I thought I had joined a ‘cult’ like community when I got into CrossFit. Then I did a GORUCK Challenge.
Somehow, I was able to find 6 friends crazy enough to follow me around Ann Arbor, doing push ups, carrying a cooler filled with beer and dumbbells, bear crawling, crab walking, and all sorts of other messed up stuff for over 9 miles this past Saturday morning. And it was awesome. So much more fun than I would ever have thought. 10 years ago, I would have more than likely been slow to wake up, a little hung over, and settled in on the couch to watch a few hours of College Game Day. Not any more.
I was up at 5:30 AM and at the starting point for my first ever organized fitness ‘run’ by 6:45 AM. As I sat there in the dark, I was really curious to see if anyone else was really going to make it out. Then, at about 6:50 AM, cars started pulling in. That was a great feeling. By 7:15, all but 2 of my confirmed ‘guests’ had arrived, and one had texted me at 6:30 saying he would be 5 minutes late. At 7:20 on the dot, Danny came screaming in on his bike, and it was time to begin the ruck!
I had plotted a path very close to the path used for the GORUCK Challenge in Ann Arbor, cutting a bit here and there, targeting a 4-5 session. In the end, we traveled 9.3 miles, did a few hundred reps of good PT, carried some things and laughed just as much as we would have had we been sitting at a bar.
During the ruck, we spoke about doing this again in January. After the ruck, we decided that was too long to wait. The next one is set for December 14th.
Here’s a link to the pix and video from the event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9398741@N07/sets/72157637736260715/
