If you can dream — and not make dreams your master
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
– Rudyard Kipling, If
The GORUCK Challenge is likely the most physically difficult test most who face it will ever achieve. A team building event led by Special Forces veterans designed in part to simulate the sort of training and challenges they faced in their careers. You are required to wear a backpack — known as a "ruck" in military parlance— loaded with 6 bricks, a hydration bladder, and anything else one feels inclined to bring. In other words about 40-60 pounds. They advertise 8-10 hours over 15-20 miles. Every one I am aware of goes beyond that promise. They also advertise that they under-promise and over-deliver. Indeed.
I was supposed to take part in the Challenge last year but I broke two toes in training and had to simply shadow that class instead. I was really bummed at the time. Mainly because in the hour before I was injured was the first I had felt ready. And, this is the sort of event where the idea of ready has very deep and broad meanings.
The registration fee was transferable and I vowed to take part in the next one that was held here. That date is March 30th — less than a week from now. I met up earlier today for a practice ruck with some of my future class mates. We put in some good livin’ and started to really bond as a bunch. All of the months of training I have had leading up to this were put to the test. The running, the lifting, the dieting, and the sweat. Yet, even with all of that, today was the first time, this time, I finally felt what I was waiting to feel…
Ready.
