Today was the day, bright and sunny in our nations capital. This was my first GORUCK event with Brent. We had each completed one other event prior to this but none together. Our event started at roughly two in the afternoon, which means we needed to leave our meeting spot by about 10am.
Shortly before 2, we fell into formation with roughly 30 other weirdos. The administration portion consisted of a gear check. No worries I thought, until the Cadre got to my ruck and asked for my identification. SH*T! I thought to myself, did I became the teams Blue Falcon and the event hadn’t even started? I quickly asked for permission to go to the car and get my required items. Luckily, it wasn’t held against me and we then started a minor PT session. We did the usual overhead ruck hold, squats, plank, and other exercises. Not long after I noticed that my battle buddy Brent wasn’t next to me. I looked over and he was bent over throwing up the Italian sub we had gotten on the way to DC. While the sub worked perfect for my stomach, I could clearly see that Brent wasn’t enjoying it. After getting his “nerves” out we joined back in for a tank tread relay. As a class, we now moved out in formation and started rucking through the city.
It always amazes me when I get into a city and I see people simply hanging out. About a mile into our ruck a man came up to the class and started questioning what we were doing. A few people responded to him, but he must have been intrigued enough since he followed and joined the class on occasion for the next 5 hours. I live in a very rural area and the only real way to get from place to place is to drive. It blows me away in a city when people just hang out and could take the afternoon following a group of people he didn’t know. He was a nice enough guy and added some humorous motivation as our class moved. After stopping at various points, we made our way to DC’s “Exorcists” steps. Which were named after the filming of the movie, The Exorcist. We did a few competitions which involved moving our team weights up and down the steps. This was great for Brent as he is great at cardio workouts. Just prior to us getting to the steps I was stuck carrying my weight and a 120-pound sandbag. I did not enjoy the steps as much as everyone else.
After the grueling stairs came a part of Washington that I’ve never seen before. We crossed a bridge over the Potomac River and onto Theodore Roosevelt Island. We got our first real break and 10 minutes to explore the monument dedicated to Teddy. On different pillars his famous quotes and achievements are on display. We were then lucky enough to find a few logs and did some hydro-burpees in the Potomac before making our way back to our start point.
One of my favorite parts of these events are when you get to look inside yourself and find those demons to crush. Mine were the steps. After reflecting on the event, I started reading about Roosevelt and his accomplishments as a President. This quote has stuck with me ever since:
THE MAN IN THE ARENA
Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Life is life and it will always be there. Make sure you make the time and step into the arena!
