answering quiz questions, to see if we absorbed all the info that we learned during the event, related to Fallujah and mortars and claymores and patrolling.  If anyone got a question wrong, we had 10 reps of some exercise involving our rucks plus the rock.  We kept going until everyone got 2 questions right (and once you got 2 right, you could stop).  If you got one wrong, you'd have to wait until we went all the way around the circle again for you to try again, which could mean lots more PT depending on whether everyone else knew the answer, though.  Everyone persevered, though, and we ended up creating a little monument with the rocks, for posterity. 

It was a pretty awesome event.  It might be my favorite Light so far.  It had elements of everything I love about GORUCK.  Cadre Dan did such a good job of integrating Fallujah with the GORUCK experience with SF lessons and good living.

GORUCK Mog Mile HTL - CLT 2019

When I started PATHFINDER Class 017, I remember stating that I had 2 goals that I wanted to work towards.  One was finishing the recently announced Star Course 50 miler.  The other was completing an HTL, which consists of the 24 hour "Heavy" event, the 12 hour "Tough" event, and the 6 hour "Light" event, all within the course of a weekend.  Even the Heavy is hard, with a published finishing rate of 50%.  Toughs sometimes feel really hard to get through.  Stringing it all together with little to no sleep during all three events is something else.  But people say that if you are going to tackle the Heavy, you might as well go for all three at the same time, because the Heavy is such a terrible time that you don't want to have to repeat it for a second go around if you want to do a Heavy once before trying an HTL.

In 3Q 2019, GORUCK announced that they would be changing up the format of HTLs and reducing the number of HTLs offered, after the end of this year.  In 2020, they only plan to offer 2 HTLs, to make them more special with higher numbers, and people who go for it can only go for the HTL, and not some subset of the events.  That means that there will be no fresh bodies in the Tough or the Light for the HTL candidates to rely on.

I had already signed up for 1 or maybe 2 HTLs towards the end of the year before that announcement, if I remember correctly.  I was at a point in my training early in 2019 where I felt like I could do a T/L reasonably well (I had done 2 by then), as long as I took care of myself between the T and the L.  A Heavy involves a lot more weight and a lot more miles, though, so I knew that I still had some training to do, but I had a year to do it. 

The first HTL on the schedule for me was the Mog Mile in CLT on Oct 4-6.  Based on my experience with my first T/L in Charleston, I knew that being able to reset your body between events was important.  You might be roughed up after the Tough, so you want to at least make yourself fresh again, to not only physically be ready for the Light, but also mentally be ready for the Light.  In Charleston, I waited out the time between the T and the L in a hot car.  It wasn't until I took a hobo shower in a public fountain and changed clothes that I felt like a new woman.  Before that, I was chafing and feeling sandy and dirty and sweaty.  After I put on new clothes, I was still stiff, but at least I didn't feel dirty and chafing everywhere.  After some mental battles, I moved out to go to the Light.  Once the welcome party started and I got my body moving again, even my muscles felt normal.  Lessons learned: 1) Changing into clean clothes makes a big difference after an event.  2) Even if you feel stiff, just go to the event, and you'll find that you'll loosen up.

About a month prior to the HTL, right after I had to drop the Vietnam Tough, I inquired with GORUCK whether I'd be able to transfer the Heavy to an event next year like Bragg.  The answer was no because of their new no transfer policy, though, so that made the decision to keep the HTL on the calendar easy.  I wouldn't necessarily end up doing all three, but I'd lose nothing by keeping the option open.

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Between the Asheville Horse Soldier Tough and the HTL, I had 2 weeks to recover.  Between more training and recovery, I needed recovery the most.  I needed some training, because I haven't really been able to train.  More than training, I needed experience.  Belman and Cleve were the cadres assigned to the event.  Cleve had recently run an HTL in NYC, where he brought out his deck out cards.  I hadn't done that workout yet, so that was something I wanted to practice. I had planned on doing it by now, but with everything else, I hadn't gotten around to it yet until the 2 weeks before the event.

Monday, Sept 23:
I was still kind of on a high from being able to finish the Tough, and I felt decent 2 days after the event, so I went for the deck of cards.  Cleve's choice of exercises per suit will vary from workout to workout, but I did what he prescribed in NYC.

• Hearts: 8-ct Body Builders (kick out and in before the pushup, hands in the air but no jump at the end)
• Spades: Brickyard Manmakers (clean-squat-press, OH hold while lunging left then right, down)
• Clubs: 4-ct Flutter Kicks
• Diamonds: Ruck Swings
• Jokers: Simulated a 100m run with 25s of Jogging in place (I was in my garage)

I did 12 reps for face cards and 20 reps for Aces.  The other cards were whatever the number was.

I took the time to get my waist belt on each time I did Body Builders.  I kept the cards going, otherwise, one at a time.  The first half wasn't bad.  I started getting tired halfway through.  The last fourth, I had to mentally grind through.  

I normally do ruck workouts with a 20# plate and nothing else (no water, no gear).  I did this workout with my full challenge load-out this time (20# plate, couple of Nalgenes of water, windbreaker, food, other gear), to truly simulate what it would feel like during the event.  

The workout took me 1:00:25.  It is a pretty good workout, if you're looking for something to do.

Wednesday, Sept 25:

I have not been running much at all since the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February, which hadn't been the race that I had hoped for.  I gladly decided to shift my focus towards the HTL after that.  I've been running maybe once per week since then, and only a few miles each time.  

Even though the HTL is a slow endurance thing, I really wanted to get one solid run in, to try to boost my cardio and give me every physical advantage I could get going in.  

Amaaaazingly, this interval session tied the best ones I've done in the past, and felt easier than all the other times I've done the same workout.  I couldn't believe it.  If I could do this after not running much, whaaat?  I wonder how it is.  I've heard that heavy strength training like squats help people like 5K racers drop their times a lot.  Maybe HDT had the same effect.  

Workout: 1 mi warmup, 4x [0.75 mi @ 9mph, 0.25 mi @ 7.5mph].

5.0 mi in 36:04, 7:13 ave, 2 degrees of incline.

My foot had been feeling a little better on this day.  I was psyched to do an interval session at all, let alone a record-tying one.  No one system became a limiting factor, either (between cardio vs. muscles).  I didn't grunt as much as I normally do during intervals.

Oh, after my non-smart watch finally died (after being cracked by a ruck plate during an event, and then having water... fresh, chlorinated, then salt water... leak through the crack later on), I finally got a Garmin Fenix 5s Plus.   I used the old one as long as I could, though, duct tape, rice container, and all.  Anyway, I used the new watch for the treadmill run.  It has some neat features, but it'll take a while to explore and learn them all.

Saturday, Sept 28:

Apart from the Deck of Cards, something else I needed to practice for experience's sake was the Robbie Miller WOD.  That workout replaces the old PT test at Heavies, as of this year.  My area ruck club was hosting a weekend workout which would consist of half of the full Robbie Miller WOD (which is not the same as the half Robbie Miller WOD), replacing the rucks with a single 3 mile coupon ruck, followed by half of the Deck of Cards.  Since the HTL was in our city, it was good prep for anyone who was signed up for any of the events.  It was just what I needed.  Maybe a little close to the actual event from a timing and recovery standpoint, but that's OK... I didn't have to push everything 100%, and could focus on gaining the experience.

5 of us showed up at 6:30am on Saturday morning at some church in the north.  It was still dark then.  None of the locals ended up being able to make it, but we heard rumors of some pull-up bars somewhere around the compound.  We walked the perimeter of the giant parking lot to a little hideaway behind some fenced-in utilities, and discovered a little workout zone that the boys (the F3 men or maybe the men from that ruck club) had built.  It was kind of funny, because it reminded me of a grown-up version of what little boys would've built as their fort.  Except these were grown men, so they had stuff like pull-up bars and piles of heavy things to carry, instead.  

We started with half of the Robbie Miller WOD, meaning 6/12 sets of

• 6 pull-ups
• 6 burpees 
• 6 4-ct mountain climbers
• 6 ruck getups

I only used the ruck for the getups, since that's what we should typically see at Heavies.  Also, I didn't want to push it.  For pull-ups, I can do 6 strict ones maybe once, and then it probably goes down 1 rep each set from there, so I just did the best that I could for the gap, either kipping or only going halfway up or taking a break. 

After that, we went back to our cars to pick up coupons.  We each brought one or two options.  We went what looked like a lighter set, but it ended up feeling plenty heavy once we began.  We organized a rotation, where we'd swap every 0.3 mi.  I originally suggested 0.5 mi, but the leader was right that 0.3 mi worked out better, since there were 5 of us.  Each person could take each coupon twice (and get 2 rounds with a break).  Also, that ended up being much better, because the water jug was terrible to carry, and I can't imagine going much more than 0.3 mi.

• 20# ammo can
• 30# Brute Force sandbag
• 25# bag with ammo
• Break
• 40# water jug (this was the worst)

After a little segment along the main road, we were able to go onto a greenway, so that made for easy rucking.  This really is a nice place to do workouts!  We turned around after 1.5 mi and made our way back.

During the coupon ruck, the soles of my running shoes actually came off.  It was only a thin outer layer on the heel section, so it wasn't too bad.  I started wearing retired 10 year old shoes, since I needed extra arch support, and I didn't want to use non-retired running shoes for rucking purposes.  I guess the glue has deteriorated over time, though.  I always have lots of shoes in my car, so I swapped it out for another pair.  It ended up being kind of good that this happened to me during this workout, for reasons you'll find out later in this post.

After the shoe change, it was time for the half deck of cards.  I eyeballed half of the deck, explained the suits and reps, and then started flipping.  We did the reps at our own pace.  I'd wait until everyone looked done before flipping the next card.  

We finished, and I happily drove home to shower and eat.

15 min for the half of a full Robbie Miller WOD, 70 min for the 3 mi coupon ruck (23:16 ave), 25 min for the randomly selected half deck of cards.

Later on, I re-discovered Cadre Cleve's podcast on All Day Ruckoff.  In it, he described the Deck of Cards workout, and explained how he changes up the reps to scale to the difficulty of the event, how classes need to really turn and burn to make the time hack and therefore not have to repeat the workout again later, how he uses jokers as a little break from the PT, and how he changes up the exercises but always likes 8-cts for Hearts.  That was also good to listen to... not only that portion, but the rest of the podcast where I got to learn more about why he likes to lead the events, and to get to know him as a Cadre better.

THE WEEK BEFORE

Mental Prep

The week before the event, I decided to completely rest.  My upper body was sore from what was probably the pull-ups, for a number of days.  It did finally start to feel normal again maybe Wednesday night.  My feet needed to rest, too.  I was limping around at work all week.

My mind was ready for the event, though.  Wednesday or Thursday night, I opened up the GORUCK Show podcast's Episode 36 - One Long Weekend, which talks about HTLs.  Various HTL finishers at HQ talked about how they got through their HTLs.  Lee McCarthy thought of it as one long weekend, which made it manageable.  Don't make any decisions to quit before daylight even breaks.  That's a good point, because before daylight hits, you haven't even finished a Tough's worth yet, and you can always do a Tough.  And once daylight hits, then the rest is mentally a lot easier to tackle.

I don't remember where the rest of these mental strategies came from, but other ones I considered were:

1) Admin, the Robbie Miller WOD, and the Timed 12 alone will take up maybe 7 hours already, plus story time and bathrooms and stuff, and you're already much of the way through a Tough.  Plus, that portion would be much easier than a normal Tough, because there are zero coupons for all of that.  You might have only like 5 hours of actual rucking with coupons and PT and stuff.  And by then, it's daylight, and then you just have to survive the rest.

2) Take it one chunk at a time.  Don't psych yourself out by thinking that you have 24 + 12 + 6 hours and 60 or so miles to do.  Set smaller milestones.  I told myself that the first goal would be to get through the Heavy.  If I did that, I could at least say that I've done a Heavy.  After that, if I did the Tough, too, then I'd earn Belman's Cadre patch, since I had done a previous Tough with him in Charleston for Baghdad.  After that, I'd just have to get through the Light, and I'd have my HTL.  Take it one evolution at a time, too, if things get that bad.

I don't remember if this was all I was thinking in the week leading up, but between these ways of approaching the weekend, and feeling good about my practice with the Deck of Cards and the Robbie Miller WOD, and seeing good times in my interval session and my recent Timed 12, I was feeling pretty good.  Just like when I had prepped for the DC Star Course, reviewed Road Warrior and the potential route and my gear, it felt like the HTL was a done deal.  When I prepare, know what to do, and feel like I can do it, it's like it's as good as done.  I felt that way going into the weekend.

My foot was iffy even walking up until the day of the event, but mentally, I was ready.

Gear Prep

I have lots of rucks, so I pampered myself with fresh rucks for each event.  I packed each one with the food and windbreaker that I wanted.  I did shift weight, a dry bag, tissue, ID/cash, reflectors (because I forgot to put different sets on each ruck), first aid, Nalgenes, and my headlamp from ruck to ruck as the weekend progressed.

For the Heavy, I planned on using a nearly new Wolf Grey 21L Rucker v2.1.  No events yet - just training so far.  For the Tough, I planned on using my Steel 21L Rucker v2.1.  I planned on using a Wolf Grey 21L Rucker v1.0 for the Light, but ended up switching back to the Wold Grey 21L Rucker v2.1, so that I could take advantage of the side and bottom handles.  Plus, I wouldn't have a third ruck to have to worry about washing afterwards.  I did end up switching up the patches that I used.  I went with "FOR YOU I WILL NOT QUIT" for the Heavy, because that was going to be the big one, and I wanted that extra motivation.  During the Tough and the Light, I wore my Heavy patch.  

Within each ruck, I did my typical setup.  Food in the front slant pocket.  ID/cash and first aid in the top inner pocket.  Tissue in a plastic bag in the lower mesh pocket.  Dry bag attached to the D-ring for gear that I don't want to get wet (extra socks, plus a wind breaker this weekend because it might be in the low 60s, and we might get wet, buff).  2 Nalgenes and another bottle for cherry juice or more water as my water source, just sitting on the bottom of the ruck.

I also packed a tough bag of clothes for each event, so that I could grab and change in between events.  There was also a kit bag with extra clothes and gear, in case anything broke or needed swapping out.  The patches had significance again... HDT for the Heavy, because it has the word "Heavy" in it.  The T/L patch for the Tough.  And then "Failures happen.  Quitting, however, is a choice." for the Light, because there's no point in quitting at that point.  I didn't seek out that last patch, but I got it in a bundle, and it works ok for the theme.  I heard from AARs that you don't want to have to think much between events.  Make it easy for yourself, because you'll be really tired and short on time.

Next, a cooler for cold drinks (flavored seltzer which I started getting into so that I didn't do so much of the slightly caffeinated recovery drinks, slightly caffeinated recovery drinks, cherry juice, tomato juice, preworkout, bottles of water) plus food (turkey sandwich, chocolate, oranges and carrots).  A bag of extra bottled water.  A big box that was sub-divided into sections for food (not sure that I ended up using any of this, since awesome support people ended up bringing real cooked food), supplements, and personal care (toothbrush/toothpaste for between events, sunscreen,... that's what I actually used, but I also had muscle rub, KT tape, etc).

Lastly, a 5-gallon bucket that I used to hold an 80# water bag as a water supply for a hobo shower, which also included a towel and another container to help pour water.  Plus another 5-gallon bucket to hold all my dirty clothes from each event.  I always keep some camping chairs in my trunk, too.  I also brought a bag with many different shoe options.  My feet may feel like they need different levels of cushioning, stability, and arch support, so I brought choices.

BEFORE THE HEAVY

I took Friday off of work, so that I could sleep in, take extra naps, not worry about work, and do what I needed to do with final preparations.  I didn't actually really sleep as much as I had envisioned.  Maybe an hour or two of a nap?  

In terms of fueling, I'm pretty in tune with what my body needs, and am comfortable listening to it and giving it what it wants.  I usually eat lots of fruits and vegetables, so during the daytime, I did this, especially because it might be a while before I get my usual quantities.  There might be more that I've forgotten, but here's what I recorded.

• Skim Milk with Dark Chocolate melted in
• Tortilla Chips and Salsa
• Orange
• Carrot
• Apple
• 4 pieces of Turkey Bacon
• Cheerios
• Gelato
• Half of a Turkey and Mozerella Sandwich

My left shin (on the same leg as the one with the foot issue) was tender, so I iced my lower legs in my 5 gallon bucket.  I got in my last shower.  I did all my day-of gear prep with filling Nalgenes with ice (which Cleve would ask me about later during the Deck of Cards, when he heard it sloshing around during each movement in the 8-count Body Builders).  I filled the cooler with the cold drinks and perishable food.  I moved all my gear into my car.

I got to the starting point about an hour early.  The group looked solid... lots of tough-looking guys, plus my battle buddy.  We got a "before' picture.  I decided to go with Simple Pants for the Heavy.  I've worn them at 2-3 Lights, and maybe a Tough before.  The BDUs give me chafing issues that I normally don't notice until after the event when I shower.  I didn't want to have to deal with chafing, even though it would've been nice to have big pockets.

When everyone was gathering a bit, I first realized that I didn't have reflectors on my Heavy ruck, so I went to my car to grab those from the other ruck and put them on.  Then, I realized that I still had my watch on, so I went back to my car to stash that.  The car was only like 30 feet away, so NBD, but I guess there was just a lot going on, and a lot to keep track of.

THE HEAVY

We formed up, and was introduced to not only our two Cadres but also a special guest, Aaron Hand, who was in the convoy in Mog.  We had the honor of having not only one but two people who had been there, joining us for the event, and teaching us along the way.  There were 25 who started.  All had done at least 1 GORUCK event before.  There was a fair number for whom this would be their first Heavy and HTL attempt.  25 is a good number... the more the better... better than 9, like some Heavies have had.

Then, it began in a flash bang.... overhead holds with lunge walks to another field.  It wasn't too far, but it was far enough.  

In that field, we were introduced to the Deck of Cards.  The suits were the same as the ones that I had practiced, but the rep counts would be Heavy-style... 30 for aces, 20 for faces.  Our time hack was 1:15.  Doing the reps as a class would take longer than doing it alone.  I knew that I had done it in 1 hour, with Tough-style rep counts.  1:15 seemed challenging.  A really fit-looking teammate from the Horse Soldier Tough in Asheville led the workout.  The first few cards took a while.  We found our groove, though.  One of our teammates had a water bladder issue.  And then there was one who was struggling with the PT and the heat.  Oh yeah, it was literally 100 degrees as I was driving in.  Not one of those "at first, the car is really hot and says 100 degrees but then cools down once you start driving"... it stayed 100 degrees.  It wasn't so bad by the time the event started, though, and we knew that it would continue to cool down the whole 24 hours.  We were lucky that the forecast had a remarkably cool Saturday planned, with clouds.

One thing that Cleve emphasized was that we were allowed to arrange the deck how we wanted, so there must be some optimal or more optimal way to do this.  But I'm not sure what that strategy is yet.  I've since heard that faces first was a good idea.  I suppose it could be.

Anyways, we ended up being 8 minutes over.  I'm surprised it was only 8 minutes.  I would've thought like 30 minutes, or something.  That guy stuck through it, though.  The team was really encouraging, and we got through it together.

It was dark by the time we were done with that.  The event had started at 6pm.  Sunset was at 6:55pm.  We went to a different part of the park to fill up on water, and then we made our way to the start of our Timed 12 miler.  I didn't know where our course would be, but it turned out that we'd be making 20 laps around the 0.6 mi pond in Freedom Park.  I did ruck shuffling/walking there for about 9.7 miles in 2.5 hours once before to play Pokemon (yes, I'm that cool), so I knew the lay of the land.  At least one other HTL Timed 12 had been done here, too.  The benefit of a looped course is that Cadres and teammates can keep an eye on each other more easily.  There's no chance of getting lost or messing up directions.  It's also a little less lonely, since you'll run into people more.

As I mentioned before, this was supposed to be the easy part.  No coupons... just challenge weight.  The flat course helps, too.  I went on the outside grass for extra cushioning for my poor feet when I could.  From Star Course training and events, I knew that any extra cushioning you could give yourself, even early in the event before you feet hurt, would save you later.  I shuffled from the start.  It's a shuffling motion, mostly because I have short legs, so I need fast turnover, especially because I like short steps to lessen the impact of each step.  I started maybe 1/3 of the way through the pack.  People caught up to me over time, though, and I was more mid-pack, and then dropped to maybe 2/3 down the pack.  I was starting to feel the effort.  

At this point, I remembered that when I would run long distances, it helped when I changed up my gait a bit.  That would give certain muscles a break, while I could continue making forward progress.  I tried taking longer steps, and that did help.  I stayed about as fast, if not faster.  I think I might've made up ground.  

I was on my own for most of it, which I was perfectly content with.  I chatted with a few groups along the way for a bit, especially at the beginning, but most of the time, I was just grinding away at the miles at my own pace.  

At one point, I felt like I could puke.  I hadn't eaten food yet.  I was drinking cherry juice.  Maybe the sugars fermented in my stomach or something.  I got over the feeling, so all was good.  Even when it wasn't comfortable, the rest of me apart from that feeling was fine, so I figured that worst case, I'd puke, feel better immediately, and then go on.  I don't normally have stomach issues, so that was odd.

We as a team had to bring the flag with us the whole time.  The guys in the front took it and swapped it around at the beginning.  There was one guy who finished first, who was running with that thing at the end.  He was so fast. 

20 is a lot of laps to keep track of.  I wished that I had had ranger beads.  But, I came up with an alternative.  I had put an extra hairband on my wrist, so I ended up using that.  For odd number lap completions, I had the band on my right wrist.  For even number completions, I had the band on my left wrist.  That made it easy to track.

Towards the end, I came across a guy who suddenly cramped up.  He was with his buddies at the time, so they also helped him.  I gave him a couple of mustard packets.  It's kind of hard to know what to do in situations like that.  You're being tested individually, but you also want to help teammates.  I felt I was going fast enough that I had enough of a time buffer to help for a while.  I didn't stay for more than a minute or two, though.  It's the same feeling that I had during the Spartan Hurricane Heats.  I'm not sure what happened to him, if he ended up making it.  Maybe, because I think before we set off after the Timed 12, we had lost two... one was the guy who had been struggling with the PT in the heat, who did complete the 12 but called it after that.  Another was a guy who had a medical issue and dropped himself after the PT.  

After I finished the 12, there were a few people who had 1 lap to go, but everyone else had finished or just finished.  I started stretching immediately.  I might've eaten a stick of jerky, too.  There was a porta potty nearby, which was handy.  I don't know my time, but I'd guess 3:10 or something.  The people who had one more 0.6 mi lap to go were supposedly cutting it close.  I don't know how close.

Before we left that area, Cleve went off for his rest break, and we filled up 4 5-gallon pillows of water.  We went back to the start point, where it was time to break out the coupons.  I think there were 4x120s and 3x100s, or something to that effect.  Plus the 50# team weight (which was one part of the Heavy's a little scary, but a little less so when you think of it as a sandbag, even though it's not a sandbag).  Speaking of the team weight, ours was a custom-built one that had an outline of a Black Hawk on it, along with the names of the 18 who were lost on that day.  That was really meaningful, but it was not comfortable to carry.  Front carrying was terrible, because the straps were long, so the weight was all the way down my front and would impact my steps since the bottom of it was mid-way between my knees and my hips.  The back carry was a little more tolerable, but it was 50#, so despite it being terrible posture, I'd lean way forward to try to get that thing more towards my center of mass as I rucked.

Before we were leaving, I looked down and noticed that there were gaps forming between the soles of my shoes and the main part of my shoe.  I was alarmed, having had my shoes fail during the 3 mile coupon ruck the previous weekend.  Very fortunately, our cars were 75m away.  I told the Cadre that my shoes were about to come apart, and that I could either just deal with it, or go to my car really quick to swap out for a different pair.  Fortunately, he let me go switch shoes.  That would've been terrible, to have the shoes fall apart somewhere far from my car, in the middle of the 36-ish more miles we'd end up doing before the 24 hours were over.  I am so fortunate.

So... 4 water pillows, maybe 7 sandbags that were all probably heavier than I was at that point, team weight, 2 extra sandbags that contained other empty sandbags, flag.  23 people.  I've never been at an event where the sandbags were that heavy before, and the Cadres were pretty excited about how extreme it was, too.  The most I've carried is 80#.  Since that was doable, I figured that 100# would also be doable, albeit for shorter distances.  I mostly stayed on the water pillows during the event.  I wouldn't be able to take the sandbags as effectively as the others, even with the sharing strategy.  Nobody was my height in this class.  I'd try to help by taking the water pillows as long as I could, instead.  

I have no idea where we went, but we rucked somewhere, stopped at a little field for a much-needed break at one point, then rucked some more.  Belman told us the background of Mog in a couple of chunks.  I do remember stopping at an amphitheater in South Park - Symphony Park.  I hadn't been there in everyday life before.  We broke up into 3 teams, where each team had a 120# linked to a 100#, to simulate a 220# casualty.  We did drills where we had to carry, lift, lunge, rush, low crawl the casualty around and around.  I ate a packet of almond butter.

I volunteered as the next TL (he was nearly going to give us some PT), and we rucked to Harris YMCA.  There, we did the Mog Mile Memorial WOD.

• 1 mi run
• 50 pull-ups (assisted or on low bars if needed)
• 4x [25 squats, 25 lunges]
• 4x [25 dips or pushups, 50m sprint]
• 100 ruck thrusters
• 50 pull-ups
• 1 mi run

It felt good to not be rucking.  With my foot issues, PT felt the best, so I was happy to be doing PT, especially mostly body weight PT.  It was a nice break.  Not that the pull-ups and thrusters weren't hard (even the modified pullups), but at least it wasn't carrying heavy things.

The record for that workout from all the people who had tried it before was a little over an hour.  By the time we wrapped it up, the sun had started to rise, and people were coming to the YMCA to play soccer and run.  The bathroom there opened, too, which was nice.  I might've eaten a fruit leather there, and maybe something else.

We got a lot of history on the day of the event packed into a talk, because Belman wanted us to get a chance to hear as many of his experiences as he could, and we wanted that opportunity to hear from him.  At that point, normally, we'd switch TL's again, but Belman asked if I wanted to continue, and the team seemed to be up for me continuing, so I did.  I was kind of afraid of having the responsibility of running the team while Cleve was around.  I hadn't had a Tough with him yet - only a Light and a Constellation.  I went with it, though.

I don't know exactly why I stayed TL.  Maybe since I wasn't much help on the sandbags at that time, it was better for the team if I helped keep everyone together, instead, to keep another body available for coupons.  Maybe it was because people were nice and wanted to help when I asked them to do things, vs. some other people asked them to do things?  I don't know.

Even though I was TL, I tried carrying a less full water pillow when I could, so that I could free up another body to help on the sandbags.  I didn't always have one, because the team was looking out for me and took it back anyways sometimes.  Towards the end of my tenure, I did trip a couple of times while carrying the water pillow on some uneven ground.  I think I was tired and therefore more prone to being clumsy by that time of day.  

We rucked to Quail Hollow Middle School, and settled at a nearby church field for Cleve's readings of the Medal of Honor citations for Shughart and Gordon.  Those guys' story amazes me.  They repeatedly volunteered themselves for what they probably knew would be their final act, in order to not leave a man behind and on his own.  I ate a granola bar, I think, before we left.  

A new TL volunteered, and I'm pretty sure he ended up being the TL until the end.  I took the team weight for the first time.  We tried a different method of coupon swaps, after getting some best practices from Cleve.  We tried switching after a certain number of paces, but that didn't work so well because not everyone needed to switch at the same time.  We eventually settled on more of a pairing system, and that seemed to work the best. 

We rucked a long time to get to Carolina Pavillion Shopping Center in Sterling.  I decided to give the 100# sandbag a try at that time.  I traded back and forth with another guy for a little while.  As we approached, Cleve said that he had some motivation waiting for us.  I thought he had arranged for us to get donuts or something.  Turns out that the motivation was a talk from Aaron Hand.  Not the donuts I was hoping for, but it was certainly a privilege to get to hear him talk about his experience in Mog.  It must be challenging to talk about such a difficult experience, so I appreciate his willingness to share.  He was very engaging, asking the class questions.  He would make a good Cadre one day, if he wanted to join GORUCK.

After the talk, it was time to go home, which was the good news.  The bad news was that it was 8+ miles away.  But at least we knew how far we needed to go now.  I ate some all-natural cheese puffs before we left.  Maybe some chocolate, too.

We would be on the greenway most of the time now.  We had to watch for cyclists.  We had some time hacks and incentives to go fast (the incentives were breaks).  That helped to break the 8 miles down into 2 mile chunks.  Because we had set a baseline pace of 35 min/mi during the first evolution with Cleve, he used that as the time hack benchmark for the rest of the ruck.

One thing that bothered me about my Wolf Grey Rucker v2.1 was that the right shoulder strap seemed to be at an angle against my shoulder, instead of flat, which dug into my shoulder and sports bra strap a bit.  I'd adjust it periodically, to try to make it better.  I wondered whether it was a small manufacturing misalignment, though.  I couldn't wait to swap back to my usual Steel Rucker v2.1.

Cleve broke out his drone and took some cool video while we were on the greenway.

The last stretch was hard.  We were exhausted.  The end was not in sight.  We weren't sure if we were even rucking in the right direction.

Later on, we came across Cadre, and I guess we were behind schedule, because some sandbags magically disappeared.  

We only had a little ways left to go before we were back at Freedom Park, but the greenway path that takes you there defies the rules of space and time.  You feel like you're going in circles and continuing to make left turns, yet you continue to see no signs of the park.  The signs just keep saying ever longer distances until you reach the park, but there's no park.  

About a mile from the end, one of the guys who had been a major workhorse for the team rolled his ankle on the drop-off from the sidewalk to the grass next to it.  It was a bad roll, and he was in major pain.  We were close, so we decided to 3-man carry him to the end.  This was like a real "leave no man behind" scenario.

We got to the end.  I could've cried at that time if I had let myself, but I held it in.  I think it was just from finally getting there after a long day.  We were already at 24 hours, so at the end, we repeated the names of the 18 who were lost in Mog, doing maybe 10 reps of some exercise that Belman picked after each individual was honored.  Then, we got patched, including the ankle casualty who got patched lying down.

Stats: 38 rucking miles, 2 running miles, 24 hours.

POST HEAVY INTERLUDE

After the Heavy, some quick congratulations were shared all around.  We didn’t linger too long,, though, because we had 3 hours between the end of the Heavy and the start of the Tough.  You needed to be at the Tough early to form up, so you didn’t have a full 3 hours, either.  I debated whether I wanted to go home to shower.  Showering would be a bit more comfortable.  I wasn’t really sandy or anything like that, though.  I decided to use the hour that I would’ve spent driving to stay in place and rest, instead.  It would also reduce the risk of me either running into issues getting back in time or deciding to not go back for the Tough.  I’d be onsite, so that others could wake me up if they happened to see me in the parking lot fast asleep. 

One of my GRT friends came out to support throughout the event.  She brought the most amazing BBQ with Mac and Cheese and other sides.  BBQ is perhaps my favorite food, so it was awesome.  I ate up, with a windbreaker on for some warmth.  Then, I changed into my Tough clothes to get some clean clothes on, and washed up a bit with a wet towel.  I didn’t do anything more than that, because it was cold, and I wasn’t that dirty. 

I wore BDUs, since I didn't bring a second pair of Simple Pants, and by this time, there was only the Tough and the Light left, even if I did end up chafing.  I had to re-use gloves because I left my other pair at home.

I rested in the car, next.  My plan was to sleep for about an hour.  I had messaged one of my friends who was coming to the Tough (who had also offered to bring food), to ask him to wake me up at a certain time if I wasn’t already up.  While I was resting, I heard some commotion.  Cops had come around, saying that they planned to tow anyone who parked in the lot overnight.  That ended the nap plans, and I moved my car to a gravel lot outside of the park gates.  It was alright, because I needed to start prepping my gear for the Tough.  

I was happy to switch to my older Rucker v2.1, because I knew that those shoulder straps wouldn’t cause me any issues.  I shifted my weight, reflectors, dry bag, water, ID/cash, first aid, and tissue over.  Food was already in place.  I was slow moving.  I’m glad I already had some sort of a plan, because even thinking through moving that handful of things took some time.  While I was getting ready, the couple that runs PATHFINDER came over to say hi.  I didn’t expect to see them at the event, so that was a nice surprise.  I shared a few quick insights about how the Heavy went, hopefully at least somewhat coherently.  I said that I was able to use a number of learnings from Star Course training to help me get through the Heavy, and that I wished that I had been able to contribute more on the sandbags during the event.  After the quick chat, I continued with the prep. 

Because I was now parked outside the gates, I had a little walk to get back into the park, but it wasn’t too bad.  I grabbed another can of pre-workout to sip while I made my way back to the start.  At the start, I ran into others.  They also had to move their cars.  Someone had put out a post to warn everyone else about moving cars.  Some support people helped to shuttle participants back inside the gate to the start. 

THE TOUGH

There were 36? who showed up for the Tough.  It was good to have a bunch of fresh, strong bodies join us.  There were 2 other girls who joined in for the fun with my SoS battle buddy and I.  We swapped out team weights for the tough, from the 50# Mog beast, to a perhaps 30# anchor-themed one.  It had come from a Pearl Harbor event.  We did the usual admin, and then kicked things off with some PT in place.  Some standard stuff.  Nothing too crazy, in terms of rep counts.  After that, while some used the restroom, others broke out the empty sandbags to get them and the water pillows filled back up.

A newbie TL was picked, and he came up to me to ask if I could be ATL.  I was kind of surprised, and probably unenthusiastically told him “I can”.  Turns out he had heard me sounding like I knew what I was doing earlier at the start (not knowing that I had done the Heavy already).  We got people lined up to go out to the gravel parking lot, where the sandbags from the Heavy were waiting for us. 

While we walked to the lot, I started giving some pointers to everyone in the line.  I explained that the flag should always be in the front, I explained the meaning of “half step”, and I explained the importance of not breaking contact.  I did this because there were new people, and there are a lot of GORUCK-specific terms and unspoken rules that they may not understand.  At that point, I was tired, and not in the mood to have to suffer through mistakes that could be avoided, so I tried to lay that all out there.  At the time, I worried a little bit that I wasn’t really coaching the newbie TL as much as I should.  Looking back, though, I don’t think there’s any harm in sharing those basics. 

Once we got to the sandbags, I did try giving him advice and having him share a little bit more.  We actually had 2 ATLs (he had a choice on how many ATLs to pick).  There was double the number of sandbags now, but the new ones were lighter than the original set (with 60s and 80s, maybe).  The Tough crowd was good about embracing it, though.

We started along the greenway.  It’s a little narrow, with enough for 3 across.  It was a little storming at the beginning, trying to find swaps for people on the sandbags while on the move.  One of the Heavy guys proposed a great idea along the way – have one of the ATLs step down to be an extra man on the coupons, which was an awesome idea, so I shared that with the TL, who arranged it.  I stayed as ATL, and we made our way to the fountain that many Charlotte GORUCK classes find themselves at. 

We put our coupons down, then crowded around Belman to hear what was next.  He started by sharing some background on Mog.  We were all still standing at the time.  I had expected to go right into getting some instructions about the work that we had to do next, otherwise I would’ve asked whether we could ground rucks and/or sit for a bit.  Since he was telling his story, though, despite the extra load it meant for the tired Heavy people, I didn’t interrupt.  After the story, he explained the WOD that we were about to do, split into teams of 5. 

For the WOD, we started with a run to and from the fountain, from the area where we had started.  Maybe some ruck swings?  Then, 4x [25 squats, 25 lunges], 4x [25 pushups, 25 flutter].  Maybe something else?  Then a run to the fountain, where we did 18 hydro burpees, to honor the 18 lost in Mog.  My ruck got inundated with water and was really heavy during the hydro burpees.  The fountain ground was slippery with a medium thick layer of algae on the floor.  The algae easily got stirred up as we agitated the water.

After we got back out, people recovered any stuff they had stashed for safekeeping outside of the rucks and water.  Then, we re-assembled and counted up.  A new TL didn’t volunteer immediately, so we did an undetermined number of overhead squats.  The sound of Belman’s sharp “up”, “down” will not be one that I soon forget.  Someone volunteered the second time around. 

Our next movement was to the Vietnam Memorial in Thompson Park.  We were all wet from the fountain, so during story time, we got cold.  Belman let us grab jackets from our rucks that were on the other side of the park, albeit with a time hack.  I was kind of looking forward to getting moving again, in order to warm up, not that I didn't appreciate the rest.

Our next stop was Independence Park (not to be confused with Freedom Park).  We did what felt like ea lot of walking to get there.  We missed the turn at one point, while Belman was already waiting at the park, which wasn't good.  Rucking there, I was doing all I could just to help with the water pillow and a little sandbag when I could get my hands on one of the smaller ones.  I often rucked with my eyes closed half the time, opening them long enough periodically to make sure I was still going straight and not about to run into anyone.  My vision also got to the point where I kind of only saw a few sketched outlines of people and things, with not much in the way of depth perception, because I was in a sleepy place.  

When we finally found the park, we were slow to form up at one point, and things took a turn.  We weren't taking the event seriously enough, so we did 20 rounds of reverse bear crawls up the side of a small but steep hill.  Even a few rounds will make you feel it, let alone 20.  I kept thinking he'd let us stop early at some point, after we gained an appreciation for the seriousness of the event, but no.  Afterwards, Belman pointed out that someone didn't do all of their reps and was disappointed.  We linked up the sandbags and did some log PT with the chain of sandbags.  At that point, Belman and Cleve switched out.  

Cleve took us to the other side of the park, where we filled up a few more sandbags, I'm pretty sure.  After that, I think we rucked back to Freedom Park.  It's possible that we went somewhere else, but I don't remember any other stops right now.  It was still pretty early in the event, or at least it felt pretty early in the event.  I didn't feel like we had rucked that many miles yet, so I thought  this was some kind of mind game, where they were going to take us by the start point and our cars, and then have us move onwards again, to see if anyone was tempted to quit.  

We stayed in the park, though, for a game of cards... the Deck of Cards.  Hearts were still 8-count Body Builders.  Spades were still Brickyard Manmakers.  Clubs were still Flutter Kicks.  Diamonds, however, were now overhead squats to start with.  The run for Jokers was longer this time... we had been on the island in the middle of the pond at Freedom Park, and we had to run off the island and up a hill.  

We started it out.  We had to stay together with the movements, as usual.  Not everyone was doing the movements to Cleve's standards, so he called on one person and had them lead the exercises.  That person struggled with self-doubt, but this trial by fire pushed him past what he thought his limits were.  Because the team was counting on him (sometimes doing static holds until the movement was done right), he pushed himself harder than he ever had before.  He came close to quitting (one person had quit during the deck earlier) multiple times, I'm sure, but the team encouraged him.  It was hard to see him struggle like that, but it was really powerful to see him fight through those demons, and to see the team come around him like that.  There really are some stellar people on the team, who wouldn't let their teammate quit.  We worked on that deck for a long time.  The sun was rising when we were still doing the deck.  I was surprised that the sun was already rising.  

When we finally finished the deck, we had a mission - take casualties and coupons up to the hill we used for the Jokers earlier.  We had a time hack.  We were allowed to do bounding, as long as we pulled security.  Along the way, we got more casualties.  The team worked together to make it up the hill, though.  After that, we brought the coupons back to the start point, where we formed up again.

We did 18 reps of various exercises this time, to honor the 18.  Then, the patching ceremony.  Well-earned especially by that one guy in the Deck of Cards, for whom this was Tough #1.

Stats:  If you had asked me, I would've guessed that we went like 6 miles during the event.  It turns out we did double that, though.  It really felt short, distance-wise.  But I suppose I wouldn't have guessed that the Heavy was 38 miles, either.

THE TOUGH/LIGHT INTERLUDE

Things were a little more relaxed after the Tough.  I was still feeling pretty decent.  There was more time between the Tough and the Light, since the Light started 5 hours later.  I rucked back to the gravel parking lot where my car had been parked overnight.  I almost went home to shower, but for some of the same reasons that I stayed in the parking lot instead of going home between the Heavy and the Tough, I ended up staying between the Tough and Light.  It wasn't too hot in the car, so I could stay there comfortably.  I changed and did another hobo shower and brushed my teeth again.  

For the Light, I'd be wearing a GORUCK Mog Commemorative t-shirt, plus shorts and long socks and arm sleeves.  I ended up wearing the same pair of shoes for all three events... Salmon XR Mission... the same shoes that I wore in both Star Courses, too.  I knew that the combination of those shoes plus the off-the-shelf arch support insoles that I put in them were good enough for the Heavy, so I didn't want to risk changing anything up with that for the other two events.  They were damp, but not bad.

I thought about using the Rucker v1.0 as originally planned, but I decided to go back to the Rucker v2.1 that I used during the Heavy.  The one from the Tough was wet and had dirt in parts that would've potentially chafed me, so I used the drier one from the Heavy, even though the right shoulder strap had been uncomfortable before.  I figured that the Light was going to be too short to give me much trouble with the strap anyways.  I wanted the side and top and bottom handles for PT, too.  I'd rather have that extra convenience than have a perfectly clean ruck to use.

I ate the other half of the turkey sandwich that I had started before the Heavy.  I ate the rest of the BBQ and Mac and Cheese that I had had before the Tough.  I drank a can of Seltzer water as I waited around for the start of the Light.  I didn't want to have a third caffeinated beverage, because after the Light, I wanted to be able to sleep.  I wasn't really tired, either.  

I might've slept for an hour, before I drove back to the park to use the restroom and get my gear ready.  I was happy to see some additional friends who came out for the Light.

THE LIGHT

We had a big class of 61 people.  It felt big.  We had Aaron Hand join us as a participant.  Cadre Fagan also came to watch.  As usual, there was a decent number of newbies at the Light.

It was sunny and hot at the start.  I don't think we did any PT right there, because of the heat.  I think we probably went straight to another field in the park, where we did a modified Mog WOD in groups of 61/5.  My group had 5 HTL candidates in it, plus some other solid guys, so we worked our way through the WOD pretty smoothly.

• 1/4 mi run
• 25 high pulls
• 4 x [10 squats, 10 lunges]
• 4 x [10 pushups, 100m sprint]
• 50 ruck thrusters
• 25 high pulls
• 1/4 mi run

Rucks for everything except the runs.  I'm not sure if I have the number of reps right.  One tough BAB's daughter was doing the runs with us, and I think some of the exercises with us, which was cute.  Her kids are going to be incredible GRTs one day, if they're as tough as their mom.

We learned about Mog after that. It was less sunny now, which was good, since it was hot.

Sitting there, since I was still kind of responsible for making sure the rest of the HTLers stayed awake, I looked around at them a lot.  Looked into their tired eyes.  Having gone through all that stuff together, I got this feeling that I don't get at Toughs or Lights (but I do at Star Course), where you care for them not only like they're your brother or sister, but that they're an extension of yourself.  It was just a notable feeling.

We went back to the start area for restrooms (since you can't go in the woods in the daylight very easily).  We stayed organized in our 5 "chalks", with designated chalk leaders helping to keep each group in line.  Each chalk had 3 sandbags, and a water pillow.  There was a high ratio of participants to coupons.

We rucked to the famous fountain again, where we did more hydro-burpees.  

We then went to nearby Midtown Park, to hear some of Belman and Aaron Hand's personal stories.  

   

It was getting a little chilly again.  It's crazy how you could go between hot and shivering so many times during a weekend.  With being chilly, it was also easier for my body to get tight.  We were on our way back home now, though.  Back on the greenway, to the endex.  

At the endex, we did sets of 30 reps, per group who had lost people during Gothic Serpent.  Patches for the Light class.  We had covered about 4.5 miles.

Smiles all around.  Belman's son was there.  The HTL patches were given out.  I was readying myself for a final set of PT before getting it, but there was none of that.  Little Commander gave out the patches.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Long weekend.  It was hard keeping track of what day it was.  Just took it one step at a time.

The hardest part... the preparation leading up to the event.  Putting in the training.  Mentally preparing and readying yourself for it.  Once that's done, the rest is a matter of execution.  

It's kind of crazy to think that I DNSed a Tough, Limped through a Light, briefly and somewhat exasperatedly jokingly thinking about selling all my rucks, giving up rucking, and going back to running, surviving a Tough, and then finishing this, all in the matter of about 6 weeks.  I'm still limping, but at least exercise makes it feel normal, and coupons are no longer impossible for my foot to bear.  

I have a lot of good friends, and this is a very kind community of people.  The team building goes beyond what just happens during events.  People support each other outside of the events, too.

People are a very powerful "why".  By the end of this, the patch really didn't mean so much.  

Fortunately, I have plans for some more goals to reach in the future.  Otherwise, coming off of something like this could be hard.  I don't take it for granted for a second that I'll make it to the starting line of those events healthy.  I was crazy fortunate that I started this HTL weekend at all, and probably have many prayer warriors to thank for that.  But it's good to have the next thing to look forward to, and people to look forward to doing it with.