I Finished a GORUCK Tough & Here’s What I Learned
April 20, 2022 | Words by Liz Francis
A couple of months ago, I signed up for a GORUCK Tough event. This is a team event that takes place over 10-12 hours and 15-20 miles, all while wearing a 30 or 20-pound ruck — with a 94% completion rate! When I signed up, I had never touched a ruck in my life. Was this out of my comfort zone? A little. Was I out of my mind? Absolutely!
My training consisted of rucking once or twice a week for a month, sometimes carrying an odd object like a sandbag or a cinder block that I found on the side of the road. The longest session was a seven-miler; however, I usually went 1-2 miles. I majorly regretted signing up for this thing more than once during training, with my main takeaways from rucking up to this point being that this was boring and that my back hurt.
But there was no backing out. For starters, I don’t like to quit on myself. Plus, I signed up with my husband, Chandler, and our friend, Bryan, so I couldn’t let them down either. I was committed to giving it my best effort, but couldn’t stop wondering, “What if I’m that 6% that doesn’t finish?” I hadn’t trained enough, didn’t have the right shoes, and Chandler and I had just moved into our new house the day before the event — three great ingredients for a classic DNF.
Fast-forward to the start of the event. The first thing we did were bag inspections. We were given a packing list that I chose not to follow precisely — I left out a first aid kit and a headlamp because I was already carrying a 20-pound plate, two liters plus a Yeti bottle of water, and four Uncrustables® among other snacks, so I didn’t feel like packing my bag with things I thought I wouldn’t need. Well, the whole crew of 18 people had to do PT exercises because I and three others didn’t follow the packing list. Off to a good start (*sarcasm*).
After about an hour of PT, we finally began our ruck. Our team was given six sandbags (120, 80, 80, 60, 60, 40 pounds each), an American flag, and a team weight (25) to carry all day. After a few miles and some added PT for not moving fast enough, we were told that everyone in the group had to carry the 120 over the next couple of miles. I hadn’t planned on touching that thing. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t trying to sandbag it out there (no pun intended), I just didn’t think I could do it for more than five seconds, so there was no point to it. Out of 16 guys and two girls in our group, I was the last one to carry it, and I took it two blocks.
This specific GORUCK Tough event was in honor of the Oklahoma City bombing that happened on April 19, 1995. We rucked all around Oklahoma City and got to spend some time at the OKC Memorial as well. Throughout the day, we completed four rounds of a Memorial WOD (with rucks on, of course) in honor of the first responders and victims of the bombing. One of these rounds stuck out the most (pun intended) because we did lunges and bear crawls up a steep hill covered in stickers.
Most of the time while we walked, we were given instructions on where to go or what streets to cross. We didn’t have phones or watches, so we had no idea how long we’d been walking or where we even were. Toward the end of the day, we walked on a trail alongside a river, meaning no cross streets and no need for directions. This was, by far, the toughest part of the day. We walked on this trail for what seemed like two hours, straight ahead, same scenery and same weights to carry. Conversations dwindled. Pain settled in. Did I mention the 25 mph wind? Mental game was strong.
I could write a book about those 11 hours and 17.3 miles, but I’ll leave you with a few things I learned:
1. Don’t make your friends do weighted jumping jacks.
Do what you’re supposed to do and be prepared to help others when they fall short.
2. Carry the 120.
You can do hard things and you can carry heavy loads, even if it’s only for 10 yards. That’s 10 yards less that the next person has to.
3. It could always be worse.
This was the motto for the day. You could always be the guy whose water exploded in his ruck. You could always be the girl in Reebok Nanos instead of ruck boots. (Oh wait, that was me.) You could always be the person with the 120 on their back. You could always be bear crawling up a hill covered in stickers. You could always be someone who was directly impacted by the OKC bombing. Don’t take what you have for granted and always remember that, no matter the weight, everyone is carrying some sort of load. For that, we must stand by one another and always work as a team.
We remember and mourn the 168 lives that were lost in the Oklahoma City bombing. Our support goes out to those who survived and those changed forever.
