Last Saturday was a perfect Trifecta. It was my birthday, U of M played and defeated Notre Dame, and it started at 4:45AM when I woke up for GoRuck Light 090 in Detroit. I have done a couple of these challenges now, Tough Mudder and Merrill Down and Dirty, and now GoRuck. GoRuck is different. Very different.
Tough Mudder and Down & Dirty are your ‘standard’ mud run meets obstacle course. You basically run, then climb over or duck under something, then run some more… in Tough Mudder’s case you get zapped or frozen as well. You will help lift a buddy, cheer someone on, give out a lot of fist bumps and pats on the back.
The difference is that in these obstacle courses you move as a group, while in GoRuck, you move as a team. The psychological exercise is much more significant than the physical during GoRuck. I found myself much more focused more on the people and rucks in front of me, beside me, and behind me than I did myself. Right out of the gate we fell into a formation, and in two lines lunge stepped/bear crawled/crab walked 1.2 miles, keeping close with the person in front of us. Your pace was not dictated by your ability, but on that of the person in front of you. If you slowed down, you slowed down up to 30 people behind you, and if you sped up, you just left up to 30 people behind. You are not moving as an individual, you are moving as a team.
This went on for a little over 6 hours. Bags never touched the ground, if you needed a break, there were 72 teammates eager to carry your bag for you while you rested up. If you were rested you volunteered to carry one of the team weights (sandbags). It may sound cheesy, but it was a little bit of an honor to carry one for our last leg, and I didn’t want to give it up once I got it.
We ran, we crawled, we carried wood, and had a damn good time doing it.
If there is any question about if I really enjoyed my ruck around the D, 48 hours after it ended, I signed up for the GoRuck Challenge in Ann Arbor. I want my GRT patch!
We had some super nice folks tagging along and taking pictures, here are several of the pictures from GoRuck Light – Detroit!
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