GoRuck 2017 – Adapt to Win

• When: 7/22 – 7/23 

• QIC: Cadre Garrett
  

If you’ve never experienced a GoRuck, it’s  difficult to explain the ups and downs over the 10-12 hours, but here’s my recollection with some help from the PAX. Overall an amazing experience with 15 F3 guys along with 11 other rucks completing close to 16 miles. This is our story.

Initial team weight included Dick Cheney (40lb+ chain wrapped in duct tape) along with 3 potable waters.

Our leader – Cadre Garrett from Boston, MA

Our PAX:

1. Sean – Zoolander
2. Chris – Sasquath
3. John – Curly
4. Tyler – Evel
5. Ben – Iron Horse
6. Parker – Fish
7. Brian – Cookie
8. Tim – GameBoy
9. Greg – Spartan
10. Wilson – Jugs
11. Trey – Dimples
12. Brent – TapOut
13. Garth – Trek
14. Mike – Cathy
15. Richard – Mr. Mom
16. Matt from Wakulla
17. Jordan the 19 year old wizard completing Ruck #7
18. Steve from BodyTrack who almost ate the Lofty Pursuit Ice Cream Kitchen Sink.
19. Chris from Atlas Gym
20. Mike for Tally Ruck Club
21. David from Tally Ruck Club
22. Jeremy from Thomasville
23. Art from Miami (visiting son at FSU and decided to Ruck with us)
24. Ben – our 26^th late arrival lost in Cascades Park
25. Laurel – tough chick
26. Kristin – tough chick, now Mrs. Cathy (more on that later)

Start Time:
2050 – 25 stood prepared waiting for Cadre to appear in 3 ranks with rucks open for observation.

2100 – Cadre Garrett arrives and immediately lambasts the PAX for trying to ‘anticipate’ his requirements; requests PAX move behind tennis courts for Welcome Party.

Welcome Party:

Rucks on, move behind the tennis court in the grassy area in 3 ranks for initial roll call, rules of engagement, and ruck check for weight, ID, and $20 cab fare. As the PAX settled in, Cadre instructed the PAX to run around Myers Park pool in 8 minutes and return back to finish. This included back in our ranks, with rucks on, and countorama.

Attempt #1 – FAIL; no man/woman was left behind, but we failed our objective of 8 minutes as Cadre hid Jeremy’s rucksack which took us a minute to find and get back in ranks – time expired.

Attempt #2 – FAIL; no man/woman was left behind, as the run was much faster, but we returned to Rucks tied together with carbineers which impacted our time. Message was you must adapt to the situation – ‘Adapt to Win’.

Attempt #3 – PASS; changed strategy by having our 2 rucker chicks stay with the equipment, and PAX returned in ranks and completed countorama on time. We also gained a new 26^th team member who was lost between Cascades and Meyers Park – welcome Ben to the team (2 Ben’s, 3 Chris/Kris, 2 Mike’s).

Catching our breathes and realizing we had a long night in front of us, Cadre instructed the PAX to ruck up for some PT. I can’t seem to recall the exact order, but the PAX completed the following exercises in front of a small contingent of onlookers. First step was getting our cadence in order, so Push-Up / Merkins took a while! Then comes the real fun part – time to visit the ZOO ……. Monkey Humpers, Red Rockets, Inch Worm, Elephant Walk. Most of the F3 members have experienced the Monkey Humper, but not with a 35-50lb ruck sack so we embraced the suck and tried to avoid pulling our hammies within the first hour. While many anticipated that would be the worst, it was probably the easiest of the PT exercises compared to our next adventure.

Red rockets – get on all fours like a dog, then proceed to lift right left only to 90 degrees, and back down in cadence 1, 2, 3, “1”, 1, 2, 3, “2”, etc. Seems we did about 5 minutes per leg.

Inch Worm Push-up – line up in 2 ranks as PAX goes up/down together and man in back moves up front. Cadre did not care for our form, and we spent a LONG time doing these.

Elephant Walk – yep, and we did it for 15+ minutes as Cadre was not pleased with our candence (L, R, L . .). After a smart suggestion from Garth, the PAX moved as a unit and completed this brutal game of circling elephant walk.

Next move was to the baseball fields for a lesson on Buddy Carries – 3 ways!

Cadre instructed the PAX on 3 different Buddy Carry options along with war stories on when each is most effective. PAX partnered up in 2, 3, or 4’s as appropriate and carried back and forth on the baseball diamond.

Buddy Carry 1 – Fireman Carry . . missing Great Dane on this one! (2 PAX)

Buddy Carry 2 – 2 Men Arm Lock while 3^rd rides like a King in the seat  (3 PAX)

Buddy Carry 3 – casualty uses 3 men to get carried out with 1 man in front with feet around neck, and two behind holding up casualties shoulders. (4 PAX)

1^st 5 minute break – cut down to 3 minutes due to people not sticking with a buddy . .not so happy Cadre!

Our 1^st mission awaits us as two team leaders step up, Chris (Atlas Gym) & Tim (GameBoy), as Cadre instructs them, rest of PAX fills up on water and readjusts. Our leaders return and instruct us that a tree has fallen 1/2 mile down in the park and we must move this to help the City of Tallahassee. This was no dogwood tree, but rather two oak trees that PAX had to move about 50 yards into a wooded area. Needless to say, this was our first test of communication, teamwork, and strategy under our leaders that worked well overall. Once we completed the mission, back to our starting position at tennis court for 1 minute of madness to share the good, bad, and ugly. Great learning experience for those leading, and those following on what to improve.

Back to the tennis courts – new team leaders stepped up, Kris (Mrs. Cathy) and Ben (Iron Horse).

Next mission – head to Doak Campbell Stadium tunnel on NW side to meet our next objective in 1:00 hour time limit. Prior to leaving, our Cadre was kind enough to have 10 Seminole Stones waiting for the PAX which could be best described as 2 Cindy’s pressed together in a paver stone (they were actually broken pieces of curbing, between 40 – 60lbs each). This friendly addition brought our team weights to: 10 Seminole Stones (see below), 3 Water Jugs, and Dick Cheney.

 

PAX organized into 2 ranks, and off into the night through Cascades park, over the $7m bridge, down to Railroad and Gaines to stadium. Not much activity in College Town, but DJ’s were pumping tunes down at Recess which gave a few moments of normalcy as we walked to stadium.

Unfortunately for us we arrived 4 minutes late to the meeting zone which offered the story of ‘Timmy’ in Iraq from the Cadre. Long story short, even a minute missing your drop zone can cost lives, as Cadre shared a story of a drop zone that was filled with waste/shit as the team waded through, 1 man (‘Timmy’) had heat exhaustion and had to be carried by the team through chest high waste water causing a 14 minute delay in rendezvous with the choppers.  Our punishment for missing the time, was to run around Doak Campbell Stadium in 8 minutes . . .with 10 Seminole Stones! Prior to this, 20 lunges per leg then 1, 2, 3, go!

1^st run – we FAILED; not sure how far off we were, but PAX was instructed to go again. I measured this when I got home, and it was 0.77 miles.

2^nd run – Cadre was kind and increased our time to 20 minutes, but added the water jugs. 20 lunges then off we went with a better plan for buddy system to pass blocks between partners that moved us much quicker. After a photo op with the Unconquered statue, the team finished around 15 minutes so passed the challenge.

Next leaders – Parker (Fish) and Jordan (19 year old wizard) stepped up to the challenge.

Our next mission – find a 5 hour energy bottle stuffed with new intel on Campus Circle near NW corner – I can assure you that everyone in our PAX now knows exactly where Campus Circle is after several backtracks around the Tennessee/Basin street area. This was a tough stretch for many as the weights began taking a toll, and exhaustion was setting in. We initially missed the turn which resulted in flutter kicks for 2 minutes. After getting back on track, the highlight of our ruck was we noticed the time at the Moe’s and Taco Bell (4:00am) which encouraged us we were not far away from the home stretch. We also were allowed to drop the 2 largest Seminole Stones which was a great win. Due to unforeseen obstacles preventing us from cutting through a parking lot, we made it to the drop zone, located the clue (not after more flutter kicks for breaking formation), and headed to Taco Bell for a much needed rest. The leaders reviewed the intel stated we were going to meet a spy called ‘Gator Girl’ for a drop off. Prior to meeting her, Cadre informed us we must ‘clean-up’ to look ‘presentable’. This meant water was in our future.

After a quick refuel (10 mins), our next stop was the Legacy Fountain in front of Dick Howser which seemed to be a refreshing change to the last 7 hours of pain. Our time goal was 30 minutes, which we far exceeded and arrived for a quick rinse. Cadre instructed everyone to remove phone from Rucks, and jump in fountain for the ‘Submerge’. The entire PAX had to completely submerge their bodies in the fountain for 5 seconds to pass. Great news . .we passed on the 1^st sound – so great, that Cadre made us do it again in which we failed and continued a few additional times. After letting our shoes and rucks drain, new leaders were assigned.

Next leaders – Mike (Cathy) and Brian (Cookie)

Prior to embarking on the next leg of the challenge, we had 1 misstep which caused 30+ overhead presses with Rucks. New leaders laid out the plan to head to FAMU to meet ‘Gator Girl’ with our next clue for the mission. This was very specific intel which involved a large stair case and a blonde. We made our way down Gaines street to Railroad, and then to FAMU where unfortunately no one in our PAX was familiar the campus. Cadre instructed us that near Lee Hall was the stairs we were looking for, so as we made our way through the campus, we found the FAMU ‘Georgia Street’ which taxed everyone as we continued our carry of Seminole Stones and Water Jugs. There was a time limit of 1:30 minutes for this mission, and I’m not fully sure we met the objective, but we were not penalized as the Cadre must have been feeling kind. Leaders sent 2 team members out to recon the situation where they met Gator Girl and received a package (‘Jackpot’) which included nuclear materials that could not touch the ground. The ‘jackpot’ was a cooler duct taped shut that weighed somewhere in the ball park of 50 lbs. During this time we learned of the 3 types of sunrises (Astronomical twilight, Nautical twilight, and Civil twilight) as the sun slowly arose on the PAX, we could feel the end was getting closer.

As we refueled, Cadre called groups of 2 PAX at a time to quiz them on how well they knew each other. This was a humbling exercise as the lesson was you need to go above and beyond in special forces, and just learning a name is not enough. The PAX was quizzed on everything from full names, birthdays, kids names, marital status, jobs, etc. and if you couldn’t answer, up/down the stairs near Lee Hall with lunges back up. Only a few pairs made it passed the 1^st test, as most had to go at least twice.

New leaders – Matt and Garth (Trek)

Next mission was to the Koren War Memorial to take the ‘jackpot’ to its next drop zone.  At this time the Civil twilight was in full force and the PAX made are way down Adams street to Bloxham to Cascades park. The PAX got a little too comfortable, so Cadre added a casualty which forced us to carry the team member from FAMU to Cascades rotating the causulty along the way. The total distance travelled was roughly 1 mile to the Memorial. As the PAX arrived, we were greated by a few bystanders and instructed to get in push-up position. After two down, “team”, up, “together”, Cadre informed us of the completion of GoRuck Tallahassee 2017!

During the patch ceremony, our very own Mike (Cathy) made up a 1 year anniversary patch for Kris since their 1^st meeting at GoRuck last year. What Kris didn’t know was Mike was behind her on one knee with a smile and a rock. Really special moment for everyone. Congrats to you both!

COT:

Great experience with a great group of people – wouldn’t trade in my blisters or back aches for any of it. For anyone thinking of doing a GoRuck, bite the bullet and go for it as you will not regret it. Another congratulations to Mike for his proposal, and she did say ‘Yes’.

As part of our mission there were various times Cadre would provide stories of battle as well as leadership, teammwork, and building rapport. I will not go into all of the details, but highlighted the key points which are good testaments to live by.

4 Steps of Leadership:

1. Understand the problem
2. Visualize a solution
3. Over-communicate
4. Adapt to Win!

4 Steps of Building Rapport:

1. Know
2. Listen
3. Mirror
4. Re-engage

4 Steps of Teamwork:

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing