All Day Ruckoff Podcast

ADR 166: Finishing GORUCK Selection 2021 with Chad Malone

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 21:39:22 +0000

2021 GORUCK Selection finisher Chad Malone joins me in this episode to talk about training for and completing the event. There’s much information on his training here that you’re going to want a paper and pen if you’re looking to train for this event. I really hope you enjoy this episode!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of the earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or even our Facebook Page! Didn’t enjoy it? Contact us and let us know what we can do better!

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 166: Finishing GORUCK Selection 2021 with Chad Malone appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 165: Ruck:Fest Rucking Events with Mark Jones

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:57:02 +0000

GORUCK Selection finisher and Team Assessment winner Mark Jones joins me to talk about a new event series he’s putting on. Ruck:Fest will be hosting their first event in November, 2021 called Ruck:Beta. This Ruck:Beta event will contain three separate events called Ruck:Trail, Ruck:Games, and Ruck:Krew. We talk through these events and what Mark hopes will be the future of Ruck:Fest. Hope you enjoy this one!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 165: Ruck:Fest Rucking Events with Mark Jones appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 164: GORUCK x Carryology GR1 Guerrilla X with Taylor Welden

Sat, 22 May 2021 20:44:34 +0000

Taylor Welden (senior editor of Carryology) joins me to talk about the new GORUCK x Carryology GR1 Guerrilla X collab pack. We start out talking about his history with design and bag manufacturing, move into when he first met Jason back in 2008, and finish up talking about the new pack.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 164: GORUCK x Carryology GR1 Guerrilla X with Taylor Welden appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 163: GORUCK GRT Reunion 2020 with Emily McCarthy

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:00:00 +0000

Emily McCarthy joins me to talk about GORUCK GRT Reunion 2020 and what that’s going to look like this year. Not only is COVID-19 a factor but GORUCK is also beta testing a brand new style of event there called the Tough Star. If you’re curious about any of this then don’t miss this podcast episode!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or even our Facebook Page! Didn’t enjoy it? Contact us and let us know what we can do better!

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 163: GORUCK GRT Reunion 2020 with Emily McCarthy appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 162: Resetting Goals & Being Present

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 22:00:00 +0000

2020 has been a mess of a year so far! It seems like so much has happened but when I look at what I’ve accomplished it feels like nothing has happened. In this episode I get into checking on your goals, possibly editing your goals, and staying present during the pandemic. I hope you enjoy this episode and take away at least one good piece of information after your listen.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 162: Resetting Goals & Being Present appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 161: Team RWB Ruck-A-Sketch with J.J. Pinter

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 16:03:11 +0000

Team RWB and GORUCK are putting together a special virtual ruck event to benefit Team RWB. J.J. Pinter (Deputy Director at Team Red, White, and Blue) joins in this episode to talk about his experiences with rucking, his 50 mile star course, and this Ruck-A-Sketch virtual event.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

ADR 142: PATHFINDER Horizon with Amy Petersen

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 22:55:09 +0000

Amy Petersen of PATHFINDER Ruck Training joins to talk about their Horizon training program. PATHFINDER Horizon is designed to prepare participants for GORUCK Star Course and similar long ruck events. In this episode we get into how Amy got involved in rucking, her first event, PATHFINDER, and the Horizon program. Listen close towards the end of the episode for a huge discount on the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Horizon program!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
PATHFINDER Ruck Training (Use code PFLOVESADR)
PATHFINDER Ruck Training Horizon (Listen to the podcast for a discount code!)
GORUCK
GORUCK Light
GORUCK Tough
Podcast with Lyell Petersen

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 142: PATHFINDER Horizon with Amy Petersen appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 141: Ruck Strong with Lisa Stephenson

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 19:23:08 +0000

Lisa is the founder of Ruck Strong which is strength training for people who ruck. She’s a certified strength and conditioning specialist who has completed dozens of GORUCK events including three HTL events. In this episode Lisa talks about the importance of incorporating strength training into rucking and what that can do for you at events.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
Ruck Strong
GORUCK
GORUCK Tough
GORUCK HTL
Tough Mudder
Ironman Triathlon
PATHFINDER Ruck Training (Discount Code: PFLOVESADR)
Geo Training Podcast
SwimRun
Odyssey SwimRun

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 138: GORUCK Team Assessment & Rucking World Championship with Ricky V appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 137: GORUCK Triple Heavy with Nick Schrein

ADR 134: GORUCK Training & Running with Geo

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 22:25:39 +0000

Geo is a USAT certified triathlon coach, Ironman, marathon (and ultra) runner, and GRT. He’s also a personal trainer and, in this episode, we talk about ways to train for GORUCK events and improve your performance. He has a ton of experience working with athletes from all different sports and does a great job bringing that experience together when coaching his athletes.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
GORUCK Tough
GORUCK Heavy
Pose Running
Periodized Training
Better Woodman Performance (Coming Soon)
Better Woodman (Instagram)
Geoffrey Woodman (Instagram)
Training Peaks

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 134: GORUCK Training & Running with Geo appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 133: Setting Those Yearly Goals

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 07:40:42 +0000

We’re in the days between Christmas 2019 and the start of 2020! In this episode I talk about how I set goals, goal setting in general, and tips for making your 2020 the best year possible.

Goal Setting 2020

Write down (or find your list of) your 2019 goals.
1. Mark the goals you accomplished and the goals you didn’t accomplish.
2. Going through the goals you accomplished write why you were able accomplish them and what you did to accomplish them.
3. Going through the goals you didn’t accomplish write down why you didn’t accomplish them. Be honest so that you can use this as feedback for how to accomplish your goals in the future.
Write down two or three categories you want to focus on in 2020.
1. Within each category right down the goals that, if you completed, would help you improve that category.
2. Write down ways you can accomplish each individual goal.
3. Write down things that could prevent you from completing those goals.
Based on what could help you accomplish each individual goal start planning your year out high-level. Get an idea of what your calendar will look like to make sure it’s possible to complete.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Tun Tavern Tough 2020
GORUCK Midweight Challenge Pants
GORUCK 20L Rucker
GORUCK 25L Rucker
Snowdrop 2020 Light
Snowdrop 2020 Scavenger
GORUCK GRT Reunion 2020
Marine Corp Heavy 2020
Cadre Reunion 2020
Bomber’s Email Address: Bomber [at] GORUCK.com
GORUCK Ruck Clubs

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 130: Tun Tavern Tough 2019 with Bomber appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 129: Rucks on Parade Virtual Ruck Events

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 20:04:18 +0000

Eric from Rucks on Parade joins in this episode to talk about the virtual events they’re running. These virtual ruck events are well thought out, a great workout, and sometimes a bit of fun. If you’re looking for a bigger workout and need some inspiration then maybe head on over to Rucks on Parade and check out what they have going on.

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you so much for all of the support!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Rucks on Parade (use code GETSOME for $10% off)
PATHFINDER Ruck Training (Use code PFLOVESADR)
GORUCK Events
GORUCK Special Events
GORUCK Black Friday 2019 Sale

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 125: GORUCK Selection 021 with Finisher Mark Jones appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 124: Ruck Your Balls Off 2019 with Barbells For Bullies

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 01:29:32 +0000

Alex and Lindsay (co-founders of Barbells For Bullies) join to chat about their virtual ruck event with GORUCK, their charity, and why they decided to start their charity. It’s so refreshing to talk with people who are passionate about what they do and just want to make the world a better place. I really hope you enjoy this episode with them and check the resources section below for more information on the event! Don’t forget you can win some awesome prizes for rucking long and/or raising certain dollar amounts through their fundraising page!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 124: Ruck Your Balls Off 2019 with Barbells For Bullies appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 123: The History of GORUCK Selection

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 17:02:00 +0000

Cadre Dan joins to talk about the history of GORUCK Selection. We discuss the event, the roots of it, the first classes, and how it got to where it is today.

If GORUCK Selection is something you’re even remotely curious about then this is the podcast episode for you.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 123: The History of GORUCK Selection appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 122: Sniper Adventure Challenge 2019 with GORUCK Selection Finishers Chris & Stony

Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:55:30 +0000

Chris Way and Stony recently took part in the Sniper Adventure Challenge. They have both completed GORUCK Selection (different classes) and came together for this team event. In this interview we get into why they were on a team together, how training went, both of their experiences with these types of events, and how they did.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 122: Sniper Adventure Challenge 2019 with GORUCK Selection Finishers Chris & Stony appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 121: GORUCK Selection Class 003 with Paige Bowie

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 14:00:00 +0000

Paige Bowie finished GORUCK Selection Class 003 back in 2013. She was (and still is as of 9/2019) the only female to complete GORUCK Selection. Paige joins me on the podcast to talk about her experience with GORUCK Selection and her thoughts on it now.

I really hope you enjoy this interview with Paige Bowie!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 121: GORUCK Selection Class 003 with Paige Bowie appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 120: GORUCK Shooter Competition Events with Cadre Garret

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:00:00 +0000

Cadre Garret joins to talk about the new GORUCK Shooter competition events for 2020. This will be the first time that GORUCK has put on these Shooter events. We get into where the events came from, what will happen at them, and what you will need to do to earn your patch. That’s right… not everyone who takes part in the GORUCK Shooter event will earn their patches.

In addition we get into the Deception Patch Holder events and what it takes to take part in one of those. There’s three levels to the Deception patches and none of them are easy to earn. Only those who have earned the first level of the Deception patches then you can take part in the Deception Patch Holder events.

I really hope you enjoy this interview with Cadre Garret from GORUCK!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 120: GORUCK Shooter Competition Events with Cadre Garret appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 119: Tokyo Hikyaku Ruckers

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 16:26:59 +0000

Jess and Rebecca from the Tokyo Hikyaku Ruckers join to talk about their ruck club, how they got started, what kind of training they do, and the events that are run over in Tokyo. They’ve has massive growth since they started out and we get into why that might be the case and what they do to support their members. Finally, we touch on gear and how they acquire their GORUCK gear since international shipping is so expensive.

I really hope you enjoy this interview with the Tokyo Hikyaku Ruckers!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 119: Tokyo Hikyaku Ruckers appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 118: Shadowing Events and GORUCK Photography with Tim Galloway

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 17:50:14 +0000

Tim Galloway joins to talk about shadowing GORUCK events, being a professional photographer, working with GORUCK, and the gear he uses at events. Tim has some serious passion when it comes to photography and it has been so great to see him bring that to events over the years.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 118: Shadowing Events and GORUCK Photography with Tim Galloway appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 117: GORUCK Parodies with Jason Shealy

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 17:05:04 +0000

Jason Shealy joins to talk about his experiences with GORUCK and why he writes GORUCK parody songs. We get deep into a lot of different topics I didn’t think we’d cover including why we do GORUCK events, which cadre has the most swagger, why everyone should do an event with Cadre Igor.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

Music Questions

King Crimson: Court of the Crimson King
Yes: Tales of Topographic Oceans
Yes: Close to the Edge
Yes: Fragile
Yes: The Yes Album

Cadre Questions

Mike Rock: Give him a Necowafer
Cadre Igor: Do an event with him

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 117: GORUCK Parodies with Jason Shealy appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 116: Ruck Club Leaders Ruck with Brian (Fit N Fun Life)

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:49:39 +0000

Brian (from Fit N Fun Life) joins to talk about the Ruck Club Leaders Ruck. The Ruck Club Leaders Ruck is a new event for ruck club leaders to meet each other, talk about what’s working and not working, and spend time with people from GORUCK.

In addition to talking about the Ruck Club Leaders Ruck we get into the new Star Course Sprint Series. The Star Course Sprint Series involves 5k/10k/15k

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 116: Ruck Club Leaders Ruck with Brian (Fit N Fun Life) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 115: Lion City Ruckers & Rucking Singapore

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:10:44 +0000

Lenny and Tam from Lion City Ruckers join to talk about their ruck club. We get into what it’s like to start a ruck club in a country that doesn’t have any, what it’s like to run a non-USA ruck club, and what they have planned for the future. There are a lot of ruck clubs out there that are outside of the USA and it was great to talk to the Lion City Ruckers!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

Coming soon!

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 115: Lion City Ruckers & Rucking Singapore appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 114: Paul Litchfield and the MACV-1 Boots

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 19:45:41 +0000

Paul Litchfield joins to talk about his experiences working with GORUCK, getting into shoes, and the MACV-1 boots. It was a ton of fun getting to know him better and he will absolutely be back on the podcast to discuss things further. I really hope you enjoy this episode!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 114: Paul Litchfield and the MACV-1 Boots appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 113: Cadre Garret Machine Talks GORUCK Constellation 2020

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:19:59 +0000

Garret (aka Cadre Machine) joins to talk about the upcoming GORUCK Constellation events for 2020. There’s a lot of changes in the works and it will be very exciting to see how the events come together.

This has been a very busy week for GORUCK so a huge thank you to Garret for taking the time out of his day to chat!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 113: Cadre Garret Machine Talks GORUCK Constellation 2020 appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 112: Kevin Talks 2 x GORUCK Double Heavy Events

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:00:42 +0000

Kevin joins to talk about the GORUCK Double Heavy events. He has completed not one but two of those crazy challenges and gives us a wide range of tips and insight into the events.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 112: Kevin Talks 2 x GORUCK Double Heavy Events appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 111: Cadre Flash Talks Snowdrop 2019

ADR 106: Cadre Shredder & the 22 Get Headstrong GORUCK Events

Thu, 20 Jun 2019 14:01:35 +0000

Cadre Shredder joins to talk about how he got involved in GORUCK, how he became a cadre, then the 22 Get Headstrong events he’s leading in Austin, Texas this year. I’ve done a number of events with Cadre Shredder and feel pretty honored to have him on the podcast to talk about where he got his start. I really hope you enjoy this episode!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
Support Through Patreon
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
All Day Ruckoff Community Pages
P90X
Insanity
Get Headstrong
4th of July Seattle AAR
22 Get Headstrong Tough
22 Get Headstrong Light
Shredder Fundraiser
Shredder “With or Without Me” Video
Share a story: strongholdprovisions AT gmail DOT com

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 106: Cadre Shredder & the 22 Get Headstrong GORUCK Events appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 105: Rucking Couple with Nick and Marjie

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:05:49 +0000

Nick and Marjie join me to talk about rucking and GORUCK events together as a couple. They train together, complete events together, and even placed second overall at a GORUCK Star Course together.

CrossFit and rucking… the two of them combined… we really are in the best shape of our lives.
Marjie

We get into how they find time to train with kids, what they love the most about rucking, and how it’s changed their marriage. This is a great episode with some amazing stories that I hope you enjoy!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 105: Rucking Couple with Nick and Marjie appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 104: GORUCK Constellation 12 in 2019 with David Davenport

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 14:00:38 +0000

David joins me to talk about the GORUCK Constellation 12 event we completed together in 2019. It was interesting getting his points on the event because we were on different teams which means we had very different experiences.

GORUCK Constellation is going to see a pretty major overhaul in 2020 so this interview may turn into a “remember how things were” type of thing in the future. It’s important to remember that history!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 104: GORUCK Constellation 12 in 2019 with David Davenport appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 103: Winning GORUCK Team Assessment Class 000 with Team 5

Thu, 30 May 2019 14:00:19 +0000

Mark Jones and Mike Durkin join me to discuss their first place completion of the GORUCK Team Assessment Beta Class 000. During the interview we discuss how they trained for the event, their thoughts on the event, and what they’d like to see in the future.

I just accept the fact that it’s going to be a roller coaster at times. You’re gonna have emotional highs and emotional lows. Physical highs and physical lows. You just have to embrace them.
Mike Durkin

In case you’re in the market for some motivational quotes check out the following from Mike Durkin. Keep them in mind during your next big event and crush it out there.

Never let how you feel actually dictate anything other than “ow, that hurts.” Just put it out of your mind and keep moving forward.
Mike Durkin

Without the community this podcast would absolutely not be what it is today. 100 episodes deep and only 4 of them (roughly) have been solo episodes. That means 96 interviews. 96 times people felt that coming on this podcast and talking about rucking was worth their time. That is humbling.

Thank you so much for being part of this community. YOU are what make this special, you’re what make this podcast possible, and you are truly appreciated.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 100: GORUCK GRT Reunion Year 5 Recap with Bomber Bash appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 099: GORUCK and Type 1 Diabetes with Adam

Thu, 02 May 2019 14:53:47 +0000

GORUCK events are hard enough already without being type 1 diabetic. Adam joins us in this episode to talk about what it’s like being type 1 diabetic and training for (then completing) GORUCK events.

We get into how fitness has helped shape his life and how he’s used his diagnosis to better himself. This is a very inspirational episode even if you aren’t type 1 diabetic so get ready and enjoy this great interview!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 099: GORUCK and Type 1 Diabetes with Adam appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 098: Opening Water Bottles with Christopher

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 17:56:27 +0000

Christopher joins and we talk about more topics than mere show notes can hold! We talk how he found GORUCK, how difficult opening water bottles can be, and some of the events he’s done.

On a more serious note Christopher has been involved in something fitness related since he was 13. He’s never had a major injury in all of those years and we dig into what people can do to avoid injury.

I wasn’t going to name this episode “Opening Water Bottles with Christopher Bones” but then he sent over that picture for the show notes. If he’s going all in then here we are!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 098: Opening Water Bottles with Christopher appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 097: GORUCK Star Course 12 with Richard Rush

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 14:00:24 +0000

Richard talks about his experiences with the GORUCK Star Course. We start off with his completion of both the 2018 DC Star Course 50 and 2018 Cincinnati Star Course 50 then move into his thoughts and completion of the GORUCK Star Course 12.

Richard has some great thoughts and perspective on the event and the series in general. His background is in endurance events so he has quite a bit of experience when it comes to longer distance challenges.

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

YouTube

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 097: GORUCK Star Course 12 with Richard Rush appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 096: GORUCK Updates with Jason McCarthy (Founder of GORUCK)

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 20:30:25 +0000

Jason joins us for this week’s episode to talk rucking challenges, the next GORUCK gear, the GORUCK app, what it’s like to work at GORUCK, SCARS, and lots more. This is NOT your traditional interview where we talk about how GORUCK was founded. I had a great time talking with Jason and really hope you enjoy this episode!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 096: GORUCK Updates with Jason McCarthy (Founder of GORUCK) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 095: Rucking Together with Matt and Christine

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 14:00:27 +0000

Matt and Christine join on this interview to discuss PATHFINDER Ruck Training Forward and rucking together. Matt found PATHFINDER and ended up convincing Christine to sign up with him. They’re both registered for a handful of events and are having a great time rucking together!

In this episode I poke and prod to get ideas on ways to get significant others and spouses into rucking. It worked for Matt so there’s a chance it could work for the rest of us!

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
All Day Ruckoff Community Pages
PATHFINDER Ruck Training
PATHFINDER Ruck Training Forward (Use Code PFLOVESADR for 20% off!)
GORUCK GR1
GORUCK Rucker

What’s Next

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 087: GORUCK Heavy History with Cadre Dan appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 086: GORUCK Battle of the Bulge with Corey Modrowski

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:17:00 +0000

Corey joins us to talk about his Battle of the Bulge GORUCK Tough with Cadre DS. The temps were LOW at the event so we also discuss cold weather gear essentials for GORUCK events. This is an episode I will definitely be coming back to tips and tricks to handling those colder weather events!

Quick Cold Weather Tips

Bring a Nalgene (or other water bottle)
Bring extra socks
Blow the water out of your hydration bladder hose after drinking

Resources

Here’s links to everything we talked about during the podcast episode:

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 086: GORUCK Battle of the Bulge with Corey Modrowski appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 085: GORUCK Tough With Tabitha Lipkin (FOX 5 News San Diego)

ADR 080: Rucking Challenges with Ryan of Ruck.Beer

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 15:00:27 +0000

Ryan (from Ruck.Beer) joins us to talk about Rucking Challenges at ruckingchallenges.com. We talk about his first event, how he got into rucking, and his plans for his latest website.

Resources

“In a time when it often seems like society’s greatest challenges come from an inability to work together, it was tremendously reaffirming to see and feel so concretely that we can attain remarkable feats through collective effort.”

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
GORUCK Black Cyber Week
GORUCK Cyber Week Announcement Video
GORUCK Events (CYBER50 & CYBER30 for Discounts)

GORUCK Selection
GORUCK Selection Live Feed
GORUCK Selection 020 Finisher (Doug) Interview

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 071: GORUCK Selection 020 with Cadre Cleve appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 070: Travis Manion Foundation Operation Legacy GORUCK Ruck Club Callout

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:52:47 +0000

Heather from the Travis Manion Foundation joins us to talk about Operation Legacy and how GORUCK is partnering with them this year in that project. If you are part of a Ruck Club then you should absolutely get involved in this Ruck Club Callout. If you’re not a member then this might be a good time to find a ruck club near you or possibly start one of your own!

Important Dates:

10/15/2018: Ruck club email sent out. Time to plan the service project.
10/21/2018: Registration closes!
11/1/2018: Service projects start
11/18/2018: Service projects end

Resources

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 070: Travis Manion Foundation Operation Legacy GORUCK Ruck Club Callout appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 069: GORUCK Selection 020 Finisher Roster 011 (AKA Doug)

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 14:00:26 +0000

Doug joins us in this incredible episode to talk about completing GORUCK Selection Class 020. We get into how he get involved in GORUCK and rucking, when he decided to register for selection, what his training was like, and what he experienced at GORUCK Selection. If you watched GORUCK Selection 020 or are registered for an upcoming GORUCK Selection event (good luck!) then you absolutely need to give this a listen!

Resources

The post ADR 064: Getting Started Rucking with D’Anna appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 063: GORUCK San Francisco Star Course with Lisa Z

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 14:00:18 +0000

In this episode Lisa joins us to talk about her experience with the GORUCK Star Course in San Francisco. The San Francisco Star Course was pretty much her first official GORUCK event which is pretty awesome. Throughout the episode she gives a ton of advice on how to approach the event, how to build your team, and how to make decisions as a team leader. If you are registered for the GORUCK Star Course (or are thinking about the event) then you will not want to miss this interview!

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Charity Challenges
Travis Manion Foundation (code alldayruckoff)
Team RWB Ruck Your Colors
GORUCK Star Course
GORUCK Star Course Tips & Advice
Icon Patches (3″ x 1″) (1″ x 1″)
Super Rad! Patch
PATHFINDER CTHT Patch

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 063: GORUCK San Francisco Star Course with Lisa Z appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 062: Stephen DeToma (GORUCK Viking & Custom Events)

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 15:30:58 +0000

In this episode we sit down and chat with the famed Stephen DeToma. We start just chatting about his event experience (92/94 events as of recording) then we move into the Viking Custom events he runs and what makes custom events so special.

The Viking series of custom events is one that is notorious custom event series in the GORUCK community. When you bring it up with a cadre that was there and they get a huge smile on their face you know it must have been good. This is the first of two interviews with Stephen DeToma because we covered so many different subjects (over such a long interview) that it felt natural to cut it here.

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Travis Manion Foundation (code alldayruckoff)
Team RWB Ruck Your Colors
GORUCK Star Course
Cadre Flash & Stephen DeThoma Podcast

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 062: Stephen DeToma (GORUCK Viking & Custom Events) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 061: Brent Parrish (CrossFit Black Hive GORUCK Training Partner)

Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:00:07 +0000

Brent Parrish (owner of CrossFit Black Hive) joins us to talk about GORUCK and how CrossFit Black Hive became GORUCK’s gym of choice. Brent has an awesome story about his first GORUCK event that he shares with us and you’ll definitely be laughing.

After we go through his first event we get into ways GORUCK and CrossFit work together and how he integrates rucking with his CrossFit programs. From there we hit ways that you can bring rucking to your CrossFit gym and ways, if you’re a rucker, to find a CrossFit gym that might work for you.

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Travis Manion Foundation (code alldayruckoff)
Team RWB Ruck Your Colors
CrossFit Black Hive
GORUCK Ruck Club Program

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 061: Brent Parrish (CrossFit Black Hive GORUCK Training Partner) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 060: Cliff Braun Interview (GRT & History Channel Selection Finisher)

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 14:00:46 +0000

In this episode we are joined by fellow GRT Cliff Braun. Cliff is part of the Palm Beach Rucking Crew and has quite the athletic and event history. He started out as a triathlete, moved into CrossFit, started rucking, then completed the History Channel show The Selection.

I had heard nothing but amazing things about Cliff from those around him so I was very excited going into this interview but didn’t entirely know what to expect. When we got talking I knew this was going to be a very special podcast episode and it’s easily one of my favorites now.

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
All Day Ruckoff Store
GORUCK
Travis Manion Foundation (code alldayruckoff)
The Selection
Team RWB Ruck Your Colors
New ADR Hat Colors

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 060: Cliff Braun Interview (GRT & History Channel Selection Finisher) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 059: Travis Manion Foundation 9/11 Heroes Run GORUCK Division

ADR 055: GORUCK Immersion 6 & 12 with Cadre Dustin

Thu, 05 Jul 2018 14:15:01 +0000

GORUCK Cadre Dustin joins us to talk about the GORUCK Immersion events that he has been running. We start off with how get got involved with GORUCK, his first event, then move into how he got roped into the survival series of GORUCK events.

If you’re even somewhat interested in the GORUCK Immersion event (or just want to hear some awesome GORUCK Cadre stories) then make sure to give this episode a listen.

Resources

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 055: GORUCK Immersion 6 & 12 with Cadre Dustin appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 054: GORUCK Expedition 6 & 12 AAR with Steven Maske

Thu, 28 Jun 2018 14:00:36 +0000

Steven Maske joins us again to talk about his experiences at more GORUCK Survival events! This time around he’s completed GORUCK Expedition 6 and GORUCK Expedition 12 events and recounts his adventures there.

If the GORUCK Expedition events are something that have interested you then make sure to give this episode a listen because it is full of information and you’ll definitely know at the end if the event is right for you or not.

Resources

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 054: GORUCK Expedition 6 & 12 AAR with Steven Maske appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 053: One Year Anniversary aka The Bomber Bash Show

ADR 048: GORUCK and Obstacle Course Racing with Adam of Beasts OCR

The post ADR 042: Charity Events, Leadership, and Training with GORUCK Cadre Ed Hall appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 041: GORUCK Firearms with GORUCK Cadre Garret Machine

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 14:00:30 +0000

In episode 041 we are joined by GORUCK Cadre Garrett Machine where we talk about the GORUCK Firearms Program. Garrett has been absolutely instrumental in turning GORUCK’s program from 6 events a year to over 150 per year.

This definitely isn’t the traditional episode about rucking but it is easily our number one most requested interview. We get into Cadre Machine’s career, his role in the IDF, how he joined GORUCK, and all ten styles of firearms events that GORUCK offers.

Resources

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 041: GORUCK Firearms with GORUCK Cadre Garret Machine appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 040: Robbie Miller Memorial Heavy with GORUCK Cadre Karl

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 14:30:39 +0000

In episode 040 we are joined by GORUCK Cadre Karl where he talks about the Robbie Miller Memorial Heavy event that GORUCK put on. Karl was the lead cadre for this event and delivers an incredible story in this episode.

This was the first time that GORUCK has put on this event and everything we’ve heard about it has been absolutely amazing. GORUCK has already committed to putting this on a second time so, if this event interests you, we highly recommend looking into registering.

Resources

GORUCK Terms & Glossary
All Day Ruckoff Store
All Day Ruckoff YouTube Channel
GORUCK Robbie Miller Memorial Heavy 2018 Video
GORUCK Robbie Miller Memorial Heavy 2019 Event

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 040: Robbie Miller Memorial Heavy with GORUCK Cadre Karl appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 039: GORUCK Ruck Club Battle with Cadre Garrett Noonan

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:30:09 +0000

In episode 039 we are joined by GORUCK Cadre Garrett Noonan. I’ve done at least one event with Garrett and I was very excited when he agreed to be on the show to talk about this event. Check out the above picture from years ago haha.

Garrett was the lead cadre at the GORUCK Ruck Club Battle and has been a cadre for GORUCK for years. He has a ton of experience leading events and we are sure you are going to enjoy this episode.

Resources

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 039: GORUCK Ruck Club Battle with Cadre Garrett Noonan appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 038: Ruckfit Elite Operation Honor the Fallen

Thu, 08 Mar 2018 15:30:42 +0000

In episode 038 we are joined by the awesome folks at Ruckfit from Old Line CrossFit! They were courteous enough to join us on our first episode and this time we’ve got Jason (back again) and Jeff (here for the first time) to talk about Ruckfit.

Since we last talked to them they successfully put on their first Ruckfit Elite event and now they’re back for their second. Give the episode a listen and learn about Ruckfit Elite Honor the Fallen.

Resources

Ruckfit wanted to give a shoutout to all of the sponors who are involved in this event:

All Day Ruckoff (hey, that’s us!)
GORUCK
SEALFIT
Raider Project
Mission 22
PATHFINDER Ruck Training (20% off with code 013ADR)
Jailbreak Brewing Company

What’s Next

Thank you so much for all of the support! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 038: Ruckfit Elite Operation Honor the Fallen appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 037: GORUCK Ruck Club Battle, Bataan Death March, & GRT Reunion with Bomber Bash

Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:00:15 +0000

Bomber Bash is the best community manager anyone could ever ask for. I’m so excited that he’s back on the show to talk to us about some of the awesome stuff GORUCK has going on.

We start off talking about the first ever Ruck Club Battle, then talk about how GORUCK is sponsoring the Bataan Death March, and we finish up with info on the upcoming GRT Reunion Light Challenge.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 037: GORUCK Ruck Club Battle, Bataan Death March, & GRT Reunion with Bomber Bash appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 036: GORUCK Ruck Club 2018 Updates with Kit Klein

Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:30:05 +0000

We are joined again by GORUCK Business Development Manager and fellow GRT Kit Klein. In this episode we talk about all things ruck clubs including what some accomplished in 2017, the ruck club battle, and the changes being made to the ruck club program in 2018.

Ruck clubs are the foundation behind growing the rucking communities so it’s always great to hear what GORUCK has in store for them. If you run a ruck club, are thinking of starting a ruck club, or are a member of a ruck club then there’s some great info in this episode for you.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Kit, who has a major hand in the Ruck Club Program at GORUCK. I’m very excited that he’s joining us again today, because we’re going to be talking about what ruck clubs have been doing in 2017, what the ruck club program is like and any changes that are happening to it for 2018. Kit, how are you doing today?

Kit: I’m fantastic. My Eagles won the Super Bowl, so I am just on Cloud 9 right now.

Brian: Congratulations.

Kit: Feel good. Feel good. It’s been a long time coming, so we’re really happy. Or at least I’m really happy and I’m sure all Eagles fan share the same sentiments.

Brian: I’m sure. I am absolutely sure. I was watching the videos of it and it looked like everyone out there was pretty happy.
Kit: Exactly.

Brian: I’m really excited to start talking about this. We’ve had just a large number of ruck clubs. The ruck battle just happened actually down in GORUCK HQ, where a ton of ruck clubs came together, so I feel like this is just such a cool program.

Kit: For sure. We’ve really seen such amazing things come from this in general. Just like you said, we had the first ever ruck club battle happen last Saturday. I was actually taking part in that as part of the GORUCK HQ ruck club. We ended up finishing in third place overall unfortunately, but it was a really, really cool event. That’s really different than a normal GORUCK event.

Normal than a GORUCK light, or anything along those lines, because of the team competition aspect, which really add a lot of fun to the overall event, because it just created this internal team camaraderie, you’re competing with other people, you’re trying to do – we had the first event, which is a deck of cards and finding out what rucks you’re going to do, to what exercise followed by a formal ruck, so ton, and then a bunch of other dragging activities into the ocean, tank tracks, the relays and ultimately culminating with a statue of liberty hold for the second and third place that seems to – we were in a tie, which we were.

Figure out who’s going to be the winner. Ultimately, it was an awesome opportunity, because then at the end of it, it was great to see all those community in one place and in some people’s travel all the way from Southern California, other people from up in the north east, the Midwest and then of course around Florida.

It was really awesome to see everyone get together in such a interesting and unique way for a GORUCK event, but then at the end of the day be able to share deer, talk about the ruck clubs. It’s now we showed a little bit better face to face and really just understand what everything is all about. Seems to be a decent person is a lot different than even just seeing them on Facebook or some other form of the internet.

Brian: What an awesome way to just get everyone together too.

Kit: For sure. I mean, I think we’re definitely going to look into ways to expand the ruck club battles in general. It is one of my goals to see what we can do to make that happen in other places, just because it’s such a fun event and it’s such a cool thing to happen. I would love to see they have more. I mean, I don’t know what that looks like or that would be impossible at this point, but I definitely want to look into that more and see what we can do, because I feel like the whole point of what I do and what our team does is to really make sure that ruck clubs are setup to success.

We’re getting back to the original point. We do such amazing things from the ruck clubs, whether it’s raising money for charity through the St. Patrick events, I mean ruck clubs come together for those types of things. Supporting different – like the calls we supported was a run to hill initiative for this ruck club battle, where people were donating their cab fares to the Christian Rufus Charity for that.

We’ve seen people come together on other service aspects in terms of donating foods to food shelters, rucking their cans to various locations and donating them, or just in general creating more of a community within their towns or their places they live and see people who might not necessarily get out to work out, find a ruck club and then say, “This is great, because I could bring my dog, I could bring my kids. It is I don’t have to go to a workout class and keep my kid in some sort of daycare. I can just put them in a stroller and go for a ruck, and so get a really good workout without having to leave them, or be apart from my family.”

Again, it always comes back to the basics of rucking, where the great equalizer is weight and you can put more weight or less weight depending on your abilities and you all get the same workout. It’s just amazing to see those types of things come to fruition within ruck clubs and really just see them grow. I mean, a lot of people have started ruck clubs and they just become this massive forces in their own geographic area, where there is 50, 60, a 100 people that are coming out monthly to these various activities, getting together and having a beer, or rucking of course, or just fun ways to make new friends really.

Brian: That’s awesome. For those who are listening and don’t know what a ruck club is, what is the GORUCK definition of a ruck club?

Kit: A ruck club is basically somewhere that a group of people are getting together to go for a ruck. Regularly this is the basis. Our standard is about once a month we like to see the ruck club get out and do a ruck with their group. Most people do more than that. It’s usually maybe once a week, even sometimes twice a week depending on their geography area, where maybe cold or whatever.

We have crossed the gyms that do it. We have just regular people that meetup on a street corner, very much like early GORUCK. We have random gyms that maybe your typical hone wall gym that people just ruck from. We have fire departments, we’ve got team RWB chapters. There is just a lot of people that get together, but it’s basically all foundation on the rucking, getting together and putting some weight on your back.

Brian: That’s great. There can be some structure behind it, like it’s out of a gym or a CrossFit box, or a fire department. It can also be just a group of people who all like rucking and just so happen to get together and ruck together.

Kit: Yup. We see people from all different backgrounds. I mean, a lot of GRTs who completed GORUCK events in the past lead the charge when it comes to a GORUCK Ruck Club. Whereas, we also have a lot of people who see that we promote those ruck clubs on our website as places to go and ruck. That’s where we see other people coming from. Your gym owner and they’ll say, “Hey, I want to get my gym listed somewhere to come and ruck.” Then they’ll write in and look to become a ruck club as well.

Brian: One of the differentiating factors between ruck clubs is obviously the ruck club name. I’ve noticed a lot of ruck clubs have come up with interesting names, and some of them are pretty good. Are there any that have come by your desk for the application form to become a GORUCK ruck club that really made you laughed?

Kit: I mean, I think the one that I always think of is just the Bruckfist Club. It’s out in California and they basically get together and have breakfast and they call Bruckist Club and then their logo is like some breakfast food and all that. That’s about cool. Just getting on that idea that you can get together and do something fun in addition to the ruck. I think that’s always a really good strategy to make things more fun.

Then I’m trying to think of some other names. It’s just so many people that we have that have all the Palm Valley Ruckers, the Drewberries. They’re usually just something ruck club and then there is F and Mercy’s. Ryan Mercy signed up in the northeast. It’s a lot of good stuff out there with our GR Ruck Clubs. GRTs are super creative when it comes to their patches and the things they want to do. There’s never a shortage of a change in the ruck club community.

Brian: That’s awesome. I noticed you mentioned Palm Beach. They won the ruck club battle, is that correct?

Kit: That is. They did an awesome job. Their team was dominating on a lot of the challenges we had to face throughout the light and they were great. I mean, all the ruck clubs will put out and it was really cool to see everybody shoot for that goal of coming in first place and just do the best that they could to place. At the end of the day we just had fun, but yeah, they did an awesome job.

Brian: That’s awesome. Congrats to PBRC on that.

Kit: Congratulations to them.

Brian: Absolutely. These groups come together, they ruck, they have a good time training for ruck events, for GORUCK events, they send an e-mail, fill out the form on the GORUCK website to get registered with GORUCK as an official ruck club. What are some of the reasons why a ruck club, or just a group of people who are getting together rucking right now in a consistent basis would want to take the time to register with GORUCK?

Kit: We are moving towards a way to promote and support ruck clubs a lot better in 2018. In the past, what we’ve done is provide some gear discount, some event discounts, done some special sales, things like that that really give in ruck clubs an opportunity to provide the members with a benefit for being a ruck club.

We’ve also and just like I said earlier provided exposure to these gyms or ruck clubs. I mean, a lot of these ruck clubs, like I said they grow exponentially once they start the ruck club – they’ll just start something small and the next thing you know they filed for a 501C3 and are raising money for all types of charities. There was one I think that was from Houston that just did that. They have a giant ruck club in all different quadrants of the city and they just filed for their 501C3.

It’s pretty amazing to see those types of things happen and people like to get the exposure for being a GORUCK Ruck Club, an official GORUCK Ruck Club. Someone that we feel proud to support, because obviously they’re supporting us and we appreciate that. I think that in 2018, our goals are to provide them with more beneficial discount such as we’re going to have a monthly code.

Before we give a code out to the clubs and it would last for a certain number of months, now we’re looking to just have a single code for each club that last a month for their events, that’s a way you can get a discount on their events, then that will expire into the month giving them an opportunity to get that out there and for that month give them a little bit more incentive.

Then we’re also doing specific gear discounts each month. Before it was – you had to earn it and then you lose it, but now if you’re part of a ruck club, we’re offering a special discount on specific gear. If you’re saying, “Hey, I want to purchase some piece of gear.” You look and we send out a monthly e-mail. Then in the e-mail you see that piece of gear. Okay, awesome. I can get an excellent discount on this piece of gear, because we are more focused on those types of offers that we can extend.

Then if there are those opportunities for full quarters, they’re like, “Hey, I don’t see any gear that they’re offering currently on sale,” then we can work with people on large bulk discount as well. If they’re saying, “Hey, we want to purchase a bunch of – some piece of gear and a high quantity,” then we can talk about that as well. It’s just as simple as shooting us an e-mail and we can see what we can do for you on that end.

Brian: That’s awesome. Definitely great benefits right there.

Kit: Then we’re also looking to provide a playbook. One of our big goals this year is what we’re going to call the ruck club field manual. It’s going to give basically ruck clubs the playbook or the route that they can take to really be successful. We’re finalizing that as we speak. We’re trying to come up with something that is useful, but also informative and provides just enough information to get over some of the humps that people might say, that understand where we’re coming from on the things that we need to get done, but also just what we can do to beset support them.

Our ruck club field manual is going to be a nice tool that will have hopefully in the next coming week, be able download off of our site, for ruck clubs, the potential ruck clubs. We also just again, it’s focused on the rucking aspects, because we really want to work with groups that out there rucking. That being said, if there’s already a ruck club in the community then we might direct a newer ruck club to the already established ruck club depending on the geographic location. Like some locations are much larger, so it might make sense to have two ruck clubs in different parts of a city.

Other times, it makes more sense to just join people up, because they’re only 10, 15 minutes apart and it’s probably easier if they just end up joining forces and maybe having different chapters around that city. We’re trying to really give support in the sense of guidance and just overall understanding of each other through the ruck club program.

Brian: That’s great. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of clubs who are really excited to hear that there’s going to be a ruck club field manual, because I know one of the humps that some clubs have gone through is they’ve got the person who established the club, and probably one or two friends who they ruck with. They’re just not sure how do they – not really advertise this, but how do they get more people in who want to ruck and train for GORUCK events, because it is very specific. It’s not like running, where everyone knows what running is and you can find running clubs everywhere. This will be great. I’m very excited about this.

Kit: Yeah, I think it will really help to – just like you said, provide a little more guidance with what to do in the beginning stages, what to do when you’ve got something rolling, what to do when you just need some basic guidance. I mean, we have built into it how to former ruck, like what that might look like. I think I had mentioned that before in our previous podcast that we’re building that document that I mentioned into this field manual, so that way people can get an idea what basic skeleton of a ruck put o might look like. Then building off of that into more successful things; how to use the GORUCK logo, simple things like that as well to give people just more understanding and more control, so that they can say, “Hey, this is what I’m able to do as a GORUCK Ruck Club.”

Brian: That’s awesome. I think that’s exciting too that you’ll be in some part redirecting new inquiries about ruck clubs to already established clubs, because I can imagine that five ruck clubs with two to three people each might be a little less fun than run one ruck club for those 15 people rucking together and having a good time.

Kit: Right. We definitely want to do that. If you’re a part of a ruck club and you’ve got two or three people and like, “Hey, this is great.” But you realize that across the city that you live in, there might be more people that are rucking, then maybe it makes sense to join up. I mean, again it’s very geographic dependent, because even here in Jackson, our city is one of the biggest cities in the United States by land mass. It’s like you could have someone at the beaches and someone downtown and it would almost be like a completely separate area, because it’s just so far with traffic and whatever else.

Here, I can understand that. I mean, like I said if there was someone off the beaches, or someone else where there could potentially be another ruck club, it might not make as much sense, because then you’re just taking away where it could be an awesome opportunity to meet new people as well. They already got something going. It’s much easier just to build on that.

Brian: Absolutely. I mean, we both know traffic is a huge factor. Something might only be 15 miles south of me, but it can take over an hour to get there depending on the time of day.

Kit: Yup.

Brian: I’m really excited about what’s coming in 2018. This is going to be a really fun year for ruck clubs. Are there any plans to send bomber back on the road to go and visit more ruck clubs and do those write-ups?

Kit: I mean, we’re looking to – one of our other goals is to support rucking events this year, to own rucking, to be the face of rucking. We’re actively reaching out to rucking events, or things that makes sense to be a part of, whether it’s five case, or where we can get a rucking division built in, whether it’s half marathons, full marathons, working with local ruck clubs again to say, “Hey, guys. I got a really cool thing going on in my town. There is a solid presence there. We want to see if you guys would be willing to help us out there.”
Then we’ll vet those and see what makes sense. We’re actually making plans to go out to the baton memorial death March out in New Mexico in March. We’re going to have a tent. We’re going to be setting up there and camping, I believe. I’ll be out there. I think bomber and Nick, our videographer/photographer.

We’re going to have a pretty solid presence there for that event alone. Then again, we’re going to try to get out some other stuff this year as well that makes sense where we can potentially show our support of the rucking community. That’s another really cool thing that we’re looking to really grow this year is just having some presence.

I mean, obviously unfortunately just not feasible to get to every event. Bomber will definitely be out there when he can be. You’ll see us around for sure. If you ever have any cool rucking events that are going on in your city, we’d love to hear about them. Shoot us an e-mail and we’ll see what we can do about getting out to them, or being a part of them in some way.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’ve noticed in recent years that there have been some 5Ks, some half marathons, and even some full marathons that have added a ruck division. Do you see GORUCK in the ruck club component being a factor in more races adding that?

Kit: I like to think so. I mean, I think that the more that we get out there and have a presence, the more that we’ll start to see that grow within races. Some of the larger races definitely look at something. I mean, the Boston marathons always had a rucking division for years now. There is definitely other places that have that, but we’re really trying to be more proactive in finding them and just finding places that want to work with us that fit well.

Unfortunately, not everything fits timewise, or everything along those lines, but we’re definitely interested in seeing what else is out there. I mean, we want to be the face of rucking. I like to think that we’ve had some effect on the number of ruck divisions there are. Hopefully, we’ll just help that to grow more.

Brian: Very cool. Do you see yourselves working with local 5Ks, or organizations like that to create a rucking division?
Kit: Absolutely. I think that, again there’s a lot of 5Ks. I mean, you go around in your local city and see what’s going on on a weekend, I guarantee you’ll find one 5K happening. For us, it’s when does it make sense, maybe in conjunction with some other event? Is it a larger series of events, things like that that will really make the rucking division make more sense to us.

That’s really where you’re going to start to see some of the GORUCK up. Again, it’s going to be something that we’re going to be beta testing at first. We want to jump in too deep and just say, “Hey, we’re going to go media at every rucking event and the world will have a presence there and have this event.” It’s like I said earlier, it’s impossible, but we definitely want to be around for the bigger ones, so things like the baton which is a lot of cool stuff going on there. Such an amazing event to be at.

I think there’s actually going to be some of the survivors that will be there. It’s just going to be a really, really special event to be at, and we’re looking to find similar things that make a lot of sense for us to setup our tent and get out on the road for.

Brian: Absolutely. For those who are listening and weren’t around for it, GORUCK actually had a ruck year 5K event. I think that was – was it two years ago that those were going on?

Kit: Yes.

Brian: Two years ago and it was a 5K setup in local cities. I mean, it would be interesting to bring that back, but maybe attach it to an established 5K. It might make it a lot easier on you guys, since you don’t have to do all of the transport and all of the setup and stuff.

Kit: Right. I mean, definitely gives us more flexibility. The more that we have, just flexibility and move around and to choose to get in and hook up with the potential partner makes a lot of sense for us and helps a lot, to give us more exposure. I mean, it’s already – similar to a ruck club, right? There’s already an experienced ruck club out there that has a lot of people, a lot of eyes, then it really doesn’t make sense to go in and try to recreate the wheel with a new ruck club when you just join up with another established ruck club and find that perfect partnership there. That’s what we like to do as well. Initially, we’re just being strategic and trying to find the most feasible partnerships that we can for the 5Ks, or the other types of rucks, or things like that out there.
Brian: Yeah, absolutely. It makes a ton of sense. No one likes to reinvent the wheel. For those who are listening and they’re excited about the concept of a ruck club, they’ve gone to the GORUCK website and there might not be a ruck club in their area, can you remind people just how expensive it is to sign up with GORUCK to be a ruck club?

Kit: Sure. It’s absolutely nothing to actually become a ruck club. Again, we vet and call and just touch base with each ruck club before they become an official ruck club to make sure that there is not anything crazy. Again, if there’s one person again just starting up, I mean we’ll happily help you. We like to see some sort of established rucking going on as it helps to make that process a lot easier for the ruck club and for the people.

I mean, there’s no reason you can’t – like I said earlier, you can’t grow into something bigger, but it definitely helps to get some momentum going for you before you become an official ruck club. Again, we’re a resource for that. We have people like bomber who will happily talk to you about what we’ve seen for these great ruck clubs on the community.

Yeah, writing in and submitting application will cost you nothing to do. We’d happily look at what you’ve got going on. We’re actually doing a larger push in March to see what ruck clubs are out there who might be interested in creating or joining one. We’ll definitely see more and more about ruck clubs as we look forward in 2018.

Brian: That’s awesome. Really excited about that. Another aspect of ruck clubs that I always find interesting are the custom events that they make. There have been a number of ruck club custom; GORUCK tough, GORUCK light, even some GORUCK heavy events. I’m always interested in those events and they’re always very unique, because the people behind them are all people who are really into rucking.

You’ve got a ruck club of established ruckers putting on a custom and not just one individual trying to set it all up. I guess, the question here is what are some of the awesome custom events that you’ve seen over the past year that ruck clubs have put on?

Kit: We’ve seen a ton. There has definitely been some – honestly, the ruck club battle was a custom event. It’s something like that like you said that we can sit with together, because if you wanted to do something that was unique and fun, I mean that’s what a custom becomes. If you honestly wanted to put on a custom ruck club battle in your city, I mean obviously Luke did a great job of promoting and getting people out to it and made it easier being in Jacksonville for us to be there and all that.

Customs really do become like what you said, like it’s someone that really enjoys rucking. They want to include some cool stuff in their event. We can definitely work with them to figure out what makes sense. Will definitely bring people down to earth as well. Like, “Hey, we want to do skydiving and all these other stuff.” You want to make sure that they’re like, “Okay, you got to realize you got to get this number of people to be able to have a custom event and you got to pay this amount upfront to reserve your date and all those types of things.”

We definitely help them to tailor their needs, but there is some really amazing stuff out there. We had the St. Patrick’s events were customs initially. We’ve had some of those – one of those – there’s a bunch of charity events that we put on, where people will do normal custom and then have a fundraising component that they collect money from all the participants at the end of the event.

We’ve had some other ones recently, where it’s like groomsmen putting together events for their bachelor party, like custom firearms days for their whole groom party, all that type of stuff. There’s just a lot of unique – someone is just having an event that might not be in their area. Hey, we don’t have a light coming for another three months or so. Well, there’s an opportunity then to do that. The other time that they want to have something super unique where they want to pick the route, they want to pick the cadre and they want to pick what they do during their event a little bit more.

Obviously, we’re going to keep the skeleton in place on what a proper GORUCK event is. When it comes to the extras and the cool things that they want to include, we can definitely work with them to make something truly custom out of it.

Brian: That’s amazing. If anyone wants to put on a custom grooms and firearms day, please invite me to your wedding, because I would love to take part in that. Joking aside, that custom firearms day for the groomsmen reminded me that there was recently a princess bride theme at GORUCK event. That’s pretty custom right there.

Kit: Yeah. I mean, the themed ones are definitely cool. I guess, with people who want a specific theme for their event, I mean it could be something and simple as just like saying, “Hey, we were going to do a custom event or something.” Maybe it’s not on Halloween, or whatever. If there’s something that they want to do, again we can try to figure out a way to make it work. If it’s within the reasons of – or within the reason of our basic principles, but again, I think we can work with most ideas and figure out something cool to do.

Brian: One of the best things about GORUCK is the sheer number of cadre you have on hand. There is tons of GORUCK cadre and they all have varying interest. If you have an idea for a custom event, there’s a good chance that there is a cadre employed by GORUCK who is also very interested in that topic as well. You can probably make some pretty cool things happen.

Kit: Yup, absolutely. I think all of our cadre bring a unique flavor to each event. I mean, I think I said it before that you can do the same event in the same city different weekends, or different cadre and have a completely different event. Even if it’s the exact same place that you’re at. It’s just one of those things that our cadre really bring the flavor to those different types of events, and I think the same thing with customs. It’s like, oh there is great firearms cadre, there is great light cadre, there’s a great tough cadre, there’s a great heavy cadre. We have a lot of people with a lot of different experiences that can bring something cool to your event.

Brian: Absolutely. Are there any other changes to the GORUCK Ruck Club program that you want to talk about?

Kit: There’s one thing we’re working on and we haven’t ironed out all the details yet, but we’re looking to provide some list of challenges for each ruck club. We want to provide ways for ruck clubs to cool stuff with their ruck club and provide them with ideas, similar to the ruck club field manual, but a little bit more specific in terms of if you do this, then you can earn a special patch, or something like that.

We’re trying to think of some cool ways for ruck clubs to get a little more creative with our help and say, “Okay, well if you do X, Y and Z then that will earn you your patch, or whatever it might be.” Again, I don’t know exactly the details just yet specifically, but that’s something that we’ve been kicking around and trying to accomplish something cool that will – it’s just another way for ruck clubs to get their members excited, or engaged.

I mean, sometimes like we’ve been rucking every week and we love it and it’s fun, but we love to do something different. Well, that’s what we’re trying to do here is provide a little bit more guidance, a little bit more excitement to the rucking that these people are already doing.

Brian: This is the first I’ve heard of that and I’m already hooked. That is an awesome idea. I’m very excited to see what comes from it.

Kit: Yes. We’re hoping that it’s something that people really adopt and think that there’s something I want to do, because I think in general it will be fun for ruck clubs to just say, “Hey, you know we did this, we did that,” and do something that will really give them the unique distinction from other ruck clubs that they say, “Hey, we did that. We did that challenge. Did you guys do that one yet? Or whatever it might be.”

We’re all just going to be looking to switch that up and provide something cool for this ruck something. Again, it’s just all tied into the base of working with good people and trying to find some cool ways to work together.

Brian: Absolutely. It seems like it’s going to be a great motivation for ruck clubs who might be looking to try something new, who have a standard route, but maybe they haven’t thought of ways to expand it or thought of different types of workouts. It just seems like an awesome way to give them either a list, or just ideas on these are challenges that you guys can take part in.

Kit: Yeah, something like that. I think it will really help, like you said, it’s like for us who do rucking all the time you might say, “Oh, well that sounds so simple at something that we do a lot.” Then for those that might just be getting started, something might not sound as common sense. It might sound a little bit outside of the norm, which is great. That’s what we want is to try to break some of the – what you might get stuck in, or the things that you think that are the only possibilities out there and really provide a little bit more variety to what they do each month.

Brian: Very cool. Well, I’m very excited to see what comes from this, because I think it’s just an awesome idea. For yourself, what do you have planned for 2018? Are there any events that you’re signed up for yet?

Kit: Well, like I said just completing my ruck club light challenge, or ruck club face off this past weekend, and that was my first event of 2018. I don’t know exactly what my event schedule is. Really tough with a two-year-old to get away for too many events, but I definitely am looking to get out some toughs. I don’t know exactly where my path will take me the rest of the event, but I mean I’m sure I’ll jump into some lights along the way, maybe some of these 5K rucks that we partner with we like to be a part of.

I think with baton, I don’t think I’m going to be actually doing that one. I’ll probably just be manning the booth for it, but we’re definitely just going to be – I’ll be out there rucking the clubs and that when I can and just if there’s a good event that comes close by that I can jump into, I’ll be absolutely down for that as well.

Brian: I feel that. I’ve got a three-and-a-half-year-old foster son and eight-month-old daughter. My wife is an absolute saint for letting me go do constellation 12 last weekend.

Kit: Yeah, it’s not easy when you have kids to get away for 12 hours overnight and not have anything in the morning for them. I think it’s awesome when you can get out for it. I mean, obviously I try to get out as much as I can.

Brian: Absolutely.

Kit: I’ll probably do a firearms.

Brian: Yeah, those are always fun. I mean, if you can get one close, why not?

Kit: Exactly. Yeah, because there’s some – I think I’m going to do – there’s a personal security detail in St. Augustine in March I would say. I might try to get that one out to that one when that comes around.

Brian: Very cool. Then lights are always great to sign up for. Those are just fun events to get out and enjoy the GORUCK community, meet some new people. You get a lot of first-timers at light events. There’s always something fun.

Kit: For sure. It’s always nice to meet someone new that’s never done the GORUCK. We have to do with this past one event that was – may have never been at a GORUCK thing and then we had a battle and they were there. It’s really cool to have them, because I know trying the same with constellation and in some ways for people that may have not done a GORUCK event, or actually get out and check those out as well.

Brian: Yeah, at least at our constellations, yeah the last weekend it was 80% of the people I would say have never done a GORUCK event.

Kit: Wow. That’s awesome.

Brian: Yeah. I think only four people who were there had done a previous constellation. It was a lot of new people.

Kit: Yeah, it was cool. I mean, that’s always my favorite part is meeting all the new people, meeting some of the ruck club organizers, those types of things that just – our community has always been the greatest part of GORUCK, so it’s always great to see everyone out there.

Brian: Absolutely. For those who are listening, maybe they don’t want to start a ruck club, but they want to find a ruck club. They want to find a group of people to ruck with, they’re interested in rucking, where is a great spot for them to go to find someone to ruck with?

Kit: Right now, we have – if you go to the bottom of GORUCK.com there is a link that says ruck clubs. If you click on that, then that will take you to the ruck club page, which gives you a quick rundown of the ruck club program and then a map where you can type in your zip code, or your dress and it will take you to the closest ruck clubs in your area.

The maps are probably going to – I’m sure that’s going to stay the same this year, but there’ll probably more additions to the website in terms of that ruck club manual, there will probably be some other details we add there, other things get pulled out into it, but that’s definitely the best place to go if you want to just learn the basics and find a local ruck club near you.

Brian: That’s perfect. What better way than to just see a giant map of your city and where local ruck clubs are.

Kit: Yup.

Brian: I guess, if there isn’t a ruck club in the area and the person is trying to find someone to ruck with, my advice is always to hit up the local events and go to those Facebook pages and find people who are training for those events. Do you have any other recommendations on ways that people can find the local ruckers?

Kit: Yeah. Definitely, I think that that’s probably the best way to go about it, especially to find people who are obviously interested and have an ear to rucking. I mean, you can always go to a local gym, across the gym. It’s always a good option, just because there’s more of a community aspect in a lot of cases, where people who are working out tends to work out together, the smaller classes. You go to normal global gym whatever, then you technically properly don’t really talk to anyone else. Whereas, in some other gyms you might have a little bit more of a community aspect.

You can always talk to a coach, talk to someone that is waiting at class and say, “Hey, I’m doing this event. Would you guys ever be interested in training with me, or doing the event with me?” That’s always a cool thing to do. There’s plenty of opportunities just to get out in front of your RWB chapters. If you look on the RWB website, you can see if there are a local chapter. Because sometimes RWB might not be doing a ruck as a part of their monthly training, but you can always go there and suggest that, because those people in those groups are already training in some way, usually running or biking or something. If you want to throw in a ruck, then I’m sure they’d be more than welcoming to that idea.

I think it’s trying to find local clubs, hitting up meetup.com. I’ve seen some people use that before with some success in terms of finding people who are interested in training for events, or rucking event in general. There’s definitely simple ways that you can try to find more people rucking.

Brian: That’s a great advice. Some of that stuff that I’ve never even thought of before, I generally consider gyms to be as like headphones gyms and community gyms. The headphones gyms are your global gyms that everyone has their headphones in, no one is talking to each other and it’s weird if you walk up to someone and tap them on the shoulder and say, “Hey, do you want to GORUCK sometime?”

Then the community gym is like CrossFit boxes and stuff like that, a lot of the trainers know on a personal level all the members. I guess, if you want to search Google for a local CrossFit gyms, you could probably even e-mail them and say, “Hey, I’m looking to do some rucking, or signup for a GORUCK event. Do you know anyone who is doing this?” They would probably know right away, because they’re tapped into their communities and their students and their gym members and they could probably let you know people who are already rucking out there.

Kit: Exactly. I think that’s a really good strategy is to try to just talk to as many people. We have one ruck club recently that started up. The guy actually contacted his local park and rec department and said that they were looking to do some rucking and wanted to get their community involved and this day we’re doing some cleanup stuff. I’m not a 100% on that, but either way the initiative was set that he talked to the rec park and rec department, which then I guess put out some analysis about it and his ruck club started to grow exponentially, because more people started to hear about it. I think the media covered it.

It’s funny to see how such little things sometimes can really grow these ruck clubs much bigger than they had even thought they would, because people – it’s an interesting way of doing your fitness. If you walk around, like that’s not a big deal. You start rucking with a rucksack flag or something then you’re going to gain some more attention. I think that just this little movement sometimes can create a larger push for people to you in your rucking endeavors.

Brian: That is absolutely wild. Who would’ve thought that by contacting your local parks and rec department that you could fall into starting a ruck club?
Kit: Yup. Exactly. It’s pretty cool. Always interesting to see those types of things happen.

Brian: Yeah, that is wild. I never would’ve guessed on that one. Then local RWB chapter, I mean that makes total sense, because a lot of them are already so tied in and they’re doing rucking, but they might not be on the GORUCK map yet. Reach out there, some awesome advice. I’m excited. I’m really excited about what 2018 has for ruck clubs, just the future and all the energy that’s behind the program and the events that are coming. I’m very excited for 2018. It sounds like you really are too.

Kit: Yeah. We definitely just want to – like I said earlier, the base of it is rucking. We want to get people out there. We want to find quality clubs that are helping us to promote rucking, and that’s really what it comes down to. We don’t want to get too far off track, so we’re again just doing the best we can to support all the ruck clubs out there today and finding good ones to work with and supporting everyone in their whole endeavor to ruck more.

Brian: That’s perfect. Is there anything else you want to talk about Kit before we go?

Kit: I mean, I think we covered everything I want to talk about. Like I said, our goals are pretty basic in the sense of just getting people on the same page with our ruck club field manual. I think that will really help a lot of people like you said just make that jump from like, “Okay, well what do we do now? What does this mean?”

We are definitely going to be supporting rucking events when they make sense. When we can be there, be awesome. If we can’t, then we just like to hear about it obviously. It’s always fun to see the pictures and when people go and join up with the – even if they don’t have a specific rucking division, we have tons of people that will go out there and just ruck their local 5K. They’ll sign up and then they go in for a ruck on, and that’s always cool to see.

Then like I said, the challenges that we’re going to hopefully have this year for people to get an opportunity to take part in as a part of the ruck club to earn a special patch or something like that, I think will really be cool for a lot of these people to get, again something new for their ruck club. Like maybe they’ve already done an event together and maybe they’ve already rucked the same route 800 times, but maybe there’s something that we could provide that gives them a little bit more of a creative challenge to partake in.

Brian: Awesome. Again, I am very excited already about that program that doesn’t even exist in a 100% yet. I can’t wait to hear more about that as we get into 2018. Kit, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me about this. I love ruck clubs, I love the GORUCK community. I feel like ruck clubs are just like the embodiment of all these awesome people coming together to ruck and train and hang out.

Any time I can talk about ruck clubs, it’s always fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me about this and congrats again on that Eagles win.

Kit: Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it.

The post ADR 036: GORUCK Ruck Club 2018 Updates with Kit Klein appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 035: GORUCK St. Baldrick’s Custom Light with David Pearson

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 15:00:19 +0000

David Pearson has been involved in the GORUCK community since 2012 and has participated in dozens of events. He puts on a custom St. Baldrick’s GORUCK Light event yearly which raises money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

After hearing about this we knew we had to get him on the show to talk about the event and what it means to him. This year the St. Baldrick’s Light events will occur in four cities around the US and David is hoping to expand that in the years to come. If putting on one of these events sounds exciting to you please reach out to GORUCK and asked to be connected to him.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Today I’m talking with David Pearson about the upcoming St. Baldrick’s Custom GORUCK Light event, which is a charity GORUCK event that David has, it sounds like, put on for a number of years. I’m really excited that he’s taken the time out of his day to chat with me today. So I can’t wait to get into this.

David, how are you doing?

David: I’m doing great. Thank you for having me and letting me promote this event.

Brian: I’m excited, man. My heart is always in for charity. So as soon as I heard about this and we got linked up, thanks to Dan, I just wanted to get you on as quick as possible. So thanks again for taking the time.

David: Thank you, and I know GORUCK nation has been hit by a number of cancer losses in the past few years including losing one of the original cadre who passed away from cancer. So it’s definitely something that has affected a lot of people in the GORUCK nation.

Brian: Absolutely. So before we get into the St. Baldrick’s custom events, about some questions about your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you even stumble upon GORUCK as a company?

David: I don’t even remember. It was end of 2011, I was randomly surfing the internet and came across an article, I think, on ITS tactical. One of their authors had done an event with GORUCK and they had this cryptic review of it and it sounded really stupid. So I found the website and signed up for my first event, which happened in June of 2012 right after they changed the weight requirements and all the other requirements to do a challenge.

Brian: Yeah. Those were the good old days, right? Back when if you’re over 150, was four bricks, and under 150 was two.

David: Yeah. When I signed up, that was a requirement, and then while we were training for the event, they upped it to the current six and four.

Brian: Yeah, I remember when they made that flip, my first event was the old weight requirements and my second was the new one. So definitely felt it. It’s funny you bring that ITS tactical article up. That’s one of the first articles I saw about GORUCK and it really was cryptic, and you got to the end of it and you’re like, “I have no idea what this thing is, but I think I should probably sign up for it.”

David: Yeah. There was nothing else anywhere in the internet about the company or the event. So you were pretty much — If you were into something that was weird and you have no idea what you were getting into, that was a way to go for it.

Brian: Absolutely. So what was your first GORUCK event?

David: Class 179 in June, 2012 in San Francisco. It was a GORUCK weekend. There were three classes on Friday and three classes on Saturday, and I went out on Saturday and was being led by Bo and then Liu came along since they had a new cadre that started Friday that Liu helped out, and then Saturday he just partied with Bo.

Brian: That’s huge. I rarely remember classes being that big back then. So for them to throw three in on a Friday and three in on a Saturday, you must have been out there with a decent number of people.

David: Yes. Every class was huge. It was Nor Cal. That’s where they started, and at that point I think we had at least 30 in each group. Those are a lot of people out, and there were six classes that weekend. There was a lot of people that went through and a small handful including Matt who were doing their first back-to-backs ever.

Brian: That’s awesome. So did you enjoy the event?

David: At the time, no. Afterwards, yes. At that point you had no idea what to expect. There was no information about the event. I had trainings and met people that had done prior GORUCKs, because Nor Cal has a really strong group or did at the time, and so I kind of knew what to expect a little just from what we were being trained to do and what we practiced, but the reality is a lot different and it was brutally cold that night. I think I had four layers on and I was still freezing. We had people go hypothermic in June in San Francisco. That’s how cold it was.

Brian: That’s nearly unheard of.

David: It’s San Francisco on summer.

Brian: That’s wild. So leading up to that event, were you nervous at all? It sounds like you had at least some contact with people who had done a previous GORUCK event.

David: We had done a whole bunch of trainings on the beach and in San Francisco, so I knew a lot of the people that I was doing the event with and we kind of self-sorted. A group of us got together to make sure we were under the same cadre when the event started. So at least I had friends that was doing the event with, that helped. Then it was just one foot in front of the other and do whatever they tell you and keep moving.

Brian: That’s a good plan for success.

David: I don’t think anybody — Nobody from our group, our class, quit. One of the other classes that night, I know, while we were being smoked before we left out to do our various missions, we saw two guys walking up within the first — Probably half hour or 45 minutes. They just disappeared at one of the other two classes.

Brian: That’s wild.

David: After that, those two, there maybe have been a few others, but almost everybody else made it through that night as far as I know from all three of the classes that went out Saturday night.

Brian: That’s impressive. It’s always nice to hear about classes that everyone makes it through to the end. I think that happened a lot more back then, because GORUCK — No one really knew what GORUCK was or how to find it. So the only people who did find it were people who are looking for it. So it wasn’t people who just saw and said, “Hey! That sounds like a fun thing to do on a Saturday along with everything else and sign up.” It was a little tougher to find.

David: Nor Cal has a really strong group. I mean, they were the first — We were the first to be there, the 100% passed in a Heavy. Before that, the prior record had been the Masters Heavy that we did in DC. We were about an 80% pass rate, I think, in that class. Then San Francisco had the first 100% Heavy passed.

Brian: What Heavy class was that?

David: San Francisco one. The one Heavy I did in DC was the Masters Custom, was Heavy 6. I think the San Francisco 100% was probably like 12 or 13, maybe. It was the first Heavy they did in San Francisco, but it was pretty early on.

Brian: Yeah. I did Heavy 9 up in Seattle, and we had a couple of drop from ours, but that was to be expected at the time.

David: Yeah. And we had I think almost a dozen out of the Masters Custom. We had about an 80% pass rate. We are the oldest class, and I think the youngest cadre was what we had wanted.

Brian: If you loss a dozen — Do you say you lost a dozen on that one?

David: Yeah, I think we started at 50 or more, and lost — Yeah, about 10 or 12.

Brian: That’s an impressive class size for a Heavy.

David: Well, it was a custom event. It started as a custom, and then Mark Webb has heard about GORUCK starting this 24-hour event and we decided, “Let’s try a custom 24,” and then everybody learned about Heavy and it kind of morphed into the Heavy event. Again, it was one of those nobody really had any idea what to expect, because it was number six and we had just heard the horror stories of the New York Heavy where people were almost passing out and falling into traffic, because they went from New York City to Long Island and back.

Brian: Yeah, that class got miles in.

David: Yes, they did. I think we ended up about 40 or so miles. That’s what Devin told us for DC.

Brian: That’s impressive. That is impressive. When you finished that first event, that Tough back in California, did you want to sign up for another afterwards or did it take a couple of days for the pain to disperse and then you’re just left with the good memories?

David: I thought it was awesome. I was ready to sign up again, and I did sign up for back-to-back in November, which I think was the next event they had in the city in San Francisco. I thought it was an awesome event, and I love the people and how it was run.

Brian: Yeah. That’s what keeps me bringing me back. It’s all about the community.

David: Now I’m too broken and old to do most of it. I like the Lights. I’ve been beaten down enough.

Brian: How many events have you done so far?

David: To include everything? Probably in the low 30s, between Heavy, Light, Challenge and Capstones and Scavengers and that kind of stuff.

Brian: That’s impressive. That’s awesome. Congratulation on that. The Lights are fun. So at least still getting those in.

David: Yeah, that’s pretty much all I do now are lights. That’s fun, it’s easy. You don’t get too broken.

Brian: That’s true.

David: They Heavy pretty much destroyed my back. It was a lot of weight for 24 hours and I was pretty wrecked at the end of that. I would never do another Heavy again. That’s for sure.

Brian: Yeah, they are something else. So you mentioned that was the Masters custom Heavy. There’re probably a number of people listening who don’t know what the Masters group is. You just want to briefly say what that is?

David: Sure. After my first GORUCK event, I was one of the older people doing the events in Nor Cal, and so I joined the GORUCK page and then I set up a page on Facebook for masters, which is anybody who’s completed a GORUCK event who’s 40 years or older. So we were looking — I think it was Mark Webb wanted to do a masters event with just people to see how it would work. So that’s how we came to do the 24-hour event, and we ended up — We had three who started who were in their 70s. Most of us were 40s or 50s, and we let three children in under 40 who did the event with us.

Brian: That’s wild. So if you’re listening to this and you think you might be too old for a Light or a Tough, they had a Masters Heavy and three people who were 70 showed up for it.

David: No. 60. Yeah, they were in their 60s.

Brian: Still.

David: Two of three finished. The one who dropped who was in his 60s only dropped because he had done a challenge the weekend before and didn’t have enough time to rest. He didn’t think that one through very clearly.

Brian: Yeah, maybe just a little there. They say with age comes with wisdom, but I don’t know.

David: No. Not always.

Brian: As I get older, I’m not so sure anymore. So let’s move into St. Baldrick’s. I’m really excited to talk about this. For those who are listening and don’t know what St. Baldrick’s is, can you just tell us a little bit about that organization?

David: Sure. St. Baldrick’s is — I think at this point the largest pediatric cancer research charity in the country. So they raise money by going around the country, and generally right around St. Patrick’s Day, holding head shaving events and all the money is pooled together and used to research cancers that primarily strike children. So it’s pediatric cancer research. If I remember correctly, last year, the first drug that they helped fund actually was released for use in pediatric cancer patients.

Brian: That’s amazing, and that’s a very worthy cause. Definitely, definitely worth contributing to and informing a GORUCK custom event around. How long have you been involved in St. Baldrick’s or fundraising for them?

David: This will be my 9th year shaving my head.

Brian: Very nice. You’ll have to do this again next year to hit 10 at least, right?

David: Yup. At 5 you bet a badge. You’re called a Knight of the Bald Table. I have one of those.

Brian: That is awesome. That’s a great name for that. So you’re putting on a GORUCK Light to benefit St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Where did the idea for putting on a custom GORUCK event for this come from?

David: The first couple of years, I did the event was locally in my community, which is Walnut Creek and the East Bay at San Francisco with the police department, and then the police department stopped doing it after, I think, two years, and I looked and found the children’s hospital in Oakland was doing it. At that point I had done my first — I think it was training or maybe I had done the first GORUCK event, and so I asked on the Nor Cal page if anybody would be interested and just going and raising some money and shaving their head, and two other guys came out and we did it. I’m not even sure how it morphed a year after that into doing a full custom, but I know I had done some research on customs after the heavy, and Bert at the time was a cadre and I talked to him and he was really excited, since he had been a medic about running an event to raise money for childhood cancer. So I set up a custom working with GORUCK, and at the time we had also been trying to work with GORUCK to let kids do GORUCK events.

When the Light came out, I know I had wanted my daughter to be able to do it with me, and she was under 18 at the time and technically children weren’t allowed to do GORUCK events, although some signed up and it was just for the wink and a nod. So once we got this set up, they started allowing kids to do Lights, and so we were able to have the parents and children came out and do the events.

Brian: That is really cool. That’s wild. Your GORUCK Light for St. Baldrick’s actively encourages kids to come out and do the event with their parents. What age kids are we talking about here?

David: One of the Nor Cal parents, his daughter has done two or three Lights now and she started, I think, she was five or six. She’s a multi-patched GRT at like 8 years old.

Brian: That’s amazing. The only other group I know doing something like that is Team Ninja with their Santa Ruck where they actively encourage little ones to come out too. So I had no idea that St. Baldrick’s did as well. That is really, really cool.

David: That was where the custom part came from, was because with customs, you could have children doing them, because originally you had to be 18 or up to do any GORUCK event, and then for a period of time, GORUCK actually let under 18 sign up and then obviously there were some accidents and a death and the insurance companies looked at the events and they had to pull back on allowing children to do events. But with customs, you can still have kids. So making Baldrick’s a custom let us have children come out. Then even now that it’s a semi-custom, we’re still allowed to have kids participate. They’re light Lights, not a typical Light.

Brian: That’s good to know. If you’re listening and you want to set up a custom event that kids can go to, then make sure it’s a custom through GORUCK and that could be a really fun birthday party idea for parents listening.

David: They’re a good way for the kids to come out and see what it is their parents — Why is your mom or dad carrying stupid heavy things on their back and doing these all these exercise and they get to come out and do the event. Generally, when the kids are out there, the cadre pick the kids to be the team leaders and they get to order the parents around, and that’s always entertaining.

Brian: Yeah! We had some of that at the Team Ninja Light up here in Seattle. The last team leaders were elementary school-aged. So it was fun. It was a good time.

David: That’s perfect. In the first Light my daughter did with me in San Francisco, I think we had 90 people in the class, and she and another 16-year-old were in the class. So we threw them under the bus and they got to be the team leaders for the last third of the event.

Brian: There you go. It’s perfect. So where is your St. Baldrick’s custom Light taking place?

David: We start at children’s hospital at 9 AM with our head shaved, and then as soon as our team is done shaving heads, we meet up back outside of the shaves at the hospital and go off through Oakland, California and do basically a four-event, and it’s wherever the cadre take us.

Brian: That’s great. Your event is based out of Oakland, California. Are there any other locations that there are custom St. Baldrick’s events occurring?

David: Yes. The other oldest Baldrick’s events is on the East Coast with Maryland with Dave Smith. We have one that started up two years ago, I believe, it’s in Colorado. I think it’s out of Denver, and we just, this year, Southern California, add a Baldrick’s event that’s getting started.

Brian: Very cool. So expanding. That’s good to hear.

David: We are, and we’re looking for people who want to take on the leadership role in their city and do it next year.

Brian: So do you collaborate on ideas with the other GRT who are leading these custom events in the other cities?

David: Dave Smith and I, who’s back in Maryland, have been doing it for years, but we helped, like Joe Hanning, who’s in Colorado when he got started with ideas and how to get everything up and running and work with the cadre and the GORUCK. Flash, who helped run Nor Cal, has been running the Colorado one for two years now, and we love the events. Then we’ve been working with So al too to get everything smoothed out and figure out how to set up a head shave and do the event. So we’re happy to work with anyone else who wants to do it in their city.

Brian: That’s great. So if you’re listening and you want to put on a St. Baldrick’s custom GORUCK Light event, it’s probably too late for 2018, because the events are in a month or so. But for 2019, it sounds like you’ll get some good support from people who have put on these events for years.

David: They will, and GORUCK headquarters is very supportive. Mocha Mike is really behind this event. He loves doing this and working with any kind of kid event. So even if you don’t want to do a Baldrick’s, if you want to do a kid-centric events, get a hold of Mocha and he’ll work with you.

Brian: Good to know. You mentioned a couple of times, head shaving. My next question is what can people expect at one of these events?

David: It’s going to be different in every city, but basically what the event is, you set up a team with St. Baldrick’s, which is your GORUCK group, and that team is comprised of volunteers who are just raising money and then those who actually want to shave their head, and the object is obviously to raise money for Baldrick’s. Our head shave, we do before the event. I think in Maryland, they do their head shave after their event at the conclusion. So if you want to share your head, obviously you’re showing up and they clipper it down and you walk out with a crew cut.

Brian: Is the shaving head a requirement to participate?

David: No. Not at all. I mean, there’s a lot of women that do the event that aren’t interested in shaving their heads, and some of the guys were already bald, so there’s nothing to shave. But that’s part of the fun of it. If you want to shave your head, here’s the opportunity to do it for a charity. I usually get my last haircut towards the end of December and then let it grow out and look like a hippie until March when I shave it.

Brian: That’s awesome. So who is the cadre for your event?

David: This year we have Mikey B. and mickey coming to run the event.

Brian: That will be great. Those are two very well-know, well-respected cadre. That should be an amazing time.

David: Yeah. They’re both excited. I know Mikey B. is very involved in the Santa Ruck, so he loves to do kid-centric events and raise money for that kind of stuff. So both of them are very pumped and they have offered to do war stories for us the night before our event and all the money from that is going to go to Baldrick’s.

Brian: That’s amazing. I have had Mikey B. on twice. Once talk about GORUCK Selection and once to talk about the Santa Ruck, and then I had Mickey on once to talk about GORUCK Constellation and the changes from 2017 to 2018, and I mean both of those guys, they’re just standup guys. They are awesome. So it sounds like you’re truly going to have a really special event this year.

David: Yeah. I’ve done a bunch of events with both of them. They’re both really awesome guys. Part of it comes down to — The event is cadre selection, and making sure you get a cadre that likes kids and is willing to do a light Light and isn’t just going to go out there and turn it into a Heavy and just beat people down, because it’s — You’re going to go out and you’re going to sing songs, and we’ve done coloring books before and egg toss races and tug of war, that kind of stuff, as supposed to the normal GORUCK beat down. These are light Lights. Six or seven year olds shouldn’t have much trouble keeping up.

Brian: That is really cool, and I mean it definitely adds a next level of uniqueness to the event, and it sounds like it just really aligns it with the charity that you’re fundraising for too.

David: Yeah, and I know it various times. I mean, when I first started, at the end of the event somebody would always collect whatever cab money was left and it would be sent into the GBS, the Green Beret Foundation, and then GORUCK kind of got away from that charity aspect. I know in the last year, now they’re pushing it again where at each event you should have some type of a connection to a charity. So Jason is starting to focus the company back on doing community events again, which is good.

Brian: Yeah, the audition of the service component was definitely interesting for 2017, and I think aligns GORUCK with more of that charity aspect. Then they also ran those two virtual events last year, which I think combined raised over $200,000. It definitely seems like they’re aligning themselves with the charity.

David: Yeah, and it’s another way to keep the company going. I mean there’s only so many times that most people want to be beaten down before they kind of get burned out, and there’s only so many people crazy enough to do a GORUCK event of any type. So they have to do stuff to keep bringing people in, and I think that’s a good focus, is on that charitable aspect too.

Brian: Absolutely. The GRT community is definitely a subset. That’s for sure.

David: A special kind of stupid.

Brian: Yup. Couldn’t say it better than that.

David: We’re paid for this punishment.

Brian: Yeah. Anyone that will throw money at this kind of an event and pay for it willingly is definitely a unique breed. Yeah, that’s about it right there. So what has the turnout been like for previous years at your St. Baldrick’s events?

David: Once we started actually combining it with GORUCK with an event, we’ve had amazing turnout. Usually, between 40 and 60. I think the last time I asked for a roster for this year, we were in the mid-50s, maybe close to 60 for signups.

Brian: That’s impressive. Did you notice a change? You mentioned the GORUCK run customs as supposed to the traditional custom, and for those who are listening, it sounds like the traditional custom, you put all the money upfront for the event and then you sell spots to the event. The GORUCK run custom is GORUCK listed the event on their website, and it’s still a custom event you’re running, but it’s more through GORUCK than the traditional ones. You don’t have to put up all that cash up front.

Have you noticed a difference in turnouts between when it was an original custom and a GORUCK run custom?

David: Yeah. I mean, either the custom was more driven by the people running it. Like Dave Smith and I, we had to go out and find the people. So the people participating at that point were either all of our personal friends or GRTs already. They knew what a GORUCK event was. So we have an easier sell. Once we went to what we call now a semi-custom, we were getting people who were just going on the website and saying, “Oh, hey! This was like a cool GORUCK event. I’m just going to show up.” It requires a little bit more explanation that, hey, this isn’t the typical GORUCK event. This is something a little different.

So I have to do — The organizers have to do a little more work from the standpoint of emailing people who aren’t in the Facebook group to let them know, “Hey, we also want you to sign up for Baldrick’s and raise some money and here’s what likely to happen during the event.” There’s a little more prep on that end, because you’re getting people who are brand new to GORUCK, since GORUCK is putting it on their website.

Brian: Yeah, that’s definitely an aspect to look at there. The custom that you put on yourself is not listed publicly on GORUCK’s website, and the custom through GORUCK is listed on there. There is a possible chance that someone will sign up and think it’s just a traditional Light and show up expecting that. So it definitely seems like you have to do some work on your end to levels and mentally prepare them that this is going to be a light Light with kids. Don’t expect tougher, heavy beat down in a light amount of time.

David: Those people signing up for a Light aren’t looking for a beat down, and so so far everybody who’s been to these events since we went out with a semi-custom has been totally happy with it. They were surprised and didn’t realize they could have brought their kids.

Brian: Yeah. I can imagine people who are either new to GORUCK or not used to this type of event being a little surprised and they show up and they see kids in the lineup with their rucks out and getting ready for gear inspection.

David: Yeah, and it’s fun. I mean, the kids get a kick out of it. Last year one of the things we did is we learned how to use a team to scale a building. Of course, we were in Berkley doing this and so the Berkley moms at the park called the police and cadre had to go explain to the police what we were doing and they were cool with it, but the kids thought it was awesome that they got to learn how to climb on to a roof without any equipment.

Brian: That’s amazing. Like what an incredible thing for a kid to learn, because at least when I was a kid, I mean like grappling hooks were the coolest thing and I didn’t even know how they worked, but I just thought climbing up stuff was the best. So what a fun experience for kids to be a part of.

David: And they were a little unhappy at the end when the parents got to put them on their backs and put water in their face.

Brian: I can’t imagine why.

David: A little bit of water torture. It was good for them.

Brian: Yup! Resilience training. For someone who’s listening to this and they’re excited about the event and they want to go and sign up for this event, where they should go and sign up?

David: Just go directly to GORUCK’s website. If you scroll down on — I think it’s called — They are special events, because it’s the non-regular patch. So it’s the specially designed patches, and if you just scroll down you’ll see the — I think there are three different listening, because the three of the four cities are on different dates. Ours in Nor Cal is actually on St. Patrick’s Day, on the 17th.

Brian: Very nice. So if you want to sign up, just head over to GORUCK and the event should be there either under the list of all events or under that special events page. For those who are listening and they maybe just want to donate or support you in some way, where should they go to do that?

David: So www.stbaldricks.org, and there’s a search for find people or events, and if you type in GORUCK, you’ll probably find a couple of different teams. Should be one for each city. You can pick which city you want to donate to and you can even drill down to a particular participant and donate to them.

Brian: Awesome. I’ll include links to all that on the website in the show notes. So if you’re listening to this and you want to check out the events, you can do quickly hit up the show notes and I’ll have the links there or you can hit up the show notes and I’ll have the links to the donation pages there as well. So very cool. This event sounds truly unique. It sounds like not your — I don’t want to say your traditional custom, but in terms of customs, this sounds like a custom custom.

David: GORUCK handles all of the backend for us now, but we pick date, time, cadre, and the cadre work with us on what we want to do for the event. They realize that they got five and six-year-olds coming out to have fun with mom and dad, so it’s scaled to include everybody in the event. They understand that there’s head shaving involved and we have to be flexible with time, especially with our group. We have a lot of people who get their head shaved. So even though the website says the event are going to start at a particular time, it’s usually about a half hour after that given how many people we have to shuffle through for head shaving.

Brian: Yeah. That makes total sense. You don’t want to rush that.

David: No, you can’t. You’re up on stage with a crowd watching you. Usually in Oakland, there’s like eight at a time about getting their head shaved. So it takes a little time to get everybody shaved down. Sometimes they’ll auction out to people to shave their beards or their eyebrows or do other crazy stuff.

Brian: That sounds like definitely a site to see.

David: Well, this year — I know our team is doing a video before the event. St. Baldrick’s is sending out a camera crew to do a video of us doing stupid activities that they’re going to have up on the website, and sometimes they’ll do some live feeds from the actual events around the country.

Brian: Very cool. There’s pretty much a head shave in almost every city in the country at this point, any kind of significant size. So if you don’t want to do a GORUCK event, you want to go participate in just Baldrick’s and head shaving, there’s almost bound to be one in your local community.

David: Good to know. If you want to get your head shaved and don’t want to participate in GORUCK, there’s a chance that you can do that.

Brian: Yup! If you always wanted to have your head shaved, this is a good excuse, and just tell people you’re doing it to support raising funds for children’s cancer, not because you’re just totally crazy and want to shave your head.

David: Yeah, you can’t knock that. I mean, if someone’s says, “Why do you have your head shaved?” and you come back with, “Well, I did it for children for cancer.” That’s end of conversation.

Brian: Yeah. Is there anything else that you want to talk about with the St. Baldrick’s events before we get going?

David: No. I think we’ve pretty much covered everything. It’s a great event. It’s a lot of fun and it’s a chance for an entire family to come out and it really isn’t your typical GORUCK event, because you wouldn’t want some of those cadre out there trying to boss around four or five-year-old. It wouldn’t last very long. I think the cadre would lose on that.

Brian: Yeah. I lose on that every night with my kids, so I can’t imagine a cadre would as well. So just a couple of general questions to you, what is your event calendar look like for this coming year? Are there any events that you’re signed up for besides obviously St. Baldrick’s that you’re really excited about?

David: At this point, no. That’s the only one right now that I’ve got for this year. I know there are some new capstones coming up. I don’t know if they still call them capstones anymore with GORUCK, their expeditions. I’m looking at some of those. I guess there’s a new swimming one that’s just coming out on the web within the past day or so. They have a couple coming to California, and that looks really interesting.

Brian: Yeah. They’ve changed the name of those a number of times. It’s been capstones, it’s been expeditions. Now they’ve got — I think it’s a survival umbrella, and underneath survival they’ve got constellation, which is urban survival. They’ve got immersion, which is water survival, and they have expedition which is wilderness survival.

David: Yeah. I mean, those are the ones that interest me, is the learning classes. I’ve been beaten down enough by GORUCK over the years. So I’m like so many of the older GRTs, I’m semi-retired, but the learning ones in enjoy, and I’ve done most of their prior ones. I’ve done a couple of navs in Jedburg and trek and all of those. So were really enjoyable.

Brian: Are we sure that trek ever happened?

David: No one’s going to talk about it. It may never even come back. Who knows?

Brian: Yeah. I’m excited for this new wave of survival events. I did constellation back in 2017 and then I recently did constellation when Mickey came up here to Seattle, and he put on a really good class and they didn’t sell a short. It was a lot of fun and the culminating exercise on this one was definitely different than the last one. It was a good time.

David: I was surprised that our masks worked as well as they worked. Although no one quit warned me that pepper spray reactivates when you take a shower.

Brian: Yeah. So just a heads up, not only does it reactive when you take a shower, but it lingers, and I mean for a year. So I did that constellation in 2017, and then I reused my gasmask again, because that’s one of the required year items. You have to bring it back or you have to make a new one, and I reused it and there was still pepper spray on it, and as soon as I put it on to try it out, it got my eyes. I had stored in my ruck, my jacket was next to it. There’s pepper spray in my jacket. I put it on, I smelled just like pepper spray. It was crazy.

So my daughter who’s eight months now was actually born on the day that constellation ended last year, so I totally spaced on spaced on cleaning that mask.

David: Yeah. I’m surprised you were allowed to do an event.

Brian: She came four weeks early, so we were not expecting her, and I was able to do it because you can bring cellphones to constellations. So if anything happened I could have just gotten a text and left right away. But yeah, got home from the event, took a shower and then two hours later we’re on the way to the hospital.

David: Wow! Congratulations.

Brian: Thank you.

David: Mine just turned 21 this past weekend.

Brian: That’s exciting. Congratulations to you.

David: This will be her fourth Baldrick’s with me. She’d missed last year, because she’s out of the country. Otherwise, she’d done all of the customs with me.

Brian: That’s amazing. That’s very, very nice. Wow! Very cool. Family that rucks together. Always nice to hear.

David: Yeah. She’s gotten to abuse me a couple of times, and I’ve thrown her under a bus. The cadre let her do stuff to me in regular lights.

Brian: I bet she had a kick out of that.

David: More embarrassment than anything, because everybody was watching her do it to me. It’s hard to be 16 or 17 and in front of a large group and yell at your dad while everybody is cheering you on.

Brian: Yeah. I can imagine that would be a number of different emotions. Everyone is staring, but I get to yell at my dad, but everyone staring. So are there any shout outs you want to give? Any people? Any ruck clubs before we get going?

David: I mean other than the Nor Cal group, on the East Coast, talk to Dave Smith. He’s been doing Baldrick’s maybe even longer than I have as far as shaving his head with the DC Fire Department. He’s a great guy and he’s really passionate about Baldrick’s, and now Joe Hanning in Colorado, and we’ve got Andy starting up So Cal. So those are the four leaders of Baldrick’s right now and we’re just looking for more for end of the future to keep growing this.

Brian: So how can people reach out to you? If they’re listening right now and they think, “This sounds like — I’ve done a couple of events. This sounds like something I want to run in my city.” How can they reach out to you to maybe hash that back and forth?

David: I’m on the GORUCK page on Facebook. It’s probably the easiest place if they post there or even if they contact HQ. HQ is probably going to send them to me and or Dave Smith on the East Coast to talk to.

Brian: There you have it. So if you’re in the GORUCK Tough group on Facebook, just put a tag in there about St. Baldrick’s and tag David Pearson, and if you’re not, then shoot an email to team@goruck.com and say, “Hey, get me connected with one of the guys who runs Baldrick’s events, because I want to put one on in my city.”

David: That will work.

Brian: Thank you so much for taking this time out of your day. I’ve had a great time chatting with you, and it’s always fun to hear stories from people who started GORUCK events back when I did as well, because they’re definitely in some ways back then than they are now. So it’s nice reminiscing about that, but more important I’m just really excited to hear with what you’re doing with the GORUCK custom event, raising money for St. Balderick’s. Children hold a huge spot in my heart. So this is really cool. I’m just really glad to have you on to talk about this.

David, thank you again for taking the time.

David: Thanks for having me on, and they were definitely different when the cadre were drunker than the participants.

Brian: It was a different time back then.

David: It was very different. Thanks for everything and I look forward to meeting you out rucking around the country.

Brian: I’ll try and make it happen. It would be an absolute blast. Thank you, David.

The post ADR 035: GORUCK St. Baldrick’s Custom Light with David Pearson appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 034: Chris Thorp Interview (Honor Guard Founder)

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 15:00:11 +0000

Chris Thorp is the founder of Honor Guard. He produces patches which say “Thank You” and both sells them and hands them out to thank LEO, Firefighters, EMTs, and service members. It sounds like a simple concept but it’s not until you listen to him talk about Honor Guard that you realize there’s so much more to it than meets the eye.

In addition to running Honor Guard, Chris is a fellow GRT and has some incredible stories about his first few events. I highly suspect that you are going to love this episode.

Resources

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
Honor Guard @ Sew Strong
Honor Guard
PATHFINDER Ruck Training (Use Code 013ADR for 20% Off, Chris Thorp is CA 007)

Addendum

If you’re looking for Chris Thorp on Facebook you can find him under the name Chris Hamlet.

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Chris Thorp, who is the founder of Honor Guard. He is a fellow GRT and I am just very excited that he’s taking time out of his day to chat with me. Chris, how are you doing?

Chris: I’m good, sir. How are you today?

Brian: I’m doing great. Can’t complain. It’s a Monday, but it’s a good Monday.

Chris: It is Monday. My Mondays aren’t normally Mondays. I don’t run by the calendar. Today is Monday, but this is my Saturday afternoon.

Brian: That’s not bad. Everyone hates Mondays and here you are, Saturday afternoon.

Chris: Actually, I just got back from running an errand. Somebody said, “Happy Monday,” and I responded in kind and I got, “Ah, Monday.” They’re like, “Hey, Monday morning. Full of potential. In a week, la, la, la, la, la.” That didn’t go over so well.

Brian: That’s all right.

Chris: Hey, it is an absolute honor. Thank you for reaching out. I’m honored, man. I didn’t really expect this kind of thing to happen. Been looking forward to it for the last couple days trying to figure out – I’m a neophyte for this, so this is new. Thank you. That’s all I can really say when it comes down to it. Thank you for the honor of doing this.

Brian: Well, I’m honored to have you on. I’m really excited and it doesn’t matter that you’re new. That’s going to be good.

Chris: Okay.

Brian: Before we get into Honor Guard, let’s talk a little bit about your involvement in the GORUCK community. This is predominantly rucking podcast, so how did you stumble upon GORUCK?

Chris: I work 12 to 16-hour days, four to five days a week and I’m on my feet a lot. The Fitbit came up what? Well four, five years ago plus when they first came out. I started putting on a Fitbit and was just curious and I stumbled upon a community in Fitbit, very small community, one of those little message boards that more often to a tightly group of friends, just right about five of us and we’ve all been on that little community for the entire duration. Still are.

One of them – backtrack. I had found run zombies, zombies run, one of those fitness apps with a tracking game on it. I’m a huge proponent of game theory and playing games. If I ever want to accomplish something, I have to make a game for it for myself. I picked up – somebody else in the group had it and we were discussing it.

What I decided to do was in the game, you go out on missions and you collect supplies, you come back and you get points and you build your base based on your supplies on distance, speed, whatnot. I decided to simulate the game and I went out to a military surplus and picked up a assault pack and I decided to carry the assault pack while I was out doing my running and I put items in it to simulate the game.

One of the guys in the group was a GORUCK guy, and he mentioned the GR1 and I picked up a rucker, because it literally just come out that week and there you go. I switched from using a assault pack to a rucker for my runs. Thus was born that – I ended up doing an event or two. None of which went well for me, but I got through them and got involved in the community and here we are today.

Brian: That’s wild.

Chris: Yeah. It didn’t go well. It did not go well. The first one was a – when was it? It was the memorial light and not really thinking too far in advance. Again, I work a lot and I don’t get the standard days off that everybody else gets. I had worked a 16-hour shift, got off, got a couple hours sleep and then decided to go to the light. Me and my buddies stopped off for barbecue prior. When I say barbecue, it wasn’t just a small sandwich. It was a pretty large barbecue sandwich. I wind up on the side of the event being tended to trying to keep my sandwich down for a while. Yeah, that didn’t go well.

Brian: That’s quite the first event. When was that?

Chris: I want to say 15. It was with a cadre Flash and Handsome Mike. I remember hearing Flash on the side of the event saying something about how Handsome Mike was looking forward to making somebody puke. I guess, I had accomplished that for him.

Brian: You’re the lucky one. You made his day.

Chris: Yeah. Sometimes you got to be the guy that flips the switch for everybody. Yeah, that was me that day.

Brian: Oh, man.

Chris: Yeah. After that, I did – Let me see. I did the rucking anniversary in San Francisco and got to hang out with everybody there. Jason McCarthy was nice enough to cut it out one. I think it was almost a 2016 I did the 9/11 light in San Francisco. Fortunately, or unfortunately thereof, I got the privilege of hanging out with Christian Griffith, which I’m sure most people in the community are familiar with.

Christian was training me on the side at that time. We had talked about me possibly getting the point where I could do one of his runs with him in Nicaragua. The cadre did the whole nice little ruck relay race across the field. I got partnered up with Christian and the runner guy. I’m not a runner guy. We’re at the start line, we get tagged out at the same time, and I figured, because he’s training me, I better, at least keep within striking distance. I got 10 yards and I got a cramp. I got a severe cramp and I kept going all across the field, all the way back, laid down, try to get through it. Everybody told me to sit up, the next one I said no. Got up

Again, I got paired up just through luck with Christian. 10 yards out, cramp hits again, this time worse. I come back, I got the talk, “Are you going to stay in or stay out?” I’m staying. There’s no way I’m not leaving. Long story short, I did the whole thing and a week later I had discovered I had ripped my hamstring and I was black from stem to stern for a long time. That was my other one that didn’t go that hot.

Brian: Wow.

Chris: Yeah. I’ve signed up for a lot. I have signed up for a lot. However, unfortunately I’ve had to cancel last minute, because in my line of work, if nobody shows up for work, somebody stays. There have been a number of times where somebody doesn’t show up for work and I end up having to work a 16-hour shift and there is just a – this is fourth 16. I can’t do that. I’m not going to be able to do that. I’m going to be a liability to myself, or somebody else. Or it’s just I can’t make it on time. I probably canceled out on far more than I’ve ever done.

Brian: That’s life sometimes though.

Chris: It is. However, what I have been able to do to make up for that is I’m sure, you are familiar with it and I’m sure some other people are familiar with it is the team spearhead pathfinder ruck training. You’ve heard of that?

Brian: Absolutely.

Chris: Yeah. I’ve been able to do that. I started on team – class 007 with them. Then I have been a course adviser pretty much every class since. I’ve been able to do that, since that – my own time. Today is like the 28th, 27th, right? Its late January. I can’t remember the date today. Next class starts February 1st, so I know this will come out probably right after that. I’m really interested, I’m seeing that team 7, or group 7. If you’re interested, you can hit me up with that.

My style is a little bit different than the other guys doing the course advisers. I try to work more on acts of kindness, things a little bit less than the physical nature, more emotional, spiritual, mental, building a better American thing. But if anybody is interested, we’re going to hit it up February 2nd through April 31st, I believe is the classes this time.

Brian: Very cool. It’s interesting how the CAs all bring their own piece of themselves to the groups.

Chris: Yeah. Have you done it?

Brian: Yes.

Chris: Okay. Yeah. You’re not CA?

Brian: I’m not a CA.

Chris: You haven’t been one? Okay. My first one was Kirk.

Brian: Really?

Chris: Yeah. I’m sorry. You should know this, because Kirk being you. Yeah. No, Kirk was my first CA in group 7, or class 7.

Brian: That’s wild.

Chris: When Kirk passed, that hit me really hard actually. I was sitting out working a unit – who was it? It was either Tina Streeter, or Hope Delos Santos that put a message out about Kirk real quick. I remember sitting in a housing unit surrounded by close to – let’s call it a 100 felons. I’ve been there trying to cover my eyes, because I lost it. It’s something about losing Kirk really hit me.

I know you were really close to Kirk. My condolences man. I know it had to be like losing a brother. He actually meant a lot to me too, and I know he meant a lot to a lot of people.

Brian: Yeah. We really found how many people he meant a lot too that day, because there were a lot of people – a lot of people were sad. All the work that him and I put together; we talk daily about charity challenges and that whole project. It was still as sad. That’s tough.

Chris: Yeah. I have what I call my honor ruck and I know whether you edit this part out or not is up to you, but I know you have got the video. I’ve got the patch, Kirk’s patch. I don’t know if you see it there.

Brian: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. I carry that with me on my honor ruck daily. Kirk was a definite influence. Back to it, yeah, the CAs, I try to bring a little bit more of getting out there and just being human over miles and weight. Although that’s an important aspect, and that’s the core of the program. I want somebody to walk away from that program growing in every aspect, not just their quads, their cardio getting better. I want them to be better, just be better.

I’ve had a lot of people get in it and quit, because they couldn’t handle the mileage. Because they weren’t ruck people. Hey, to me it’s not about the miles. It’s did you make a friend? Did you have some fun? Are you better today than you were yesterday? If you did, you passed the course in my opinion. Yeah, okay you didn’t get the patch but that’s okay, because it wasn’t about the patch. It was about just being better and learning something and making some friends. That’s where from me. It is what it is.

Brian: That’s awesome. I love that approach. Can you remind us again for those who are listening and recently got their interest perked and want to be on your team? What number are you?

Chris: My group is 7. Group 7. They can find me under course adviser, Chris Thorp. There is a link if you go in, you can actually actively choose who you would prefer. At this point, yeah I’m on there. They can easily ask either Lyle Peterson, or Lisa Stevenson who were running it to switch me over if they can’t find it.

Brian: For those who are listening and haven’t heard of pathfinder before, I interviewed Lyle back in episode 2 or 3. I’ll post in the show notes. If you’re listening to this and you’re interested in hearing about him and the pathfinder program, check up the show notes. I’ll have a link to that episode. He did an awesome job on that interview.

Chris: Yeah. Lyle is a awesome guy.

Brian: Before we get into Honor Guard, I just got one last quick question about your experience with GORUCK. It sounds like you’ve had quite the experience that first event. Ate barbecue before had a tough time. Second event went all right. Third event ended up tearing your leg, huge issues. You keep signing up for events. What keeps bringing you back to them?

Chris: What keeps bringing – That’s a pretty good question. I’ll say it, you guys, I can go and do rucking any day of the week I want to by myself. I can tear myself down any of the day of the week I want to by myself with somebody on the group. The group overall, it’s just an awesome group. Man, I don’t know how to – I’m sure everybody in the community knows what I mean. If I have to qualify it, I don’t know.

I haven’t met anybody in that group that I didn’t feel the solid person wasn’t – there isn’t flat out almost implicitly right there, right then, trust with my life. Working in law enforcement, I need to be able to trust people. That somebody has my back in a bad situation, that I know somebody is going to be there when my life is on the line, or somebody else’s life is on the line. I get that sense; that kind of group, that kind of solid foundation, that kind of integrity and trustworthiness is just implicit to other people.

Brian: That’s great. I mean, we really do have a special community here. It’s very unique and not just anyone can go to the – we’ll go to the GORUCK website, read that description, see the hours, see the miles and say, “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.”

Chris: Yeah. You get it. Everybody else in the community gets it. But you’re like, “Why do you do that? What? You do that on purpose?” I mean, I got up one day. My wife was taking care of her parents out of town. I was by myself, which is really rare. I couldn’t sleep and I woke up at 1:00 in the morning and decided to do a marathon ruck solo. Got up, got ready, got my stuff together.

I think I was out the door 2:33 once everything was said and done. I walked from my house to my place of employment. At this point, I had no idea about foot care. I completely knew, didn’t learn anything, but I decided to do cold, a marathon ruck and it goes 30 pounds dry with no foot care expertise or knowledge and I got 13.1 in to work. I had serious, serious, serious blisters.

I walk in to t nurse’s station there and said, “Hey.” I pulled my shoe off and gave them a quick rundown of what I was doing and I just go the look, “What are you doing? You’re nuts. You’re crazy. Why would you do this on purpose? What are you thinking?” I tried to explain it and I couldn’t. I did what I did and put my shoes back on and walked the 13.1 back. I think, we probably all have some kind of story like that.

Brian: Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s quite the distance for when you’re first starting out.

Chris: Yeah, I was stupid. That was some dog. That was not an intelligent – it was not an intelligent decision, but it was actually very life-changing, because I got to the point – Again, I had really bad blisters before I got halfway through. I didn’t stop. I got to the point where I couldn’t stop, otherwise I wouldn’t begin again. I called everybody I knew and I said, “Just talk to me. Tell me a story. Tell me a joke. Breath in my ear. I don’t care, something to distract me.” I got to a point where I think I was about a mile out, probably about a mile out and I turned my headphones on and I started listening to music and I was singing at the top of my lungs through residential neighborhoods that I’ve lived for 40 years.

It’s not like people don’t know who I am. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, Metallica, Black Label Society, anything, because my emotions were completely shut and raw from the pain in my feet. Turned the corner to the cul-de-sac, to my house, which is probably about 300 yards and I cried the entire time, because it hurt so bad and I realized how far I had gone, what I accomplished, that I wasn’t going to quit. There was no reason for me to do this. I wasn’t doing it for anybody other than I just got the idea in my head and I couldn’t quit at any given moment and nobody would’ve known.

Nobody would’ve known anything at all about what I did, why I did it, how I did it. It was just simply because I wanted to see if it was something I could do. I did it and it was quite life-altering just to do something stupid and dumb like that. But realize, “Hey, I do have it in me, that I can do something.”

That was my only why was, “Can I do this? Do I have it in me?” That was probably a very important why, but it was a very selfish why.

Brian: Still, I mean that’s very powerful.

Chris: Yeah. No, that was freeing. It was very freeing. I teach at the academy for law enforcement academy and I try and tell these guys stories about why and integrity and all those kinds of things. They don’t get it. They’re like, “Ah,” and they’re looking there with their eyes blank look. They’re 20, 21, 22. I just want to like, “Oh, come on guys.” I literally show GORUCK commercials to them and try and get them to understand the issues of camaraderie and integrity and do not quit and what’s your why? They don’t get it. I wish they did. I hope that one day they do and they probably will. Yeah, that’s –

Brian: Well, this is great. I mean, some of that stuff just takes time for develop – I mean, 21, 22 is still young. That’s solid. When you put yourself in that kind of a situation where no one knows, no one knows you’re out there rucking, no one – you could’ve Ubered home. You could’ve taken a life home, a taxi home, no one would – go on right back to bed. Showered, gone to bed, woken up. No one would’ve known the difference. The fact that you can hold yourself accountable and be that driven to complete something, when clearly you weren’t even halfway through when your feet were toast.

Chris: I was 5 miles in and I was already off in blisters. I had no food care knowledge. Nothing at all. I literally had a pair of work boot socks that I put on, and I think I got, yeah 5 miles in and I was getting a blister and like, “All right, just keep going.” By the time I got, yeah halfway through, you know how you get that blister on a blister on a blister and it rotates around the back of your foot? You know what I’m talking about?

Brian: Yup.

Chris: It’s like, “Oh, man.” I swear they were multiplying exponentially. It just so was bad. For the two days after, I couldn’t walk. I had to go some places with my daughter the following couple days and it’s like, “Hold on. Daddy’s coming.” She goes, “Oh, a 98-year-old man.” Something that would’ve talked me 3 seconds, took me 3 minutes. It was bad.

Brian: That’s bad. That’s bad. The feeling after you’ve got smoked at a GORUCK event and you’re just standing there looking at the car. I have to get into this. How am I going to get into this?

Chris: Okay. Here is the other one. Now that you bring that up, I forgot about this, because I’m stupid. I am. I’m just stupid with it. Me and my wife, the zombie thing I talked about earlier. Have you ever done a zombie run?

Brian: I haven’t.

Chris: You haven’t. Okay.

Brian: But I know what you’re talking about.

Chris: Right. You usually get three balloons, three flags, three something, three lives, and you go on a 5K run and they have people that dress up as zombies. If they’re able to pop your balloon, grab your flag, whatever, you lose a life. Three lives and you’re not out, but you don’t get your survivor medal.

I had been out jogging and somehow I’m with my daughter jogging. I got little twins in my abdomen. I’m like, “I don’t know what that is, but okay.” It’s like a week before the race. It’s there, but it’s not going away, but it’s not bugging. It’s like all my life. We go out and we get to the first group of zombies and we sprint through. Duke, here is exact there. I’m done. Okay, nobody got my flag.

I’m feeling like a sport. I got this. We got to the next one, zig-zag-zig, all of a sudden I feel as ripped in my pelvic floor. I’m like, “Wow, what was that?” It damn near dropped me. I’m like, “Okay, I don’t know. That’s not cool.” I walk a couple more. I’m like, “Hey, I’m out. I’m out. I’m out.” I walk through a couple more sections, I get to another one and I find a flag on the ground I’m like, “Okay.” I feel inspired, because I got an extra life in my hand. I’m like, “Let’s do this again.” I get to the next one, zig-zag. I feel that rip again in my pelvic floor and it dropped me.

I lay there. Everybody comes over. “Get away. Get away. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” That stupid macho, leave me alone, I can handle this attitude that most people get in this stuff. I complete this series of run, run, run, rip, run, run, run, rip, run, run, run, rip through the whole thing. I get through and I get to the car and like you say I got to get in the car. I have to at this point literally sit down and take my other leg in my hands and manually lift my leg into the car. As I do it, I’m letting out a pretty good scream.

Long story short now, so I have a half marathon the next day. Dummy me decides let’s do the half marathon. Using my GORUCK experience, I went to the ATM and got 20 bucks, put it in my sock and told everybody, “Here is the gig. I’m going to do this run. Yeah, I don’t feel my hot, but I got 20 bucks. If I have to bail out, I’ll bail out, I’ll meet you back at the finish line.”

I decided to flop an 800 ibuprofen. You know anything about those? The big ones?

Brian: Those are real.

Chris: Okay. Those are the real ones, right. I have, because I’m smart I have a stash of these. I pop an 800, so I should be feeling okay, right you think. Every water station, I decided to pop another 800. How many water stations do you think there are in a 13.1 race? Quite a few. I popped an 800 ibuprofen at every water station. I finished the race. Again, I’m hurting man. I want to say it was like, 2:45. I didn’t run it, but it was – I didn’t crawl either.

We get done and we decided we’re all going to go to the cheese cake factory and eat and I get in there and I’m there with my wife and I’m looking at her, I’m like, “I don’t feel so hot. I’m not feeling too good.” I go over to the bathroom, “It just doesn’t feel good.” Go outside, “I just don’t feel good.” I end up with my head in my wife’s lap in the middle of the cheese cake factory and she’s rubbing ice on the back of my neck, because I feel like I’m overheating.

I tell her, “Hey, even the noise right now is bugging me. I got to go.” I go to stand up and I walk over to the cashier’s section and the lady looks at me and she was, “Sir, you don’t look too good.” What I remember is I don’t feel too good and then my head being ripped off of the floor. A guy pulling me up look at me – he goes, “Hello, sir. We’re with the fire department.”

I had passed out in the middle of the cheese cake factory and the fire department pulling me up checking me out. I’m like, “Hey, what’s up?” He goes, “Well, apparently you passed out.” Apparently, I passed out into their Deckard of bush. Thank you cheese cake factory for having that there. Probably saved me a bust than knows.

What ended up happen is I got tested for rhabdo and then I did not know, but I had bilateral hernias. I did that whole race with bilateral hernias. I’m just not smart enough to know when to stop.

Brian: That is wild.

Chris: Yeah. On top of that, monitored for organ failure because I took probably close to 5 grands of ibuprofen.

Brian: I was going to say, if you can take that much ibuprofen and still feel bad, something is really going on.

Chris: Yeah. I got the lecture of a lifetime from the emergency room physician. The kicker is I was a medic, I was a firefighter, I did nursing, I know better. I know what that stuff does. I know what the level of toxicity can do to you and the long-term stuff, and I still do silly stuff.

Brian: That is wild. That’s wild.

Chris: What keeps me coming back in my own inference? The people. Yeah, the people. Long story short, that’s where that came – where we got ultimately was the people. All of my mishaps, all of my minor tragedies and the fact that I probably paid GORUCK more money to do nothing and then I have to actually go and experience and event, because of all of my cancellations. I just want to be a part of the community. I really do.

Brian: That’s wild. The follow-up, the zombie run, did you get the survivor medal?

Chris: Dude, I did. I did. I did. I did. I kept that thing, and a lot of it – I don’t know if it was a pity survivor move or not, because I would literally run in, zoop, jag, trying to get through a couple zombies and I would fall to the ground and holding my crotch, because they were hernias. Somebody come over, “Go away. Go away. Go away.”

Then my wife would stand over me and I would pretty much crawl to the last zombie, the little shaky zone and then sit there for it was probably 30 seconds, it felt like 10 minutes. Then collect myself and limp to the next section and rinse loud and repeat. Yeah, I kept it. I got it. They could’ve easily walked over and taken it, but they let me have it. I have my survivor medal.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Chris: I’m surprised, I didn’t get divorced over that.

Brian: Being married. I understand.

Chris: All right.

Brian: Let’s get into Honor Guard. Where did the idea for Honor Guard come from?

Chris: My dad when I was probably eight. I knew you’d ask this and this is when I mold over in my head for a long time. It all does boil down to my parents. My parents have always demonstrated a level just appreciated, gratitude and kindness, being active, honoring things. I know they didn’t intentionally do it, but they did it. They did it.

Pretty much, I consider myself a reflection of my parent and my family and friends. The whole you are the sum of the five people you hang around most concept, that my father specifically is still the lot of these thought processes into my head on little things that I know he wouldn’t never remember. I’ve tried to jog his memory. He’s like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’m like, “Well, you know what dad? You created this, so when you sit here and tell you like what I’m doing, head over to the mirror and talk to that guy, because he was the one that started it.”

My dad was a police officer for a little while and my dad worked in juvenile hall and he ultimately became a probation officer. I grew up in a household that – my dad was not a firm man. He isn’t a big man, but he was fair. I learned a lot about fairness to him, and I ended up going into nursing. I did low-level nursing. I went to paramedic school, I did firefighting and I ultimately wound up in law enforcement.

What I found in all of these was I remained the same person. My desires, my goals, my morals, my integrity and all of that never changed. But how I was treated was based upon the uniform I was wearing. I’ll give you a quick example.

When I was on the ambulance, we had – one night we had three back to back to back, called blue calls. We went to three homes, attempted to save three lives and lost all three, which is – that’s pretty standard in EMS. Saves are far a few and between. I had three back to back to back, and at some point in there I’m sure, somebody came up and said, “Thank you. Thanks for everything you did for grandma,” or whoever it was we were working at the moment.

I got down on my hands and knees and we went three rounds with death that night and we lost all three rounds. I work in law enforcement and what had happened was we had an incident where somebody passed away. Anytime, you have anywhere where there is humans, you’re going to have somebody ultimately, long enough timeline, pass away.

This gentleman passed away and we got grilled. We got questioned, we got treated like we had done something wrong. Yet, here I am. I’m the same guy that I was. Nothing’s changed. Then a couple years later, I am driving down a street and I come across a car that’s on fire and the car looks like it’s been going for the while. I pull over and I’m wondering why the fire department isn’t there. But hey, being who I am, I pull over and I check out. There is a little kid hanging out the back of this car. The car is on fire. Wow, what’s going on?

I realized an accident had just happened. I look in the front seat and there’s a lady there and she is completely engulfed, emolliated. She’s not moving and I did the quick fill triage and rode her off, and did everything I could to get the three-year-old out of the car and we ended up doing it – I ended up getting the three-year-old out of the car, third degree burns over 90% of his body. He survived.

Then went back to fighting for the life of this lady in the front, who I had written off as dead until she started moving very, very slow. The long story short on that was she got out, she didn’t survive, but the problem here was when the fire department came and extinguished the fire, one of the firefighters – and I’m standing right there, leans in, looks out and he goes, “We got more people in here.”

I was 6 inches fighting for the life of one small kid, another lady and I was 6 inches from watching four other people burn to death that I didn’t know were there. What had happened was work got a hold of this, because I happen to be working there and another guy from work showed up on duty – I was off duty. We got the gold medal of valor for it, which is great. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Why did I get treated three different ways for three different incidents, where the only thing that changed was the uniform I was wearing, or my expectation to duty? I was treated completely three different ways.

How Honor Guard was born, to bring it back full circle, was I decided I needed to see some consistency in how people were treated for their service and actions towards their nation and to be just like Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Be the change.” If nobody else was going to do it, because I didn’t see anybody else doing it, I decided I was going to do it and that’s how that transformed.

Brian: That’s wild. Those are stories.

Chris: That was the concept. How it really morphed is I was sitting at work on God, I should know the date. I don’t know the date. I’m embarrassed, I don’t know the date. The days at the five officers in Dallas were shot and killed. I was sitting on the couch with one of my co-workers just watching the story unfold and just incomplete and utter – an emotional wreck watching my brothers being killed on live TV.

Because of GORUCK, I decided, “You know what? Let’s do a patch.” I put together a patch for the Dallas five and got it made and sold it off and sent the proceeds to the families. It wasn’t a lot, but it was what I could do. I sent them some money and got the patch out and born from that was the concept of those thin-line thank you patches that I have.

One of the SWAT team members saw the Dallas patch, wanted his own patch made. We sat down and did a couple designs and put together a SWAT patch. They paid me and I took the funds that they paid me and I did the first run of the thin-blue line thank you patches. I drove from North Carolina to California in November 9th, 2016. I handed those to every law enforcement officer I could find.

I took the time to thank them, express what I was doing, who I was. Yes, I work in law enforcement, but I’m not here as a law enforcement officer. I’m here as a civilian; somebody that lives in the community which you protect and serve and thank you for the sacrifice that you do. Thank you for your family sacrifice of loaning us you during the times that you’re here, and being willing to endure the stress that comes along with being the loved one of somebody that serves.

Thank you to each and every one of you. I did that. The rest is history. We just move on and expanded it to firefighters, EMS, nurses, military and hopefully as many more as I can in the future.

Brian: That’s great. That’s an amazing story on how Honor Guard got started. For those who are listening and haven’t seen an Honor Guard patch, can you just describe quickly what they look like?

Chris: Yeah. I’m a minimalist. I don’t like a lot of fancy stuff. There is patches out there that are similar, but the basic design for me was I sat down at my desk and what is – first of all, what am I trying to do is I want to say thank you. How do you say thank you? You say thank you. You say thank you. I wrote down thank you.

What is the quintessential thing that basically everybody says that’s a police thing? The big thing in the community is the thin-blue line. What is something else that – black and white cars. It’s a black patch with the white words ‘Thank you,’ and the thin-blue line in between, the thanking to you. It’s that easy, that simple. It was just simple.

The idea that it doesn’t take much to thank somebody. One of the biggest questions I get is, “What I do with this?” You give it to somebody. Well, would I say thank you, that’s it? Yes. That is it, man. That is it. You walk up and say thank you. Well, what are they going to think? Here’s the problem, you’re going to get one with your responses. You’re there going to get, somebody that go – that looks like right and goes, “Hey, I appreciate that. Thank you very much.” They act appreciative, or they look at it and they flip it over in their hands. They look at you, they look at it and they just shove in their pocket and walk away.

The reason they do that is because they are not used to being thanked. They’re not used to somebody approaching them not wanting something and showing a bit of gratitude. I’m a law enforcement officer. I’m a 20-year veteran. I don’t have any tax. I dress the part. I look the part. I had numerous law enforcement officers as I drove through across the nation, stop, look at me and go, “Huh?” I would have to go, “Hey, man. I’m a cop. I’m just like you. I’m right here with you. I’m just dropping these off. I want to say thank you for your service.” “I don’t get it.”

I got that so much that I realized that it was something that needed to be done. I drove in the Reno, Nevada Police Department and I had a bag of probably 40 or 50 patches, and I walk up to the receptionist and this was a receptionist is behind bulletproof glass. “Hey, man. I’m a deputy from California. Is there anybody around that I can speak with? I have some items I wanted to give it to them.” I put the bag up on the counter. She backed up like it was a bomb.

I need to go, “Hold on a second.” I pull it out and go, “Hey, they’re just patches. I’m just here to trade patches.” Okay. Before that, she was getting ready to call her supervisor in the bomb squad, because I walked up and said I had something I want to give them.

That’s how on the defensive that everybody is feeling. Law enforcement officers to civilians. I’ve had civilians ask me all the time, “Well, what if I get shot?” “Why would you get shot?” “Well, what if they think I’m a threat?” “Well, what are you doing that would make them think you’re a threat?” People literally do not want to approach an officer, because they think there is going to be an altercation. The officers are feeling their tension, so they’re reacting to their tension, so they’re feeling there’s going to be an altercation. What point in time, what does it going to take, so that nobody feels that just saying hello to somebody is going to lead to an altercation?

Brian: That’s wild. There’s two things that I want to bring in on that. When you go out to dinner, how many times you say thank you to the hostess, the waitress? They bring the food, thank you. They come by –

Chris: Me, all the time.

Brian: All the time, right? Same here. They bring the food, thank you. They bring the check, thank you. Even though they’re bringing you something and say, “Hey, pay us this money,” you’re still saying thank you.

Chris: Yeah, constantly.

Brian: I mean, I probably say thank you at least a dozen, two dozen times when I’m going out for dinner and I’m standing here thinking and it’s just wild to me that a police officer you thank you once and they’re taking it back. You think people in the service industry and I mean, police officers they really – they’re serving us. They’re also in a service style industry. You thank people who bring your food all the time, but how often do people thank the police officers, the fire fighters?

Chris: They don’t. They don’t. That’s the point. Here is the issue, the firefighters are the rock stars. They know it and we all know it. In an industry we know it. The firefighters are the rock stars. EMS, they don’t get thanked. Police, they don’t get thanked. When was the last time you thank an officer yourself?

Brian: It’s got to be a couple months since I last reined into one and actively went out there and said thank you.

Chris: Why did you do that? Why?

Brian: Because we’re friends.

Chris: Okay. Take him out of the equation and I appreciate that you said thank you to your friend. When was the last time you said thank you to an officer that you don’t know?

Brian: It’s got to be three months ago.

Chris: Okay. Why did you do that? Why did you thank the one that you don’t know?

Brian: Because he did something for me. That’s nice.

Chris: There was a catalyst is what you’re saying.

Brian: Exactly. There was something that sparked it.

Chris: Right. When was the last time you thanked one that you had no interaction with? You just walked up and said, “Thank you, sir.”

Brian: Six months ago, possibly. It was at a GORUCK event.

Chris: Because you had the patches?

Brian: Our group did have patches.

Chris: Right. I get that, but the catalyst was the patch. But had you not had the patch, or it had not been a GORUCK event, because I understand that some people are using them in the GORUCK events, which I think is absolutely awesome. People don’t do that. If you would say we’re outliers in the community, then how often does the average person do that?

Brian: Never.

Chris: Okay. How many officer on duty right now, right now, what percentage would you say would lay down their life for anybody, anytime, anywhere?

Brian: Probably somewhere between 99 and a 100.

Chris: I would say unequivocally a 100. I can understand the 99. I would literally give my life right now for anybody, anywhere, anytime to make sure somebody else is safe, somebody else over me. That might be selfish for me, because I leave behind a number of people who rely on me and care about me. But that’s what I do, that’s who I am. That’s the way my mom and dad raised me. That is a direct reflection upon the values that my parents had instilled up on me.

Nobody is going to come up and thank me for it and I don’t expect them to. At the same time, those guys put on a uniform every day and they don’t know whether they’re coming home every day. The average person doesn’t’ thank them for it, and a lot of times they get treated poorly. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

Here is a trivia question for you and I don’t expect you to know the answer. How many line of duty desks that we had this year for police officers? We’ve had eight. We had 125 last year and we had 140 the year before. The reason I don’t expect you to know is because I went out on January 12th, and I remember the date because it happened to be a birthday celebration. My wife and I went out and I came across a group of officers at a barbecue joint and they were sitting there and they all had their motorcycles and I mistakingly thought they were en route to a funeral up in Washington for the deputy that passed away, I think it was like January 8th up there.

I walked up and I had patches with me. I patched them in and said, “Hey, thank you.” I said, “Are you guys coming or going?” They looked at me and said, “Are you coming or going to the services up in Washington?” They said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “The deputy that just got killed in Washington, the services, I figured – Sorry, I thought you guys were funeral detail for going up there.” They’re like, “Oh, we didn’t know about that.” They were very surprisingly uninformed about somebody in their field that had just passed away.

If we in the field don’t know, how do we expect the civilians to know, the people that we serve to respectful and gratuitous when we aren’t even paying attention? Come on, man. Seriously, what’s your thoughts on that? You’re thinking a long pause, so I know you got something going through.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, it’s tough, right? Where do you start? Is it because it’s not as exposed as heavily in the media? What’s the way to make sure that people know the true impact?

Chris: Okay. Here’s another flipside. I may have my numbers wrong and I apologize profusely if I’m incorrect, but these were the numbers as I understood them. 2017, do you know how many military guys were killed in action? From my understanding, it was 33. For law enforcement it was 125. Based upon those numbers, and again if I have them wrong, I profusely apologize. That would mean line of duty death, killed in action law enforcement in 2017 was almost four times more deadly than act of duty military.

Yet, we don’t really hear – we hear more about when the military is killed in action than we do with law enforcement. Based on what you’re saying, yes I think media covers it a lot less. Firefighters line of duty death, I think for 2017, I’m almost certain I don’t have the number right, so I’m going to generalize, but let’s say it’s about a 100. I think it was somewhere between 95 to 113. I can’t remember exactly at the moment. Line of duty deaths for firefighters are even less reported for some reason.

These guys go out, are willing to put themselves on the line each and every day to make sure we’re safe and then when they pay the ultimate price, it’s swept under the rug. Then we could sit here and ruminate on that for a minute. However, just as important are all those guys that were injured that while didn’t pay the ultimate price are now unable to work. They are now physical broken, mentally broken, to the point where they’re incapable of completing their tour of duties and they are having a hard time finding work.

They put themselves in the line and just because it didn’t reach the extreme level, they’re forgotten about. Who’s thanking them? Who’s taking the time to make sure they’re okay? For me, it encompasses a lot. It really does encompass a lot. I think a thank you is the very least, we as a community can do.

Brian: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Chris: I didn’t mean to lay the heavy stuff on you today, man. Sorry.

Brian: That’s good. It’s a heavy topic.

Chris: It is. That’s the bane and the beauty of it is it’s a heavy topic, so it doesn’t get talked about, but it needs to be talked about. Nobody is really – I hear people giving lip service to it, but I don’t see a lot of people being active. That’s why for me, the patch is an active thing, because it forces you to walk up and engage. You have to literally walk up to somebody, give them something that you’ve purchased yourself, so that purchase represents a small moment of your life because we trade our life one second a time for money, and then I pay the money so that is a physical embodiment of a few moments of my life that I’ve given.

I hand it to them and say thank you. Then that person that receive the patch gets to walk off and have a small memento that somebody actually said thank you. Whether they throw it up on their desk, they throw it up on their headboard on the car, they put it on their vest, their gear, whatever, there is a physical reminder that somebody said thank you. I think that’s really powerful.

Brian: I think it’s incredibly powerful. I think we just established that law enforcement officers hardly ever get thanked. Having that physical reminder that it happened is very powerful.

Chris: I get pictures of guys with them on their bulletproof vest. They send it to me. I get stories of people saying, “Hey, the officer was in near tears because he said nobody ever said thank you.” The awesome one I get is when people come up and say, “Hey, I try to give this officer a patch, but he opened up his vest and there was one already sitting on it.” That’s a lot. That’s awesome. This guy is carrying it around on his vest. Somebody tried to say thank you. He’s like, “No, already got one.”

Brian: That’s amazing.

Chris: Yeah, it’s cool.

Brian: That’s really cool.

Chris: That’s really cool. I just had somebody in the pathfinder just took one up to the Granite Mountain Hotshots. You know I’m talking about? The firefighters that died on the Yorneo mountain fire, so that only – I haven’t seen the movie yet, but only the brave, the movie that just came out is based on them. She took a patch up there and left it at the memorial site, sent me a picture and somebody forwarded the picture to one of the firefighter’s wives.

Brian: Wow.

Chris: I’m sitting here almost getting – because I’m like – this is, “Wow.” That’s really cool. She gets a picture of somebody that walked up and left a patch. It’s just a patch. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s a small piece of cloth with some what? 15 cents worth of thread. It’s the thought, it’s the time, it’s’ the effort, it’s the action behind the item that is significant and not the item itself.

Brian: That’s powerful. That’s got to be like you smile all right. That’s exactly what you’re hoping for when you started this.

Chris: It’s exactly – it does make me smile, yes. But it almost makes me feel like a fraud. Because I know that sounds weird, but it’s like you don’t have to buy a patch. Anybody can do this with anything. It’s nothing. All I’m providing for you is an opportunity and a reason. The patch is an icebreaker. It doesn’t have to be a patch. It doesn’t have to be anything. It can be simply walking up in a handshake. If it takes the patch as a method of an icebreaker for you to walk up and show somebody some gratitude, whether it be military, fire, EMS, whoever, crossing guards, whoever, then great, I’m willing to give that to you.

God, I hope it works, because everybody in this world on some level deserves a piece of gratitude and for somebody to say thank you for something. If that’s what it takes to be the catalyst, I’m very happy. That’s an honor. That’s a deep, deep honor. It’s not like I’m doing anything.

Brian: You definitely are doing something. You’re providing – I mean, some people just need that extra push. Some people are more introverted than others and they just need that little shove.

Chris: All I’m being is a gentle shove on the shoulders. I’ll gladly be that. If me providing a patch and going out and posting things and saying, “Hey, look, look, look, look, look,” is what that gentle shove is, that’s awesome. It’s an honor to be a part of it. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything other than what I would do is just this happen to be the avenue that it took.

Hey, thank you for what you’re doing. The stuff you incurred and put together. You guys have over a $100,000 donated to charity. You guys are a catalyst. Do you feel like you’re doing a lot with that? I mean, you don’t have to answer that, because it’s rhetorical. Only you know how you feel how much you’re affecting the world. But you’ve been able to bring charity challenges out initially with Kirk and now with Kirk and I believe his wife is tied to you somehow.

You guys are raising awareness and money for people – that will help people, that you will never hear a thank you from. You know what I mean? The recipients of these gratitude and kindness will never come and say thank you. That’s awesome, man. That’s awesome. You’re doing all these work and you legitimately will probably never be thanked by the people that is going to directly affect the most. Thank you very much for that. I have a lot of deep respect for that.

Brian: Well, thank you. Yeah, Kirk’s wife is amazing. She’s helping out a ton. She’s phenomenal. She’s incredible. She has my deepest thanks for all the support and time and effort that she puts in. She puts in a lot of work in the charity challenges.

My thoughts, just personally how I feel in charity challenges is I always feel like it’s never enough. That if I had an extra hour or two hours, I could do something more. There is always something more. I never feel like on top of some mountain like, “Look what has been accomplished?” It’s always just looking up. There’s more that needs to be done. I’m nowhere –

Chris: No, no. That’s exactly, because it’s not about you, it’s not about me. We’re only being conduits. I’m only trying to help funnel somebody’s gratitude. We’re just conduits. It’s not about us.

Brian: That’s the thing, right? Like you said, a $100,000 donated, that’s not for me. That’s not a $100,000 under my bank account. That’s thousands of people signing up for events. Their money coming through us and then going straight to the charities to get donated. That’s like you said, charity challenges. That’s going to be over a 100,000. That’s like I said, not on my bank account. That’s why I feel like, yeah, exactly what you’re saying.

Chris: You’re right. I charge for the patches. I could be altruistic and I could give the patches away. I give a fair amount away to people I meet, but I don’t for two reasons. The most important being is as I said before, that patch embodies – in order to purchase the patch, you have to go to work, you have to give up your life. That patch embodies a very – depending on who you are, how much money you make and everything, a portion of life.

When you hand that patch over to somebody that you paid, you are saying, “Here is a very small portion of my life that I have taken and dedicated to showing you thank you for what you’re doing.” If I just handed the patches out to everybody and said, “Hey, go hand them out,” there is no investment by you. There’s none. There is no physical investment. At that point, you are a representative of my time to pay for them and get them created.

I sell them, because I want people to be giving of themselves. I don’t want them to be an agent for me. I want them to be an agent for themselves. Then it allows me to continue the process and buy more patches and ensure that things get out there, so that more and more people get that thank you. I hear you. It’s not like I specifically profit from it, all the money for the most part of it goes back into buying more and whatever equipment – I’m looking at buying some small equipment in the next little while to move forward and see what else we can do.

Yeah, it’s no win. Am I really financially profiting from this? Just like you said, it’s all going to somebody else. Yeah, when you hear the accolades of things you’re doing – I’m just like you. It’s not about me. I don’t feel like I’m doing much and there is always a thousand more things I could be doing. That’s my mindset is looking up and not looking down. Just like you said. Yeah, good way to put it.

Brian: We talked, just touched briefly now on buying the patches. For people who are wanting to buy your patches and hand them out, do you have a website?

Chris: I do not. I need to get one. If there’s anybody, or if you know anybody that will help me with that, I need to get that. What I have is they can find me – I assume you’ll link it up through your stuff.

Brian: Absolutely.

Chris: There is the Honor Guard, just Facebook page, I guess, the retail page, which on there is a little store shop and it needs to be updated, but Kevin Maestri and Kevin I know I probably screwed your name up, Knotted Chords help me put it together, but they can go on there, or they can just message me and we can do the things through PayPal.

The other thing is if anybody’s interested, we have a private group, secret clothes, all that backdoor stuff. People in the group – I bet people in. I just don’t let everybody in. They come in and they tell me they want to do and I’ll go checkout their profiles, their pages and if I have any questions, I’ll ask. I think we got close to 900 people in that group, but that’s the best place to reach me is through that and we can either order through that website, or we’ll just go straight through PayPal. I haven’t used Venmo. I know some people are using Venmo, but it’s just a simple like that. Just very, very simple, easy transactions and get it done.

Brian: I’ll post links to everything in the show notes, so people will know where to go buy some. I think there’s someone So Strong as well.

Chris: Yeah, sorry. Yeah, oh man. You can edit this part out. Sorry, sorry Margaret. Yeah. Margaret is So Strong and I partnered – Yeah, we talk about all the other stuff, man. My mind is still on that other stuff. Margaret and I have partnered and she is using So Strong as a method of selling the patches as well along with her patch tags. Those patch tags are awesome. I know you got some.

Brian: I do.

Chris: I don’t know how many I have, but I probably have at least 15. I attached the patch tags, the carry beaners and then I have all my little honor patches and my thank you patches all over my ruck. Yeah, they’re everywhere. Everywhere. I had given amount. The patch tag are awesome. Our stash tags are awesome. Yeah, you can pick up the patches through Margaret as well.

She’s selling the fire law enforcement and military ones at this point. I have the nurse and the EMS ones as well, and I’m looking at teachers and dispatchers. Oh, geez, a whole bunch – whole fleet down the line soon.

Brian: Very cool. I can’t wait to see when those ones come out as well.

Chris: Yeah. In the future. I’m working on some other things with regard to some apparel things, just to see what I could play out and we’re – I’ve got a couple other projects on the side that I’m trying to mesh, for lack of a better term, that I’m hoping will fit nicely and everything will come full circle and work together. We’ll see what happens.

Brian: Very cool. I’m excited to watch it.

Chris: What about you? What do you have going on for ADR? What’s next for you guys?

Brian: Trying to get into video. We’ll see how it does. Started the podcast. This is going to be podcast episode 34. Haven’t missed a week since we started.

Chris: I know. You’re doing well.

Brian: It’s been kept as busy. I’m trying to get setup with some video stuff, so that will be interesting. Then my time right now is just been focused probably 90% on charity challenges, getting ready for the winter challenge, which will have just started when this is aired. I had to rewrite probably 90% of the website to get that thing going. It’s been fun.

Chris: I think your video stuff would work well. I think you’ll hit a homerun with that.

Brian: Thank you. I’m hoping.

Chris: Yeah. No, I think you’ll do fine.

Brian: Well, Chris is there anything else you want to talk about before we go?

Chris: I mean, I could do this all day. Let me see.

Brian: Maybe I’ll have to do a follow-up.

Chris: Yeah, maybe actually. That probably would be not a bad idea. Well, right now with the Honor Guard we partnered with So Strong. We’re working on that partnership and I’m hoping that – it has been an absolute joy for me to work with Margaret there. She has taught me a lot. We’re in contact quite a bit and she has been nothing short of miraculous with her mentorship of me.

I’m a service guy. I worked all the different service – I’ve been in the service sector job for 30 years running calls, dealing with things. I’m not the best knowledgeable person when it comes to business and stuff. So Strong has been awesome avenue of mentorship.

Right now, Christian Griffith, which I know a lot of you guys are familiar with is doing his run to hill, his run across the United States. I believe that starts like March – I can’t remember the exact date, but mid-March. Right now I’m donating a percentage of my proceeds of all sales to him through the end of his run. We’re going to be making donations to him as we get in orders, because that’s an absolutely worthwhile cost. Christian is an absolutely worthwhile guy. I’m assuming you watch selection.

Brian: Yes.

Chris: Yeah. I actually use selection as my training material at the academy. Here it is law enforcement and I’m showing selection. If you watch that and I would tell anybody to watch it again and there are a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of absolutely base line, awesome life lessons in each one of those episodes, whether it comes from teamwork, being on top of things, the integrity station, all of that.

I use each and every one of those as a training session for the recruits. A matter of fact, Christian’s section where – I actually start off the academy giving every recruit a copy of the man in arena speech and then about halfway through – Then we’ll start it off and I’ll tell somebody, “Somebody in this group is a friend. I won’t tell them who.” They usually end up pointing to Bert Kuntz, or Tyler Gray as who they think my friend is. It’s never Christian. It’s never Christian.

Then we come to his interview where he actually – that was the first time he publicly really divulged what’s going on for him. Then he gives the man of the arena speech at the end. Then I turn it off and I look at them and, “Hey, that speech sounds a lot better given a context, doesn’t it?” Everybody goes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

That’s when I go, “That’s my friend.” Then jaws all drop and they’re like, “Really?” I’m like, “Yeah.” I bring it full circle to is hey, you never know and all of your dealings with all the people in your career, in your life and these people entered in some semblance or crisis. You never know what they’ve gone through, because a lot of people that knew Christian never knew what he went through.

Now he’s using that in that show as a catalyst to propel him and his cost to hopefully do what he can to defeat that. People didn’t know and you never know. The selection and Christian all that, he really brings a lot to the table for me with regard to my training. I tell them that all the time. The academy is going and I’ll usually take a picture of that scene where he’s crying on TV and sent him just that clip.

Everybody’s watching him with the tears and he’s like – Just a little, “Hey, look. We’re doing it again.” Hey, it’s a powerful thing. I’m really happy to make that a possibility to donate to that cause like that. That’s an awesome thing. I’m really looking at – he’s going to be running into San Francisco at the end of his – his index s San Francisco, so I’m hoping to get as many people as I can to run with him that last few whatever distance, whether it be a marathon, half marathon, 5K, 2K, 10 yards, but across that finish line. That’s awesome.

Brian: That would be amazing.

Chris: Yeah. It would be awesome. Are you going to come down?

Brian: We’ll see. Probably not. It’s tough to get out. I have a eight-month-old daughter and a three and a half year old foster son.

Chris: You’re fostering?

Brian: Absolutely.

Chris: Dude, that is phenomenal. Way to go.

Brian: Thank you.

Chris: Yeah. Look at you. How is that?

Brian: It is an experience. It’s amazing, but it’s an experience. I love them death. They’re at sixth or seventh placement.

Chris: How long did those normally last? Just out of curiosity.

Brian: Up until this one, it’s been five to seven months. We’ve had this little guy for over two years now.

Chris: You can confirm or deny something for me, okay? It’s going to seem like it’s not the same, but I’m curious. I run a service dog program and I don’t know if you knew that.

Brian: I did not know that.

Chris: In the jail, I run a program and the person that I run it with is Dr. Bergin and she is the person, the lady who is responsible for service dogs. She was the initial person 60 years ago plus. I don’t know. It was a while ago, who thought up of service dogs for those that were handicapped, not seeing eye dogs, but service dogs.

She had a friend who was a quadriplegic and she went down to the pound and picked one up. Basically from ground zero, figured out what it takes and how to train a dog to be a service dog. I have the inmates that they’re learning how to train. They’re training dogs. They’re training service dogs from week. Let’s call it 12 and they have the dogs for about four months and then they have to give the dog up as the dog was on.

Well, they’re doing this and they’re carrying for something that will move on. A lot of these guys, this is the first time they’ve ever been able to tap into that emotional side of themselves. They’re giving something to somebody that A, will never say thank you. They’re giving this thing their love and care away. They will probably never see it again. That has to be very tough. That is a huge gift and thank you for being that kind of guy. I think that is absolutely awesome.

Isn’t that one of the most awesome things you’ve ever done?

Brian: Yes.

Chris: Okay.

Brian: Absolutely. I think it’s probably very similar. You care for a child for months and months and months as your own. Sometimes they’re going back to a good situation and sometimes they’re not. There’s just a ton of emotions associated with it.

Chris: Well, I think the difference between them and you is A, it’s a puppy, it’s a dog and it’s not a child, but I know there are people out there that family members are family member, whether they’re four-footed, or furry or not.

A lot of these guys, this is the first time they’ve cared for anything that they’ve actually taken the time to access that part of their emotional – their psychie. They’re accessing this and they’re giving it. It’s the first time. Some of these guys have a really hard time. I see that they grow a lot. I tell them all the time, “Hey, thank you. Thank you for that gift. Thank you for that and thank you for the love and caring and compassion you’re giving.” You’re not going to get thanked by the person who receives this gift, so I’m saying thank you, because I know that – I see what you’re doing. I see the gift you’re giving.

Hey, thank you. It might not be the same and I realize that some people think it isn’t, but I see it in them. It gives me a sense of what you’re doing, so thank you man. That’s awesome. That’s a big gift.

Brian: Well, thank you. Thank you. That’s incredible what you’re doing at that program. That’s amazing.

Chris: It’s cool. It is cool. I got to hang out – with that program, it should be coming up. I haven’t looked, but Jason McCarthy is putting that service first thing together.

Brian: Yes.

Chris: You’ve seen this, okay. Jason came in with cadre Mikey B and Leah. I believe his dog’s name is Leah. Jason filmed I think with Mikey B. Well, I brought Dr. Bergin in and I got to hang out with Jason and Mikey and Dr. Bergin. Dr. Bergin and Mikey B sat down and they had a conversation. That was really interesting, the fact that here he is with Leah, his service dog who has by his own admission saved his life. Here is the lady that is ultimately responsible.

Brian: That’s phenomenal. That’s amazing.

Chris: Yeah. I got to sat there and watch this interaction. It was absolutely awesome. I don’t think GORUCK released that episode of the service first, but I’m really looking forward to that one.

Brian: Me too. Chris, this has been so fun. We have to do it again.

Chris: Okay. Anytime you want, man.

Brian: All right. Thanks so much for taking all this time out of your day. I’m really excited to get this episode up. Let’s keep in touch.

Chris: Yeah, please. Absolutely. Please. I really look forward to it. It’s been an absolute honor. Thanks for letting me spout my craziness. I hope somebody somewhere hears this and just walks out to somebody and says thank you. Say thank you to somebody, somebody who’s done something for somebody; a waitress, a crossing guard, the mailman. Go to the store and hold the door open for somebody, something. Show somebody some gratitude and specifically those people that you think may never get it, or don’t get it as often as they should.

Go hug your wife, your husband, call your mom, which I probably should do here when we’re done now that I’m thinking about it. Those kind of things. Just say thank you. It’s two little words that I don’t think it’s said enough and mean probably as much to anybody as anything else we ever hear.

Brian: Absolutely. Thank you.

Chris: Thank you.

Brian: Have a great rest of your day, Chris. Thank you so much again.

The post ADR 034: Chris Thorp Interview (Honor Guard Founder) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 033: Jason McCarthy (GORUCK Founder 2017 Recap & 2018 Looking Forward)

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 15:00:05 +0000

Jason joins us for a second time to chat about how 2017 at GORUCK wrapped up and what’s happening in 2018. This was a great conversation and it’s reminds me of the times I’ve sat around and chatted with Jason.

Jason comments on the release of the new GORUCK Rucker and how much he likes it better than the original model. We have a great time talking about all of the accomplishments GORUCK had in 2017 and where they’re going in 2018. Hopefully you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Today, I’m chatting with Jason McCarthy who is the founder of GORUCK. I’m very excited to have him back on the show and I just can’t wait to get going, because we have some awesome topics to get into. Jason, how are you doing today?

Jason McCarthy: I’m great. I’m ready to dive in.

Brian: Awesome. To start off, happy 2018.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, it’s another great year. Life’s good.

Brian: It is. Life is good and I’m very excited to get going into 2018.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Your family grew in 2017, my family grew. It’s just great. Life’s good. GORUCK Nation is growing, meet more people, more adventures. It’s a pretty good time.

Brian: It is. It is. I’m excited for this year. I think it’s going to be really fun. Before we dive into 2018, it’s been a couple months since we talked about 2017, which was also a huge year for GORUCK. There were major changes, major additions, just lots of really cool stuff going on last year. The first topic I want to get into is the service action requirement, which it’s hard to believe that it’s not even a year old, but it was just introduced in 2017.

For those who are listening and don’t know what the service action requirement is, it’s a requirement for GORUCK light, tough and heavy events. It’s an action that your team must accomplish either before or during the event that does some good in the community. Examples that have happened are like canned food donation drives, cleaning headstones and obviously donating cab fare to a charity at the end.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. By the way – yeah, yeah, I’ll get into that. My least favorite is donating cab fare. It’s not that that’s bad. That’s fine. I think that we as a nation and we as communities are best when we find something and we give our time to it. We pour a little – we do something. It’s easy to write a check, I mean a dollar, $2. Bill Gates is billions of dollars. God bless him for that. It’s awesome. He also pours a lot of time into the stuff that he does.

The goal is that people come together and find something that matters to them in their community. We’ve seen things that have required a lot of time and we’ve seen things that have required a little bit of less time. I mean, dropping stuff off at a homeless shelter. Everyone’s got – not everyone, sorry. Lots of us have too much stuff.

Have you said, “Hey, you can do something great for someone if you donate some jackets to a homeless shelter.” “Fantastic. Let’s go do that.” So much of the value that we get in life is in being something part of something that’s bigger than ourselves. We just want to further encourage that and it’s not overwhelming the GORUCK challenges. It’s not all of this time and all – These are service actions, not enormous experiences. It’s the thought that counts and it’s been turning that thought into actually doing something.

It’s gone well. I mean, there’s been no real pushback. I mean, how do you push back on that? That’s been a good addition. It just sort of strengthens the community and the values that we hold dear.

Brian: Yeah. I’m glad you brought that up. The donating cab fare, GRTs have been doing that for years, right? I mean, all the way back to 2011, 2012 I remember donating the cab fare after the event. It doesn’t really bring the sense of community together that I’ve seen some service actions do.

My follow on question to this was going to be, service action has been around for 10 months and what are some of the actions that you’ve heard about that have really made you smile and say, “Yes, this is why we added the service action component.”

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I was a cadre in Spokane. If I would’ve read about this and hadn’t been there, I probably would’ve hit home, but it just so happen that this was the one and they class-organize donating a bunch of items that were important for – this home for – I think the requirement is something like single mothers under the age of 20, so with their kids. Of course, my mom was 18 and five-days-old when she had me. She was barely 18. It really hit home.

They organized it. I didn’t even know really during the event. I didn’t hear the story exactly. “We’re going to go donate some items to this great cause.” Okay, great. Fantastic. That sounds awesome. Where are we going? Looked at a map recon. Great, that’s fantastic. Went there and just saw some of the moms and saw some other kids and saw the lady who was running the shop.

It was really cool to be able to give a lot of – donate rather, the stuff that the team had put together there, because it just – I mean, I would’ve been one of the little kids running around in a diaper or something in the front lawn. Who knows, right? That really hit home really, really a lot.

Brian: Yeah, that makes total sense. I think one of the big takeaways from that is – I guess, a story I’ll tell on a second is that actually being there and going to it and seeing everything, that that has just another layer to that service action.

When I did the Santa Ruck back in December, we got a ton of toys together, we put it on this giant wooden sleigh that had GORUCK painted on the side. It was really cool. It was fun getting all the toys together. We knew where they were going. It was to the Ronald McDonald House. It wasn’t until we actually got to the house and we saw the families with the kids looking up at the Christmas lights, up the Christmas tree that everything really started to hit home on what we were actually doing.

Jason McCarthy: Which is awesome. It’s again, yes donating money is cool. You write a check, but does it change your heart at all? Does it make you want to go do more stuff? I mean, there’s room for both in life. I’ve done plenty of things where it was just, “Hey, I can’t be there, but I’ll support it some other way.”

The things that really change us that impact our lives are when we do something, and we see something and how it impact someone else’s life. The goal is that someone spends a couple minutes, or a few more than a couple minutes and actually feels something, it inspires them to go find a greater cause to serve, that only strengthens their community, our communities and our nation.

Brian: That’s such an awesome goal. I love it. I’m glad you guys introduced in 2017, and I’m excited to hear even more stories in 2018.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, me too.

Brian: Moving on from the service action, since last we talked there’s been just a couple gear releases from GORUCK. The largest not just in size, obviously is the GR3. How does it feel? That I think has been in the work for ages. How does it feel to finally have that out?

Jason McCarthy: I mean, the funny part is it’s – I’ve heard musicians talk about this where by the time the album comes out, they are so far removed from the process of the album that they’re already working on something else. Full disclosure, it always feels like that around here. Except, in this case I’ve gotten to use it a few more times since it came out. It feels good to get things out. I mean, to say, “Hey, this is out there in the world. What do you think?”

We believe in our process and our – all of those things, right? It won’t bore you with too much of that, but we believe in what we do, so it does feel good to get it out there. The responses was good. It’s a big ruck. It’s awesome for travel. It’s different than GR2 in a lot of ways. I think that we’ve only scratched the surface in terms of showing people how to use it best, which is an important part of the conversation.

I would expect to see more accessories. Not immediately. We’re not working on any right now, but more accessories over time, except for in the firearms line. I guess some. That have the Velcro backing in them. It’s a neat form of compartmentalization and all that gear door stuff that MOLLE doesn’t really allow, because MOLLE is just really difficult to work with, but it’s very stable and secure. Velcro on the interior is a really cool thing, because it lets you mix and match whatever you want accessories that are – You put your stuff how you want it, right? Which is cool.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, MOLLE definitely has its place because once it’s in there it’s not going anywhere. There’s just something about the Velcro. You can easily reconfigure how you’ve got everything set up. You can travel one way, and then you get to your destination, you can rip all the pouches out and reassemble them for how you do your daily carry. Then you can quickly put it all back together when you’re traveling out.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Here’s a good story. I went and ruck them out in Montana, which by the way hiking is just rucking them out. I went hiking. I brought up, I think 24, 40 beers, whatever it was. We got to the top and we drank them all, or almost all of them. We tried to drink them all. Do or do not. But we try to drink them all. On the way down, my load was a lot lighter and I also just had different space stuff.

I ended up having a bunch of cameras and some other stuff. I took the pockets and moved them around to the top, so that the new heaviest stuff was at the top. It was just really easy that morning that we woke up and then we rucked down the mountain and about the rest of our day. It was awesome. It was really easy in the interior to reconfigure stuff in a way that I never would’ve adjusted if it would’ve been MOLLE.

Brian: Yeah. That makes perfect sense. I’ve bought some of that Velcro tape and I’ve glued it into some pouches from shooter ruck. I’ve got a decent modular camera setup now for that. I mean, you can’t beat the versatility of it.

Jason McCarthy: Glad you’re experimenting. That’s how we all get smarter.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, that’s the drive GORUCK products right there. In addition to the G3 coming out, you guys also launched at the same time the GR3 compression tough bag. I got one with my GR3. Is that tough bag going to be replacing the current version of the tough bag, or are they going to live together?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I don’t see them living together. It’s just not enough from a skew perspective. We’ve had to scale up a lot of skews, new skews on the apparel front. You can have skew creep. Too many skews gets really hard. It makes everything more confusing. We’re trying to reduce skews where possible. I do not see two tough bags being around. The compression one is the way to go.

Brian: Awesome.

Jason McCarthy: Because you can also use it standalone. I haven’t done anything on the compression tough bag yet as far as explain tough goes. The heavy amount of R&D time we spent in not wrapping around the whole system, but only giving it part of the compression tough bag, because if you wrap it all the way around, the problem is those loops then, they find their way completely removed from the cylinder part of the tough bag itself. It looks terrible. You got to fix it every time. It’s bad. When it only compresses a third or a half whatever it is of a tough bag, then it stays those – the compression straps stay in place and it works. Yeah, that’s going to replace the existing.

Brian: Good to know. I mean, that makes total sense, right? You should be putting stuff in it that takes up roughly that amount of space, or else you’re probably bringing along too big of a bag for what you’re trying to bring with you.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I mean, the thought being too is that even if you have another ruck, you can use it as a gym bag for dirty clothes or whatever if you want and put it in the ruck. If you have too much space, then you can expand your ruck, or if you’re hiking – it was perfect on hike the Grand Canyon. Hiking is rucking in the mountains, by the way.

I went in to hike the Grand Canyon and I just have my sleeping bag in the compression tough bag on the bottom of the ruck, and it’s perfect. It’s lightweight at the bottom, so it’s not dragging the weight down and stuff like that.

Another usage is that we saw a world where someone goes backpacking through Europe, or backpacking through wherever and they have that as an accessory. Sometimes people buy souvenirs or whatever the case may be. If you want to expand it, it will actually attach to the ruck so you don’t have to carry it with your hands. There is some versatility to it, and I think that we’ll see over time that people will like that.

Brian: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, what’s not to like about it? One of the final major, I guess additions, so to speak in 2017 was the creation of the GORUCK Show, which has been awesome. I’ve enjoyed watching that week over week and it’s great that you guys are bring them on YouTube so people can find them there too. How has that been going for you?

Jason McCarthy: I mean, first of I would say it’s not execution-wise, Blaine and I are both pretty comfortable. We’re both have been in positions where we have to talk about really big ideas and then we have to transition to really small ideas. It’s been fun. That’s probably the most important part of it for me and us. I’ll speak for Blaine now. You can ask him separately, but it’s been fun.

You put it on the calendar and you say, “Hey, we’re doing this.” There’s nothing bad that’s going to come off it. I don’t foresee it in its existing state spanning the universe and this is going to be the world’s most popular podcast. It’s just to do that, you have to get richer brands in and then you’ve got to get some former president. You got to do all that stuff, right?

What we want to do is lead with transparency for the people who know GORUCK and love GORUCK and want us to be successful and want to know what’s going on. Because you all are the ones that use word of mouth to get your friends involved.

We like to have something that puts our time where our values are, the value being lead with transparency. It’s been fun internally for Blaine and I to get to do it. I found out a lot about him through just shooting the shit with him on the GORUCK show, and I’m sure vice versa.

It’s true, so as with almost anything it comes into like how you do in the world, what the world sees is so much – is so dependent upon how you’re doing in your own life. If we love what we’re doing here at GORUCK and I do. I think we do, right? Then that over time really gets communicated to the world. Culturally it’s cool. We get to spend a little bit time and check-in and we get to talk about whatever topics we want, or you guys want us to talk about. Then we always try to throw in some – whatever the community wants us to answer, we’re happy to talk about.

Brian: Yeah. I might experience from it. I’ve had two awesome takeaways from it. The first of that, it’s just great to see you guys joking, talking, just having a really good time. I mean, clearly you guys are having fun because you could see it through the video. It’s just, I guess – I don’t want to say reassures, but like you said, leading the transparency. I mean, the people in that video, that you and Blaine. I have hang out with you guys. That’s you guys, so it’s great that you’ve got an avenue to just be yourself and talk to the community and go through the topics that either you guys have got, or the community presents.

Then the second piece is that it’s just been awesome to have like a consistent check-in, I guess where people can show up and ask questions. I know you guys have always answered a couple at the end, and it’s been really cool to see.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I mean, the worst thing I think that happens is that people forget that we’re human. I mean, our why. The magic is in the why. It’s really hard to consistently execute, because it requires a commitment to explanation. It requires a commitment to putting yourself in front of the jury of GRT opinions, which matter infinitely that sort of how business works. It’s how life works too, but it’s really how business works is that you all get to vote every single day. The why we’re doing stuff, I mean that’s important for first, for us to know. Second off, for us to communicate. We’re happy to do it and we do have fun doing it. That’s a double win.

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, definitely feels like a double win watching it. Is there any timeframe for when that will be out in audio file?

Jason McCarthy: I guess, there was some delay in terms of how you go to iTunes or something. I don’t know. Not my lane. I think I heard mid-January, which it’s already mid-January. I got to think someone is beating on the doors in Cupertino. We’ll see.

Brian: Yeah, it’s a little initial hurdle that once you get in, that’s all good.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah.

Brian: It will be nice.

Jason McCarthy: Then there’ll be a big dump of them. “Hey, here is a bunch.” That would be cool.

Brian: Yeah. It will be fun. I mean, it’s just podcast are nice because you can listen to them on your drive to and from work, on the bus.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. You really don’t need to look at our faces really. I mean, we’re having too much fun, you’re driving in your car. You don’t want to watch us drink beer and stream it on your whatever. Just download it and just know that we’re drinking beer having that.

Brian: I’m jealous enough as it is. I don’t need to see you guys drinking the beer. Especially if you’re listening to it driving to work. It’s like, here you are driving to work and these two guys are having a blast. That’s awesome. Is there anything else you want to talk about for 2017? Or else, we can move.

Jason McCarthy: Basically, I spent a ton of time on our apparel line, and so expanding those and all that stuff. It’s one of those laying the foundation things and that went really well for us. The apparel is grown a lot. I think it’s a testament to the soul of the team that’s building it and the designers and our commitment to serve simplicity and just staying true to our roots of the Baghdad, New York City, GR1 vibe of, “Hey, this can fly in a lot of different environments and it’s built to perform.”

It’s also really expensive stuff. It’s a double-edge sword. Sometimes you get what you pay for, at least that’s the hope and that’s our goal. That was a lot of my time though in 2017. I would say I spent more time on apparel than anything except for managing the business of sorts.

Brian: Yeah, 2017 really seemed like the year of apparel for you guys. I mean, you’re just talking about skew overload. I can’t even imagine. One new pair of pants in four colors, all the sizes, that’s got to be somewhere in the 30s in terms of skews.

Jason McCarthy: It’s a lot. It’s why if you go Google why you should not start an apparel brand, it’s a real thing. I mean, the community has done historically supported us a lot. I think that time is showing that it’s really good stuff. If it’s out of your price range, hey I get it. That’s the deal, right? It’s really expensive.

Brian: It is.

Jason McCarthy: I pay a lot more for – we pay a lot more for the GORUCK than a lot of stuff that you go buy RTI at full price. Part of it is what it is.

Brian: It’s quality too. I mean, I bought a new pair of challenge pants and a new pair of simple pants just so I could get up a comparison post, but by no means you need to make those purchases. The original challenge pants I have, which I – I mean, I think I’ve taken them through double-digit events now. I mean, they look brand new. The only thing that’s got any wear on them is the printed internal label, because the first version had the printed label, the new version’s got the sew-in.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Which we’ve changed of course, because we like things tough and we don’t like anything to fail. We like to fail quickly and we failed on the internal labels of the version one challenge pants. You can take me to task for that. Yeah, we like the American flag and stuff like that too. It’s been fun. It’s been a lot of work in a great way. If you like who you work with, it doesn’t really matter how hard it is.

Brian: Absolutely. I mean, especially the position you’re in, you like who you work with and you like what you’re making. What else is there?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, it’s great.

Brian: Coming in to 2018, I guess some of the biggest news so far has been the release of the Rucker version 2. Congrats on getting that launched and out the door.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. That was a couple years later, or – It felt like we were working on that one forever too. It’s jus taking something and making any changes takes a lot of time. The old adage time is money and it is. It’s not just money from a direct cost, it’s money that you can’t spend on other stuff.

We try not to tinker with stuff unless we really need to. We just saw a need on this one and it’s 2.0 is for more people, it’s better. I’ll put myself in that category. I don’t have to go to the website and buy one. I still have my V1 Rucker, which is great. If I’m going to go do an event, I’m going to do it with the 2.0 for sure. It’s better, period, the end.

Brian: Period, the end. For those who are listening and haven’t had a chance to check out the version 2 of the Rucker, the major change that was made is that there is an elevated ruck plate pocket now. The ruck plate doesn’t go straight to the bottom. It’s like this awesome elevated pouch, so that when you put it in there, it’s off the lower back.

Jason’s got an awesome video that he just shot today on Facebook live. I’ll link to that in the show notes. Between that, there is the deering added for the bladder hole through, which is awesome, reminiscent of what’s on the GR3.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. We paralleled that development a little bit. I mean, the big consideration was I don’t love making things that are specific. We add a toy in the pocket at the top of the Rucker at first glance is specific. I mean, it will fit the expert 20, or the expert 30 ruck plate perfectly. Singe it down and you flip it upside down, it’s not going anywhere. Perfect for a GORUCK challenge.

The thought process was well, you can actually throw other – say you want to use a Rucker as a gym bag. You can actually throw other stuff in there as well. We like you to take the gear and make it yours. You can put plenty of other stuff in there and you will.

It felt better about it in that regard. The Rucker 1.0 I’m sentimental. I got the first one of those, go figure, and it’s got my cool little R&D label in it. I look at it. I did my first ever GORUCK challenge wearing that one. It’s awesome. Frankly, this one is better; 2.0 is better.

Brian: I’m excited to get mine. I already got that on order and it should be fun.

Jason McCarthy: I remember last time, you – the only almost hard question you gave me was about the embroidered spearhead on the Rucker, right? This one it’s on the MOLLE. Hey, sometimes you got to get people talking, right?

Brian: Yeah. What do –

Jason McCarthy: Change things up a little bit.

Brian: It’s funny you bring that up too, because the views are so polarizing. On Reddit, like I don’t know any other way to say this, but it just seems like you guys got – people shit on the spearhead being sewn into the bag. Then on Facebook Live today, there were just tons of comments, “Oh, the spearhead on the bag is awesome.”

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Hey, look. I mean, different strokes for different folks, man. Here is what I know though, the people that know us at all, that take the time to criticize are usually are the ones that love us the most. If not the very most unconditionally like mom or something, then just one wrong below that. You know what I mean? It’s just dealing with those people like humans and saying, “Look, this is the thought process. You can like it or you cannot like it, but this is the thought process and GR1 is not any different really since the beginning.” GR1 is GR1. The Rucker, hey you might see some changes. There is that.

Let me be really clear. Definitely not ruling out bringing back embroidery at some point. It’s just not on the production cycle right now. Right now the spearheads in the bottom MOLLE, personally I prefer that personally. GR1 was also our first ruck sack and it has zero external branding. That’s my style.

I also love what the spearhead stands for and I love what it means. I mean, I believe in GORUCK and the values that we hold dear. I’m also happy to wrap the spearhead in big ass spearhead t-shirts and all that stuff too. You know, we’re all complex and it’s fun. I like both those communities, but they are different. Reddit and Facebook is – they’re just different. I like that they’re different.

Brian: It’s nice, right? I mean, you definitely get different opinions from both spots.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. The gear door stuff can happen on both. Reddit likes to go a little deeper most of the time on that stuff anyway.

Brian: If you’re listening to this and you haven’t been to the GORUCK sub-Reddit, you can hit that up at reddit.com/r/GORUCK and you can see what we’re talking about there.

Jason McCarthy: It’s fun. It’s a lively crew. Kudos to James for easing me into it a little bit. I like that dude a lot.

Brian: That’s awesome. It’s a great spot and I’m glad someone got you in there.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, I enjoy it.

Brian: I have this on the question sheet, but it sounds like I already got the answer. I was wondering if the original Rucker is ever going to be making a comeback, or if everything moving forward is going to be Rucker version 2?

Jason McCarthy: The embroidered spearhead at some point maybe. I just don’t really see – the V1 it’s not bad. It’s great. I did my first event with it. I really liked it. 2.0 is as we say more better as Palmer says. More better for more people. I don’t see the 1.0 coming back. 2.0 is good.

Brian: Maybe like a 10-year anniversary throwback Rucker.

Jason McCarthy: Hey, never say never.

Brian: You mentioned in that video today that you shot that in 2018, did you say you’re signed up for 15 events that you’ll be running?

Jason McCarthy: No. I think I said a few.

Brian: A few? Okay.

Jason McCarthy: Okay, so here’ sa big event. We are doing a 50-miler, a Rucking 50-miler-only, 20 pounds, meaning 20-pound of ruck plate, or the equivalent. We’re going to start that out in DC. I don’t know when exactly it’s going to be. Thinking early summer. It could be as late as fall. The cutoff is 20 hours, which is very, very doable. Yeah, looking forward to doing that. I’ve never rucked 50 miles consecutively like that. I’m excited to do that and see how it goes.

Brian: That should be awesome. You might not know. Didn’t Palm Beach Rucking Crew just put on a 50-miler, they’re rucking for GBF?

Jason McCarthy: I did. I think that’s right. I think I did see that. I have to get some foot care tips and stuff from them, ask them which boots they wore and all that good stuff.

Brian: When I first saw that, I thought it was a typo. I thought it was 5.0 and they just forgot the period.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. It’s awesome. I don’t know. Everyone gets to vote with their wallets, of course. More importantly their time, which is I’ve done some challenges. Lots of us have done some challenges. Lots of us have done other challenging things. Yet, I think it’s time to focus on longer rucking. I mean, that’s a new challenge. 50 miles, I’ve never done it and I’ve done a lot of rucking in my day.

I want to check that one off. I think that more people will want to do it, because they’ve never done it. It will be mandatory buddy pairs, stuff like that. Other details you’ll see at launch, but this is a historical thing. Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, 50 miler. We just want to take it up a notch with 20 pounds on your back, and institutionalize and standardize it. I think it’s going to be great. I mean, it’s going to be great for me because I’m going to do it and I’m really looking forward to it.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Jason McCarthy: Blaine is going to join. Blaine is going to join as well. He’s going to do it.

Brian: Is he your buddy?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I was up in DC and there were a couple other – this past weekend and there were a couple other guys up there. I gave them the same warning where I’m giving you now about the 50-miler in DC. Then we’ll expand it to lots of different places. I could see them saying, “Yeah, that would be cool. I’ve never done that.” “Hey, I’ve never done that. Sounds like a terrible idea. When do I show up?” It’s cool.

It’s not too much weight. I mean, 20 pounds so you’ll probably have 30 total on your back really when you stuff on water or a snack or two. You can stop and eat if you want whatever, all that kind of stuff. It would be cool.

Brian: Awesome. Yeah, I can’t wait to see how that develops. It’s exciting to hear that you might bring that to other locations as well, because that sounds like just another new challenge. There are a lot of people who have done multiple lights, toughs, heavies. 50 miles, 20 hours?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. 20-pound ruck plate, I should say.

Brian: Yeah. Then plus water, plus food. If you’re listening, bring water and bring food because you’ll need it.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. For sure.

Brian: Coming in 2018. Other things for 2018 constellation completely changed up. That’s exciting.

Jason McCarthy: Hey, I feel good. My vote doesn’t really matter that much anymore. You guys get to show up. As promised, constellation is more along the urban survival route. It’s all rooted in our special forces cadre what we’re able to teach people, this line about building better Americans. We hold that dear. A different scenario than maximum physical challenges and it’s more skill-based. It’s urban.

It’s a good time. My dad did it in Cincinnati this year. He’d been in a couple motorcycle accidents and stuff. He almost died. If the EMTs wouldn’t have seen him get side-swiped into the guard rail in West Virginia and I think ’99 or something, he would’ve been dead. He had a femoral bleed out. Anyway, he can’t do a GORUCK challenge, but he did constellation and it was like, “Yeah, it was cool man.” He brought some buddies. They all did it from his print shop and they all did it. It was something fun to do with his friends and they learned some stuff. Cool, right? We’re excited to bring that and that’s just different running parallel to the challenge.

Brian: Yeah. it’s definitely different from a challenge on almost all accounts. It’s great that urban survival aspect. I guess back in 2017 there was a beach beta, but there was also the beach tough beta and beach light beta over in traverse city, which seem like a survival esk version of the light and tough events.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Last I checked, I think some of those are coming out at some point soon. I’m not sure the date, but more marathon-based. Cool.

Brian: Is it officially renamed Poseidon yet? Or is that –

Jason McCarthy: I’m not going to say officially, but I think so.

Brian: Okay. There’s a chance that those tough and light events are going to be coming out of beta for 2018?

Jason McCarthy: Yes. They’re coming out. Some cobwebs upstairs, I got to kick out. I’m not exactly sure beyond that. Yeah, they’re coming out soon.

Brian: Nice.

Jason McCarthy: There’s been some debate about how to launch that is what I’m getting at. Where do they belong in the hierarchy of things and all of that type of stuff. I think it’s more survival series and survival series are constellation plus these other kinds of series, right?

Jason McCarthy: That’s what it feels like, right? You’ve got constellations, urban survival, you’ve got this beach/possibly Poseidon event, which is water survival, then possibly who knows? Mountain survival. I mean, you could go anywhere. Desert survival, rain forest survival.

Jason McCarthy: I think that’s right. Yeah.

Brian: Who knows what those would be called. It would make sense, right?

Jason McCarthy: I actually know who knows. They’re just not in the room with me right now. I could guess, but I don’t – We tossed around a lot of different things and yeah. Anyway, I can’t give you a 100% yes or no. They’re launching soon though, which is cool.

Brian: Awesome. 2017, I mean that definitely feel like the year of apparel from a sense. From this conversation it’s seeming like 2018, at least the start might be the year of survival events. Is there –

Jason McCarthy: I would say a part of it. I mean, survival plus rucking and then we’ve got women’s apparel that’s progressing really nicely. I promised Badass Bates Community that we would have it in 2018. I’m going to hit a homerun on that one from the standpoint of timeline anyway, you all get to determine the output, but working on all of that stuff which is great. A lot of women stuff. We just don’t know how to gauge demand on it is our big problem, so I don’t think we’re going to make very much. We’ll see.

If there is a vote for what we’re building then we’ll do what we can quickly to build more. Women’s apparel. What else? Rucking events, more survival event. With the GORUCK challenge, we’re seeing a big spike in GORUCK light participants, mostly for a lot of reasons. We talked about it a little bit more, but we also lowered the price point on it. The hope is that the classes get a little bigger – big light class is just more fun, and that’s the vibe we’re going for. It’s also the best way to get people into the GORUCK community is through the event side.

I mean, we’re always happy if someone sees the gear and says, “Hey, this is badass. I want to buy it.” We would always prefer just to use and just ship to use. Trying to get more people through the light and that’s the goal. We’ll need your help and everyone’s help to wrestle up your friends. The hope is that the price point isn’t prohibitive and the vibe comes across clearly that it’s – it doesn’t have to be easy, but it is fun.

I really personally love the white. It’s probably my favorite event to lead. If I’m to lead a hundred events, I’d probably lead a lot of lights, the majority lights, because they’re less disruptive to the weekend and yet, you still get to meet with people, do it with friends. You can show up and have a good time and then you get to reconnect, or join this great community of GORUCK. I love it.

Then sometimes though you want more challenges and then there’s other events, right? Now that you’ve listed off some of these stuff, sort of I started thinking, “Wow, there has been quite a fair amount of stuff. That’s cool.”

Brian: That’s awesome. Lights are just – they’re so much fun, especially now, especially now. They got off to a, I don’t want to say rough start. They were a tough start. I remember my first light event was –

Jason McCarthy: That’s fair.

Brian: It was a difficult event. If you listened – I guess just a side note, for anyone listening who listened to the last podcast episode, which was with Mickey about GORUCK constellation, lights are very fun now. Sign up for a light event. Mickey and I went on a spiral down the original GORUCK light events.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, it had to evolve. It’s that light 2.0 now. Maybe we should call it that.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, they’re way different than the first 50 or 60.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Because at that point, the cadre thought, “This is awesome.” Half the time when they cram in all of the challenge, right? It had to evolve. That’s cool.

Brian: Yeah. You’ve got the equation there right. You’ve got time and you’ve got difficulty. I guess, you’ve got time, difficulty and distance. They divided time by half, but it’s like they forgot to divide the other two. They are really fun events. Maybe that’s something that can be 2019. It’s the retro lights or something, where you get the brutality and distance of a tough event crammed into five or six or eight hours.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, let’s do it. GORUCK tougher. How do you think that would do?

Brian: I mean, I’d sign up for it.

Jason McCarthy: Maybe really well.

Brian: Yeah. We should beta one.

Jason McCarthy: Wouldn’t be that hard.

Brian: No. You’ve got I’m sure a lot of cadre who would love to get in on something like that.

Jason McCarthy: Yup.

Brian: That’s awesome. I don’t even remember how we got here, but 2018 is going to be a fun year. That’s a fact.

Jason McCarthy: I also think so.

Brian: Stepping back, there was a lot more special events in 2018 than there were in 2017, or I guess like types of special events. That’s probably a great way to drive in more people in to those lights and toughs now.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. Part of the thinking also is that it’s a forcing function. If there’s a special path, you can prize a special execution. Meaning, if a cadre shows up and there is a patch that says, I don’t know, Mog mile or whatever, whatever the special event – that’s not a good example of a new one. But if it says Normandy, or if it says Mob Wars, or if it says whatever the case may be, it’s just battle – almost gave the spoiler alert, because I think 2019, we’re looking at battle with the bulge in the first part of the year, because it’s cold and stuff.

If someone shows up and says, “Hey, this has a special patch,” then you have to do something that is with that patch. You can’t just have a cadre that says, “Hey, I’m just going to lead my event my way.” Which is a good thing. A cadre having complete autonomy is good in some cases, but you still have to have a left in a right bumper. With the special patch, there is just a forcing function and say, “Hey, build this into the concept that you need to teach someone what the battle of the Alamo is about if you’re going to do that in San Antonio, or JFK and Dallas, or in Washington, DC.” You need to do the things that make DC and JFK’s type of event. There are several.

JFK is buried there. It’s where he took his last communion. It’s where he proposed to Jackie at Martin’s Tavern, which is the best spot in DC. It’s awesome. If you’re ever there, go to Martin’s Tavern. I spent a lot of time there with my dogs on the patio and with friends inside. It’s a good spot.

That’s really the forcing function though is, hey it is fun. It’s more fun for you guys. You guys get to vote with your time and we have to make sure deliver on the promise that the patch makes. Does that make sense?

Brian: Absolutely. It’s awesome how the cadre take ownership of the events. They definitely deliver, because it’s just really cool how GORUCK is setup that way. You’ve got the list of cadre on the website and then you can see what cadre is going to be at the events. The cadre know this and participants know this. Stories about cadre get around, so everyone is trying to do their best and deliver the best event, because it definitely comes back.

Jason McCarthy: It comes back to your reputation too, right? That’s the most important thing that any of us really has, so you pour your heart into something and let the chips fall where they may, but you got to go through that planning process and you got to really give it your all.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of planning process with events, 2017 Mogadishu Mile, those events were amazing. I mean, all the veterans at the start of the event. How did you even start planning something like that? That must have been something really tough to put together.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. We’ve been running that event for a while now. We just over the years met a lot of people who were there, and the cadre know the guys who were there and there’s one cadre bellman was there as well.

It’s like people want to share their stories. This is not a crazy concept. The idea of someone is too busy, no you’re not. I mean, the idea that someone doesn’t want to. Some people don’t. I’ve got a really dear friend who is in Mogadishu, who has talked to me about a lot of other experiences he had. He says, Mogadishu is just not what I want to talk about, because I just lost too many friends there.

I just got goosebumps thinking about him saying that to me. He’s not ready to talk about that, but other people are. Everyone’s experience is a little different and we react to it differently. It’s pretty therapeutic a lot of times to get up and talk about your story. It’s hard, but it’s therapeutic as well.

People want to do it and we know those guys. If they want to do it then great. I want to hear it. I’m going to go to a Mog Mile event and there’s going to be someone who is at Mog Mile and the floor is theirs. We try our best to put together as many of those as possible. The guys that talk, talk. It is pretty cool to see pop-up in so many cities now around the country, where the people who were there are able to talk.

Brian: It was absolutely phenomenal. I showed up to take some pictures at the start of the event and I had no idea that there is going to be someone there to talk. It was wild. He actually talked a couple times. It was really powerful. That was definitely one of the things that surprised me when I showed up to an event in 2017. I mean, you guys did great with that.

Jason McCarthy: Cool. Glad you guys liked it.

Brian: Yeah. You got a lot going on in 2018.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. It’s good.

Brian: It is good. Is there anything that’s going on in 2018 that we haven’t talked about here? I feel like we’ve hit a ton of different stuff.

Jason McCarthy: I mean, Rucking events, women’s apparels, new event series. Yeah, there is a couple other things, but I just don’t want to talk about them yet.

Brian: Still on the works?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, still on the works. Don’t know when they’re coming out. Not built out at all. We’ll see where it goes. Might not be for a long time. Because you never know when something’s ready until it is. We’ll see.

Brian: That’s right. It’s absolutely true, and something might feel 50% one day and then like a week later you’re there and it’s ready. Then other items feel 50% one day and it’s been a later and they’re only – they only feel 60% then. You never really know.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I try to avoid the latter. Those are not fun projects. Usually those ones end up starting over.

Brian: Yeah. It’s been too long. Man, I’m very excited about 2018. Do you have any events on your list already?

Jason McCarthy: Let’s see, so I’m doing – I’m going to do this 50-miler in DC. I’m spending a little bit more time in DC, only not a lot, a lot of time, but just checking it up there some – It’s a good – love the community up there. Still have a small little place up there, so I get up there from time to time and it’s capital freedom, so that’s pretty awesome too. Doing the 50-miler up there. I might try to lead an event or two up in DC as well throughout the year.

Going back to Spokane again, I’m going to do that in August. Doing the GRT reunion in Austin in April and geez, I don’t know what else right now. Do some stuff as it comes up. Doing the battle of the Ruck clubs here and I think it’s next weekend or something, or something like that, here at headquarters in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

Brian: It’s coming a little quick.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. It’s coming quick.

Brian: Are you excited about that one?

Jason McCarthy: Yeah. I mean, I forgot about it for the last 20 seconds. But now that I think about it, I’m super excited. Because there is a 120 people or something signed up for it. That sounds awesome.

Brian: Yeah. For those who are listening and haven’t heard of this event, it’s called The Battle of the Ruck Clubs. It’s a GORUCK light event that’s happening down at GORUCK headquarters. There’s just a ton of ruck clubs coming together for this custom event. I don’t think anyone really knows what to expect yet, but hopefully we can score an interview with Bam or something afterwards and get the details on what happened.

Jason McCarthy: I think it will go pretty well.

Brian: Yeah. It should be fun. If it goes really well, maybe we can replicate it in other cities, because there is – I know there is some cities that have a high concentration of ruck clubs, and over – at CARC there’s a number.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, sounds good.

Brian: Yeah, well I’ve taken a ton of your time. It’s late there. I’ve got two more questions and then we can talk about if there’s anything else you want to talk about that we’ve forgotten to talk about.

Jason McCarthy: Shoot. What do you got? You got any hard questions today or no?

Brian: Define a hard question, because I can always come up with something.

Jason McCarthy: I don’t know. Something that might make me blush. It hadn’t happened in a long time, but I’ll bet you don’t.

Brian: All right. I’ll think of something tough. The first question I’ve got on here is 25-liter Rucker, is that ever coming back, or do the lucky people like me who own one, do we just have like a gem on our hands?

Jason McCarthy: Well, you definitely have a gem on your hands, but I would say, we’re in skew reduction mode right now. I think we should be using GORUCK workshop more from the standpoint of it’s a presale. It’s surprisingly hard surprising, because I wish it weren’t. That’s really my definition of surprising.

It’s surprisingly difficult to execute on a presale with hey, this is when you’re going to have it. Then execute that well. I mean, GR3 we had to pull a lot of strings at the end to get it out when we did and we were delayed. There is always a delay. When it comes to the – we have all of these archive of things and some of them we can modify a little bit, or – like a year ago, for instance the Radio ruck. We’ve got I think 300 units that we’re building right now. I think they’re coming out late Q1, early Q2, something like that.

It’s one of those things where should we do a presale for, or should we just build a limited stock and see how it goes? I don’t know. Those are the decisions that we have to make. Sometimes it feels like a bigger thing if it’s a presale with more promises and all of that type of stuff.

Anyway, I would like to see us use workshop a little bit more, but not necessarily from the customization standpoint, but from the presale standpoint. It’s just building that a little bit more into our DNA. It takes time. The 25-liter Rucker to answer your questions, if I were a betting man, I would say at some point probably, but it’s just not on our radar.

Brian: That makes total sense. I mean, presales are just tough because you presale all these items and now you’ve got an expectation on a delivery date. Even if you guys can crush everything on your end according to deadlines, I mean there’s just so many other areas, like the sew shop, the materials. Even as far as like buckle suppliers or something, like who –

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, our labels. The wrong labels get ordered and that’s two to three weeks to wait. Those are just realities. All we can really do is over communicate what that is. We thought we had built in a lot of leeway and we ended up really cutting it close as far as deadlines. I mean, that’s just where the behind-the-curtain, the relationships with the vendors that build our rucks in California and Washington state and stuff. I mean, those end up – but you have to nurture those all the time.

It’s just we’ve got a great team that’s been doing this a while. Those relationships keeps getting better. They just have to keep always getting better. We’ll see. There’s lots of little stuff out there though that we’re not hesitate to bring back. It’s not like we don’t want to sell you guys stuff if you’re going to use it and do it.

If we did do the 25-liter Rucker though, it would be an updated version with the updated layout for the ruck plate and stuff. The V1 internal stuff in the Rucker is I would be surprised if that comes back.

Brian: Nice to know. Yeah. I mean, that’s like you mentioned, it’s just – it’s a lot going on. I mean, especially for all those products every single one you bring back, I mean that’s just – that’s more time you have to spend on that. That time just got shifted away from something else.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, from something else, something new. Look, these are all problems. I could sit here. We could have a whole show dedicated to problems and we could have cheese with our wine and all of that stuff. We’re not in the business of cheese with our wine. At the same time, it’s a fine line between never explaining anything and just pretending that things are easy, which they’re not.

My hope is is that this doesn’t come across as any type of wining. We’ll always need – that’s just not who we are. It’s not what we do. It’s just more, hey there’s a lot of factors that go into all of these and this is difficult and we don’t get to control everything. See, that’s the other part of it. Because the parts that we can control, we’re better at those than the parts we cannot control. Those are the just the factors that go into manufacturing and all of these other kinds of components to the businesses that we run.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Once you’re dealing with people who aren’t on your – the internal core GORUCK team, then it’s – it can always get interesting.

Jason McCarthy: Cool. You had another question.

Brian: I did have another question. What was it? Oh, man.

Jason McCarthy: Hey, I do that all the time.

Brian: I know. It was there and then I just got – I got too excited about the prospect of another 25-liter Rucker, because the thing with the Rucker is that – this is my opinion and other people have – a couple other people have brought it up to me too, but the 20-liter Rucker is awesome for tough events, it’s awesome for light events, but I’ve got some friends who combine that –

Jason McCarthy: You’re talking about heavy, where you got – you bring too much stuff.

Brian: They borrow my 25 for like a winter-heavy.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, you guys bring too much stuff. Got it.

Brian: There you go. I mean, the 20 liters I cap there, so make sure you don’t bring – don’t bring too much extra junk.

Jason McCarthy: I mean, a part of me wants to just say GORUCK selection for instance is 20-liter Ruckers required. You can bring your own, or you can just borrow one from us. I mean, it’s like a part of me wants to say that, because – we probably won’t. But if these people bring these big rucks all over the place, I mean just bring less stuff. It’s not that hard.

Brian: What’s the most ridiculous someone has brought to GORUCK selection?

Jason McCarthy: A baguette.

Brian: For real? Okay.

Jason McCarthy: Yes. I think it was a bag of bread and baguette and all that stuff. I mean, it’s like I’ve seen – after almost seen it all, right? It was, “Hey, I’m going to put my meal in a plastic bag for when I can get it or whatever.” It’s before we just said, “Hey, bring an MRE.” He had some bread or baguette or something in their bag. I mean, it just never ceases to amaze me how someone can sign up for that event, GORUCK selection and then not go through the packing list.

I saw it a little bit in Special Forces, or in the training, special force qualification course. You see people that aren’t really there. They’re not really in it to win it, so they don’t read the pack and list. No attention to detail, whoops. Just is what it is.

Brian: That’s tough. I mean, I feel like you’re spending the – well, that is the GORUCK selection. If you’re spending the money on the ticket to be there that you don’t want to check over the packing list.

Jason McCarthy: You would think.

Brian: Yeah. You would think.

Jason McCarthy: You would think.

Brian: Is there anything else you want to cover before we get going? I mean –

Jason McCarthy: Do you think of that hard question yet, or are we ready to break?

Brian: See, any question for you that other people would consider hard. I mean, I feel like it just rolls right off you. You’ve got something – You are who you are.

Jason McCarthy: Well, the hardest like what’s the most condemning thing someone could say about anything we do? Roll that up into a question and let’s talk about it.

Brian: Condemning thing. While I think of the most condemning thing. When is trek coming back?

Jason McCarthy: I don’t think trek ever even existed, Brian.

Brian: I mean, outside if you guys are selling trek on a t-shirt, which is it’s probably just a joke, right? The event that never existed.

Jason McCarthy: I don’t know. I think constellation is the feeder to that. It depends upon that. I mean, we always lost money on trek. It was fun and we’re still talking about it to community. I had lots of feedback at the time, but now everyone loves it. It’s one of those events.

Brian: Charge more for it.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, I guess.

Brian: Limit the number of participants and charge more. Roll it through GORUCK workshop.

Jason McCarthy: Yeah, something like that.

Brian: There you go. Trek rolled through GORUCK workshop. If you don’t hit 20 sign-ups, that’s all you’re doing, then event is not happening. If you do, then we get trek.

Jason McCarthy: More workshop. I like it.

Brian: I can’t think of any condemning questions.

Jason McCarthy: Good. I feel you struggling. It’s almost like we’re out of GORUCK challenge.

Brian: I know.

Jason McCarthy: Think good, man. Look, here is my point. It’s like I would rather just get things out there. If there is some burning question in someone’s mind – People come in here and I don’t – we’ve known each other a while so I’m happy to ask you that kind of stuff. People come in to GORUCK all the time and it’s like, “Hey, how did you find about it?”

I don’t want to become removed from the people, like GORUCK Nation. That’s why I love going to events. I love showing up for ruck club this, or ruck club that. You’re plugged in to the community. There are big things that we should talk about, let’s just talk about them. This doesn’t have to be difficult, right? We’re not sitting here plotting on how to do careable things and everything that comes with that.

There are a lot of values that we hold dear and we do our best to live that life, and we’re proud of what we’re building together. We’re proud of all of the miles that people are doing together. We’re proud of how people meet more people and maybe spend a little bit less time in front of the screen and maybe a little bit more time with their friends.

We’re proud to see people empowered. That’s really fun for us to watch. Sometimes there is a, “Hey, why did you do this?” Or, “Hey, why did you do that?” It doesn’t need to be the elephant in the room.

Brian: That’s the thing, right?

Jason McCarthy: If there’s a question asking me – I’m not just saying to you. It’s sort of, “Hey, if there is an elephant, let’s talk about it.” There is a reason. If there’s not a reason, then I’ll tell you that we either messed up, or that’s just the way it was, or something like that. That doesn’t happen very often.

There are always decisions you have to make. It’s not always black and white. It’s not always perfect tradeoffs. There’s a lot of ways to get from point A to point B, but you don’t always get to have your cake and eat it too.

I just see a lot of things out there about – I mean, the easiest one to default to is price, or all these things. It’s like, yeah you build something really high-quality, it costs more. I mean, that’s the easy example, but it’s not a – it’s been around for so long, it’s like I get it. It’s really expensive. At this point, it is what it is.

I guess, my only ask which one of you is – if there are ever big things that come up, the elephants in the room or something, I’m happy to talk about them. I hope they are not, which is what I’m hearing from you. That’s good. That means that we’re doing our job well. If we stop doing our job well, then we need to take a step back and then we need to start doing our job better, which usually means over-communicating what the reasons are on things and engaging people at a realer level. That’s good news.

Brian: Yeah. I think one of the big things about it is that whenever anyone has an issue – I mean, the place that I frequent probably the most is reddit.com/r/GORUCK, you’re there. If someone brings something up and then you’re like the third comment on the thread explaining exactly why something happened or why something is the way it is. It’s just been awesome, because I don’t think anything’s ever able to become an elephant in the room, because you’re so tapped into the GORUCK community that –

Jason McCarthy: Let’s talk about this one. I was on the Reddit – I was actually Rucking the Grand Canyon. I’ll say it again, I think for the third time, hiking is just rucking in the mountains. Rucking is the umbrella, hiking is underneath it. There is this whole thread about GORUCK’s e-mail marketing and all this stuff sucks and it’s terrible and all these stuff. That’s not one that I really delve into. I found it fascinating.

My initial reaction was to say, the next e-mail will be twice as long. If you don’t like it, unsubscribe. I peel that back a little bit and I never posted anything. It’s more like, look if there’s a lot of people out there and everyone has an opinion and we’re happy to hear almost all of them. What it boils down to though is if you want strip mall marketing, go find a strip mall brand.

Part of the hopefully its charm, sometimes you might not like it, sometimes we miss the mark. We’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. But we’re willing to wear our heart on our sleeve a bit. We’re going to talk about the values we hold dear, and we’re willing to put our time and our money and our efforts and our team’s efforts in what we talk about. You never know what you’re going to get.

Sometimes you’ll get an e-mail that’s, “Hey, maybe New Year’s resolution isn’t the right way to say it. Maybe you should go do something –” not be shamed into running more that you’re not going to do, or shamed into a $200 gym membership that you’re never going to use. That maybe you should take a big adventure and do that, which I’m really happy that I’m doing this year. Done that without defaulting to it over the past years, so to say.

I’ve seen all of that and I read it. Sometimes I say it influences me one way or the other a little bit. I mean, I think with e-mail marketing, I think as a business as we mature we probably do need to segment out who gets the monthly national or bi-monthly newsletter and who gets more newsletters. That’s a reasonable thing. Not everybody wants everything all the time. I get it. Some people are more on the periphery, some are on the inside and you have to segment that out a little bit. Great.

I think we’re actually in the early stages of growing that out if I’m not mistaken. I think there was a note about that in our most recent Rucker launch e-mail. There’s some of that stuff going on, but ultimately if you strip mall marketing, go find a strip mall brand.

It’s always, hey here is a beautiful picture with a 30% off. What do you stand for doesn’t matter. 30% off. I mean, stuff like that. The world needs fewer of those brands and the world needs more brands that stick to their guns that really have something to say, that have values that want to share and experience with people that also want to share an experience and like the experience that we’re sharing.

We strive to be one of those kinds of brands and not one of the kinds of brands that if you can call them a brand. You’re on some marketer’s e-mail list and that’s how they reach you, and you can buy if you want. Or maybe go to Amazon, or buy the same thing. Or you can price hunt and do all of these stuff.

I’m not against a good deal. I get all of that stuff. I don’t aspire to be one of those brands. I want us to really mean something and do something really important. Be a part of a revolution that changes the world, that brings people together more, that gets people out, more active that gets people more empowered.

That’s fun for us. Like I said, the next e-mail might be twice as long and it might have a picture. It might have none. It might have 12 pictures a monster. Might have 27 pictures a monster. Your dad might struggle to load, there might be so many awesome pictures a monster. I don’t know.

Sometimes we want to do something and we do it. It’s pretty simple. That’s really what goes on. Yes, there is other sort of campaigns that are built-in to a cycle and that’s great and we send those out too. Sometimes things come up and we do those too, which is great.

Brian: Do you know what e-mail reminded me off?

Jason McCarthy: What?

Brian: It reminded me of the blog back in 2012, 2013 when it was just you writing it. I thought it was – I mean, personally that’s what threw me back to. It was awesome. I remember that was just – whenever anyone brings that up in my head, that’s just your writing style. That’s just Jason writing. That’s how all those posts were back then.

Jason McCarthy: People like it, people don’t. Maybe I’ll put a few more periods here or there throughout the years. I don’t know. Maybe post something big, writing a rucking book this year too, by the way. Spending a lot of time on that. That’s the final little nugget, I guess, if you will. Look, our people are great. I’m happy to have all these conversations.

Everybody does have an opinion, but not everybody shares where their opinion is coming from. That’s the challenge in some of these forums. I really only get with two with the tough group and Reddit. Reddit is just a 100% anonymous for most of the people, which makes it a different challenge. The tough group, it’s pretty easy because it’s Facebook to figure out who someone is. You’re responsible for your post to some degree. Reddit, not so much. I like both. I like both platforms, but they are different like that.

Brian: Yeah, they’re definitely different.

Jason McCarthy: All right, Brian. I got to run, because I got to get home by 7, or else I’m going to be in trouble. I’m going to bike fast on the way home. It’s been awesome to chat with you and it’s been awesome to connect with GORUCK Nation through you. Thanks man.

Brian: Thank you. It’s been great catching up. Get home quick, man. Good luck.

Jason McCarthy: All right. Thanks, bud. Good times.

Brian: All right. Take care.

The post ADR 033: Jason McCarthy (GORUCK Founder 2017 Recap & 2018 Looking Forward) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 032: GORUCK Cadre Mickey Interview (Constellation 2018)

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 15:00:03 +0000

In this interview we’ve got Cadre Mickey dropping knowledge about the changes being made to the GORUCK Constellation events. It was great to have the opportunity to chat with him and hopefully you enjoy the stories in addition to the information in the episode.

Cadre Mickey has been part of the GORUCK Expeditions event team and was a key player in the Constellation series in 2017. For 2018 Mickey is the go-to Cadre for everything related to Constellation… which is one of the reasons we are so excited to have this interview.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Today I’m talking with Cadre Mickey who was instrumental in revamping the GORUCK Constellation events from 2017 into 2018. There has been just a ton of work done it seems moving those events over, lots of new modules. I know both Jason and Blain have commented on it a couple of times. So I’m really excited that Mickey has taken the time out of his day to chat with me and to just talk about what to expect in 2018 with GORUCK Constellation.

Cadre Mickey, how are you doing today?

Mickey: Not too bad, man. Thanks for having me on here. I hope to get out some good information for you guys.

Brian: Absolutely. So for those who don’t know or have never done an event with you before, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Mickey: Yeah. I’m a former Reconnaissance Marine. I was in from 2003 to 2008. During that time, all the work was over in Iraq, so that’s why I went to work over in Iraq.

Brian: Got you. How long have you been a cadre for GORUCK?

Mickey: I don’t have it down to the day. Before 4-1/2 to 5 years. I’ve been around for a while.

Brian: That’s exciting. You’ve seen GORUCK evolve from just a couple of styles of events to what they’ve got now.

Mickey: Yeah, totally. I remember when we first started running Lights and nobody really knew what they were. We just hammered people for six hours and cut our mileage in half. That was what a Light was I remember it first. But yeah, things have definitely evolved quite a bit.

Brian: Yeah. I think my first Light was 8 hours long and I think we had double digits in miles.

Mickey: Yeah. A couple of my first ones were basically a tough mileage. I just moved to them a lot faster.

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, back then, Lights — If you’re listening and you haven’t done a GORUCK Light, they’ve definitely changed a lot from what they’re like when they first came out. Don’t let this scare you from signing up for your first GORUCK Light.

Mickey: We just scared everybody.

Brian: They were definitely a different beast at the beginning.

Mickey: Yeah, they’re awesome now. I think — I like them before, but I think they’ve gone to a really good place and they’re definitely a great event for people that are a little unsure about the whole GORUCK experience. I think it’s a great first exposure. There are a lot — They’re super fun to run as a cadre.

Brian: Yeah, they seem like they are great intro to GORUCK now.

Mickey: Yeah.

Brian: Before they were a great intro to what a GORUCK Tough would be if you just had four more hours, but now it’s a good intro to the overall GORUCK experience.

Mickey: Yeah, definitely.

Brian: You’ve been a cadre for GORUCK between 4-1/2 to 5 years. So that takes it back when GORUCK was still a fairly young company. How did you learn about or hear about GORUCK back then?

Mickey: Honestly, it was a birthday present. I got a TAC hat in the birthday present. I’m just checking on the tag, because it was a nice hat and everything, and went on the website and out of the country at the time and then I hit on my buddies. They were still in the States and decided, “Hey, let’s do one of these challenges when we get back to the states.” That was how it all kicked off. I didn’t really — Well, come to find out I didn’t know somebody in the company, but at that point I had no idea other than that they made nice gear and their events looked cool.

Brian: Yeah, back then the website isn’t what it is today. I think right now there’s a picture of every cadre out there with a nice description, and I know back then it was a little more sparse than that.

Mickey: Yeah, it was a little bit more secretive. You had no idea who your cadre was going to be until they showed up at the start point. Even then, the only information we had on them was what they spoke about at that time. Yeah, it was very different.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. You signed up for your first GORUCK event. Back then, it was just the challenge. There wasn’t the Light. I don’t think there was even a Heavy. I think it was just a challenge, right?

Mickey: There was a challenge, and then I think the extradition events were maybe they had run couple of them and I think there was selection. Selection was the grand one at that point.

Brian: I think the first Ascent was back in 2012. So I think we were at the challenge, Ascent and Selection.

Mickey: Yeah.

Brian: And not that much information about anything at the time. So you signed up for your first event with some friends. What did you think about it?

Mickey: Yeah. Well, so I signed up for the challenge in Sta. Barbara, California and as time got closer, my friends that were supposedly going to do it with me, they one-by-one kind of fell off. On the actual night of the event, I was the only one left to go standing there. But it was awesome. My cadre was Bo, who, funny story about Bo, Bo and I deployed together and I had no idea that he was going to be my cadre or anything like that. I didn’t even really recognized him at first. It took the majority of the night until the sun came up the next day before we realized that we knew each other. It was a good time. It was definitely more than not what I was expecting. Again, there was no information about anything really at that point. It was a ruck event, so I kind of assumed it was going to be a ruck run. So that’s what I trained for.

Then Bo took us down to the beach and ran a pretty nice welcome party down at the beach and I hadn’t gone through anything, I guess, since I’ve been back in. It sucked, but it was a lot of fun at the same time. It brought back a lot of memory.

Brian: That’s awesome. I had a similar experience for my first event. Signed up with a bunch of friends, and then come the day of the event, you’re the only one standing there.

Mickey: Yeah. Happened to a lot I feel like.

Brian: It does, but it’s kind of fun going into an event and knowing no one there, because you’re forced to make friends with everyone else who’s on your team. You don’t have a smaller team or clique to fall back on or anything.

Mickey: Yeah, totally. That’s very true. I think I can think of two guys off from the top of my head that I did that event with that I still talk to today. It’s a little bit different now, because they’re usually one of the participants in my events. But it’s cool, the bond that’s going through that type of stuff creates, which is honestly one of my favorite parts about this whole GORUCK thing.

Brian: Absolutely. The events are really fun in their own sense, but the community that’s created from them is definitely something special.

Mickey: Yeah.

Brian: You took part in your first and sometime between that first event and now, you decided that you wanted to be a cadre for GORUCK. How did you make that decision and what was the first event that you ran?

Mickey: That decision actually came after my event. Bo and I, we then grabbed some lunch and a few beers after the event and he was telling about the cool GORUCK thing and the cadre position and offered the position for me or at least opportunity to become a cadre, and it sounded awesome. It obviously it,I’ve been doing it for almost 5 years. But that’s when I chose to become a cadre.

I did my train up down in Sta. Monica, but my first solo event was actually — It was a Light. It was a custom Light. I don’t know — Madison, Wisconsin. It was a custom Light. Again, I had no idea what a Light was. They told me, “Hey, just cut your miles in half and cut your time in half.”

This custom Light — This core office, there was three guys in the office that kind of had my idea what was going on and they were pumped about it. I think they were the ones that kind of volunteered everybody else to do it. But the rest of the people in the office had no idea and were not prepared, whatsoever, and so it was a pretty brutal beat down for them. But yeah, that was my first solo event. Yeah, that was — Yeah, it was pretty —. I had one lady started crying, like, “Holy crap!” But it was a good time. That was my first event.

Brian: That’s wild, and I’m guessing you’re spot on there. There’s probably one or two people at that office that I had done an event before and got everyone else signed up.

Mickey: Yeah, exactly. Like, “I got a great idea.” That was cool. After the event, everybody is pretty pumped as always.

Brian: Yeah, I don’t know how you felt after your first event, but after my first event at least, I didn’t think I was ever going to do another GORUCK event. That was back in August of 2011 and it took like two days or maybe a day and a half before I was like, “All right. I could probably do another event,” and then three days after that I was feverishly looking on the website for when they were going to be back in Seattle next year.

Mickey: Man, I hear that so much as a cadre. That everybody is like — And that’s what everybody — Like all the GRTs are always telling the new guys, like, “Yo! You don’t think you’re going to want to do another one, but just wait. Give it about a week.” That’s definitely true.

I think that just stems from the sense of accomplishment too. Now, there’s tons of videos and people I feel like increasing kind of knowing what to expect, but back in the day, I used to tell my classes this too, like if I — Whatever the start time was, 1 a.m., if at 1 a.m. I told you what I was going to give you and how long it’s going to take and how far you were going to move, the majority of you would have said, “There’s no way I can do this,” and probably walked away. But now that you’re on the end of it and you’re looking back at what you’ve done, you realize that you are capable of doing so much more than you give yourself credit for, and that’s an extremely important mental tool, I think, going through life. Not just — I mean, honestly for us, coming from different combat jobs, but no matter what you do in this world, if you have that mentality that you can push farther than you give yourself credit for, that’s going to make you successful in whatever you do. I think that’s why people keep coming back, is that sense of accomplishment and realization and it feels good.

Brian: It does, and the pain from the event subsides after a couple of days, but that the sense of accomplishment, it’s just about that 4, 5 day mark where all the shadows have started uploading all the pictures and you’ve got —

Mickey: Yeah.

Brian: You’ve got no more pain and you’ve got all of the accomplishments. You’ve got everything going for you to sign up for another event.

Mickey: Yup.

Brian: A couple of more questions before we get into Constellation. Some cadre love running Light events. I know others just love Heavies. That’s their game. Are there any events that you tend to gravitate towards?

Mickey: Events where I can teach. I was on the expedition team. We were doing the Navigators and the Ascents. Now, I’m in charge with Constellation. Any events where people can come in and I can actually teach them skills that I learned — Or I mean you’re always learning these skills, but I can give them some of my knowledge and pass them on so they can go and do whatever they want to do. That’s awesome. I love doing that. Those are my favorite types of events.

On the flipside, I still like a good Heavy too. You know what I mean? I don’t mind going out and running, just crushing Heavy and really once in a while to keep my reputation intact, I guess.

Brian: That’s awesome, and it’s probably a different sense of pride you get from running each event. In one you’re teaching people skills, and it’s cool. Seeing people grasp them and use them, but in a Heavy, seeing people just come through those grueling events and come out in the other side, it’s truly something to see and experience.

Mickey: Yeah, definitely. I guess they’re similar in the way that like there’s always a realization as people are going to the event. Yeah, they’re two completely different realizations and come in very different levels on the pain chart, I guess.

Brian: Absolutely. Probably as polar opposite as you can get, nearly.

Mickey: Seriously.

Brian: I reached out to BD and he’s the senior director of events and asked him who I should talk to about the changes made to GORUCK Constellation in 2018. He threw your name out there, which is why you’re here on the podcast. Thanks again for being on here. What has been your role in shaping the 2018 Constellation events?

Mickey: Pretty significant. I’ve designed and written the majority of the modules, designed the timeline, been working with HQ on getting all the stuff approved, getting the timeline. Sending them up and having them look at it, taking their suggestions and doing the modification that I had to. That’s not to say that I did it all by myself. During the 2017 Constellation, we developed liked a pretty solid crew of consulates and cadre. At the end of 2017 — Or not the end of it, but when I began working on the new curriculum for 2018, I reached out to those guys and asked for their input on this stuff as well. Not all of these new ideas were mine. I just take everybody’s input and put it in a nice little package and then got it approved on HQ.

Brian: That’s awesome. So did you have any involvement in the forming or the execution of those 2017 Constellation events?

Mickey: Yes, I did. When Constellation first came about, it was actually myself and a couple of other cadres from the expedition’s crew. They were kind of tasked with taking the survival stuff we would teach you to navigate it and applying it to an urban setting. I was involved in that in the very beginning, and then everything shook out, I ended up being put in charge of the Constellation event, 2017, and then as we moved through 2017, I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Beta or if you were there at one of the Betas, but if you looked at the event that we ran during the Beta to what we ran in New Orleans the last event in 2017, it was completely different. There’s a lot of work. I read through a lot of AARs, I talked to a lot of the cadre that were teaching classes and we did a lot of work to make sure that we were at the good spot for 2017.

Brian: That’s great, and I didn’t hear too much about that event, so I have to dig into it a little bit. When Constellation 2017 was announced for the cadre to be a part of, was that something you’re excited about? Was that an opportunity that you’re like, “Yes! Constellation is something I definitely want to be doing.”

Mickey: Yes and no. I was a little worried about urban settings. I’m an outdoors guy. So I love the Navigators, I love them, and I was worried that we weren’t going to be able to do the same kind of stuff in an urban setting. That fear was completely unfounded. There’s so much stuff we can do in an urban setting that’s so much fun. Don’t get me wrong. I still love the outdoors, but I can have just as much fun in an urban setting as well. Yeah. To answer your question, I was just pumped to be part of something new and have that challenge of creating something that the GRTs like and that I can put a lot of work into.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely, and it definitely seems like it was an overall positive experience in 2017. I mean just a number of people who showed up for Constellation events was insane. I think the Seattle Constellation event had more participants than any other event in Seattle for 2017.

Mickey: Yes. Seattle, I think we had over a hundred for that one, and it’s kind of crazy looking back on 2017. We had 25 different cities, and I think at least half of those cities have close to a hundred participants. There’s definitely — That was a learning thing for us as cadre too, like how many normal legacy events do you go to, whether it’s a hundred+ participants. But that was kind of — We’re not only dealing with the 100 something people. We’re also having to teach them and effectively teach them some stuff. That was one of the things we learned and figured out too during 2017.

Brian: That’s got to be tough too, right? I don’t think — I’ve only been to one GORUCK event that I can recall that had over 100 people, and that was the first ABSOC in San Diego. It was kind of a special event, which makes sense by so many people had turned out. Usually, just 15 to 30, maybe 40 people and trying to teach a couple of dozen people is way different than trying to teach 140.

Mickey: Yeah. We figured it down. I think we do it in a very effective way, and really what it boils down to is the knowledge and the professionalism of the other cadre on the Constellation crew. Being able to split a crew up and have three different classes going on at the same time and making sure that every group is having the same information on the same timeline is not an easy task. It’s a little stressful at times, but it’s something that we realized that we need to do make sure that the participants were having the best possible time they could and all my Constellation team stepped up and made it happen. I’m really happy with how it all went out.

Brian: Awesome. So at one point during 2017 did you decide that Constellation 2018 was something that you definitely wanted to be a big part of?

Mickey: It seems Constellation picked up steam. I had a solid crew. It was definitely something that I knew I wanted to continue on with. I don’t know if I have an exact event or exact State, but fairly soon to it. When it really started — We hit our stride and we were getting awesome AARs and people are coming to us and telling us how much they learned, and especially with the a lot of new participants, new people at GORUCK like completely coming out and saying they’re having a great time. That’s when I really knew that this is an event that is fun for us to run as cadre and then we were doing a lot of good work on these cities. At that point I was like, “At 2018, we got to keep creating.”

Brian: That was one of the interesting things I noticed with Constellation in 2017 is that it seemed like the majority of the people who came out to those events weren’t GRT. They were people who had somehow heard about it and signed up for it, but it wasn’t like a GRT reunion, which is kind of what I expected it to be.

Mickey: No, that’s completely true. There was a ton of new people. I haven’t seen — In the beginning of the event you ask, “Who here this is your first GORUCK event?” blah-blah-blah. I hadn’t seen that many hands come up when I ask that question for a very long time. That was awesome. You definitely still had that GRT reunion group as well, because for a lot of the old school GRTs that were like, “I’m retired from the Heavies.” The Constellation is something they could come out and hang out and not have to worry about carrying a log for however many miles. Do you know what I mean?

It’s cool, and I think a lot of that stem to we advertised it for — There’s always been a little bit of advertising when it comes to GORUCK events, but that was something that HQ decided they were going to do. They put together a cool video and all that other stuff, and I think that was a way for us to kind of reach out and grab the attention of folks that aren’t on the tough page or the normal means of communication, which was cool.

Brian: Absolutely. It was really well put together. You guys did a great job advertising that. So 2018 welcomes a brand new Constellation event called Constellation 6. What prompted the creation of that event and what can people expect from a Constellation 6?

Mickey: Constellation 6 was something that we toyed with the idea last year, 2017, but we decided to shelve it until 2018. Much as the 12-hour allowed us to take the 24-hour to the next level last year. So the 6-hour is going to feel along the same skill level-wise as 12-hour was last year. We were able to adjust the timeline and tweak our modules to where someone that’s never done one can come in the 6-hour and walk away with the confidence of that, “Hey, I have the basic skills I need to keep myself or my loved ones safe.”

The people that did the 12 last year, they might see a little bit of overlap as far as information goes, but the way that we’re going to develop it, the way we’re going to test people on it, press them out on it, that is all going to be changed. So it’s going to be a good time. Also, it’s going to be during the day. It starts at 9 a.m. in the morning on a Saturday. So maybe some of the folks that weren’t excited about staying up all night to learn this stuff can attend. Now, they can come out to the 6 hour which is a more convenient time. I’m really excited for the 6 hour. I think it’s going to really fun.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head right there with at least what I see. Having it during the day will definitely open it up to a new group of people who aren’t too keen on being out all night or unable to be out all night. So that should definitely be pretty interesting.

So would it be worthwhile for people who have already completed a Constellation event in 2017 to register for our Constellation 6 event?

Mickey: Yeah, I think so. I mean anybody that’s gone to the Constellation in 2017 know that it’s a great skill set. Having the mindset, having that peace of mind, the calmness of the mind to where you do find yourself in extremely stressful situation. You don’t freeze. The disaster mindset as we call it. It’s huge.

So it’s just like training to be a boxes, training muay-thai or something like that. You sit there and you keep watching those videos and you can go do one class and do all that stuff, but you’re never really going to feel secure in your skillset if you don’t get into a ring and get punched in the face. Do you know what I mean? If you don’t experience that stress, then how do you know you’re going to be able to perform what you’ve practiced and watched and studied in a stressful environment? Yeah, definitely. Coming off the 6 to kind of refresh those skills as well as put yourself under different stressors is huge to really mastering these skillsets.

Brian: Absolutely. I can relate to that. I’ve trained muay-thai for years and there was nothing like that first time that you get into a ring even for sparing and you take a nice combo to the face. It like just opens up a whole new world of, “Oh!”

Mickey: Yeah, exactly. They’re like, “Now what do I do?”

Brian: Yeah.

Mickey: You know what I mean?

Brian: Absolutely. I know exactly what you mean. It’s perfect. In 2017, there was Constellation and Constellation 24. We’ve struck out the 2018 Constellation calendar and it seems like Constellation morphed into Constellation 12. A lot of the modules looks like have changed up quite a bit. How much overlap would you say there is between the 2017 Constellation event and the 2018 Constellation 12 event?

Mickey: Almost none. We will do a very quick refreshes on those, we call the basic survival skills refresher, and that’s one of the first modules that we’ll go over in the 12 hour. Then after that, it is completely new material. We’re introducing a lot of new stuff, stuff that just based off the feedback I got from 2017 stuff — I’m excited about it. It’s going to be fun to teach. It’s going to make the event more exciting, more fun, and we’re starting — Like I said before, because we’re covering that basic stuff in the 6, we can get in the little bit more in-depth stuff during the 12. Maybe not as in-depth as we will in the 24, but definitely more in-depth in what we were doing last year.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’m excited. I’ve seen some of the modules on the website and some of them just like awesome. So speaking of Constellation 6 and Constellation 12, I noticed that the events are stacked in a way that you could do Constellation 6, you could maybe grab a quick nap and a bite to eat and then you could do Constellation 12. Is that something that you would recommend people who are interested doing, kind of like a Tough to a Light, the TL, or is that something that you wouldn’t recommend?

Mickey: Yeah, I totally recommend it, and I kind of — We switched the whole 12 and 6 hour border for that very reason. Maybe I have someone that has never done any of these stuff before. They can come do the 6 and then if it’s something they’re really interested in, they can do the 6. They can get a really, really good grasp on those basic survival skills, then do a little refresher for the 12 and then keep rolling on and gaining that knowledge and those skillsets throughout the night with the 12.

Yeah, I hope people come on, do the 6 and 12. I think it’s really cool to hang out with everybody for a whole day, but we’ll see. We’ll see what people want to do.

Brian: It’s a great idea. Speaking of which, GORUCK should bring back the MLCH, the Meathead and Light, Tough, Heavy. Try and rope some people into a Light and roll them into the Tough.

Mickey: Yeah. We’ve talked about. There’s whispers of it in the hallways, I guess.

Brian: Yeah. I don’t know how many total of those they ran. I know they ran one in Washington State.

Mickey: Yeah. That was Cadre Ed, correct? I think he was kind of the —

Brian: Yup. Yeah, he ran point on that. From what I hear, it was definitely interesting starting with a Light and ending with the Heavy.

Mickey: Yeah. That’s a different kind of mindset.

Brian: I think we’ve talked about this already, but there’s just a ton of new skills being taught in 2018. So people who — If you’re listening and you did take part in Constellation in 2017, by signing up for 2018, you’re not going to get just a repeat of what you had. I hope we’ve made that point clear that it’s going to be a ton of new skills, very little overlap besides that refresher at the beginning. I’m excited and I hope a lot of people are listening to this that gets them excited about 2018 Constellation as well.

So I believe personally that the skills you learn in courses like Constellation are lost when they’re not used. We talked about those boxing, muay-thai, those types of skills. I think your thoughts are the same with mine, that signing up for courses like this yearly to keep those skills sharp is a solid idea.

Mickey: Yeah, I completely agree. Everybody is like, “Oh! You just want us to keep out to your event.” Yeah, obviously, because I came out to you guys. But it’s also — And you say to yourself, like these skills are perishable and it’s different. One of the AARs I read was like, “I can go sit at home and watch YouTube videos on all these stuff.” I’m like, “Yeah, you definitely can, but how are you going to test yourself on how well you actually absorb those skills?” because you can ask anybody that come out to these events, they tell you firsthand like, “You know, I’ve seen videos, I’ve read how to do this, but actually doing it, it seemed, what it actually entailed is a whole new thing.” You have that going for you.

Then we add in stressors. That’s — For a cadre, that’s more stuff we’re really good at it, so it’s not a thing. Not only are you acquiring all these skills on a hands-on method, but you’re also having to perform those skills that you just learned in a stressful environment. That boosts the confidence of your skills. Heaven forbid you ever do find yourself in a survival situation, you’ll have that confident and you’ll have that peace of mind and that kind of clarity, your calmness that you need to actually perform to be able to do these skills.

Coming back and doing this stuff over and over again and re-stressing yourself out, I think it’s critical to really mastering these skills. Like you said, just like with muay-thai, you don’t go spar once and you say, “All right, that’s good. I’m ready to go,” but you spar over and over and over again and constantly improve and become more fluid. You become more calm and just improve overall. So I think that applies to this as well.

Brian: I think another piece on it too is that in a situation where you’ll need the majority of the GORUCK Constellation skills, there’s a solid chance that YouTube is going to be down or you’re not going to have access to a phone or a laptop, and if you do, like do you really want to be spending what little battery you have left YouTube-ing videos on how to do whatever?

Mickey: Yeah. No, that’s exactly — I forgot who I was talking to one time. He made the joke, he’s like, “I like hunting, but usually where the deer are, I don’t have service, so I don’t know how to clean the deer after I shoot it, because I can’t watch the YouTube videos,” or something like that. At that point I was laughing.

Brian: Yeah, that’s funny. Yeah, that’s just — It goes back to just practice, practice, practice and getting those real stressors in there, because I guarantee that the stressors that the cadre put on will be nothing like — Or maybe not nothing like, but they won’t be at the intensity level as a real-world stressors where you would need the skills you learn in Constellation. So it’s good to have that little bit there to ramp up, so if you do need it, you’ve got at least a base.

We’ve talked about a ton — There’s a ton of changes in GORUCK Constellation coming in 2018, which is very exciting. What have been some of the changes that you’ve been most excited about, or that you are really interested in teaching?

Mickey: There’s been a couple of. Now that we don’t have to teach how to start a fire, how to clean water. I won’t go over it, but we don’t have to spend as much time on it. We can get into kind of the foraging and using what you foraged to build really useful tools, right? Having the ability to see at night in little light situations is huge. We can get into the stuff like that. We can get into a little of the defensive stuff. We’re not going to get into hand-in-hand or hand-to-hand combat yet, but we can definitely get into some stuff that you can build from very simple materials that protect yourself, give yourself that little extra second and then escape in a bait situation.

On the flipside of that, we’re also going to get into some really cool medical stuff. I finished reading a book while I was designing the module, but where there is no doctor, it’s about — Or these places down in like South America where they don’t have a lot of Western medicine or access to it. How they cope with it? I learned a lot of really cool stuff. So being able to go in and teach that is going to be a lot of fun, I think.

Then we’re going to get into more health stuff as far as when you’re foraging for food or you’re catching food, how to correctly prepare that to make sure it doesn’t make you sick. The way that we’re going to teach that and the way we’re going to test that is going to be really fun. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a good time.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’m excited for all of that. I think the conflict stuff will be interesting too.

Mickey: Yeah, definitely.

Brian: I don’t know if you hold the same feeling, but generally in — Maybe not like these types of situations, but in most situations, evading and escaping is preferable to fighting.

Mickey: Yeah.

Brian: If there’s one thing that doing muay-thai and boxing, that kind of stuff has taught me, it’s that people who don’t expect to be that strong or that skilled can be very strong and very skilled.

Mickey: Yeah. There’s always that freaking, the ringer if you will. You don’t see it coming. Just beats the crap out of you. Yeah, in a survival situation — Yeah, I completely agree with what you’re saying. It’s definitely — You’re better off just getting out of there so the short guy that’s just sitting quietly in the corner doesn’t kick the crap out of you. In a survival situation, who knows? You might not have the antibiotics or the way to prevent an infection from even just bust the knuckles. You punched somebody, you bust your knuckles up and they get infected. In a survival situation, that can be huge.

Brian: Absolutely. I remember the first time, a 280, 290 pound person head-kicked me and I’m 6”2’, 6”3’, it was like, “Whoa! Not everything is at it seems.”

Mickey: Yeah, exactly.

Brian: That’s great advice. Yeah, I mean, you bust up your knuckles, they’re bleeding, they get infected. What do you do? Now you have to raid a hospital or something, which will probably bring up more conflict. It’s just so much safer to play it smart, I guess.

Mickey: You know, and you’re not always going to be by yourself. You might be, and I think it’s a lot easier situation, but if you’re not, if you’re moving with your family and children or maybe someone that’s not physically or as physically capable like you are, maybe you could handle getting into a fistfight, but are they going to be able? So that’s going to change the dynamics of that conflict if you can. Just worry about yourself. You have to worry about those that you’re trying to protect as well. Just to kind of circumvent all of that, why not just get out of there?

Brian: Absolutely.

Mickey: That’s the best protection for those that you’re trying to protect.

Brian: Yeah. I do love my 7-month-old daughter, but I cannot trust her to have my back.

Mickey: Yeah! Someday she’ll be your sidekick.

Brian: Have there been any challenges or any roadblocks that you’ve run into getting the series set up for 2018? It sounds like there’s been a number of changes. Have any of those post a problem?

Mickey: Not really. I mean, time. It takes a little bit of time to come and prepare, but honestly nothing huge. Actually, I think a lot of the large issues that we are encountering were kind of worked out in 2017, which made 2018 more awesome, because now it was like, “Well, I already know how to handle this, so now I can — I know my left and right limits so I can maximize everything I have in the middle.”

Rolling out, I think one of the biggest hiccups we had is the schedule dropped a little bit later than we would have liked. So people haven’t been exposed to it as much as I — Or maybe they just don’t like the event. Yeah, that was kind of a hiccup. Other than that it was pretty good. I had a lot of good input and a lot of great help on it, so it went really smooth.

Brian: Good to hear, and that’s definitely an interesting way to put it. I really thought of it that way. 2017 was the first year for GORUCK Constellation events, and the way GORUCK structured, they kind of put the entire years’ worth of events out there. So you’ve got your orders in front of you of what has to get accomplished in 2017 and you’re probably learning a lot going event to event. So 2018 has been the first year where, I guess, you’ve been able to gather all that knowledge and then figure out how that’s going to impact the events going forward.

Mickey: Yeah, totally. Definitely. The timeline was something we put with a lot during 2017 and it took a few events to where we are really happy with them.

Brian: That’s great. GORUCK obviously is known for Tough events. I think the GORUCK selection live feed, Jason or Blain mentioned that it got like a quarter of a million total views. A lot of people who know about GORUCK know about the Tougher side. For people who are listening to this episode, a lot of people who listen who haven’t done a Tough or a Light yet and they’re not really sure where they’re staying with their physical abilities. When it comes to GORUCK events, what level of physical fitness is needed for either a Constellation 6 or a Constellation 12?

Mickey: Both. It’s very light. We’re not — This isn’t a PT event. We throw around the term gentleman’s course. It’s just a normal course. You show up. Yeah, you’re going to have to walk and you’re going to have to carry your ruck, but there’s no weight in your ruck other than what you brought as far as your team you go at your own pace. There’s no ruck marches or anything like that. We get to the areas of operation that you’re going to be working in and we put you out on your mission. How fast you go and how far you go, that’s completely up to you.

There are groups that have had to run, but that’s because they weren’t paying attention to time and they have to get back on time, or maybe got lost and how far away they were, like that. That’s very rare. I’ve never had — I’ll put it this way. I’ve never been close to dropping anyone for medical reasons or because they weren’t physically fit.

Brian: That’s good to hear. You didn’t have anyone crying at your events, like that Light?

Mickey: No. Not from the physical aspect of it. Maybe from some of the practical application, but that was pepper spray which makes you tear up, so that made sense.

Brian: That it does. I like that one of the items that I saw on Constellation 24’s packing list was the pepper spray mask you made in Constellation 12. I still have mine around. I think that’s one of the items on the Constellation 12 events too, the packing list. So I’ll definitely be bringing that back.

Mickey: Yeah. Those are fun. Everybody loves that the most, because it makes the event very exciting when you know you’re going to have to use it, but actually it isn’t sometimes as the most pleasant experience, but everybody gets through it.

Brian: Yeah. When people are asking for advice, the Constellation event, I didn’t really want to spoil that you are going to get peppered sprayed in the face. So I would just tell people, I say, “When you have downtime, just work on your mark, because the cadre really grade you on it.

Mickey: That’s a very good way to put it.

Brian: They want to drop a secret, but at the same, like if you have downtime, work on that mask and make sure that seals good, because it’s a practical event, a lot of practical applications.

Mickey: Yeah, definitely.

Brian: I think I mentioned earlier, we had someone on the podcast back in episode 25 and they gave in AAR for the Constellation 24 event. Will Constellation 24 be making a comeback this year?

Mickey: Yes. Yes it will.

Brian: Awesome.

Mickey: I’ll get into — later if we have time, it’s going to kind of coincide with some of the other survival events that we’re going to be running this year. Poseidon is coming back this year. The Maritime Environment Survival Course will have a 6 and 12 with that as well, and then we have wilderness survival course. All these should be — Bear with us. Those will be dropped in here pretty soon. But the 24 events really start to coincide — It’s coming back. I’ll put it like that.

Brian: Good way to put it. For those who are listening and have listened to previous episodes, we had Corey Modrowski, and he gave an AAR for the, I think at the time was called Beached Beta Tough and Beached Beta Light out in Traverse City, and I think that’s what it will be turning into a modified version of that or something similar into Poseidon for this year. Very exciting stuff.

We’re starting off the New Year, people are making their resolutions. Some of those resolutions are for GORUCK events. I know I’ve gotten a number of emails so far people saying that 2018 is the year where they sign up for their first Light or 2018 is where they’ll finally do a Tough. What advice do you have for people who are considering signing up or have just signed up for their very first GORUCK event?

Mickey: Be stoked. Be happy. You’re going to have a blast. Don’t show up completely unprepared, but you’re about to do something awesome.

Brian: That’s great advice. I think one of the issues with people getting overly nervous for the events, maybe that’s not the case, but it’s almost like there’s packing list and information overload on what you should bring to events, and so people get nervous if they don’t have all the stuff. They’re not going to do well.

Back when I did my first event, and I’m assuming you’re back in 2013, really even then there wasn’t much information out. You just had that GORUCK packing list and you showed up with your bricks and hope for the best.

Mickey: Up with their headlamps on blinding each other. Yeah, I think you’re right there. I think people kind of get a little overwhelmed and it makes them a little bit more nervous than they need to be, but look at the percentages that come on these events. You’re going to make it and you’re going to have fun and you’re going to be glad you did. Be stoked that you’ve made that stuff.

Brian: Absolutely. What advice do you have for people who are taking the next step this year? They might have done a couple of Lights and are signing up for a Tough, or they might have done some Lights and a Tough and are signed up for a Heavy in 2018. Any advice for them?

Mickey: Don’t just train to meet the standards. You should be training to crush the standard. No matter what the cadre throws at you, carry on, and keep that same enthusiasm and keep that same thing, stoked feeling you had for your very first event. Let that carry on to the next They’ll crush it. Everybody here does.

Brian: That’s awesome. Completely agree. You should be able to beat the standard on a bad day is what I usually recommend training to.

Mickey: There’s the easiest thing you’re going to do as you think about it. That should not be your goal. Crushing those should be your goal.

Brian: Yeah, they should — Really, they should be an afterthought, because it’s what you know what’s going to happen and you should be able to do them and, and that’s that. Assuming that you’re signing up for an event that has standard, like the Heavy or GORUCK Selection, I didn’t really want to drop that one, but —

Mickey: Even with the Tough, everybody’s question, “How different is the Light versus the Tough?” and stuff like that is the question I get asked very often. I tell them, “The exercises themselves are going to be the same as the Light. The repetitions you’re going to have to do are going to be a lot higher and you’re going to be doing it in the middle of the night.

Just having that kind of image that you can try to train with that in mind while you’re doing it and still crush the exercises that you’re trying to do, that’s huge for the Tough.

Brian: Absolutely. Is there anything else that you want to talk about before we wrap up?

Mickey: Foremost, you need to keep working and keep Bomber shirtless for as long as possible. I know it’s cold in Florida right now, but come on. GORUCK’s Poseidon and wilderness events, they’re going to awesome. They’re going to be two really, really cool events. Dig the survival stuff and you dig the kind of GORUCK style of teaching. Definitely come check those out, stay tuned.

Brian: That’s awesome. I can’t wait for all of the new events for 2018. Poseidon should be great, should be awesome, especially now that they’re doing it in lakes. It’s not just the beaches, because I know so many people in the middle of the United States who don’t have access to a beach. We’re worried about that. So having it on lakes will be nice, and then —

Mickey: Where we’re going to run them and stuff like that, that has opened up so many more possibilities. As I was going through and researching all these lakes across the country, there’s a lot of really cool, fun looking lakes. So I’m kind of excited about that.

Brian: That’s going to be quite the job for you. So you got to look at all these awesome pictures of lakes, figure out where you want to have a GORUCK vacation to next.

Mickey: Yeah, I mean, not always necessarily paid vacation, but it’s cool. There’s so many like — These countries that are always work, there’s always permits and regulations and stuff like that that we kind of have to work with, especially for events like ours, because they’re not your normal — Working inside certain parameters could be a little bit of a challenge sometimes, but we got an awesome schedule that’s going to launch here pretty soon. I’m looking forward to it.

Brian: Very cool. I can’t wait to see where they end up. Mickey, thank you so much for taking just all the time. We’ve talked for already over an hour now and just taken all these time on a Tuesday to chat with me about GORUCK Constellation, Constellation 6, Constellation 12, what people can expect on those events. I’m really excited about them. I know they had a great run in 2017 and I hope 2018 is just as good or better. Thank you again for taking the time to chat with me.

Mickey: No problem, man. Thank you for having me on, for helping me spread the word about the Constellation, and I’m right there with you man. I hope they crush 2017!

The post ADR 032: GORUCK Cadre Mickey Interview (Constellation 2018) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 031: Bryce Mahoney (Darby Project Director / Run Ranger Run)

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 15:00:28 +0000

Bryce Mahoney is a fellow GRT and the current director of the Darby Project. He completed his first GORUCK event in October of 2017 which was a Mogadishu Mile Tough.

I’m a huge fan of virtual events and when I found out about Run Ranger Run I thought it would be great to chat with Bryce and possibly have him on the podcast.

During this interview we talk about Bryce’s first GORUCK event, how he became the director for the Darby Project, and what to expect with the Run Ranger Run virtual event.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Bryce Mahoney who is the director for the Darby Project, and I’m very excited that he’s here today talking with me. We’re going to talk about his first GORUCK event, because he is a GRT and from the community. His role in the Darby Project and what the Darby Project does, and then we’re going to talk about Run Ranger Run, which is a virtual team event that lasts for the entire month of February. So I’m very excited to have Bryce here with me today. Bryce, how are you doing?

Bryce: I am doing well, Brian. Thank you for having me on the show.

Brian: Absolutely. It’s my pleasure. Before we get started talking about your first GORUCK event, do you want to tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

Bryce: Absolutely. My name is Bryce Mahoney. I’m originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia. I joined the military back in February 2001, served till 2007. When I got out of the military and move back to North Carolina to join up the family construction business and did that for a little while and moved up to Raleigh a couple of years later and have been here ever since, and got into rucking in the military and found F3 in 2012, and it was just really the resource that I needed to be at. So very thankful that I found F3 and the rucking community.

Brian: That’s awesome. Your first GORUCK event, was that custom F3 event?

Bryce: Yes, it was actually. It was this year’s Mogadishu Mile. I believe that’s a Tough event. I think we did it October 3rd, that the actual day of the Black Hawk Down event in Somalia, and what an amazing event it was. I mean, not only to be a part of that and to be asked to come out and share the experience with the F3 Raleigh guys, but I got to hear firsthand from Clay who was a Somali veteran and it just really solidified how important that fateful day in 1993 was in military history, and I consider myself to be pretty up-to-date and up to speed on that whole story, but listening to him and just kind of hearing his insight, they really made the event even more better than it was. Just to see the guys — This is a 12 hour, 20 mile event. There were times when the guys were really sucking and it was great to see a community and a group of men come together and lean on each other and make it through the whole thing. He was a guy that was pretty ready to quit halfway through and they helped him get over the hump and he finished with all of us. So I’m just proud and honored to be a part of that one.

Brian: That’s great, and t’s really incredible, I think, what GORUCK has done with those Mogadishu Mile events. Bringing out the veterans to talk at the start of them, and it’s just been, I think, really well-received this past year especially. So very cool that you’re able to make it out to one of those.

Would you say it was tough signing up for the first one? You were in the military for — Was it six years? So you are getting paid to ruck and now you’re essentially paying to ruck. Was it tough to get out and get signed up for that?

Bryce: It was at first and I’ll have to be honest. I didn’t pay for that event. The cadre actually let me, I guess, I’ll say audit the event, because I was a Ranger in the military, so I guess I got a free pass for that one. But the idea of getting out there and to do 20 miles to most people would probably be a little bit sadistic and crazy. But to be honest, to me, rucking has been one of my biggest coping mechanisms for the struggles that I had after leaving the military. Mostly we put a lot of terms into posttraumatic stress and these things. I don’t consider myself to have posttraumatic stress. I consider myself to have separation anxiety. If I was part of the very tightknit community in the military that was driven by more than just money, it was pride in it was acceptance of mission. When I left the military I, I lost that community and it was devastating to me. I didn’t think about that when I was leaving the military. I didn’t think that I would be leaving. I would be ripping out a part of my soul and leaving it where I was. I’m like I won’t even think two words. I won’t even think two thoughts about these groups of people. I’m just ready to go and I felt empty inside, and it wasn’t until probably late 2008. I had veteran buddy that was working with me. We just decided to go do like a 35 mile hike in the mountains, in the Smokies in North Carolina.

I just remember during the trip, it just sucked so bad, but like that embracement of that suck is what kind of help me get out of my own head and really focus on just what was right in front of me, the next step, and I was able to forget about all my family problems and my business problems and how upset I was at leaving the military incorrectly.

I remember when we got done, it was just kind of like, “All right, cool. We know we’re going to do that again.” Really, it turned into this reoccurring hiking trip that me and him would go on and had some other friends go on it. I did a couple by myself and it’s just been amazing to find a community of people that want to do that kind of thing. You ask the average guy like, “Hey, do you want to go walk 15 to 25 miles?” They just give you this look of like, “Are you kidding me? I drive that distance. I don’t walk that distance.”

To find that group was of men that are willing to go do that with you, it was the light at the end of the tunnel that I was hoping was going to be there. I’m still — Just every day that I get into that community, it just recharges and re-energizes me to continue to do it.

Brian: That’s really, really well said. When you show up to an F3 workout, you’re with a group of guys who are willing to wake up at 5:45 in the morning, so you have that — Already, that collective mentality there. When you show up to a GORUCK event, you’re with people who went to the GORUCK website, said, “This looks like a good idea,” and signed up. So you’ve got that. You’re already with a group of people who are on the same track of thought as you. So it’s great to find those connections, and I’m definitely glad that you did.

Bryce: Yes, I am. Like I tell people, “F3 saved my life.” I go back to that loss of community and I’m thankful that my buddy emotionally head locked me out to my first workout and thankfully Dread was there at that workout as well and he’s the one that bestowed the name Darby on me, which is kind of foreshadowing, because I got that name in 2012, and here many years later, I’m now running an organization called the Darby Project. So it’s funny I like to think of this as I am my own project. My transition from the military and my struggles are exactly what I’m trying to prevent the next generation and the generations after them from happening to them, because it doesn’t have to be this way. We can make the change and we can set guys up for success for when the inevitable day that they leave the military and welcome them in communities like this and just ensure that they are mentally alert, physically strong and, through the group, morally straight, just as it says in the Ranger Creed. It’s one of the things that we typically kind of discard when we get out of the military, like we like to think that we follow the creed, but life tends to get in the way and we make decisions that aren’t conducive to that creed. I’ve been thankful that my F3 community has held me accountable on many accounts when I didn’t want to follow that.

So it’s just been an amazing transformation and something that I’m readily available and willing to express and tell everybody, every man that I come in contact with of, “Hey, you need to get out of this. You need to find this community where you live,” and just show up one day. That’s all I care. Just once, and I guarantee you’ll get hooked, or if you don’t, maybe it just wasn’t for you at that time, but you at least gave me the one chance of trying it out, because I’ll tell you, you’re going to find a community of guys that are willing to break their backs for you, and it just doesn’t exist out in normal society anymore. I look at F3 as that beacon of light, that’d be the change we wish to see. They are doing it. We, as the community, are exhibiting that change, and I’m just so proud to be a part of it.

Brian: That’s awesome, and this podcast will be airing in around the middle of January. So if you’re listening to this and you feel like you need that sense of community or your New Year’s resolutions, we’re two weeks in, they’re not going the way you expected and you want to be surrounded by a group of people who are generally very positive in nature. If you’re a guy, do check out F3. If you don’t feel like F3 would be for you, there’s tons of ruck clubs, tons of supportive rucking groups throughout the entire United States. We’ll have links in the show notes for both those, the ruck clubs and for F3 so that you can get tied in with some community that will help hold you accountable and make 2018 definitely a great year for you.

Bryce: Yeah. I would just add too that anybody listening, you decide your own level of involvement. This isn’t a community that’s going to come and hold your hand. In life, it isn’t about handholding. It is making a decision to be a part of something and it isn’t going to be convenient all the time, just like it was 4° this morning. That is last — Like I don’t want to work out in those temperatures, but people are counting on me to be out there, and there’re days when I want to fark sack and it’s just like, “Oh man!” but I can’t, because my brother is expecting me to be there. I would just encourage everybody. It’s not always going to be pretty and it’s not always going to be what you want to do, but once you do it, you’re going to be glad that you did.

Brian: Absolutely. There’s just something about those blankets of 5 AM where they’re especially warm in the bed is double comfortable. It’s tough to get out, but that feeling after a solid workout in the morning while everyone is still sleeping and you know the you’ve already done something amazing in your day before the sun is even up, before people are even up. It’s just an awesome way to start the day.

Bryce: Yeah, I have been reading Tim Ferriss’ Tribe of Mentors somebody got for me for Christmas. An amazing book, and there was a quote in there that I’m going to start using. It basically said, after something physical like F3 at 5:45 in the morning, you can basically look at the rest of your day as nothing is going to be as hard as what you just did, and it’s just something about getting up in the morning, doing PT, getting those endorphins running, getting your blood moving. I noticed a significant difference in my day when I go to F3 and I workout, when I don’t. When I don’t, I’m groggy, I’m pissed and I’m always regretful of not posting or not doing something that morning, and that’s just kind of building on the community aspect. When you have people holding you accountable, it just makes it easier to break through those barriers and get out of those warm comforters and detach from your warm M and get out there and embraces suck as a community together.

Brian: Absolutely. I’ve heard really good things about the book. I might have to grab it one of these days.

Bryce: I’ll tell you — I mean, and especially for me, as a veteran I feel that veterans typically kind of latch on to other veterans in success platforms, and it’s just really encouraging to read. This book is really just a Q&A that Tim Ferriss sent out to hundreds of people from all walks of life and have them answer these questions. It can really solidify your train of thought, your way of life, and it’s just an amazing to read the kind of the thought process behind some of the most brilliant people on the planet that aren’t veterans. It helps me break out as that very comfortable bubble of looking at other veterans that are successful and looking at what realms their successes in. I like hearing from business people that have had major successes that have kind of not thrown it away, but just kind of given it all up to really — To kind of turn inward, and they become writers or other things like that where they just kind of see the significance in the little things, and it’s comforting that that’s kind of taking place and that you look at a world that’s just so fast and so quick moving, and here today and forgotten tomorrow, that these people are just really slowing down and going — It’s just this concentrated messages, chill. Just focus on what’s good, focus what’s in front of you, discard what’s not valuable, and life is going to be good. Yeah, I would completely recommend getting that book.

Brian: I mean, in a world where social media; Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, just everything’s coming a million miles an hour. Everything’s only speeding up. So I know personally I find the days that I enjoy the most, and I think back on our days where I’m probably furthest from my phone or I get a longer workout in.

I know Tim Ferriss, it was the end of last year that he did. Was it a week in silence, where he meditated in he didn’t talk for an entire week? I think he had Jacko take over his podcast for that week. But is is a four days or a week? But I mean for someone who’s so popular within the space that he’s in, to take an entire — Even if it was just two days or four days, but to take anything more than a couple hours for meditation and to be silent, I mean he’s missing a lot that’s going on, but it just shows how important that is.

Bryce: Yeah, exactly, and Tim Ferriss, he’s definitely out there, but he is what I call a master learner. In a world of kind of having to label yourself or project yourself in this professional aspect of the pecking order of things, like if more people could continue the mindset of always be learning, I think it would just help our society have a lot more empathy and a lot more humility within themselves. I feel that we’re so quick to kind of shot other people off in their ideas, in their thought process, because we’re afraid their pecking order is going to be above ours. There’s just so much knowledge out there to learn from people, and I like that in this book too, it talks about it’s not always about what to do. The greatest lesson my dad ever taught me was you take two things from every experience. What to do and what not to do, and that what not to do is just as important as the what to do, because it is one of these things that we don’t look at our failures as a learning experience. We just look at them as this like burning fire that we shouldn’t touch, and I feel like the more people fail, that the more they should be learning from those failures, and we all could take the time to really adjust and see the value in that. I feel that we would be a lot tighter as a community and as a population, I think.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the big pieces of that is accepting failure and knowing that failure is not necessarily a bad thing, even though it’s in society it’s always treated as the worst thing that can happen is failure, but some of the biggest learning moments have been from failures that I’ve had personally. So it’s always important to embrace it.

If you’re listening to this and you’re failing at something you do, you can always turn that into at least a somewhat positive spin by analyzing what happened. Figure out why something failed and how to turn it around, and even if you are not able to turn this one around, then you can at least learn from it and prevent it from happening again. There’s always a learning opportunity, and I think it’s incredibly important to be open to always that continuous improvement. Just always learning and always trying to improve yourself.

Bryce: Completely. Honestly, truth be told, I would not be anywhere near where I am today had I not failed miserably, and it is really focused around my first marriage and the kind of person I was in the military and then after the military. I wasn’t like I was outwardly lying. It was I just was a dishonest person. I was omitting information.

Another great book out there, real small one by Sam Harris, is a book called Lying. It really explains the definition of lying, lies of admission and then lies of omission, and I feel like we are omitting liars more so than we are admitting liars, and had I not completely failed in that marriage, I mean I lost everything. I lost all finances, house, custody of children, and had I not lost that in beginning of 2012, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, because that failure showed me, made me incredibly humble to where I was. I lived on a friend of mine’s couch for 8 months, reinvented myself. It was really after reading that book, Lying, that I just turned everything around and learned from that experience and became a better man, re-dedicated my life to Christ, and that was the pivotal moment of realizing that it’s when we lose everything, we’re free to do anything. That moment was the snapping of the chain, like I am not connected, I am not tied down to this life and I can do anything that I put my mind to that I realistically think about and I plan and I learn from the failures and I just keep trying in the best way possible to get where I’m going and learn to deviate when I’m not doing the right thing. But just to kind of have a core value and go with it.

Sometimes the hardest part is us taking that first step. Just like these GORUCK events, the hardest part is signing up, and the hardest part about F3 is showing up to your first workout and getting past that intimidation factor of, “Man! These guys —” You go to some F3 workouts and these guys are like borderline professional athletes. They’re so physically fit. I consider myself to be pretty physically fit and sometimes I’m intimidated by their workouts. So I can understand where your average sad clown isn’t too stoked about going out to one of these workouts, but I can’t reiterate enough just how much of an impact it made. I would continually encourage every man to do it.

Brian: The only time it’s too late to make a change is when you’re dead. So if you’re listening to this and you’re alive, you can change anything you want to change.

Bryce: It will be all right in the end, and if it’s not all right, it’s not the end.

Brian: That’s right. This has been awesome. You’re the director for the Darby Project. When did this happen? When did you become the director for the Darby Project?

Bryce: I became director October 2016. Little background on the Darby Project, the Darby Project is the Ranger division of GallantFew, which is a larger veteran service organization that encompasses all branches, all military, all time frames. Darby Project is just a little bit more concentrated on the Ranger community. When I say Ranger, that’s anybody that’s graduated from U.S. Army Ranger school or been a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. I’ve been the director for about a year and three months now, and what a ride it’s been. From when I started to now, it’s just been an amazing journey.

Brian: That’s awesome. How did you get involved?

Bryce: I got involved with the Darby Project as a volunteer at first. GallantFew has been around for — Going on six years, seven years now, and it was started by Carl Monger, who is Ranger as well, and a couple of years after kind of noticed that there needed to be a little bit of division, because true to form, Rangers typically talk to Ranger. So the Darby Project was born and it was run at first by Grant McKerry, and this was three years ago. But Grant had — I have full-time job and Carl was busy growing GallantFew, so it just kind of ran stagnant for a little while and it changed when Grant’s commitment level, he couldn’t take it anymore. Switched over to another director, and along the same lines, other aspirations and no faults of their. Just it wasn’t the biggest priority for them.

Around that time I had gotten involved locally here in Raleigh. I wanted to do more Ranger kind of link ups. The Rangers are well known for gathering in masses. They do monthly breakfasts around the country in areas where there are large concentrations of Rangers, like Fort Bragg and Seattle and Savannah and Columbus, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. and another places like that. Kind of going back to that hiking and outdoor activities, I saw the value from going in doing those activities back in 2009 and 2010 and I just started putting more events on the schedule. I’ve been a surfer since I was five, so I would plan the surf link ups and ask, “Hey guys, do you want to come out and surf?” And if people wanted to come and they didn’t have boards, I would let them use my surfboards or we’d rent long boards or I had some local friends down at the beach lend their. I’m an avid rock climber and I got guys out on the rocks and got them there and just any outdoor activity that I did. I just kind of tried to rally other veterans out there just to kind of show them the impact that it was making for me and to really solidify and validate why I was doing in the first place.

Just the benefit behind most of these activities is its mindlessness. When you’re 60 feet up on a rock face, you’re not thinking about what you’re having for dinner or the problems you have in your life. You’re thinking about your disco legs that are shaking underneath of you and getting up to the top of the routes. When you’re sitting out in the water on a surfboard and the wave comes and you’re riding that, you’re not thinking about the bad things going on in your life. You’re just in the stoke, and when you’re done on a wave, it’s like a drug. You just want to get back out there and you want to do it again and again and again and again.

These are quick, easy things for people that live around these particular sports and hobbies that you can get into for relatively low cost, and it’s just a way to kind of disconnect from your own head for a little while.

I saw Darby Project and I saw what it was trying to do, so I kind of piggybacked on and started a Raleigh North Carolina Darby Project chapter and posted a couple of local events, just bar link ups and breakfast and things like that. Around September of 2016, they messaged me and said, “Hey, what would it take for you to be the full-time director of the Darby Project? We noticed the necessity of having a full-time person in charge of this, and what would it take for you?” I remember thinking like a pulse, “I’d love to do this.”

Over the month of September with my Ranger buddies kind of helping me out with recommendations, and I had an interview with Carl, and I drove from Raleigh up to Washington, D.C. to interview with the interim director at the time, Duke Durkin, and just getting their sign off on it. It was amazing to see the support I was getting for this particular position.

So I started October 1st of last year and I’ve hit the ground running in and we’ve made advancements, leaps and bounds, and even though it might seem like we’ve come so far, we have so far to go, and I’m really stoked to be able to have my passion be my profession. That is just one thing that not a lot of people get to do and I wake up every day thankful that I get to do this. I get to help other rangers. I get to help other veterans not go through the same hell that I went through getting out of the military.

Brian: That’s absolutely incredible. That’s amazing, and I’m so glad that that worked out for you. That’s awesome. Man! That’s awesome. That’s just an incredible story.

Bryce: Yeah, I can’t believe it.

Brian: That’s awesome. They have a full-time director. I mean, we talked about this a bit previously, but it really takes someone pouring their heart and soul into nonprofit work full-time for everything to truly succeed, and when those competing priorities and people are doing either a part-time or for free. It’s just tough to get that forward progression that you’re really trying to achieve. Like you said, every time you complete one task, that you just learned that there’re two more tasks that need to be done from the completion of that one and it’s never-ending.

Bryce: Absolutely.

Brian: It’s always more to do. You think you’ve hit the top and you realize there is a lot more to go.

Bryce: Right. I mean, ask my family. They’ll tell you. I pour my heart and soul into this. There is nothing more important to me than this being successful. It takes just a different kind of person to want to do this. I guess do I get paid to do it? Yes. Do we have operating cost? Absolutely. The things that we’re doing, they cost money, and I’m very thankful that we have a support base that sees what we’re doing. It sees our mission and wants to support it. If we weren’t making a difference, they wouldn’t be supporting us, and I would completely understand why they don’t.

It is one of these things that — Like it isn’t sexy. I’m not going on awesome veteran vacations with other veteran service organizations and going scuba diving or getting free gear and all these kind of stuff. I’m talking rangers, I’m talking veterans out of suicide and I’m having to hear some of the most people with stellar military backgrounds just completely falling apart and just in other depths of substance abuse. What is the problem with the veteran community? What do I see happening? Disconnection, isolation, self-medication, and it’s tough listening to that, because I take this so seriously, that when guys are in trouble, I’m in trouble. I feel their pain. I understand what they’re going through, and sometimes I feel the way that some guys kind of talk to me. Sometimes I feel like guys think I’m some retired four-star general that’s making six figures and had a cushy transition and went straight from the military into this job. I suffered just like the other veterans. Homelessness, check; broke, check; lost custody, check. Like all that stuff, and it’s so — I hate to say gratifying or amazing, but like when they finally get it — Like I hear sometimes, and like you don’t understand, and then I give them my story and they’re like, “Wow! I didn’t know that you were at that level,” and it’s just reassuring. Like, “Hey man, I was where you were, and I can help you come out of that, but you got to get out of your own way. A thousand hands are reaching for you and you won’t reach for them.”

I take it so seriously sometimes and my wife — Like I said, my wife will tell you. It gets in the way of my family sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If I wasn’t as passionate about this, it wouldn’t be to the level that it is.

Brian: I think this is really important before we get into Run Ranger Run, but how can people get in contact with the Darby Project? Where can they find you? Where can they reach out to the Darby Project?

Bryce: You can reach the Darby Project, you can find us at darbyproject.org. You can find us at gallantfew.org, which I’m sure, Brian, you’ll put these links up for people to find.

Brian: Absolutely.

Bryce: I’m Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on Twitter. F3 Darby is my twitter name. Mahoney Mo Problems is my Instagram name. Bryce Mahoney. It’s a big old fat picture of my face on Facebook. I’m all over social media. You can contact us on our websites, but honestly that’s honestly the hardest part, is reaching out, raising your hand and saying, “I’m in trouble. I need help. Can someone help me?”

Anybody listening, if you’re struggling, it doesn’t even matter if you’re a Ranger or not. If you’re veteran, reach out to me. I will talk to you. I will put you in the right hands of somebody that can help you get through what you’re going through.

Brian: Thank you, and it’s just amazing that the Darby Project has someone just as passionate and incredible as you as a director. They’re very lucky.

Bryce: It’s definitely a team effort. Carl, my boss, he motivates me every single day with what he’s doing. My two IC with the Darby Project, Leslie, she handles a lot of the backend stuff where all the fancy posts and pictures and things that we have, that’s not me, that’s her. I can’t emphasize the team effort more, but just having a group of people that are motivated as is the GallantFew team is.

We also have — Sorry, I didn’t mention this, but we have a Marine entity as well called the Raider Project, and they’re another resource. If you’re a Marine, you’re MARSOCk, raiderproject.org. That’s another group that’s like — There are days like anybody. Man, there are days that just sucks, like this job sucks, and I look at what they are doing. I look at what Carl is doing and turns that around for me and I’m like, “Bigger picture. Today’s going to suck. Tomorrow’s going to be great,” and I ball that day up. I learned from the mistake and I drive on. I wouldn’t be able to do that without a team. I’m a pretty driven guy. I’m pretty happy, but I wouldn’t be anywhere where I am today without that team, for sure.

Brian: It’s interesting, I mean you can take the most driven individual, but when they’re coupled with a team, there’s just some you added boost that comes from that. When you’re with people who are as passionate as you are and the ideas start going and — I don’t know. It kind of comes back to F3 and it comes back to GORUCK events, and just when you’re with a group of people and a team, you just get so much more done.

Bryce: Completely. One of my idols or I guess I don’t know if idols is the right term, but just I really resonate with his mindset of what it was, but Chris McCandless, he coined the phrase, “Happiness is only real when it’s shared,” and I completely agree with that. I’m a person that froths on engagement of other people. My wife will tell you that I am a massive eavesdropper. If I want to be in a conversation that I hear at another dinner table or on the bus or wherever we are, I’m getting into that conversation. That’s my energy. That’s what recharges me, is just meeting other people and being receptive to what they’re saying and hearing their story and talking with them. You just never know what you’re going to find out there if you’re not open to just being a part of something bigger and allowing yourself to be a part of a bigger community.

Brian: That’s awesome and it’s so true. It’s so true. Speaking of community and getting involved, it seems a great segue into Run Ranger Run.

Bryce: Yes, I think so.

Brian: Would you like to introduce the event? Is this is the sixth year?

Bryce: This is the sixth year. Yes, it is.

Brian: So it’s an established event. It’s been around for six years. Would you like to introduce it? What the challenge entails? What the teams are like and just how everything works?

Bryce: Absolutely. Yeah. So Run Ranger Run is the GallantFew community. When I say that, it’s GallantFew, Darby Project, Raider Project. It’s our annual awareness and fundraiser campaign. It’s how we raise our operating costs for the year, the message of what we do, and it’s a very simple concept. Teams of 10 located anywhere in the world collectively pledged to run, walk, skip, hop, whatever movement-wise 565 miles from February 1st to February 28th.

Doing that as a team, that works out to about 56-1/2 miles per person, two miles a day. What that does is that raises awareness for what the GallantFew community does and facilitating our mission, which is helping facilitate a successful transition from active duty to civilian life filled with hope and purpose. That’s the GallantFew community mission.

Those teams of 10 can pledge to raise funds, and I’ve gotten a lot of questions about, “Well, is it — Are you having people pledge per mile, or what is it?” It’s really the up to the individual and the team to create a pledged amount. Let’s say $565 for per team. When you sign up, you’re given a personal link and a team link and you share that link with your social media following, your family and friends and they can go on and donate $5, $20, $500. It doesn’t matter. Anybody that does the event or pledges amount of money and doesn’t raise it, no worries it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t meet your pledge goal. I cannot stress enough that just participating in Run Ranger Run facilitates us raising awareness, and your participation equals the awareness. If that connects one veteran with GallantFew, then that’s a win for us.

So the registration for Run Ranger Run has been open since October. This is year number six and we just continually grow. I think we’re like 140% over where we were last year at this time with sign-ups. My goal this year is to have maximum participation across the board. I think we had 214 teams last year. I would really like to see 300 teams sign up this year and run the miles.

Brian: That’s phenomenal. That’s just incredible growth. Congratulations. So Run Ranger Run, it’s a team event, 10 person teams. If you’re listen to this and you’ve got a ruck club or you’ve got an F3 group, this sounds like a great opportunity to get some extra miles in over February.

Bryce: Absolutely. So this is actually the second year that we have done the F3 Darby challenge. This is kind of an internal challenge for the F3 community within Run Ranger Run. We had two teams last year sign up and they raised over $1,000 for the event, which was awesome. I think this year we already have four teams established for F3. We’ve got one in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve got two in North Carolina and one in Virginia, I believe, but even that growth has been amazing. It’s just an opportunity to engage a community like F3. These guys — Two miles a day for F3 is not — That’s at the drop in the hat, and guys that are getting prepared for the Palmetto 200 or the next Blue Ridge Relay, these are the miles that you’re already doing.

Really trying to spark the interest within the F3 community. A little spoiler alert, we’ll be making an F3 Derby challenge patch for everybody that participates this year. Pretty excited that to just continually grow the commitment level within the F3 community. I see guys supporting events all the time through other venues. So it is my hopes that more guys will want to get involved with this, and especially now, I’ve seen — It’s kind of interesting, I’ve seen the growth of rucking specifically over the last year within F3. Truth be told, I’m not a distance runner anymore, and rucking to me actually kind of — I enjoy to ruck more than I do to run, and it’s really awesome to see the rucking communities kind of pop up there too. This will be in another opportunity for guys to get more miles in, because Run Ranger Run is something that your team can be located anywhere in the world and you log your miles online. It’s an honor system. You don’t have to do two miles a day. Heck, you could say you could do all 56 miles the first day and be done. I see something like this as a rucking group doing 14 miles a week on a Saturday in the morning. That’s 3- 1/2 hours, 4 hours of rucking.

So super excited to hopefully see a lot of more engagements and involvement there through the F3 community. This is an annual thing for us, so really excited about the growth this time and I just know next year, it’s going to be even better. Guys are going to see their buddies with their F3 Darby challenge patches and be super jealous and they’re going to want theirs. Next year it will be a different patch or a different trinket to earn. Just really excited to get them on board.

Brian: You heard it here from Bryce. Get that 56.5 miles a done, day one, then point and laugh at everyone else for the remaining 27 days in February. You’ve got this.

Bryce: That’s right.

Brian: That’s awesome. For people who aren’t part of F3, you mentioned the F3 Derby patch. I’ve been on the website on Run Ranger Run and it looks like there are three different medals that are associated with this race. Do you want to get into those?

Bryce: Yes. There are three different medallions for different levels of commitment to Run Ranger Run. I want to be completely clear on what those medallions are. I know one of them, you get one medal for completing your 56 miles. You get a medal for raising over certain amount of money, and then the other medal, I don’t remember what that one was for, but the medallions that we have for Run Ranger Run all come from completing a milestone. It’s always easier. It’s always better when you have something to kind of cared on the end of the stick. I finally found the medallion challenge.

So you get a medallion for raising $250. You get a medallions for you raising 250, your team raising 2,500 and your team logging the 565, and then you get a third medallion for just raising 2,500. So those are the three medallions that you could potentially earn for Run Ranger Run 2018. It’s always nice to have incentives to work towards, and this is a really unique set of medals to win. I’m excited to see people come out for it.

Brian: Absolutely, and that third medal, the 2500, that’s the team raising that.

Bryce: Yes.

Brian: Then all three of the medals, they’re really cool. They’re all in the shape of an R, Run Ranger Run, and when you line them up, its RRR, and they look nice. It’s really well done. I’m excited about this. If you’re listening, I know we have a lot of listeners on here who are taking part in our charity challenges, thousand mile challenge. This is a great way to get your team motivated and get some awesome miles in for that thousand mile goal in 2018. So I would highly recommend checking it out. I’m definitely going to be checking it out, and I’m excited about it.

Bryce: Awesome. Yeah. I would just tell any F3 guys, if you’re interested in getting involved, if you do sign up and form a team. If you’ll put F3 in your team name, that helps to single out those F3 teams, because I am keeping track of all of them. Like I said, F3 guys that sign up and complete their mileage will get the F3 Darby challenge patch and the team that raises the most funds will get a surprise thing, incentive if you will, on top of that as well.

Brian: There you have it. So when is the latest that people can register for Run Ranger Run?

Bryce: The latest people can register would be the end of January, January 31st.

Brian: So if you listening to this episode a little bit late, you have until January 31 two register for Run Ranger Run, and if you’re listening to this past January 1st or January 31st, then unfortunately it’s too late, but there’s always next year, I’m assuming.

Bryce: Absolutely, and for everybody listening as well, even if you don’t want to sign up and create or join a team and pledge to run these miles, you can look and donate to any team that you choose to. If you’re an F3 guy and you’re not really interested in running the miles, rucking the miles, help support another F3 team, and donations can be taken all the way up through February and into March. So just even if you can’t commit to pledging the miles, your donations are still definitely accepted. I definitely want to reiterate that, yes, this is an awareness campaign for us, but it’s also how we raise the funds for what we do with GallantFew, and we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the support from Run Ranger Run.

Brian: That’s awesome. That’s always good to hear that you guys are just running such an amazing event, that you’re able to bring that in. So if you are listening and you don’t want to put in the miles, you can always post up the money. Otherwise, if you don’t have the money, then I’m guessing sharing just the link on Facebook, Twitter, stuff like that, just getting the word out for maybe you have friends who do want to participate in that, you don’t, but —

Bryce: Absolutely, yup. People sharing their friend’s teams and sharing the information. We’ll be putting a lot of these out on Facebook and Twitter and social media. The more people that share it, the more people that are going to see what we do. Even if they don’t get involved with Run Ranger Run, they see GallantFew, they see how to get in touch with us, and that saves lives. That share, that like, that commitment to pledge those miles. Those miles are going to change lives. It’s going to reach another veteran that’s on the fence, that’s thinking bad thoughts, and they’re going to connect with us and we’re going to get them the help that they’ve been looking for, and I’m just so incredibly excited to start the event in February. We’ve been leading up to it now and I’m just excited to see the involvement across the community.

Also, be on the lookout too. We’ll be having some kickoff events. We have confirmed locations now, January 27th at Point Defiance in Tacoma, and the same day in Columbus, Georgia and Raleigh, North Carolina, and you can find all that information out on runrangerrun.com.

Brian: What could people are expect at the kickoff events?

Bryce: Just an opportunity to — Because the kickoff events are the weekend prior to February 1st. It will be an opportunity for people to get in miles before February 1st. But it’s a chance to kind of spread the word even more. We’ll have a table and a pop-up and things for people to get an information for people to get about GallantFew and our programs. I know at the Raleigh location we’ll have a couple of sponsors that are bringing stuff that we’ll do a little giveaway for the people that show up. It’s really just kind of a community engagement part for Run Ranger Run in their respective communities.

Brian: Very cool. So, Point Defiance, that’s just an hour and a half /2 drive for me, hour maybe. So I’ll definitely try and make it out to that. This is awesome. Where can people go to register for Run Ranger Run? We’ve been talking about it. Is it runrangerrun.com?

Bryce: Yes. Runrangerrun.com is where you can find out all the preliminary information about how to register and either create or join a team. For corporate people out there too, we have corporate packages as well where you can develop your own corporate landing page for your employees to get on board, and runrangerrun.com where you will find all that information out.

Brian: Perfect, runrangerrun.com. Very excited to register. This has been awesome, Bryce. We talked about — I’m just so much more than I even thought that we would’ve gotten into. This has been an awesome call. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Bryce: I’m very excited and thankful to be able to spread this message not only about Run Ranger Run, but just about F3 and to share my story a little bit. For anybody out there on the fence or that’s hurting, just to hear my story in, and my story is a lot like other guys’ stories. For people to just know that you’re not alone, what you’re going through, somebody else is going through it too and I’m just excited and just honored to be able to be on this and spread that message and just put the word out for what we’re doing and what F3 is doing and I’m just very thankful to be a part of it.

Brian: That’s awesome. Thank you so much for taking so much time out of your day to be on the show. Is there anything else that you want to talk to related to GORUCK events, your involvement in F3, Darby Project, Run Ranger Run, anything at all that you want talk about before we go?

Bryce: No. I think we covered everything and more.

Brian: I think so too. I think this has been just an awesome time. Bryce, thank you so much, so, so much for taking this time out of your day to chat. I know you’re incredibly busy. Run Ranger Run starts roughly a month from when we’re recording this. So you have to have your hands just full. I am thankful that you took just an hour+ out of your day to talk with me, and this has been great. Thank you.

Bryce: Thank you very much. I’m very honored to be a part of it.

The post ADR 031: Bryce Mahoney (Darby Project Director / Run Ranger Run) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 030: Cadre Dan Skidmore Interview (GORUCK Cadre)

Thu, 11 Jan 2018 15:00:50 +0000

Cadre Dan Skidmore (aka Cadre DS) was the cadre that ran our 2017 Santa Ruck Light in Seattle, WA. That event was incredible and Cadre DS really delivered an incredible and motivational event.

After that event I knew I had to have him on the podcast… the motivation and positive attitude he brought was absolutely infectious and that Light was one of the best events I’ve ever taken part in.

This interview is fairly conversational as we talk about how he found GORUCK, the Santa Ruck Light, a recent Spartan Race Cadre DS crushed in Iceland, and how to motivate yourself for a more difficult event.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Today I’m chatting with Dan Skidmore, Cadre DS who is a cadre for GORUCK. I was fortunate enough to have him lead a recent event. It was actually the Santa Ruck Light in early December of 2017 in Seattle. After that event, I knew I needed to ask him if he’d be willing to be on the podcast. Cadre DS is the epitome of having the slogan; Attitude is everything. Keep yours positive.

He was thrown curved ball after curved ball leading up to our event in Seattle, and the way he handled everything and the way he ran the event was just truly amazing and awesome. So Dan, how is it going?

Cadre DS: Great, man. I appreciate you having me on, and that’s a hell of an intro.

Brian: You had a hell of a time coming out here.

Cadre DS: I did. I did for sure.

Brian: Before we get started, do you prefer to go by Dan, Cadre DS or something else?

Cadre DS: Dan is fine. During the event, Cadre DS, but any other times, it’s just Dan.

Brian: Perfect. I’m guessing that stems from the fact that there are a number of cadre at GORUCK with the name Dan or Daniel already.

Cadre DS: Yeah. I wasn’t the first and I probably won’t be the last. I’ve got to actually meet a couple of the other cadre Dans or Daniels or Dannys. Great guys, but DS for me, and I can just give you a little background on it. In the Air Force, being a combat controller, we go through air traffic control first and part of that school is basically getting your operating initials, and so if you do something dangerous or stupid or they’d get in trouble, like the pilot will ask for your initials, so mine are delta sierra, and so it only kind of made sense. Then when they came to picking my cadre name, it was a natural fit.

Brian: That’s perfect. You already had the initials going in. Excellent. How long have you been a cadre for GORUCK?

Cadre DS: I just actually started this last year, summer time or 2017.

Brian: That’s exciting. Fairly new into the GORUCK scene as a cadre. When did you first year about GORUCK?

Cadre DS: I heard about GORUCK a couple of years ago, probably like I want to say three or four years ago, but at the time I had very little interest in doing events myself. I don’t like getting smoked. I think most of the cadre probably say the same thing. We’ve lived that for so long. Who’d want to go and be tortured for a couple of hours or a night? But I think that that is kind of shortsighted by a lot of guys that don’t really even look into it anymore. Then when I started investigating into the company a little bit more, because I actually coached a couple of other cadre before and had that interaction with them and started learning more about the company, but when I initially find out about GORUCK, it wasn’t something I wanted to participate in myself until I started learning more about what everything is about.

Brian: That’s wild. That’s really cool. Knew about GORUCK for a couple of years before you decided to step in and try and be a cadre.

Cadre DS: Yeah, I can expand on that if you want me to.

Brian: Yeah, we’ll definitely get into that. Before we do, I’ve met you at an event. There are a number of listeners who have never met you before. You have talked about yourself a little bit. You’re a trained cadre. You’ve done some training. You’ve got an extensive military career. Could you briefly introduce yourself for our listeners?

Cadre DS: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Dan, I did nine years as an Air Force combat controller. With that, we’re basically in charge of all the air to ground interface and typically the one air force guy on the Special Forces team or the SEAL team, and we’ll catch the team leader’s hip-pocket and making everything, whether it’s infiltration, exfil, all the dropping bombs, runway operations, doing surveys, that kind of thing. All my training was geared towards that.

I did five combat deployments on humanitarian mission. Do a lot of different exercises and missions. Worked with the best guys on the planet, and had a heck of a time.

Then in 2012, I started a cross-fit gym in Fort Bragg, which has now evolved to evolution athletics. One of my really good friend I worked with for a long time in the military. He’s a medics, named Chris McNamara. Worked for the Rangers for a really long time and had this concept of evolution athletics. It’s more than just a regular cross-fit gym, but really a human performance and maximizing your potential, not just through cross-fit but through all the methodologies that we’ve experimented with that are on ourselves, we’ve seen other people do. So we changed our outlook from just a regular cross-fit gym to coaching people at evolution athletics and offering more services, more comprehensive. Whether it’s through our daily classes, individualized training, remote training, and then offering things like personal — Physical therapy. Then we have a registered dietician and nutritionist that help people with that side of things. It’s all about just helping people up. I really came into that in like early 2012, 2013 where I found myself wanting to coach people and just find a passion in that, and that’s kind of driven me all my actions since.

Brian: That’s awesome, and it’s through evolution athletics that you met some of the pervious GORUCK cadre?

Cadre DS: Yeah. Actually, we ended up working with a couple of guys. Cadre Feary, Tod is his name and he was actually involved in GORUCK and still is. Work and army life has called up. He’s paying a little bit more attention to that. A couple of other cadres as well over the last couple of years and just learning about the company and like the different events has definitely piqued my interest, because till about two years after I got out, I kind of was in the flow or coaching at the gym and being in Fayetteville, North Carolina and anybody that’s been in Fayetteville for an extended period of time eventually gets that itch of like, “Man! I need to do some traveling.” That was a main stay in my life through the whole time in the Air Force, is I’d be here and then go, temporary duty, whether it’s like training, to whatever kind of training, but everything is out of Fayetteville, North Carolina. It allowed me to travel a lot, and I definitely miss that side of getting out, experiencing new places, new cultures, new people. And so that’s been another awesome thing through GORUCK is like it’s allowed me to get out of my hometown and see other places, meet new people and just continue to mission of making yourself better every day. I think that GORUCK is a perfect vehicle for that. It really tied hand in hand.

Brian: That’s great, and it definitely seems like you get a ton of opportunity to travel, different cities, different events. Every event needs a cadre.

Cadre DS: Yup.

Brian: When you first heard about GORUCK — I’m really interested in this. You weren’t too keen on signing up for an event. A lot of cadre that I’ve talked to and a lot of people who I’ve talked to with military backgrounds aren’t too excited at first, because they’ve done the PT. They’ve done that once and gotten paid for it. So why would they do it again and have to pay for it? What was the turning point to get you to register for the first event?

Cadre DS: Well, that’s such a great question. What was the turning point to register for an event? When I initially heard about it, I wasn’t looking for another like a hobby or an outlet to go and go do this really tough training iteration, whether it’d be like starting a race. I had a lot of competitive backgrounds. I competed in cross-fit from 2011, and I still do local competitions through cross-fit, but I didn’t really feel that like a smoked session would be really my alley and I didn’t fully understand the other concepts behind what GORUCK does. It’s not just a long night of mission walking around through a city, but all the other intrinsic values that GORUCK and the events get off; mission-based training, doing some real-world, like, “Hey, I can learn about medical training, or I can learn about shooting or climbing,” and then also just becoming a better American and a better version of yourself. I didn’t really know about that, but when I first heard about the events, and from the outside looking in it was just like, “Oh! These are a bunch of people that just want to show up and get crushed like a selection day.”

Having already done that, I didn’t really feel an itch to do that. Then when I kind of started peeling back the layers of the onion, found a little bit more about what it was. My first event that I did was with Cadre Nick and it was in Riley, North Carolina. I showed up not really knowing that to expect like everybody else had and just everything that unfolded throughout the night was awesome. It reminded me of my hardest days of training in my selection processor and even assessment for some of the highest level.

That really worked my interest and I was like, “Man! This is pretty bad ass, that you can create this environment outside of military training,” and I think that’s one thing that GORUCK and the cadre solely do really well. It could be done really well and sometimes we miss the mark on it, but I think that being the intent for guys to get out there and create these environments, whether it’d be a light event or tough event where it’s like, “Man! This is a little taste of some of the hardest stuff you can put yourself through and come out way better and more confident on the other side.”

Brian: That’s great, and it’s awesome to see that transformation, especially during people’s first events where they’re putting themselves through something that they’ve possibly never done before and might not have been fully prepared for and seen them succeed and realize that they can do much more than they thought they could.

Cadre DS: Yes. Absolutely.

Brian: When you did that first event, it sounds like you weren’t planning on going into that being a GORUCK cadre.

Cadre DS: No, I was, and I already had the interest in becoming a GORUCK cadre, because I saw it as more like — It’s an instructor role, and I already had that background of being a coach at the gym, evolution athletics, and it’s my continuation of that, the GORUCK cadre thing kind of totally fell right in line with it. Throughout my time in the Air Force, I never go the opportunity to be an instructor. I was operational the entire time, and from a really early age, high school age, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher, and that’s kind of the direction that I feel like it’s taken with adult life now, is that I coach people in fitness and health. Then GORUCK has allowed me to instruct on this other level of, “Hey, these are kind of a military type training.” There are some different avenues there, but it’s given me that instructor role that I really like and it’s outside of just like fitness.

Brian: Yeah. Absolutely.

Cadre DS: I knew going into it, and I knew going into the Riley event, “Hey man, this is —” The way that I kind of went about it too is every day, for me anyways, is a selection process. I showed up to the Riley event like, “Hey, well I want to see what this whole GORUCK thing is about. I want to be able to have the opportunity to lead other people,” and I treated it basically like a job interview for myself. So the way that I went into the event was like, “All right. One, I know I’m a bad ass operator, and so I want to be that member on the team.” I showed up not really knowing what it was going to entail not having what the idea what the night was going to bring, but all I could do is show up at the right time, right place, right uniform and put out on the team. Going into it, like I had my goal outlined for me, but that’s how it unfolded.

Brian: How did that night go?

Cadre DS: Well, it started off with a normal GORUCK procedures and we started off a lot of lunges across the football field, basically like interlocked arms with each other. By that time once there was a couple of people that were ready to call it a night, we moved on and went to a couple of different objectives. It happened to be a Memorial Day event, so we, at the time, told some stories about military members. Then eventually picked up the big dummy that we used a lot in training and had a bunch of other heavy stuff that we’re trekking across town. It was painful, man. It was a lot of movement and I hadn’t really been ruck training that much, that I knew that like I had a solid fitness base.

But long, heavy, I saw the team dynamic and it was fun. A lot of the time, right in the middle of the suck, I looked around and there was a retired marine — Well, he was getting ready to retire as a marine. He was right next to me the whole time. As we were going through it together, it just reminded me of some of the toughest training that I had done and really like breaking it down. Really have to center your focus and complete an objective and be the best member of the team that you can be. It felt good and it reminded me of like the grind that you have to put yourself through, and I really enjoyed.

Brian: It sounds like a great first event.

Cadre DS: Yeah. It was well ran, and I think that most of the time that’s the intent. You never know what’s going to sign up for. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but that’s how we kind of — That’s the initiation process of a cadre and I think that’s one of the best things you can do. Like a lot of guys in the military and for all branches. You’d get your green beret or your red beret or your whatever That’s not permission to just like stop. It’s not permission to stop training really hard, and for a lot of guys, just kind of slack of and might get soft. Man! You wouldn’t make it through a GORUCK event, a hard GORUCK event, but if you stayed on it and you maintain your capacity and your level, you could be a great member of the team.

For me, that was a big push. Yeah, definitely a good event, eye-opening, and there are some lessons learned in there where like little team drama things that — Little things that happen and you have to problem solve them, and I think that that can only happen at that really stressed out level of like, “Hey, I’m carrying a couple of hundred pounds of this stuff and all these stuff that’s just really uncomfortable to carry,” and people’s tempers get up and they start looking at little problems differently, but you can’t really get to that point without all work that you put in beforehand. I felt that was pretty special.

Brian: It is. I’ve noticed that you problem solve a little bit different when you’ve got a giant log in your shoulder and you’re carrying a jerrycan in one hand or under a substantial amount of weight.

Cadre DS: Yup. That is definitely the case.

Brian: That’s awesome. For those who are listening, Cadre DS mentioned that to become a GORUCK cadre you have to at least go through one GORUCK event, and I think that’s really cool, that you have to take part in it before you lead it. So I’m glad that you had a great first event. Have you participated in any events since then?

Cadre DS: Well, besides the one that I’ve led, no. I actually do make it a point in my events. I won’t say. A point in my events that I lead is to get in with the team and like help carry the log, help move whatever that — If there’s a point where I can interject myself, I like to do that with the team and not just be like over the shoulder and yelling and just kind of, “Hey! Move this there,” but man, everybody else is doing it and I like to make it a point to get in there and help out where I can and be not just the cadre, but also a part of a team. For me, that keeps me on the same level and keeps my head straight. But I would totally do another event. I’d be up for the challenge. I’m not really got called out yet by anybody, so I could make it work something. When and if it does happen. Those days are upon us.

Brian: Absolutely, and I noticed that at our Santa Rock Light, when we were shouldering the log up that giant hill over by North Gate, looked over and saw you there and I had to do a double take, because I thought I was losing it, because I was like, “There’s no way that cadre is under the log with me right now,” but there you were.

Cadre DS: Is that not something that a lot of guys do?

Brian: It’s not too common.

Cadre DS: All right. Well, maybe we can change that paradigm a little bit.

Brian: Yeah. I’ve only shadowed a couple events to take pictures, but whenever I do, I always get jealous of the people in the event. That’s why I don’t shadow events, because when I figure I’m there already, I’m doing the miles. I want to be under the log and I want to be taking part in this. I always wondered for cadre, watching the team do this, if they ever got a little anxi and wanted to get under the log and carry some stuff too.

Cadre DS: I do. Personally for my own training, and I think that there’s huge value in just like you said, like looking over, and there’s a big different between like — We’ve all seen a picture of the guy that’s like leading the way or like the big king that’s like, “Hey, just go do this,” and then the guy that’s out there helping you move everything. Man! I would get to the point in my training where I’d be like, “Hey! All right, can you move this log? Can you push it back over your head?” Are you doing this work or are you just saying go?

In my events and hopefully it catches on where other guys are just like, “You still got to show up and put out.” For us, for my standard, I’d like to be able to do the work, but also be the leader and be able to teach and keep my mind about me when things are really tough. Maybe it catches on. Maybe it’s a cadre via special. I don’t know.

Brian: We will. I thought it was really nice especially for the type of event we were doing. So for those who are listening, we did the Santa Rock Light in Seattle and we had a giant slay which was our team weight of sorts. We actually had another team weight, it was like a 15-pound child dressed in a Ranger costume, which something I’ve never seen before. It was awesome. The kid was adorable, and he was very well-mannered. I was shocked, but we had this giant sleigh. It was filled with toys, and it was just awesome that you were under it with us for at least part of the time and it really cemented that we were there doing something greater than just ourselves. We were delivering all these toys to the Ronald McDonald house, which is an awesome place. It’s this house that has a ton of rooms of families can stay there. It’s next to Seattle Children’s Hospital. So specially that time of year, the holidays, the kids have a ton of appointments and it’s a place for the families to stay so they can be close to their kids and they can spend the holidays with them. We rucked a ton of miles to deliver these toys, and just having Cadre DS under that sleigh with us cemented that this was bigger than all of us. Thank you for that.

Cadre DS: Yeah, and if I could add on to that. Man, as I was getting to Seattle and it was a kind of a whirlwind trip as it was. It was kind of a last minute, “Hey DS, can you go and run this event.” To my best ability, I always take on the events. Like if I don’t have anything else going on, if I’m not with my daughter, man I’m there. I was looking at the map and I’ve been to Seattle one time before, but I wanted to make this event really badass and that’s been like a whole goal of my own, is to do something special at every single one.

When we initially looked at it, I was trying to brainstorm about how I could make this really special, and the point that we like pulled together to a public transportation. We loaded like 15 adults and 15 small children on to a bus. Drove across town, used your quitting money to buy more presents. All the little kids got to go in and pick a present that they wanted. They used all the money. It was already in the pot anyways, so you’ve already committed to it. But man, really filled up the sleigh. We went from like carrying 100 pounds in the sleigh to probably carrying close to 300 pounds. For the kids, they got to pick something that they wanted and then turn right around and give it somebody that really needed it. I thought that that was the biggest lessoned learned, because kids — Man, they might put it together, but doing something selfless like that really had a big impact on me and hopefully other people saw that as well. Just the hoops that we went through to accomplish that mission of getting the kids at the Ronald McDonald house and the families that are staying there in a really rough period in their lives, some more support, and that was — At the end of the day, that was the mission and the way that we accomplished it was by foot and carrying the sleigh. Man, that was probably one of my favorite events that I’ve run so far and each one stands out itself. That overall, making a good impact and teaching along the way of selfless acts of service and throwing the GORUCK spin on it. That was a great time.

Brian: Yeah. It was an absolutely incredible event, and it was phenomenal that you’re able to pull it off given your whirlwind tour of Seattle.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: We’ll get into your travel in a second. For those who are listening, Cadre DS did an incredible job at this event. We did things at this event that I’ve never done at a previous event. I think at this point done well over 30 GORUCK events and every time I do an event, there’s always something slightly new, slightly different that keeps me coming back. But Cadre DS really, really brought it.

We met in this park and the first thing we did after some warm ups was we took a bus across town, which is something I’ve never done at a GORUCK event. We took this bus across town. We spent our quitter cash, all the $20 bills that we all brought on toys. Like he mentioned, the kids were instructed. This was a custom light and so kids were allowed to come. There were a number of kids who were, I think, ranged from 5 to 16, 16, 17 and they were instructed to go with the quitters cash, buy a toy that they wanted. Something that if they were given, they would be very excited about.

They went and bought the toys and then we delivered them. We rucked them over to the Ronald McDonald house, which was about half way or three quarters of the way back from where this bus took us. Then we had to ruck back to the start point from there. No one’s got quitters cash. No one can quit. The best way to keep the team together, no one’s got money to get out of here anymore. It was awesome.

One last thing before I get back to Cadre DS’s travel plans, is he mentioned that he teaches a lot during his events and it was incredible. The lessons he brought out specially for the kids who were present. There was one point when we were buzzing over and I noticed that when these kids came on, they kind of bunched and the first one paid, and I think there were either two or three of them and either the second one just tried to slide by or the first one paid. Second one paid, and the third tried to whistle by so you didn’t have to pay for the bus fare, because apparently you didn’t have the money. The bus driver called them back and told them that, “Hey, if you just asked, if you had said, “I don’t have bus fare. I’m trying to get to this place with my friend,” that he would have just let him go. He was disrespectful trying to slip by, sneak on the bus.

When we got off the bus — I caught that when we were on the bus. So did Cadre DS. When we got off the bus, Cadre DS did just an amazing job distilling this into a very applicable life lesson for all the kids who were there at the event, and it was just awesome how he grabbed these small moments that happened at the event and turned them into giant teaching lessons. It was very cool.

Cadre DS: Man, I can’t believe you caught that. It’s given me goosebumps just thinking about it and like, “Hey, that’s crazy. That’s cool.

Brian: It was. I was just paying attention to who is getting on and getting off the bus where everyone — We had a ton of kids with us, so we wanted to make sure we had eyes on everything, but it was quite the moment. Thank you. Thank you for that. It’s just amazing what you brought to that event, especially the way you tailored it to the kids that were there and still made it amazing for the adults.

Cadre DS: I hope everybody had a good time. That’s the main goal, right?

Brian: Absolutely. Hopefully the way I’ve described this event, it makes you think that Cadre DS knew about this event well in advance. He had flown out to the city probably at least a day or two in advance to plan this out. I talked to him at the event, this was his second time in Seattle and we had a start point that was set. We rode public transportation from there. The Seattle bus system, it’s a very webbed system. It’s not like the Chicago train or anything like that where it all it makes sense. It’s a very interesting system. So for him to come in and pull these all together was amazing.

Do you want to talk a little bit about your travel experience?

Cadre DS: Yeah, absolutely. I’ll make it relatively quick. I found out about the event. It was kind of like a last minute thing. So I was looking at like a time sensitive target, and having the only other time being in Seattle, probably drank too many beers because I was out there doing a big mission with the Rangers and flying — Or well, picked the trip from McChord, the Air Force space there.

Going out, flying out of Riley, I knew it was going to be a cross country and I initially planned it out that I’d get to spend a decent amount of time in Seattle, because man I’m a huge coffee fan and just wanted to like check it out. I planned in a good amount of time on the ground. Well, in Riley, ended up having air craft issues after one, after another, and another, and another. Actually, loaded the plane like two times and they took everybody off. So I’m making all my coordinations with the GORUCK guys backside so that everybody would know, “Hey, we might have to delay the event a little bit.” Ended up finally getting to Denver. I had missed my connection flight. I had to spend the night in Denver. Woke up super early the next day, like 3:30 in the morning to get back to the airport and then have another — Once again, another delay. It was going to keep me from landing in Seattle till about an hour before the event started.

Finally made it. Talked to Molly who was the event point of contact, and we were totally on board with, “Hey, we’ll just get everybody there. I’m going to do everything I can to get there on time,” so just communicated. But I wasn’t going to quit and I wasn’t going to like turn around and that I wanted to run the event. I landed in Seattle, ran outside with everything that I had. Got in an Uber. Actually, like negotiated, taken a limo because I thought it would be a little bit quicker than an Uber. They ended up not working up. So took a Prius up there. But got into an Uber, jetted up to the start point, started the event and then had to immediately, after the event, go back to the airport and fly out. Over all, I think time on the ground was 9 hours in Seattle. That was kind of a whirlwind, but definitely made the most of it.

Brian: Yeah, I’d see you made the most it. That’s probably the best well-spent 9 hours in Seattle, but that also has to be the quickest turnaround for you, and that’s going to be some record, right?

Cadre DS: Oh, yeah. For sure. I don’t know, like cross-country travel. That was a tough one, but it’s what you got to do.

Brian: Absolutely.

Cadre DS: That’s what the mission call for.

Brian: Easily more time in the air than on the ground.

Cadre DS: Yeah. Not ideal, but not all circumstances line up all the time, but we got it done.

Brian: Absolutely. It was an incredible event like I said.

Cadre DS: Thanks.

Brian: For those listening, find out where Cadre DS is going to be, and do an event with him. He makes it good.

You did an amazing job cadreying our event. How events have you run as a cadre so far?

Cadre DS: I think between 20 and 30. Somewhere in there.

Brian: That’s less than I expected, honestly. It makes sense, since you started in the summer, but the amount of professionalism and the way you run the events makes me feel at least that you had, I don’t know, 60, 70 under your belt already.

Cadre DS: Yeah, I’ve got that a couple of times, but with my background — Not everybody that comes into GORUCK has a background of like coaching and teaching already for a couple of years beforehand. So I think that that my prior experience has kind of accelerated a little bit, and then also we didn’t necessarily get to do this at the light event, but I’ve had some great mentors along the way. Gotten to do a couple of the other Ascent, like the GORUCK Ascent event. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with that, but I’d love to talk more about those type of events as well. I think the learning curve is it’s pretty easily to climb if you can manage it properly, and event talking to guys that have done hundreds of events over and over and over and learning who those guys are every event and then cornering them either in the backline as they’re taking off of the log and talking to people and finding out what makes GORUCK special and what they love about the event, what a bad event looks like. I try to really take that feedback and make the most badass experience that somebody can have, whether it’s a light or a tough or like spinning the whole bay, rucking around on a heavy, or even like the Ascent where we climb a mountain and learn about backpacking and rock climbing and repelling and doing some amazing other skill work. Man! If you can listen and apply the feedback that people are giving and just kind of like put your own personal spin on it, you can make it awesome.

Brian: I think Ascent this year is in August, end of August if I recall correctly. We’ll have to do another one of these, and we can have an entire episode about Ascent, because there’s just so much to talk about it sounds like with that event.

Cadre DS: Yeah. Really, whether it’s an Ascent or constellation or like a navigator or any of the other — Anything else besides light, tough, heavy, there are so much that everybody can learn outside of those events. I really hope that we see more of those on the schedule, and I think that it boils down to what people want. Americans are using their voice and saying, “Hey, who better than to teach them than special operations guys and with some help from guys like Chris Way,” who, man, if you haven’t met Chris or listen to him talk, do so. I think you guys have. Just saying like, “Hey man, if GORUCK will listen, I think.” Be verbal about what kind of other events and training opportunities we want to see. I think that could be really valuable.

Brian: Yeah. Chris Way has been on twice so far and he’s an awesome guy. I have not had the pleasure of meeting him in person yet, but it’s going to happen.

Cadre DS: Yeah. Well, sign up for an Ascent or go out to Boulder.

Brian: Yeah, he’s a very accommodating person. I would love to go out there and hangout with him sometime. It’s been great to see the GORUCK calendar expand, constellation 6, constellation 12. There’s just tons of events in 2018 to sign up for that are outside the realm of the traditional light, tough, heavy.

Cadre DS: Yup.

Brian: So it sounds like there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for people.

Cadre DS: Yeah, absolutely.

Brian: In terms of running events, what’s your favorite to run?

Cadre DS: If I had to say my favorite event so far, has been the Ascent event where we’re getting out and we’re doing some rock climbing and we’re getting in nature. Man, it’s unfair for me to pick a favorite. It’s like picking your favorite kid. But I’ve had light events that I’ve loved, tough events that I’ve loved and some that I’ve ran and I’ve just been like, “Oh man! That did not go the way that I would have wanted it to go.”

So I can’t pick a favorite style of event, just because they all have — They all have different value. I’ll tell you, the hardest for me personally to run is definitely the tough, and then running through the night and then starting up like a couple of hours later for a light. That’s definitely — It’s challenging for the cadre to stay like mentally checked in the whole time. My favorite event would be just getting out and doing stuff outside of cities.

Brian: Very cool. That’s got to be — Especially tough on the events you travel for, flying to a city, possible time zone change, run the tough through the night, run the light the following day and then fly back out. That’s got to be exhausting.

Cadre DS: Yeah. Hey, every day is a selection process, right?

Brian: Yeah, that’s a great way to look at it. I really liked what you said about the lights challenges and heavies, or I guess the lights, the toughs as they’re called now, and the heavies. You definitely get a different group of people at each of them all looking to achieve something different. Like the big goal for the people who are showing up for their first light is different than the goal for the people who are showing up for the tough or the heavy, and so you can probably bring a lot to that, because if you’re training background, you’ve been — You’re running your gym for 4, 5 years now, but being able to tune in to that, the need of the participant being different and unique is awesome.

Cadre DS: Yeah, and I think that’s the kind of the nature of the beast and an entire weekend of heavy, tough, and then a light. Well, the people that showed up for the heavy probably should have signed up for the tough, and the people that signed up for the tough could have definitely been more prepared for the heavy than anybody else. Or even the people that showed up for a tough and then like they just probably should have went with a light first, and then the crew that signed up for the light, they would have done much better with the heavy.

There’s no telling like who shows up at that time at that part with that gear what you’re going to get, and it’s part of the team dynamic, but also part of the cadre, like instinct and intuition and just like reading the people of, “Hey, how hard can we push this group and how much can we do?” It’s just more of like, “Do we need to scale back a little bit or just turn it in to like a bloodbath?” Well, I don’t necessarily enjoy the bloodbath that much. I just don’t. There’s a point where everybody’s got what they need out of it, and we talk a lot about minimum effect of dose at the gym. If the doctor says take this much, but if you take way more, it’s going to turn into a shit show. So I try to apply that to the GORUCK events too and not make it absolutely crazy, but meet the intent every time with who shows up, whether it’s 15 kids or a bunch of pipe hitters.

Brian: Yeah. It’s so true. So true. It’s like I said before, it’s just great that you’re able to acknowledge that and adjust accordingly, which probably goes back to your training background.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: I was going to ask what you bring to an event to make it unique, or like a Cadre DS event. But I think we covered that getting in with the team, getting under the log and shouldering some of that. I want to flip that question a little bit and ask what’s been the most interesting time or what’s been a really unique time that you interjected yourself into an event.

Cadre DS: Let’s see. I’ve done a bunch so far, and it’s always different. None of these — No event is anywhere near the same. Most of the time it’s been a different crew of people where you get — I’ve had a couple of guys do a couple of different events at this point. Man! I don’t know. I don’t have a great — I’ll give you that. I don’t know.

It’s been really fun. One memory that sticks out to me is — I always talk about it, is the Ascent that we did. There was — The plan was there was me, Chris Way and then Cadre Doug, Doug Doug, and I think Doug’s done a bunch of events over the years and has a great reputation as being a great dude. How it panned out was I was going to be out in front with the guys that wanted to go real fast and just make it up both mountains, and the plan was we were going to summit one fourteneer, and depending on the schedule and how fast they made it up, we were going to be able to summit two 14,000-foot peaks if the time allowed and we had the energy to do it and the weather was good.

We got going and a couple of guys really kept up with me and my girlfriend who was doing the event and kicked ass at it, but we made it up. Within five minutes or so of each other, and so there was me and about five other guys standing on the top of this mountain out-looking over everything, and then it kicked in of like, “Hey man, that was great. One mission is good.” I told them the story about Robert Ridge, and the Air Force combat controller, John Chatman, who basically went in after one of the SEALS had fallen out at the back of the helicopter on their infil. So Bill Roberts who’s one of the SEALS basically started taking contact, Neil Roberts falls out of the helicopter. They land, basically crash land. John Chatman, who is combat controller runs out, starts assaulting and basically up a snowy peak and eventually was shot and killed after a long battle. He’s actually getting looked at for the Medal of Honor upgrade from an Air Force Cross that he got.

Basically, pulled that story of that mission and everything that came out after it, because man it was a long day for a lot of guys, and so framed that scenario and then moved together as a team to conquer the second 14,000-foot peak. So just that changing the mindset of what we’re out there doing. We’re not just like hiking around, but man, like this is a mission. That’s kind of definitely been one of my favorite points that really stuck out to me. You can carry a lot all day, we know how that feels, but if you can change your mindset from just out on a casual Saturday hike, to we have to get this done in this amount of time with these people. This is a team. Let’s make it happen. That’s one thing I love about doing these events.

Brian: That’s awesome, and that’s definitely one of the things I think that makes doing Ascent and doing those GORUCK capstone classes or expeditions, I think they might be called, special. Going and doing that with the team at a GORUCK event versus going in and doing the 14,000 peak by yourself or with a smaller group.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: That’s awesome. Are you going to do ascent this year? Are you planning on that?

Cadre DS: I hope so. I want to do all the events that I can, and I really — Like I said. Every trip is different and every location, every team, every ruck club or whoever shows up to the event. You never know what’s going to happen. What I’ve tried to do is kind of form each one differently, and you can’t really set — You never know when the magic is going to happen, but it always does. Something badass always tends to happen and all we can do is get out there and keep doing stuff. I’m not going to hold back. If they call out, I’ll look at it as like a different mission for myself and go and show up and have a badass time and hope everybody else has a great time too.

Brian: That’s a great mindset. That’s an awesome mindset to have, and I think by — You probably know this, because you’re living it, but by being that open to those challenges or mission, the experiences that you probably get to travel to a lot more cities than people who — If it doesn’t fall in the schedule or if it doesn’t, if they hadn’t been planning it for months in advance, then it’s not going to happen.

Cadre DS: Yeah, totally. I hope that that keeps going. Got to factor in ops tempo and getting burned out on things. Man, I don’t think that — It’s how you attack life. Like you just got to put yourself out there and if you need a break, calm it down. If you’re going like making the best time that you possibly can. Even if it’s like, “Hey, I’m going to plan this. I’m going to plan this mission out on the way to this location.” You can plan it all day, but you get boots on the ground, it’s going to be different and you’re going to have to flex and you might have to take a metro or a bus or whatever it is and just go with it.

Brian: Absolutely. You might have to forgo the coffee experience in Seattle unfortunately.

Cadre DS: Yeah. That was a short trip.

Brian: Yeah. Maybe you’ll make it out here again. You can do the coffee tour, the roastery, the Starbucks roastery in Capital Hills is pretty cool from what I hear.

Cadre DS: I plan on it.

Brian: Speaking of unique towns, cities you’ve been to. Are there any other places that you haven’t been to yet that you’re hoping to get to through a GORUCK event?

Cadre DS: Miami. I haven’t done Miami yet. Phoenix, Arizona. I need to hit Arizona. I was actually just looking at a map last night. My daughter for Christmas, my daughter got this — She got a big map of the U.S. and I was looking at all the states, and I actually love taking her to all these states and then bringing her back something from every place that I go to.

We’re looking at it and like making all of our little memories of like, “Okay. Seattle, Portland, California. Check, check, check. Got them. That’s west coast stuff.” Utah, Colorado, right? Really, man I’m trying to knock out every state, and I don’t really care where it’s at and I’ll even do some off names in between. Yeah, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll go wherever.

Brian: That’s awesome. What a great Christmas gift too. You don’t hear about too many maps. That’s great.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: My foster son asked for a hammer, a screwdriver and a new pair of pliers for Christmas.

Cadre DS: Nice.

Brian: Yup.

Cadre DS: Man stuff. I like it.

Brian: He’s 3-1/2, and in addition to that, he got a drill. He slept with it for the past two nights. He’s stoked.

Cadre DS: Power tools. Excellent. That’s one thing that a man now that I wish that I would have done more as a kid and even like learning that. It’s been a steep learning curve for myself of like putting stuff together, and now I love it, like building tables and benches and working with your hands and making something. I wish that I would have done that more as a kid. But that’s awesome. You guys are getting him into that.

Brian: Yeah. I don’t know if we’re getting him into it or if he’s getting me into it. That’s one of the things I wish I had done more too as a kid. Yeah, he just loves fixing things, building things, climbing ladders, playing with all the heavy stuff. Obviously, we’re talking about this. It’s slightly after Christmas. We’re talking about the gifts that our kids got. We’re going into the New Year. People are obviously goal-setting, planning for the future. A lot of the people who listen to this podcast have never done an event, and we’ve got another group that listen that they’ve done a couple of lights or they’ve done a couple of toughs, but they’re looking to push to that next light to tough event or going for the heavy.

What advice as either a trainer, a GORUCK cadre, do you have for people who are listening who’ve never signed up for an event before? They’re interested in rucking. They might have done a couple of rucks, but they haven’t committed to a GORUCK event. What advice do you have for those people?

Cadre DS: Well, I would say that one, what works for me is pick an event that you’re far enough out, that you can train for. Not too far that’s like, “Oh, it’s going to lost in the sauce.” Typically, like three or four months out and pick one that almost like scares you a little bit, and it should scare you. But then that should be what wakes you up and helps drive you every day.

If it’s in that range of, “All right, this is three, four months away. I’m going to have to wake up and go hard, and maybe I got to lose 15 pounds. Maybe I got to work through an injury and rehab up to this point of like capability.” What I would do is pick a spot, pick a location. Look at flights if you have to, but get outside of your comfort zone and maybe leave everything behind. If you know that you’re rucking right around the corner from your house, it’s going to be that much easier to say, “I don’t really want to be here anymore. I’m cold. I want to go inside.” But if you put yourself in a new environment and you just show and you know that you’ve put work that you can and you’ve done everything up to that point, those 12, 16 weeks of hard training, then you’re going to show up and you’re going to crush it.

If you don’t do that, then you’re going to get stuck in that cycle of self-doubt and not being able to get off the couch or not even be able to get started. It could be just as simple as like, “Hey, take 10 minutes in the morning and knock out as many pushups or as many burpees as you can or like do a workout.” It doesn’t have to be crazy, but just chipping away at it every day and building in those little life patterns that are going to help you achieve that goal. Or me, I just complete, and maybe this is a great time to talk about the Spartan race thing if you want to.

Brian: Yeah.

Cadre DS: For myself, I’m very goal-based and goal oriented, and so I found myself last September. Basically like I was getting into doing GORUCK events and knocking them out and traveling a bunch and having a great time and I saw my fitness program change from doing strongman competition. Probably posting up like 300-pound rocks, 300-pound stones and like kegs and big logs and lifting up cars and doing like crazy strongman stuff for the last year or so before I got into doing GORUCKs. That kind of drove my training, and that and cross-fit, and so doing local competitions.

Then picking up, doing other outdoor events. I just wanted to get outside and do some rock climbing and just be doing activities more than like competitions. Then one of my friends who runs events for Spartan race put out online that they needed — They were putting together these military teams and they wanted some volunteers.

I was in the Air Force, done one Spartan race before so I was like, “All right. Well, whatever. How bad it can be?” The race ended up being — That was the Ultra race, which is a new style format. It’s a 24 hours, get as far as you can. I’ve done some 24-hour events. Fitness is pretty good, but at the time I didn’t really have a goal that I was working towards and I was just kind of training just to train, just to maintain. I knew that it was going to be about three months out, and so I saw that and it kind of scared me a little bit. I wasn’t doing a lot of running. I was doing plenty of rucking with GORUCK and like knocking out 30 miles on a weekend. No big deal, right? We can knock that out.

I felt like I had that base already set, but I didn’t know how bad it was going to be and I had to spill the rest of my week of objective-based goals training that I could prep myself for for a middle of December event. That really led my training program and like what my focus was from just strength-based cross-fit style training to more endurance base. Still doing like plenty of powerlifting and gymnastics movement, but going for those longer domains.

I had my goal set, started training up and really like surrounded with great training partners doing some obstacle courses around Fort Bragg and like going to gyms. I was out there in Portland, Oregon. Ended up doing the Halloween events out there, ended up going to like an American Ninja training gym where they had all these obstacles set up and run through all those and like just testing myself in different ways. That’s part of what it’s all about, right? Learning new sports and being able to be good at them and like cross-training that.

Prepped myself as best as I could. Showed up to Iceland where the 24-hour event was and absolutely crushed it. I felt great. No body issues. Didn’t fail any of the obstacles. Ended up going close to 40 miles and had a great time. That was kind of the look from start of, “Hey, Dan is kind of training.” It was not a lot of without an objective in mind, and then taking almost like everything on me of, “Hey, this is a 24-hour event. I’ve never been to Iceland before. I want to go knock this out.” So setting that goal and then letting everything kind of drive that train and then being able to show up and absolutely crush it. You could make that correlation between the GORUCK event.

Man! If you’ve done a couple of lights, check it out. Sign up for a tough. Figure out where it’s going to be at and make it a trip. Show up a couple of days before and shout it out and maybe take a weekend off, but get outside of your own backyard and go an event. Then that can help drive your training, because if it scares you, if you’re nervous about it, you’re going to prep a little bit and then train that little bit much more intense that you might not if you’re just like, “Well, yeah this is what I do.” But if you’re looking at taking that step, you got to have some kind of motivation and I think fear — Maybe fear of failure for me is a big driving motivator, and people get scared of that kind of thing, but you’re going to embrace the unknown, but set you up that much better.

Brian: That’s just amazing advice, all around right there.

Cadre DS: Yeah. I kind of rambled on for a little bit, but man maybe you can take some stems on that.

Brian: Absolutely, and what a way to just embrace what you’re talking about too. You said that 24-hour event, you’ve only done one Spartan race in the past in Iceland. A place you mentioned you’ve never been to before.

Cadre DS: Yeah, it turns out it’s really ice there. I mean like it was just like a sheet of ice everywhere you went.

Brian: That must have made it really interesting. Really something, I’m sure.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: If I can just add one little bit about traveling for GORUCK events, one of the things that I think is really, really cool about traveling for GORUCK events is that it almost forces you to get more involved in the community, because if you’re not traveling with weight or if you’re not sure about the start point, you have to post out on the event page and you have to get tied in to whatever local ruck club or rucking groups are out there, and it’s just a great way to meet new people and get some extra roots out there.

Cadre DS: 100%. If I can go in a little tangent about that if you don’t mind.

Brian: Please do.

Cadre DS: One of the most badass thing that I’ve seen. So I do the event in October there in Portland, and then got scheduled for the Seattle event. Same neck of the woods, the travel squad. A little shout out real quick. They kind of reached out and one of the guys, we became Facebook friends. I hit him up and I was like, “Hey man, where’s a good spot to stay?” Usually I do like Airbnb for a night or whatever if I’m doing the event. But just reaching out and building that community and building that network of people is amazing.

I hit him up and I was like, “Hey, what’s a good spot to stay at? What’s close,” and just trying to build those relationships. He immediately hooked me up with one of the other dudes and I was like letting other people stay at your place or get on little tips of, “Hey, stay here. Don’t stay here. This is close. This is a good area.” That’s one thing that I thought was amazing with the Seattle crew, was just how open everybody was, just, “Hey, do you got a spare couch or a room at your place?” Like building that community.

Inside of GORUCK, there’s plenty of people, plenty of weirdos. Hopefully they’re not too weird, that you wouldn’t let them like crash in your couch or whatever. But if you’re going to do that and travel somewhere else, just getting tied in with like, “Hey, who’s in this area?” And so that’s one thing. You’re talking about networking and getting outside of your comfort zone and having to integrate into that other new community. That’s a great way to do it, and I think that’s a pretty cool way to travel to and you can meet some really awesome friends and people that you stay in contact with and see what their journey is all about.

Brian: Absolutely. If you have a couple of days on the tail end of your trip, you do the event and then you got to back and you get to see some of the spots that you hit during the event, but you get to see them during the day with actual people around, and it’s always a different view.

Cadre DS: Yeah, for sure. If you could walk, that is. You got to be able to crawl around and —

Brian: Absolutely. Yeah, considering that you haven’t wrecked yourself from the event, you can explore the city and have fun with that.

Cadre DS: Yeah.

Brian: Yeah, there’s just some great crews out there, some awesome communities and there’s almost no better way to get hooked up with them than to do an event with them in their neck of the woods.

Cadre DS: Yeah, absolutely.

Brian: So you’ve probably noticed that a lot traveling for different events. All the different crews come out and if Cadre DS says that they’re good, then there’s ruck clubs allover.

Cadre DS: That is cool interesting dynamic.

Brian: I didn’t realize that you’re out here for the Portland, the zombie events.

Cadre DS: Yup.

Brian: We’ll have to talk about those sometime too, because I’ve always been intrigued by the zombie events and what makes them special. So maybe we can do an episode on GORUCK zombie events.

Cadre DS: Yeah, I would absolutely love to. That would be super cool. I think that’s a part of GORUCK that you can — The zombie apocalypse, right? It could be anything from the walking dead to the walking hungry, or civil outburst of like civil disobedient or riots and how do you get inside of town to the outside. What are you looking at? I’ve done a couple of the zombie events so far, and they’re cool, man. I definitely recommend somebody that is just getting into it to check it out. Cool theme.

Brian: Absolutely. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you want to talk about relating to your event schedule, what you do for fun, hobbies? Any events you’ve got coming up? Is there anything that you’ve got on your mind you want to talk about?

Cadre DS: I’ve got — The 2018 schedule just came out. I’m scheduled out through January, February, March. I know that I’m going to be in Washington, D.C. for Martin Luther King weekend. I got a couple of other really cool — Like I want to keep filling up my schedules as often as I can and hopefully it all packs in there and I can connect with as many folks as I can and just see America. Like I said, I don’t really care where I’m going. It’s going to be badass wherever we go.

Then I’m going to Missouri, going to Florida, Tampa for St. Patty’s day. It’s going to be a hell of a trip, I’m sure. But yeah, through the summer time, and I’m going to put myself out there as much as I can. Just keep posting those like trackers and hopefully we can all link up and have a great time and I will put out — This is the first time I’m making it public, is the Cadre DS patch, and I think some of the other cadre do this. Maybe like a couple of different criteria for it, and I’ve started doing this where basically like I did it for the Seattle event. You get my patch.

I always do this. I played high school sports, and I thought that was a big thing, is you get the game ball, right? If you’re the player of the game, you get my patch that I rucked around. Whether it might mean to some people, it might not to others, but it’s just that little bit extra respect of somebody that really pulled their way, whether it was in a leadership position. Mostly leadership, because I think that’s a great avenue that you can really step up inside of a GORUCK event, whether it’s a light or a tough or whatever it is. But there will be a Cadre DS patch, custom deal. Do you want to hear about the requirements?

Brian: Absolutely.

Cadre DS: I’m going to put it out there. You got to do three events with me, one of which has to be tough that you have to — Three events, one has to be a tough. The other two, I don’t really care. You have to be able to at one time do something, some kind of skillset, like tying, knot tying, come up with something, like problem solving. You have to be a leader. You don’t necessarily have to be the team leader of the event or like any part of the event. But man, like your leadership and followership has to be on point, and then also you have to bring somebody into the fold. Bring a new member into the community, and that’s part of growing this network and continuing the community. You got to bring somebody new.

Brian: That’s awesome. Those are definitely unique criteria, and that’s great.

Cadre DS: Yup. I’ve got a couple of dudes that I’m connected with already that are already on — Actually, females as well. Not just — The ruckers and the ruckets, but man like that’s the criteria and it will be a badass patch.

Brian: Very cool. I’ll post a link of Cadre DS’s upcoming events so you can check them out. One tough, two other events, and bring someone to the fold and some skillset criteria, leadership. It’s going to be awesome. I really like where you’re going with this.

Cadre DS: I think it’s a small enough community. I know the guys and I know who showed up before, and so it’s keep connecting, letting everybody know. Man, I’m all about testing people too. I know who you are. You show up a couple of times: two, three, four. I’m going to put you in those positions and really get after it.

Brian: Awesome. Is there anything else that you want to promote or any other shout outs you want to give?

Cadre DS: Well, I think the community speaks for itself. Keep doing awesome things. Checking out everything — The entire network. I talked about Chris Way a little bit. Just getting out and doing stuff, and I think that one thing that he’s kind of like mentored me on is, man, just getting out and doing stuff. It doesn’t matter what it is, but keeping your life super entertaining and getting outside of your comfort zone. So keep doing that.

If you’re looking for programming or whatever, or ways to get stronger and healthier, we do that at our gym. You could check out evolutionathletics.com, on Instagram, Facebook. If you’re looking for places to get started, shoot us an email and we’ll can do it remote or you could come in if you’re local. But something as simple as like weight loss or strength training of whatever your goals are. We’ve got a coach that can help you out with it. that’s something we do at my gym. Shameless plug, Evolution Athletics.

Then, yeah just staying with it and seeing what else is in the community. There are awesome Americans doing badass stuff and the vehicle right now is GORUCK, and I think that that’s awesome, right. If you see somebody with a bag on, say what’s up. We’re a pretty small community. That’s a good thing.

Brian: Great advice. All around, and I’ll post links to everything. Instagram, Facebook site, website, contact info, hit up Cadre DS.

Cadre DS: Yeah, man. Please do.

Brian: Please do. Like you said, be open to new things this year. One of the things I always try and do is I try and do something new every year so that when I look back at previous years, I can say, “2016 was the year I did this, or 2017 was the year I did something else.” If I look back at years and they all mesh together and there’s nothing special that I did in any of them, then I just feel like that’s kind of time that could have been spent better or could have been continuous improvement, improving skills, improving something. Try and do something new in 2018. If you haven’t signed up for a GORUCK event, make 2018 that year. If you’ve done a number of toughs and lights and you’re on the fence about a heavy, make 2018 the year. There’s no better time than now to set those goals and do that.

Cadre DS: Yeah, and if you don’t know, reach out to somebody and find out, man. Sometimes we like the inspiration of what to do, and so having those conversations of what else is there. There’s plenty of creative ways that you can get with it. So yeah, I’m all about that.

Brian: Absolutely. Dan, thank you so much for taking nearly an hour and a half out of your day. Just so much time to talk with me about everything you got going on, your gym, your events, all the cool stuff that you’re bringing to the community and what’s important to you. This has been an absolute blast. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day for this.

Cadre DS: Yes, thanks for having me and hopefully maybe we can link up again and chat it out.

Brian: That will happen. Absolutely. Thank you.

Cadre DS: Yeah, thank you.

The post ADR 030: Cadre Dan Skidmore Interview (GORUCK Cadre) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 029: Cadre Dennis Interview (MILRUCK Founder)

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 15:00:35 +0000

MILRUCK is best described as the Swedish equivalent to GORUCK. They have been around for a few years and have run some pretty intense events.

In this episode we have the opportunity to interview Cadre Dennis who is both a cadre for MILRUCK as well as the founder. We get into the different types of events MILRUCK runs, how MILRUCK got started, and what’s planned for 2018.

Cadre Dennis took a ton of time out of his evening to chat and if you’re interesting in other companies that put on ruck events then you should surely listen to this episode.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: So, I’m talking with Dennis who is the founder of MILRUCK, which is a company that runs ruck events led by Cadre that have either a ranger or a soft background in Sweden. I’m just really excited that Cadre Dennis has taken time out of his evening to chat with me today. It’s a nine-hour time difference so definitely not the easiest thing for him. But I’m just honored that he is on here, this is very cool.

Dennis how is your evening going so far?

Cadre Dennis: Oh, it’s good. Thanks for having me. Time difference is to my benefit right now because I usually sit up late and work with MILRUCK since I have ordinary or not that ordinary to be honest, day job. You know, I spend evening working on the side job.

Brian: Perfect. Well, I’m glad it’s working out for you then. So, for those who are listening and have never heard of MILRUCK before. How do you describe the company and what you did to someone?

Cadre Dennis: Well, to someone who’s totally new to MILRUCK or even GORUCK. I would say it’s a non-conventional challenge based on assessment and selection on military elite forces. But to someone who’s familiar with GORUCK. Let’s say we are a Swedish equivalent, I guess. To GORUCK we are, I mean I haven’t been inspired by GORUCK and being in contact with Jayson, the CEO of GORUCK, since the beginning.

Brian: That’s very cool and I’ve seen familiar website that you recommend GORUCK gear and your GORUCK affiliated partner as well, so it definitely seems like you guys have some ties right there.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, that’s right I don’t have any gear and we are searching for X factor you know. We are an endurance event company right now and we need something more to broaden our spectra and also financially to be more profitable. So we need something more we’re not looking at gear at all because the best rucking gear is already out there. We are looking at something else, so I guess we are made going to speak about the online boot camp coming out next year and maybe that would be it, the online maybe it will be something else, we don’t know yet we are just an endurance company.

Brian: Awesome. I’m very excited to talk to you about the online boot camp. For those who are listening we will be touching on that and probably half an hour or so but a MILRUCK’s got an online boot camp coming out. The first class starts on the 7th of January 2018, so if you’re listening to this before that you can definitely self-time to check it out. Before we get in to MILRUCK, the events that you’re running and the online boot camping just everything that you’re doing with the company, I’d love to hear just a little bit about yourself and your background.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, sure. I joined military back in 1999 or did selection back in 1999 and joined marine rangers in the year 2000. I have no immediate interest in staying in the military and so I just got my trident and I wanted to get out and around the university and show off my trident like most of us. But the regiment at that time was setting up a deployments to Kosovo because they have conflict there which is pretty fierce and had been going on for just about one year since NATO went in. Sweden is not a NATO country but no with all these different corporations, Sweden tagged along like we done ever since.

And during my time in Kosovo, I was deployed with not, with fellow marine rangers but with rangers and that’s a platoon leader there who convinced me to join the army, join the army ranger reconnaissance with that of Kongsberg as an officer and during that time something very special happened, actually 9-11. And, when 9-11 happened I was in the upside down world of Kosovo, of course upside down because we were getting support from the Muslims ever the Kosovo Albania Muslims and they were putting out candles, painting American flags from the walls and the Christian serbes – they were burning American flags and they were sharing on that Al-Qaeda guys that we had never heard of before.

As a real blessing to me to see the Taliban’s go down, really motivated me to stay start screenshot from the Taliban’s driving their Toyota Land Cruiser’s and I knew that we are going to war and, yeah, that conflict played a really large part in the rest of my military career on the ranger reconnaissance which I’ve stayed for about 10 years and including the military academy. I was six years as a commissioned officer ranked captain. Brian and – I was in Afghanistan at the time and a friend of mine asked me about one come work for a private security company in the same company, a Swedish company.

They were doing embassy protection down in Caldwell and living in a small city like Carlsberg I didn’t like it socially. My career was fine, I love the work, I love the team but socially it didn’t work out. I went back – funny enough I went back to Afghanistan directly off to I came home It’s a work of a private contractor for your that will also open up a new roll to me with civilians getting jobs so.

After that year, I found another security agency in Sweden, a homeland security actually where I started to work for and during that time I was seconded to, I don’t even know if that’s a real word maybe that’s a Swedish word but they sent me to New York to work for the United Nations, the headquarters and that’s where I found God.

Brian: That’s incredible, that’s quite the history then I mean who would have – did you imagine that you would get to where you are now from where you started out? I mean it sounded out like you’re pretty excited to get your trident and then be done but here you are. You spent 10 years in there and ended and then private work afterwards, that’s quite a career.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, I know I didn’t see it coming. My plan was to go to San Diego to study at a small university in there. I think it was a community college even because they had diving classes so I figured that would be great, go there and you know. In America, you can dive. We can do that until then, so I found that sounds is awesome.

San Diego starts hot and that is warm so that makes sense but Kosovo happened, 9-11 happened and so many things I couldn’t foresee and yeah, one job led to another and it didn’t really end there during my time in New York when I got back I got a new job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a security advisor and that’s where I am working in North Africa section and this is purely back from a different protective and I deploy bodyguards who want or personal security operators now. I love deploying myself and on my spare time I run MILRUCK because I guess I miss the fee of time and I miss the stuff we do and I work to the tough mentally exhausting, endurance, the teamwork, the camaraderie; I miss that part from the military now I get it so I know it’s a great time.

Brian: That makes total sense. So, when you were in New York how did you stumble upon GORUCK?

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, I went to New York with a couple of suits, briefcase to work at UMHQ and once I was there and I just looked around I realized all the vulnerabilities of such a metropolitan area with about 10 million people living on basically a couple of islands in a city that had been attacked before in that crazy world. So, I started buying Vortex clothes again. I started to train on land navigation again and I was browsing the web for a rucksack backpack and I found a backpack that looks really sleek. I could tell the quality was great just from the pictures, just from ho it was made and that it was really smart and obviously I’m talking about GORUCK and the GR0 or 1 as it’s now called so I ordered it. I didn’t really reflect on the price because in dollars everything sounds so cheap to me. I can tell now it’s probably not but you know.

So I just bought one it was twice as good as I thought it’s going to be and also found the events. There weren’t that much information back then but I found this really, really good. I think you’ve seen it. I think it’s famous even – I can’t find it anymore and after actual review done by a pretty fit black guy sitting – I think he’s talking about an event in New York even not sure and it was about 15 minutes long. He just talks about the GORUCK challenge and how crushed he was and that really motivated me, so I thought it was a crazy idea, stupid idea even so I signed up and after a couple of them I fell in love with company like many of us, right?

Brian: Absolutely and I know what exactly what video you’re talking about. I ‘ll try to dig it up, I haven’t seen it in ages but it’s a good one.

Cadre Dennis: Oh it’s awesome I hope you find it because I can’t find it anymore and it was great. I hope he puts it back on.

Brian: Absolutely, so you’ve done a couple GORUCK events then.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, I have to fulfill the story of MILRUCK we ran these network of former marine and the parachute rangers and they were all civilians here in Stockholm. Emotion Stockholm and they are very successful in their post military work life: doctors, lawyers, bankers, whatever, traders, police, fireman, they were everywhere. They kind of have this romantic memory of the military and they were talking about it a lot when we met and we went to have cigars at the club and stuff. Typical man stuff. You meet up in clubs and sit and talk and brag about which year was tougher.

And, we figured we would start a company who do all the cool stuff like the rib boats, like in fill, ex fill. Infiltration, exfiltration, insert and extract missions, teambuilding missions for CEOs, bankers, lawyers and we tag this with really, really high price and we call it the Project Lunar, being lunar is the moon and we’re thinking there will be night time events like a 12-hour extract mission or insert mission whatever.

As teambuilding, and you’ve never realized obviously and when I went to New York and from GORUCK I think it was during my first heavy I just drifted off in my mind and as you do journey the night time and I came up with – this is what I was looking for. It’s not the cool expensive exclusive stuff for former rangers it’s the heavy lift and tough stuff or people out there who are not typically rangers or personnel. I kind of pivoted in my mind and just realized this is it. I need to talk to Jason, I didn’t know his name was Jason. I need to call whoever runs this business and learn how he did it.

Brian: That’s wild, so the idea from what we see as MILRUCK today came from your mind during the GORUCK Heavy event.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, in San Diego, yeah.

Brian: So, you made it to San Diego.

Cadre Dennis: I was traveling all over the place. I did events every time I could and it was a great way to see America. I don’t understand GRT’s who just do events on their own city. The best way to do events, I even stop doing events in New York and did New York big events everywhere else because otherwise I wouldn’t have been to places like Buffalo, Baltimore, obviously San Diego and even if you’re in Normandy – I would probably go to anyway. But a few other small places where there are interesting American cities, I wouldn’t have seen. So those actually are my best memories and I jumped on a night bus after work and ended up on a day bus or whatever coach were in a flight –

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, you can really get a good feel for a city at a GORUCK event and I don’t think enough people travel for events. I know I certainly I don’t travel enough for events, there is nothing like getting out to a new city that you’ve never been to before and seeing places and eating at places you never knew existed and experiencing that all through a GORUCK event.

Cadre Dennis: Especially those small cities you wouldn’t go to. People probably go to San Diego anyway but you know maybe you don’t go to Buffalo for instance.

Brian: Absolutely, Cadre Ronnie runs a yearly event called Snow Drop Out in a smaller city in Wisconsin so hoping to make it out there sometime but there’s tons of little spots like that, that you probably never get to otherwise.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, absolutely, I love to see Denver some day and I’ll probably do it if there is a GORUCK event there or Colorado anywhere really. I just have this romantic picture of Denver, might not be true but, yeah.

Brian: Only one way to find out right?

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, exactly.

Brian: So, how did you get in contact with Jason, you’re at the heavy, you’re envisioning MILRUCK in your mind and you still have to talk to that person who started GORUCK. How did that process go?

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, I did look him up at social media, I think. He was pretty quick on coming back to me. We were talking about possibilities on me applying as a Cadre. I didn’t know that time if I was going to stay in America or maybe head back, whereas my contract going to be continued or discontinued, it was off and on. I faired it would take too long to setup a European business, I mean a GORUCK a business if that would have been the alternative. So I wanted to get a running start and I wanted to test the market here because I wasn’t sure it was going to fly. I’m still not – we’re almost three years in and I’m still not sure it will work out because we only have a few clients, that’s the truth.

And, it’s hard to be a small business owner for sure. But I wanted to get a flying start so I didn’t have time to wait and Jason was supportive. He said, “If you want to go, if you want to tag along with us, you probably have to wait and we’ll pick a time to get John if you want to go for MILRUCK, you should go for MILRUCK full steam ahead.” That’s basically what he said and I took his word for it. I’ve checked our standard similar to GORUCK for a reason if the possibility will come in the future to transition MILRUCK to GORUCK Sweden or whatever happens.

I wanted to make a smooth transition, I didn’t want to – you never know.

Brian: Absolutely, you never know and that must have been nice to hear positive words of encouragement from the person who runs GORUCK. He could have just easily said, “No I run rucking events.” GORUCK is the rucking company but instead what he said was, “If you want to do MILRUCK then by all means that sounds great.” So I think that’s pretty cool.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, he’s a humble guy and him being supportive of this enabled it. I probably wouldn’t have done it if he would have just said, “No don’t do that, that’s for us”. Then I would’ve waited, I would’ve waited and I would apply for GORUCK Cadre as soon as they reach Europe but since they didn’t really have a plan for it. I don’t know where their stand is right now. We honestly speaking about six months I think on facetime.

So, if that happens I’m ready to speak, yeah.

Brian: You’re there and you’re ready.

Cadre Dennis: And as I have said before they’re leaving the rucking revolution and we are tagging along with and we discussed me and my Cadre if we should. I’m the only one who has done GORUCK events within my Cadre, out for additional Cadre, and we were discussing if we want to keep a similar standard or do something different in terms of distance and time basically how we setup the events. We came to the conclusion – took us about four or five hour, a 12 hour and a 24 hour, that’s well thought out.

Everything GORUCK does is well thought of. You can be really better, so we couldn’t come up with anything better. This was just the way, this is the standard, it’s great it’s really well thought of. It’s not a coincidence, nothing is. I mean it’s very smart.

Brian: So, when you’re getting MILRUCK off to ground it sounds like you got the support from Jason and the support from GORUCK. Where there are people who said that you shouldn’t try and start MILRUCK or giving you a negative feeling towards it?

Cadre Dennis: Not for that reason but for a million other reasons. Running a company, coming out of the shadows, being public person, taking the financial risk, taking I don’t know other risks there might be, yeah absolutely. I was also being cheered on and encouraged by people close to me and acquaintances, yeah both sides I didn’t listen to none of them. I was totally focused.

Brian: Good.

Cadre Dennis: This is really what I wanted to do and I’m pretty sure it will lift off, actually I’m confident. Even the market here is really small compared, especially. I’m very confident that this is going to work. The events are great, people who do our events just like in America, they’ll love it and they come, they really come back so – for more and for more.

Brian: So when was the first MILRUCK event?

Cadre Dennis: Well, it was summer of 2015, so I get heavy that we’re talking about San Diego – it was in February of 2015 and I launched a company, I came home in April and launched the company in May. I opened the Facebook page in May and did all the paperwork in April, May, June to there and we ran the first event in July. It was a break which is equivalent of light and a month later we did the tough the equivalent of

Brian: That’s wild so you got back from the states, hit the ground running, it sounds like and ran an event nearly as soon as the company was formed. So you have the first brave event, how was the turnout and the response to that?

Cadre Dennis: The turnout was, we had six people who signed up, one was Gabriel, one of my Cadre to be and I was mainly happy about every person signing up but I was a little bit – I expected more, I don’t know why. People haven’t heard of this. People have been doing and they didn’t know what rucking was, right? But even that I expected more people to sign up but I had six people sign up and only five showed which have turned out to maybe pretty normal about 20% don’t show up.

They sign up but they don’t show up, you know, that’s one important rule in life. Always show up and of course it was brave, everybody finished even though I mean the standard there was to turn in to a selection pretty fast. We went wild with my Cadre, me and Chris and it was a tough walk. So, we learned a lot, we learned a lot. It was five tough hours and I’m glad almost all of them have come back but you know.

Brian: So did any of those five individuals come back for the second event a month later?

Cadre Dennis: Yes, three of them I believe, yes, Cadre, Gabriel and two more, yeah, even three more, actually four out of five came back, so that’s pretty good they came back for the tough.

Brian: That’s great, I think that’s where GORUCK season was a lot of success too is the repeat, people are coming back for their second, third, fourth, tenth events.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, the repeat defenders, yeah.

Brian: So, that’s awesome that four out of five came back. So that was 2015 so it’s been a couple of years since then, we’re chatting right now it’s the end of 2017. How many events have you run between those times?

Cadre Dennis: That’s a good question, I think it’s 24 now.

Brian: Somewhere around that, that’s awesome, congratulations.

Cadre Dennis: Thanks, yeah. We have fewer events next year that we didn’t have. We had to cancel some events as well. I don’t count them in that 24ish events but I would probably have around 28 posted, we had to cancel a few because we didn’t have people showing up. I know people don’t know what that is. We do events if it’s five people are coming obviously but –

Brian: It makes total sense. So, from the website it looks that you have a couple of different tiers of events. You’ve got the rucking events which kind of mirror GORUCKS, there is The Brave which is the equivalent of The Light, then there’s The Tough, and there was the Elite which is the heavy equivalent-ish. Have you run any Elite events yet?

Cadre Dennis: Yes, we have done one and it was a 27 hour event, it turned out to be because of land navigation problems in the team which they have to suffer for and take the consequence for it. It was a great event, I mean being a participant is obviously worse than being a Cadre. But when you plan a 01 first event. You tend to over plan, that’s what we did. So, I think we’re up and away for about 55 hours meaning Cadre Chris who was running a big event and it was a good night sleep after that, that’s for sure.

Brian: Oh, I bet.

Cadre Dennis: We had I think we had twelve or thirteen signed up which was actually our biggest event which shocked me a little bit. Yeah, you have some few people showing up who haven’t done an event before. That’s pretty impressive. I’ve seen that in GORUCK as well. People showing up to Heavy as their first event.

Brian: Yeah, some people are just crazy like that. One of my good friends his first event was the first HTL and he did all three of them.

Cadre Dennis: Impressive, well done. Because he didn’t know what to expect so –

Brian: That’s the thing right, if you don’t know what to expect you keep on pushing on because you don’t know what’s coming, yeah, shout out to Harvey Doti for that, that was pretty crazy. So you’ve had one Elite event so far and it sounds like it was quite the time. Are there any components of the events that separate them from each other besides difficulty and time?

Cadre Dennis: Yes, the standards of course. We have our selection part of the elite and that’s why it’s called the elite and it’s the first four hours where you can actually be performance dropped if you don’t meet the standard. The standard are derived from the ranger standard in Sweden which is very similar to the American soft standard. Obviously it’s the same, yeah, a 12 miler and we have a 20k and that’s about the same.

And, we also have a callisthenics test, essentially previously similar to the patient that had to go to GORUCK Heavy, you had to do pushups and situps. The numbers are a little different but basically I’d say the Swedish one is a little bit easier I think you had to do 40 pushups, 40 situps, 8 pullups, we just took a range expander.

Brian: That’s awesome. So you can be performance dropped on your lead events which are the equivalent of the GORUCK Heavy, good to know for those signing up.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, as for now, that’s where we keep it right now because I wanted people.

Brian: I like it.

Cadre Dennis: Well, I’m not going to say too much about our next one but our first one we did that because we went into a pretty rural area. There was no way you could drop out of the event once you got in to the woods to be honest and we also we have a very maritime theme to it being marine rangers who lead the event. We did a lot of thin work, swim, surface swimming and zodiac carries, zodiac paddles a combination of both swim, paddle, and boats. We wanted to make sure that they reach a certain standard to maintain short distance security during the whole event. So, we would pick with the selection part.

Brian: That makes total sense if you’re going to be going out in to a location where people can’t physically quit because there is no next to no way to get home or back to the start point. You want to make sure that we are taking people who are capable of completing it.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, and even though we had our drop out in the 25th hour obviously the person didn’t know it’s the 25th hour and I had to carry the person’s ruck blades because the person just dumped them in the woods. I took them off. I had to carry six kilometers back to a bus stop where I gave the person the ruck blades back, because they’re pretty costly.

Brian: Wow.

Cadre Dennis: So two hours later it was over. That is horrible decision. We couldn’t convince the person to stay, me and Cadre both tried, there was no way.

Brian: That is rough to watch to see someone quit when they’re that close to the end and you know that, that close to the end and they’re just, their minds are not in it and they’ve checked out.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, I was still going back in to the water and it was a pretty cold summer. Summers here are usually pretty cold. I think just like in Washington State maybe and so the last time that we’re going in to the water for a swim was a pretty long swim with Vince and also with vests, you know what I mean, safety vests. It was a cold, I didn’t go in, refused to go in to the water no way.

Brian: That’s if for some people sometimes, that wild. So, when you complete one of your events the brave, the tough, or the elite you get a patch similar to the GORUCK events that you get a patch at the end. I saw in your website in addition to those patches you have a MILRUCK silver standard patch and a MILRUCK gold standard patch. Can you go in to details about how you get those or earn those, I guess you would say.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, absolutely. The silver standard is when you have completed all three events and you don’t have to complete within timeframe, not a year or so you just to have done all three events, that’s a silver standard. You’ll be handed out this year as well I think we will discontinue it from them. Next we now have the gold standard. Once you have a gold standard you don’t need a silver standard. A gold standard is the HTL, it’s that you start with elite event back to back in to the tough event finally in to the brave event and we are doing that in August next year.

So, if a gold standard and you also have to meet certain standards, which is there are 20k ruck run and in under three hours. You have to complete the ranger PFT test to its standard. Well, there is some more informal things about being living up to our three rules. Our three rules are essentially do your best in all situations, be a good teammate, never give up so if you are sort of gray man, that’s a phrase that you probably come ever with and the GR community or the gray man or you being a dick. That’s not gold standard.

Brian: That’s awesome, so I think most people here listing notes what being gray man means but for those who don’t it’s trying not to blend in to the group and not put forth your best effort. So, if there is eight people on the log and then, eight people who are rotating in and out, it’s just hiding within that eight and trying to hide in with the eight who rotate off the logs, so that you can avoid it at all costs.

Cadre Dennis: Exactly, actually in the reconnaissance regiment when we are referring to gray men it was positive. It was blending in it was, we always refer to it said, “Be the gray man” but that was in our reconnaissance mission where you are operating in a civilian clothes. Don’t walk around looking like a hockey player or a ranger, look like a normal person, don’t show your abs or your biceps, or dress down, dress casually, act normal, don’t sit around in a bar like James Bond with your back facing the walls staring at the exit. Sit with your back towards the exit and look like a drunk in a bar, be a gray man.

Brian: That’s funny how that words kind of changed for the GORUCK community because it’s up until this point when I heard it involved with rucking and GORUCK events. I’ve always heard of it as well as other positive thing. You don’t want to stick out, you don’t want to be the one who has noticed and those types of situations where you’re the person everyone is looking at but at a GORUCK event or your job is to complete the mission with the team and help the team. I guess it kind of it makes sense that in those cases you do want to be the one who’s stepping up and doing as much as you can.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, it definitely ask different meaning to if you are being a gray man in your own team or you’re being off, being out gray man in a third party environment, that’s way different.

Brian: That’s a great way to describe it, your own team versus a third party environment. So far how many people have earned or has anyone earned their MILRUCK silver standard or the MILRUCK gold standard patch yet.

Cadre Dennis: The silver standard we handed out I think around five patches after last elite’s class and we are on a so far not, gave anybody to opportunity to earn that gold standard but it’s the first elite, tough, brave will be held in August next year.

Brian: So for those who are listening and might be looking to take a trip in August from the United States to Sweden or just anywhere around Sweden, that might want to take part in these events. When they are doing the event is it mostly spoken in English or is it in Swedish. I mean all my Cadre can speak English, they are at least bilingual some speaks up to six languages, so they will adjust and adopt the situation for sure.

I’ve had foreigners from Finland and Denmark, they are urban survivor events for instance and also rucking events and haven’t been a problem. If we speak Swedish at some point the team will forward to mouth and translate.

Brian: But it’s not a limiting factor?

Cadre Dennis: If there is foreigners and their Cadre should be able to speak in English, absolutely yeah.

Brian: So, if you are speaking to this and you speak English, it’s okay to sign up for events, you’re not going to get turned away at the door.

Cadre Dennis: No we won’t turn anybody anyway not even if you can’t if there’s somebody who shows up and we speak French, it will be very interesting especially Cadre Gabriel is not there because that would be just very interesting. But the Green Berets they are very similar to that. They are very familiar with that so they would vote the Americans from the Green Beret Community they know all about that so – you have to be working with those, dance off.

Brian: So you briefly mentioned the urban survival MILRUCK event. I definitely want to talk about that. Is there anything else you want to talk about within the rucking events before we move on to those urban survivor events.

Cadre Dennis: We also have an event called the Evolution or Evolution Event, which is we had so far have done it for corporate events, custom events and it’s not a rucking event it’s more like a long, long welcome party. The name Evolution comes from to evolve as an athlete, to evolve as a man, as a woman, to push your limits, to push your boundaries toward beyond your comfort zone and really know what you’re really about. It’s a really tough event and we custom and incorporate events. They don’t have to gear up for rucking. They haven’t had time or the possibility to do a build up training for rucking event. We don’t want to unfold on the heavy ruck sack and throw them out there.

So, this is an event where you start basically in your plain clothes.

Brian: So, you’ve run a couple of these so far?

Cadre Dennis: Yes, there is on the Swedish page you can actually find some movie clips or on YouTube channel from those who dance. We don’t call them Evolution there, they have different names but they are essentially evolution and balance. We had ruck sacks at some part of the event just for shorter time just to try out a test rucking for the first time. Maybe for one or two hours instead of the full event and then we just, we do PT, we do physical, emotional and mental stuff.

Another thing that I didn’t mention earlier about separates especially elites from the other two events that we use to something that we call Special Skills. We always seem to review some rappelling or we use both for things or something that is derived on our background that is a little bit more unusual for a civilian to try. Or has a special skill case in the elite event and a lot of the Toughs as well because we have to time there and Brave we don’t have time to do that.

Brian: Very cool.

Cadre Dennis: And it’s usually something on water, if it’s somewhere at marine ranger or if it’s army ranger especially we have two arctic rangers in our Cadre that usually do some kind of mountaineering rope, special rope skills stuff.

Brian: So the special skill you learned and work with is mostly dependent on the skill set of the Cadre.

Cadre Dennis: That’s right.

Brian: That’s really cool. Awesome. How long do the corporate run in The Evolution?

Cadre Dennis: It’s a 12 hour event but you also have a shorter, it depends on the customer but we – there are meant to be 12 hours because you really need some time, you’re going to push people above and beyond their limits, you need time. I mean you could do it and you can put so many in plank position for an hour and they will push their limits and you really want to push them worth beyond that so we need time, so it’s a long event like in Tough.

Brian: Very cool, that’s awesome. So, the survivor events, when did those come on to the scene for MILRUCK?

Cadre Dennis: They came on exactly a year ago and we launched them on the web page about same time as constellation came out. I have of course I don’t have any insights in the GORUCK HQ. So I had no idea that they were working on similar to them and for me survivor came from that. I’m an officer in the reserves so in order to remain in the reserve and to upheld my status as a ranger officer I have to do this kind of repetition training in SERES survive, evade, resist, escape, every five years.

So they pulled me in one and a half years ago for a shorter SERE training and it will also take seven days long and they tweaked it a little bit.

And, as I did it I was just like wow, this is an event. This is so great so I have been doing it in the woods, and people see it’s really hard from a safety perspective. How are you going to get in control with people being under well in the middle of nowhere that’s really a complex event and you want to avoid complex for simplicity to speak.

So, when we did this urban and I have a lot of training from urban warfare, especially urban reconnaissance working the same post operations on my military background, so I felt that was on tandem and fit like a glove and took it home and started working on it ASAP and launched it. I saw a constellation came out. What I think is great minds think a like and of course I understood that at some point they would do this as well because it’s a great idea.

Brian: It is and it definitely looks different. The MILRUCK Urban Survivor looks slightly similar to Consolation but they’re definitely some differences there. First off your event is it 15 to 20 hours, is that correct?

Cadre Dennis: Yes. It’s 15 to 20 hours.

Brian: And I’m just going through the map on your site and there’s some pretty cool stuff there it provides weapons in traps, use a live and dead butter boxes or water crossing, there’s some really interesting skills that you’re going to learn at that, it sounds like.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, we have a pretty big grip on for this one and we don’t have the time to do everything at all events and we’re also keep a lot hidden from this event. So, some things essentially are not on this theme that you’re looking at but it’s essentially a SERES of events and I think you’ve heard of this acronym before so initially we have a training phase where we focus on how to survive and if you’re isolated in an urban hostile area and in order to survive you need to need to be able to keep warm or to remain warm in an isolate from the cold and to isolate from the rain or from being wet.

We focus on those things in training. We also focus on how to hide things in plain site. How to move undercover essentially in an urban setting. How you move technically and without being compromised by legal armed groups or anybody that could be looking for you. We have to hunter boars, we had hunter boars from our crowd model and that’s an Israeli. I think you know about it.

Brian: Absolutely.

Cadre Dennis: Hand to hand combat club or training box. We haven’t hunter boars from them seeking out the teams that were evading him in central Stockholm during the nights. I know at some point they got caught and the set up is you will get caught and you will end up in a basement and you get beat up and in order to do this in a safe manner, we really need professionals, that’s why we do this in cooperation with a krav maga team, as they are expert in beating people up in a safe manner and also get beat up in a safe manner.

They have all the equipment, all the training and right mindset to do this, even though as an elite Cadre of this event, I was nervous about interference from court, being sued at whatever and it’s internal to us. Absolutely great and this was probably our biggest success and we need to do it again. I wasn’t sure when we did over the phone that I was going to do redo it but this will come back, we already have it on the page with that as a success.

And the last, was the resistance part of it. That’s resistance of being able to withstand the psychological and physical adversity that happens during capture and Cadre Gabriel was also a khaki, which is a conduct after capture instructor. So he’s a SERE officer, he’s our man in this area he totally goes in to this role character and it will be great after the most are caught. They are all former elite unit police or elite military personal. Absolutely crucial to have such professionals to conduct such a complex event. There are some risks to it you know and plan for everything, mitigate all risk, that is the motto we build on when we are doing this urban survivor. Finally it ends with basically a Lighter Brave or a Light Light escape phase.

We finally escaped the urban area which is a place that you don’t want to be in if you’re are isolated.

Brian: That’s incredible, that sounds like just some amazing event, it sounds like you’ve got, I mean just a ton of true professionals that are supporting you and supporting MILRUCK survivor. So what was the response like from the participants.

Cadre Dennis: That’s what I said it was probably our biggest success. People were absolutely, I think it’s the same with – I haven’t done a constellation or I haven’t read any AAR surrendering but I’ve seen people go crazy about them and a lot of them are not even GRT threats. We have the same that a lot of people will show up or a urban survivor hadn’t done a rucking event and I was especially worried about them because we didn’t know what’s personal. We didn’t know about what kind of persons we were and they might just be absolutely crazy. But, after this resistance phase, which is the toughest part essentially.

There will be a lockdown in the basement and you’re actually getting beat up and I had a short debrief with every single person participating. Ask meet Cadre my other Cadre Gabriel the khaki instructor, we had the same just you know, “Can we find anything here that is being misunderstood or being wrongly interpreted or a little bit too harsh?” But they actually asked for even more. They were like, “I think it’s really great but it should have been harder.”

“You should’ve gone harder.” which well I understand that you get a feel for it, you might want to go the whole way but this is not a SERE course, this is not the necessary training. We want to keep feet on or the overview not in depths level and we also did theoretical training for the resistance phase in an abandoned apartment. Where we had a typical Powerpoint presentation about how you should mentally prepare and also how you should work as a team if you’re being captured and how you should cooperate. How you should report the capturers. How you should find ways to escape and to daydream and to keep physically motor active and to ask for water and to ask for food.

Brian: Makes sense.

Cadre Dennis: Repetitions, yeah.

Brian: So you’ve taught them the skills, you didn’t just round up the sucky boost sign up in Muslim city, capture them and beat them up. You gave them the skills that they would need the encounter and escape it, so that’s awesome.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, I think almost 50% of this 15 to 18 hours will be theoretical, not maybe 40% we spent a lot of time on training just on training to prepare them for events. That’s absolutely crucial, somethings are really good learned the hard way but if you don’t have any theoretical tools or any tools to deal with it and cope with it. It wouldn’t give you as much.

Brian: Right.

Cadre Dennis: It won’t make any sense.

Brian: Especially the people who signed up who had never done another MILRUCK event. This could’ve been the hardest thing, the most difficult thing that they’ve ever signed up for, so they would have nothing to fall back on and they would just be a chicken with its head cut off the entire time.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah exactly.

Brian: Man.

Cadre Dennis: I was especially worried about them but no we dealt with it.

Brian: That’s incredible. So clearly you guys haven’t done as many events as GORUCK. You’ve done roughly 24 to date but just the gamut from The Brave events to the corporate events, the Elite event, to the Survivor event – I mean you guys have been all over the map of this, that’s amazing.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, were moving pretty fast and, yeah, but we have so many ideas and we’re actually trying to face down where 2018 will be a little bit to regain control and we’re not bringing as much new out to the curriculum but we are improving what we have done so far. The other thing that we’re actually introducing is the x-factor or the online boot camp because we need more people to our offline events. We need people to go offline but in order to get them off line, to turn off their cellphones and show up to our events and for the training, they need discipline and we need to mentally prepare toward events.

We need to do something and it’s an online world whether you like it or not and so we need to get people to start rucking remotely. Even if you don’t live in Stockholm where we upgrade from you need to get some rucking all over Sweden. So, we’ll bring you this, an access all over the world online event to get people out there.

Brian: That’s awesome. So, the online boot camp the first one starts on January 7th, 2018. What languages is it going to be provided in?

Cadre Dennis: It will be provided in English because the Swedes are bilingual, so the curriculum is essentially crossfit and functional movements derived from crossfit and rucking. So, most workouts already have English, everybody knows what a squat is even if you don’t say the Swedish words very often even here. So, push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges these will be in English and also the video materials that we have prepared have been in English. As well we will probably provide a Swedish version in time when we have on board. But the one we made so far is in English.

Brian: Very cool what kind of equipment do you need to take part on this online boot camp.

Cadre Dennis: The equipment you need is essentially a ruck sack, you needed weights, you need boots or shoes that is as usual, you need GPS watch or a smarphone with an application. I don’t know if I can do mention any specific apps but Runkeeper or something equivalent that can measure distance and time, if you don’t have a GPS watch that is. You need your water bladder or something to carry water and you need an additional coupon – different if you are a man or a woman.

Brian: So when you say weight at the beginning, you say there is ruck sack and there is a weight, is that the weight for the ruck sack or is that a weight like a bench press or a squat bar?

Cadre Dennis: Oh, you need – the weight is for the ruck sack.

Brian: Perfect.

Cadre Dennis: And you also need an additional weight, it could be anything it can be a bag of sand, it can be a bag of flour or whatever and we recommend our standard weights which are pretty equivalent with GORUCK but this is one thing about the online we can’t control. We can buy pictures and films and online coaching we actually have control that they’re doing and at least part of the workouts but it’s hard to really see how much your rucks are being weighted. How much they weigh but accountability and ownership that’s on a personal level.

Brian: Right and if they’re going to be cheating themselves on the training then there’s a good chance that they probably never would have survive one of the events to begin with. So, what prompted you to start this online training program. Well as I said early it was two things, one was we need more people to show up to our events and we were thinking about training all the time but it’s very limited it’s the Stockholm is our biggest city even if we open up a crossfit box or anything here locally we won’t get people from the other side of the city to travel to go to our location.

So, we were actually looking for this. We were searching for HQ with a training facility but also very inspired by SEALFIT which I haven’t mentioned yet but I’ve been there as well. I’ve been training with Mark Divine and doing some of his events Seal-X and academies and that’s also an amazing company which on there the inside film but the online part here is give people training and give them to prepare for our events. Introduce rucking to everybody no matter where they live with our way and get people to train with a ruck sack and get people who hate running to start doing endurance by rucking. That’s a lot of people.

And also to introduce, roughly people who haven’t been in the military because military everybody knows rucking and maybe you are in the inventory unit, or maybe you haven’t rucked that much or you know about the basics. But this will give you a little bit more of a deeper comprehension or understanding about the rucking as a way of training, endurance and mental toughness.

Brian: That’s awesome, I mean you can’t knock that trying to spread rucking to more people and around the world. So, I’m excited, I’m excited to see what this brings.

Cadre Dennis: Yes, and also we are looking for an x-factor. What Jason said was the event when he was trying to push his gear who started the events right and to promote gear, take pictures, and slight of word. Events uses x-factors. We are searching for that as we already have the advantage, we don’t have the gear and we’re not interested in what the latest gear provides and also we don’t want to compete with GORUCK brothers.

So we are looking for our x-factor this might not be it, we don’t know. We might be in security consulting, some kind of security consult work and who knows right now I’m limited to doing that it’s the work in the government. As we stir it up as soon as we can do that and no work I need my job refund to start to do that. I don’t what our x-factor is, this might be it, I hope so.

Brian: I hope the best for you too. I mean it sounds like just everything you’re doing, you’re incredibly dedicated and involved with, so I truly you guys find the x-factor. I’m just so excited to see what 2018 brings for you guys. It sounds like there will be some great events, the start of the online boot camp and who knows what else.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, absolutely. We also have – we’re using a software as a service to do online boot camp. It’s essentially an application on your phone or on your computer where we can learn to do training from and also to deliver the program. It was made for online coaches and suits us very well. It suits this idea very well. I think it’s an American company I’m not even sure maybe Canadian and so the only limitation it has, it’s limited spots so for every class there’s only 20 aka two zero so and it’s filling up fast.

Brian: So if you’re listening before the 7th of January and this is something that you’re interested in. There were only 20 spots to start so check it out. Where should people go to learn more about MILRUCK and to find this online training program?

Cadre Dennis: It’s MILRUCK.com or MILRUCK.se whatever you prefer and you just hit boot camp and interesting word boot camp, right? My Cadre absolutely hates it and but in the end Chris made a logo for it with the boots and I think it’s starting to change minds a little bit. But the idea of boot camp is not really our base of values but, everyone knows what it is and there’s a lot of boot camp companies out there already.

So, if we want to event or invent another word like ruck camp or whatever people wouldn’t understand – we are already fed up with people not understanding our ideas and it took something that people know about. So this is online.

Brian: Absolutely.

Cadre Dennis: We’re not going to stand there as drill sergeants screaming people on the face and that is what my Cadre don’t want to do, they want to lead and push people. They don’t want to drill sergeant or drilling instructors. The online gave us the remote part of coaching. I think that they’re now happy with the word boot camp, I’m not sure, they might hate me for it but yeah, it’s MILRUCK ONLINE BOOTCAMP, that’s the name and the practice and it’s already here. So, if you’d like to try it.

Brian: Very cool and so in addition to MILRUCK.com and MILRUCK.se if you’re listening you should check out MILRUCK on Instagram because there are a ton of pictures there and you can definitely see the feeling behind MILRUCK on that account.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, that’s right and Facebook as well that’s where we are.

Brian: Perfect, so before we get going are there any other shout outs that you want to give.

Cadre Dennis: Shout outs, to all my Cadre, all my participants, all the GRTs that I’ve been in doing events with. Jason McCarthy and Mark Divine from SEALFIT both as entrepreneurs and as Cadres or instructors, they are role models. Those are my shoutouts and to you Brian for bringing me around the show.

Brian: I’m so glad to have you on Cadre Dennis, I mean it has been just awesome talking to you for – it’s already been 80 minutes which has been so time flies it must be pretty late over there now. But like I’ve said at the beginning I’ve been following you guys since roughly around the time you started and it has been so cool to see all the pictures come in and it has been so much fun to hear the story of MILRUCK and your history and the history of the events and just the wide range of events that you guys are running over there, it’s truly incredible.

I’m beyond thankful, men that you took the time out of your evening to chat with me about this. This has been really fun for me. Thank you.

Cadre Dennis: Sorry Brian and if I don’t see you at the MILRUCK event maybe I’ll see you at the GORUCK event, maybe even in Washington State to set on every Tuesdays I haven’t been to yet. I’d love to go.

Brian: Well, I love my email address if you are coming in to United States for an event send your schedule over. I can’t guarantee I’ll be there but I would at least would love to have the opportunity to meet you in person.

Cadre Dennis: Yeah, absolutely. Great.

Brian: Alright, take care Dennis thank you so much again.

Cadre Dennis: Thank you Brian.

The post ADR 029: Cadre Dennis Interview (MILRUCK Founder) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 028: All Day Ruckoff 2017 Year in Review & Looking Forward

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 15:00:59 +0000

This year in review episode wraps up what happened at All Day Ruckoff and GORUCK throughout 2017 then gets into what’s to come for All Day Ruckoff in 2018. We hope you had a great Christmas and have an amazing New Year! Thank you so much for all of the support over the year and we can’t wait to show you what’s in store for 2018!

Don’t worry, these solo episodes will not become routine. We’ve got some AMAZING guests coming up and are very excited about the new year!

Some quick 2017 stats from the podcast:

Posts in 2017: 80+
Website Users: 100,000+
Podcast Episodes in 2017: 28
Podcast Downloads: 30,000+

Thank you to absolutely everyone for the amazing support over the year. We truly appreciate you and are excited to keep pushing forward into 2018!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Coming soon.

The post ADR 028: All Day Ruckoff 2017 Year in Review & Looking Forward appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 027: Mark Guenther Interview (F3 Nation Rucking)

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 15:00:18 +0000

Mark Guenther joins us in our second to last episode of the year! Not only has Mark has dome some incredible rucking events, including a double heavy, but he has a great story. If you’re looking for motivation to push you into the New Year then give this a listen because Mark went from Couch to GORUCK Tough in 30 days.

In addition to doing amazing events Mark is also the rucking coordinator for F3 Nation. He’s the guy who runs the F3NationRuck Twitter account as well as their F3 Nation Rucking Facebook Group.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Mark Guenther, who has been a member of F3 Nation since 2013. He is currently the rucking coordinator for all of F3 Nation, and they just keep putting on incredible GORUCK custom events. I’m very excited to have him on the show to learn about how he got involved with GORUCK, and to talk about some of the upcoming customs they’ve got, as well as just some other awesome aspects of rucking and F3.

Mark, how are you doing today?

Mark: Doing great, Brian. Happy to be here.

Brian: Awesome. Glad to hear it. Just to start off, how did you first hear about GORUCK?

Mark: I first heard about GORUCK, or found it online I was actually – I got married, had kids, got fat and was looking for something that lit the fire for me to have a reason to get back into fitness. Was looking at OCR events and I think I saw the banner, the old Tough Mudder banner for the early days GORUCK events.

I looked into it and in those days there were a few events, and maybe one per state and there just wasn’t a lot going on. I couldn’t sign up for any of them without traveling a long distance, so I forgot about it. Then when I got involved with F3, shortly after I started we had the second F3 custom event with GORUCK and I went and watched the welcome party which was a North Carolina standards, a snow storm we probably got four inches, but it just happened to be on the day off and I went out and watched it.

It sparked that fire. I felt that thrill of competition and pushing yourself. I knew that I had to get onboard for the next one. That’s how I heard about GORUCK and got involved in doing events, the short story there.

Brian: That’s awesome. It’s not every day you talk to someone who found GORUCK back when the only real mention of them was off that Tough Mudder website. If you joined up F3 in 2013, that means you’re looking at GORUCK probably 2011, 2012. Like you said, back when there is only one event, they have the challenge and they would make one stop per year in each city. You definitely didn’t have opportunity that you have now where they come to cities a dozen times a year. It was one and done back then.

Mark: Yeah. It was limited availability. “I wish I could say that I was one of those people who did it back when the events were hard.” We get involved when we get involved.

Brian: Absolutely. The events were so hard. It’s via pill both ways in the snow scenario.

Mark: Yeah. I think that you have to be 70 now to say that you did a GORUCK when it was hard. It’s just like the grumpy old man saying that.

Brian: Yup. Too true. You watched that second F3 custom GORUCK event’s welcome party. That lit the fire. What was your first GORUCK event?

Mark: The first event was 707. I imagine not typical, so I actually right after watching that welcome party, my wife was very pregnant and I stopped going to F3. I told myself that I stop going because she got tired of me getting up early, but the reality was I just was not happy with my fitness and just fell out, because I get tired of feeling disappointed with how not fit I was.

I played division one college soccer, so I had at one point in my life a really good fitness base. To get back out and thinking I could do it like I did when I was 19, 20, 21, I was just so below the standard that I had. I’d quit F3, actually started going back out because my wife basically told me I was getting too fat. Like there is an acceptable fat and I had gone past that.

I was too fat, so I went back out. Then from there, we had the third F3 custom which ended up being class 707. I heard about it, all the thoughts of wanting to do an event came back. I signed up right away, and only had about 30 days from being too fat to event day.

I added a crash course on getting ready for my first GORUCK event, which is not recommended. It can be done. I always tell people it could be done, but you have to have a very serious plan for getting yourself fit in that amount of time.

Brian: Yeah, that’s not much time at all to train, especially going from what your wife would call an unacceptable level of fat. You’ve passed da bod into the next space. A lot of people try Couch to 5K in 30 days, but couch to GORUCK Tough, that’s a bit more of a commitment.

Mark: Yeah. I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, it was still in the days where there was not a lot of info. I mean, there were some AARs, but it was somewhat limited. There was the GORUCK training website that used to exist and I did some of that, but the rest of it was just me doing dumb stuff with a ruck on. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t, or should not be repeated, I should say.

Brian: Yeah, I remember training up for my first GORUCK event, I did a lot of running with weight. I know OBT and Dredd did that too, running with weight. There just wasn’t that much information out there. Kudos to you for finding out a decent training plan and making that work.

Let’s get into your event first. I want to come back to this couch to GORUCK Touch in 30-days thing. When you were at the event, how did you feel lining up at the very beginning? Were you questioning anything with your strength, or were you doing pretty good?

Mark: I questioned everything. I felt like I was the outsider already, because I didn’t know a lot of people in the event, because I was again relatively new to F3. I was the only person who didn’t have an F3 shirt, because I hadn’t bought one yet. I had this black, like running top that I wore. I had no idea if I would make it – actually off the whole thing.

I went through it. I always say that GORUCK events are like jeopardy. Sometimes, you can get a category that’s just easy and sometimes you get a category and you got no answer for. Luckily, we did a lot of things that were on my strings list. I got through the welcome party. Once I got through that it was just – my confidence was there and I knew I would be okay.

We went through it. We spent forever in just this disgusting creek that runs through Charlotte, where there is baby diapers and syringes and the bottom is rocks, because it’s man-made and it’s slippery. We spent three hours wading through this creek.

Then we humped it to a park. We did some PT. Then they asked for – the big guys to come with – there was Cadre Nikki who let us. We went running off down this trail and then we stopped. He shined his light into the woods and says, “I need eight big guys to get this log.” I just remembered thinking to myself, “How the hell did he find a log in these woods?”

It’s just off a beaten path. It’s just, “Where’d they come from?” We pull it out and the eight big guys and I was one of those guys, we’re moving it and going five steps and drop; you know the drill of you get it up. “This sucks. We can’t do this.” Maybe if we looked like a bunch of dummies, then they’ll just stop, which of course, they didn’t.

We bring it back to the parking lot where the rest of the people were and then they put us on a volleyball, beach volleyball court and had us throw sand all over each other. Then we had to move this log out. What had been the eight big guys then became like 16 to 20 people. We’d thought, “Let’s strap it and carry it,” farmer carry style and did that for a few miles. Then the straps ended up starting to break, so that I did carry it the rest of the way home.

I thought I was doing well, and then like towards the end – I’ve been kicked off the log, because I was taller than everyone who was there. I was just pushing the log to the side because I was trying to get under it and my butt is sticking out and it’s just awkward. The cadre actually kicked me off the log, which at that point in time I was more than happy to accept.

I’m carrying some coupons and then ended up talking to Nikki. Finally he says, “You know, your team is up there working and you’re talking to me. Do you think that’s the right thing to do?” Then there was like the lightbulb of like, “I suck. I’m just terrible.” I got no idea what the hell I’m doing. I think I’m doing good, because I haven’t quit. When in reality, I’m not doing anything of any real use.

That moment was actually the catalyst to me getting in and doing more events. Rather than just doing one and feeling like I was a Green Beret, because I spent 14 hours doing this. It pushed me to do more. That feeling of even though I had some success, I really had a level of failure in that.

Brian: That’s wild. That’s a really interesting way to look at it too, because you completed the GORUCK event, but it’s almost like completing it is what drove you to do more. When you finish that event did you know right away that you’re going to sign up for another one?

Mark: Yeah. I had an idea. I mean, you get that high and you think that you’re great. You wear your patch everywhere, you tell everybody and it was the toughest event ever and the log was so huge. I’m a badass for doing this. Then you go home and you’re like, “I’m really not.” I wasn’t. I was a weak link.

Then I was like, “Okay, I didn’t do well by my own standards. How can I improve that?” Then I was like, “Okay, brag heavy is out there. It’s two hours away.” Brag heavy one was just a total disaster, where everybody is quitting left and right. I’ll do that. That will force me to get better, because I know the standard is high.

From there, ended up getting up hurt; about a month out, my ankle just started blowing up. I couldn’t really walk right, much less do an event. I pulled the plug on that. Then took a little bit of break from pondering events to get healthy again. Then the itch was still there to keep on doing them. I signed up for another F3 custom in Raleigh, and then we had the first F3 heavy the following year. That’s when it really became an obsession for me in doing events.

Brian: That’s awesome. Just to take it back quickly a little bit, this episode will be released in December, which means a lot of people are planning their New Year’s resolution. This will be the year I do something big, or get in shape, or finally sign up for whatever event I’ve been putting off.

You went from couch to GORUCK Tough in 30 days. What advice do you have for people who are listening and might be in a similar situation? I know a lot of people has seen this podcast when they’re out rucking, but they might be sitting on the couch and listening to it thinking, “I would love to do an event in February or March, but I’m just not in shape right now.”

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. There are people who’ve done light and don’t know if they’re going to do it tough. They want to, or take the next step. For me, I’m part of F3 Nation. If you’re within an area where there is F3 – F3 is men only. We also have a women-only group called Females in Action. That’s a perfect place to start. It’s no cost, it’s early in the morning, most places are Monday through Saturday.
You get out there early in the morning, you get your workout done for the day. It’s a great way to start changing your lifestyle into that mindset of fitness and GORUCK likes to talk about social fitness. F3 and FiA are huge founding ideas is just getting together and working out. The rest just falls into place. F3 and FiA if you can do that.

There is the Pathfinder Program. I know that you had Lionel on here. Lionel is a great dude. They have down to a science with the different levels. A lot of the pathfinder is actually geared towards people who are in F3, because the roots of teen spearhead are in F3, but they broke off, just have a little bit more freedom with what they do, but they’re very intertwined with how they go about things.

Those would be the best ways if they’re available. If you don’t have access to those, just walk out your door with a ruck on. I mean, you have the greatest gym outside your door. F3 is huge on always being outdoors, because there’s something that happens when you’re working out outdoors. It gets into your inner caveman.

Embrace that caveman, get out, do that, get some sandbags, put a weight on your back and just start doing exercises. I mean, for most events doing something is probably the best that you can do. The resources out there are pretty much unlimited for how to properly train. For F3 Nation Rucking, we have a Facebook page, we have a Twitter account, we have lively discussions mostly about rucking, but we get into some goofy stuff. Reach out to us. You don’t have to be an F3 to be a part of our group, and hopefully we can bring F3 to you sometime in the future.

Brian: Sounds great. I’ll post links to all of these resources in the show notes. If you’re listening, you can check those out. Check out F3 in your area. If you’re a female, check out FiA, F-I-A. If F3 is not in area, just grab a pack and go outside and start rucking. It sounds like you know what you’re saying Mark is the biggest thing you can do is just start – just start.

Mark: Yeah. I mean, your plan for parenting can’t be that – don’t just do something, sit there, plan. It won’t work. I mean, there are some people who can just show off and never done anything and finish the event, but that’s a loser strategy for most people. Getting out there doing something, preferably with other people and just knowing that it can be done. Doing the work and then visualizing yourself completing the event is a great foundation for doing your event.
Brian: I think I know the answer to this question, but again for those who are listening and are into couch shape right now and are envisioning themselves in GORUCK, lighter GORUCK tough shape, do you personally have any regrets spending those 30 days getting in shape?

Mark: Hell, no. F3 and GORUCK have other than my family been some of the biggest life-changing things in my adult life. I mean, GORUCK is about building better Americans, F3 is about building male leadership in their community. Between those two things, I have had a radically different mindset day-to-day and have really removed a lot of limitations as to what I think I can do in my life.

There are some things that I wouldn’t have done, like the ruck running. I did a ton of ruck running. Just I’m going to go out, I’m going to run 5 miles with a ruck on. That’s just dumb, unless you’ve done it before. Sometimes even if you’ve done it before, it’s still dumb. Ruck running, would not recommend, unless you’re already a really good runner and have good form.

The couch to event training plan, I would take ruck running and throw it in the dumpster. But ruck PT, overhead stuff, running in general, rucking in general, those are your foundational items that are going to lead to success, and getting F3.

Brian: There you have it. I love that advice. If there was any advice I wish having given to me when I was training for my first GORUCK event it would be, “Don’t run with your ruck. Just ruck with your ruck.”

Mark: I mean, some of us still do dumb stuff like that. We had a – have marathon in Charlotte at rucking division and ruck-ran most of it. About 8 miles in it was just like, “This is so dumb. This is dumb.” I mean, I was that far so I had to finish. Afterwards, it was just one of those things, “I’m not going to do that again, unless I do.”

Brian: That’s wild. That’s a one and done self-thing. Well, at least as a race aspect you might set up for the race again. It’s not something you’re doing every morning, because everybody can handle that in one-off situations, but just that perpetual pounding on the knees from weight, especially the amount of weight people are rucking with. That can be rough.

Mark: Yeah.
Brian: Moving further into F3 Nation Rucking, how did you become the rucking coordinator for all of F3 Nation?

Mark: By accident. I opened my big mouth. I coordinated an event last year, and then afterwards I talked with some people upper levels of F3. I mean, we don’t have a real fine structure, but there are people who are at the top and said, “There should be a support system for people who are doing these events, because F3 has a lot of custom events.”

We started out to get events to where the people were. Then it’s broadened out to some of our areas that are not in major metros, getting them events. Now it’s branching off into getting events that are not offered by a GORUCK.

I started talking about that. Thought it was going to be one of those, “You know, that’s a great idea, and nothing ever happen.” Then it happened. OBT is one of the founders and you had them on and said, “Hey, we want to create this position to grow and support rucking within F3, because it’s a huge thing for F3 members where we call them packs, to do.” It just keeps growing and growing.

We spread through a new area. The next thing you know, rucking becomes a thing. It was like, “How did that happen?” “Well, it just did.” They wanted someone to be able to help those areas continue to grow it, support people who are doing events and really just build rucking overall to support the wants and needs of people in F3.

As F3 operates, basically the guy who’s willing is the guy who’s qualified. I ended up in the position. Didn’t really asked for it, but happy to have it. Here we are. I mean, I got social media up and running, just so we could have a point of contact amongst the people. We’re 500 and closed it on 550 people who are following on Twitter. We have a Facebook group that’s over 300.

We have a lot of people who are just conversating around it. Now I’m trying to figure out the best way to support it, because I can’t realistically as a part-time job support every single person. Going to look at some of the closer to ground people in some of the regions to have a local point of contact for it and we can just support it that way, so that not every single person who wants information has to wait for me to respond to them. But have a better ground operation.

It’s funny, I’m not big on institutions and setting up rules and hierarchy, but it just happens that way. But anything to grow rucking within F3, to track people to F3 with rucking – there are thousands of guys who have had their lives improved, because of being part of F3 and/or part of rucking. We want to really keep that alive and grow it and push people to new levels and give them the events that they want, in places that they want. That’s how I got there and hopefully I can have a long reign over F3 rucking kingdom.

Brian: That’s great. It really is a double-edged sword isn’t it? You’ve experienced a lot of success with F3 Nation Rucking. Because of that, you have a lot more work to do.

Mark: Yeah, we term that problematic when you have too many guys for workout. Then it’s time to split it up and grow some more. I mean, it’s the good problems.

Brian: Absolutely. Speaking about 2018, as the rucking coordinator of F3 Nation, what are some of your goals?

Mark: Really, I just want to get events to people who want them to get some of the smaller regions involved in rucking. We have the GORUCK events that we’ve been putting on that is a weekend event that supports relatively young F3 regions and bring them together and having an F3 grow school, which is teaching them to grow their region, bring new guys in; guys who have gone past that acceptable fat to too fat, getting them fit.

Then in conjunction with that having a GORUCK Tough to build relationship with people. You know the bonds that are built. My three best friends have been met through F3 and GORUCK. A lot of guys unfortunately when they get older, have kids, start losing friends and they don’t even know that they miss them until they make new friends, and F3 does that.

We really want to grow that, because it’s a great incubator for guys getting together and doing guy stuff. Also, got a big push to get people to heavies. We have two custom heavies that are already on the books. There are whispers of a couple more that may happen, but there’s a lot that has to come together for that.
2018 is kind of a year to heavy for F3, but we also do have some tough and lights, and then there are probably at least four GORUCKs that will happen in 2018 in various locations. Really growing that and getting people what they need to be successful in their events.

Brian: That is awesome and pretty ambitious. I’m very excited to see all of that happen, because it’s just so cool. It is so cool to see rucking continue to expand like that. You mentioned pushing people to heavies, you mentioned the custom GORUCK events that are coming up. We’ve already seen a number of custom F3 GORUCK events announced for 2018. What are some of the events that you’re most excited about?

Mark: I mean, all of them. The grow-ups, I don’t do. We have somebody else who works on getting that off the ground. I don’t have all the inner knowledge of – even though it’s with Cadre Danny and I’ve done an event with him before.

I mean, I always get really excited for heavies. I think that anybody who’s done a heavy knows that heavies are just the best events. They’re all great, but there is something that happens in the 24-hour period, just the additional together, the additional stress, the additional work, that everybody is pushed a little bit further, gets a little bit more afraid and then comes together.

I’m really excited that F3 guys are in bigger and bigger numbers coming to do heavy events. Because I feel like it’s the next step for our F3 guys who are into rucking, of pushing themselves forward, they’re getting to know each other better, getting those stories from a heavy.

I’m really excited about the heavies that we have going on. I have a tough and a light that are happening. They’re coming to cities that are not – they’ve never had events in them before. That’s really exciting in itself, but the heavies are exciting. We have one beach-heavy and one mountain-heavy. Whatever a person wants, they can get. It is going to be unique. I know that the mountain-heavy is going to be really, really unique, unlike any event that GORUCK has done before. I’m signed up for that one. The beach one is going to be great, but I did beach last year, so I’m doing mountains this year.

Brian: There you have it. Almost no excuses. If you don’t like the water, then head to the mountains. If you don’t like the mountains, you’ve got to be trio. That’s great. Well, I can’t wait to hear how both of those events go. I have to do a little follow-up call after the mountain-heavy, because it sounds like it’s going to be a little interesting and quite a bit different.

Mark: Yeah. I’m really excited for it. I’ll probably have two heavies in the beginning of the year that I’m doing. Hopefully some good stories with that.

Brian: Absolutely. It’s exciting that there is even more F3 heavies coming, because GORUCK is great for introducing members of F3 Nation to rucking and GORUCK events. It sounds like things are really expanding for the F3 Nation members who are – have already started rucking and are looking for that next step. That’s very exciting.

Mark: Yeah. In F3, we have a term called a bat-flipper, which is basically your hard charger, always pushing the envelope, likes to beat their chest and tell everyone how great they are. Creating these bigger events, the longer events to accommodate those bat-flippers and hopefully the events won’t disappoint that guys come through, get patched and they keep on pushing.

We’ve had some people who have gone on to attempt selection. Haven’t had a finisher yet, but I feel like there are some people who have the capability, but the stars have to align for them. We’re going to keep on pushing them and supporting them wherever we can.

Brian: Awesome. That’s very cool. Very, very cool. I just can’t wait to hear how everything continues to shape up with all of these. For those who are listening and didn’t listen to the OBT and Dredd episode, I’ll post a link too in the show notes, but those are two founders of F3 Nation who put on the GrowRuck event that I took part in Seattle.

They’ve got a really cool thing going. If you’re listening to this and you’re in an area that F3 is a part of, which you can check out the F3 Nation website. Again, I’ll put that in the show notes. You should definitely consider checking it out, because it will help you get into the shape that you want to be in and that you deserve to be in. Then you can take part in all these awesome events that Mark is talking about here, because I’m just listening to it today and I’m really excited about what 2018 is bringing.

Mark: Yeah. Right now, so GrowRuck for 2018 we have events in South Carolina which is the Columbia area. That’s going to be men only. We have Greenville, North Carolina which is going to be women only. We have an event that’s going to be coming in, the exact location hasn’t been determined. Then we have one in Toledo, Ohio which we – Toledo has been the miracle by the lake. Instead of a mistake by the lake, it’s a miracle by the lake. Toledo loves some ruck. We have a GrowRuck that’s coming there. As of today, there is 55 people who are signed up. It could be over a 100 by the time it’s all set and done.

Then we also have ruck in Harrisburg, Concord, North Carolina; that’s one event. We have one in Greensboro, North Carolina. Then the Wilmington heavy and the mountains heavy. We are close to a lot of people in the Ruck Nation. Reach out to myself, or F3 in general and we can connect to you if you’re interested in participating.

Brian: For reaching out if you’re on Twitter, that’s f3nationrucking?

Mark: Yes, that is correct.

Brian: Perfect. There is also a very active Facebook group called F3 Nation Rucking. As Mark said, if you’re in F3 Nation and want to get started with rucking and join it, and you also mentioned if you’re not in F3 Nation but want to be and are interested in rucking, can those people join as well?

Mark: The only real criteria with F3 is it’s just men only. It’s nothing exclusive to keep women out. It’s just giving men an opportunity to be men. I mean, a lot of married guys that get in there, we become domesticated and the world’s better for it, but the world also needs to have guys being guys. F3 allows people to do that.

We get nicknames, so you can have this F3 persona where you can let your hair down and you don’t have to worry about what your wife might think so much. You just get to be a guy. For the Twitter, anyone can follow. For that Facebook group, it’s going to be men only. We have great discussion and we’re always talking about gear, training, events; both our custom events and then public events. F3 is very present in public events.

We’re always there to be helped out. We want to be good teammates who were just part of the community. Have you seen an F3 in an event, come up and introduce yourself, hopefully we introduce ourselves before that and let’s do some work.

Brian: When you’re talking about the 2018 events, I mean we just mentioned that F3 it’s all males. But for 2018, there is a FiA GrowRuck event, correct? It’s GrowRuck light, I believe.

Mark: It is FiA. It’s women only. The details I don’t have all of them, because it’s the GrowRuck, yeah there’s a different team of guys that handles it. The principles that are taught in GORUCK and F3 and FiA workouts, they apply to everyone. We like to say we don’t have the solution, we have a solution. For a lot of those things that are going on in the world, people just getting together and getting to know each better makes a huge difference.

We started to do some events with women in given opportunity to do a women-only event. We got that first event that is going to be coming. It’s going to be great. I mean, I’m excited. I’m a huge advocate for women and events. My last time, I think women outperformed the guys because they have something to prove. We’re really excited about that.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’m excited for that too. I can’t wait to see how the FiA GrowRuck event turns out. Hopefully once that is complete, I can have someone on the podcast who either took part in that event, or helped form that event because it would be great to have that second aspect from FiA. Very cool.

Mark: Yup. We’re really excited about it.

Brian: Awesome. Yeah, I’m super excited. Are there any shout outs you want to give? Is there anything else you want to promote on here while we’re chatting?

Mark: I mean, F3 I can’t say enough. I mean, people who listen to this obviously are family with GORUCK, but they might not be familiar with F3. F3 is a difference maker in the lives of a lot of guys. I mean, guys getting together and building relationship just like you do at a GORUCK event. But basically, we get to have a little sample of that every single day. In the morning, you get together with your friends, with new people, you work hard, you joke around, then you go your separate ways. You get to find out about people and how their lives are and why work sucks and how marriage and parenting can be challenging. F3 is a huge thing. If you have F3 close to you, come and check it out.

We want to give a special thanks to OBT for trusting me to not screw this up. We’ll see if that’s actually the case, but given the opportunity. For GORUCK for putting on kickass events and pushing me to my limits, and still doing it and making really expensive gear that I spend a lot of money on. Thanks for all those things.

Brian: That’s awesome. As someone who found GORUCK first and then found F3 years later myself, I would say that the communities are very similar and there’s a lot of overlap. It was really fun stumbling upon these group of guys, because it’s like a community aspect. I think I said this in the OBT and Dredd podcast, but going to F3 workouts, it’s like the community aspects that you build at GORUCK events, but it’s free workout and they happen weekly.

If you’re listening to this and it’s December, or even early January and you’re finally getting around this episode and you want to make a change, you’re a guy, just check out F3 Nation, because they will definitely give you the tools via the workouts to make that happen. If you’re a female, then check out FiA.

I don’t have any personal experience with FiA, because I’m a guy, so I’m not allowed there. I do here very good things about the FiA community, at least local to us, the one that’s down in Tacoma, Washington. Definitely give that a check.

Mark: Yeah, we’re everywhere. We’re growing. I mean, F3 has expanded to Austin, Texas, the Chicago metro, St. Louis, we have some in Minneapolis, St. Paul. We’re everywhere. If you want F3 to come to you, reach out to F3 or me and we’ll get it in place and see what we can do as far as some expansion, because there will be a day where F3 will be close to most everybody. I’m really excited about that and the expansion of that. Then we’ll keep bringing GORUCK events to those areas. We’re really excited.

Brian: Well, I’m excited too and I’m just so glad I have to say that Mark, you’re really F3 Nation Rucking coordinator because I feel like it’s just going to get that much better. More custom events. I know you guys have had some amazing ones in the past, like a double-heavy that OBT mentioned when he was on. I know you took part in that. Maybe we’ll have to have an upcoming episode as well, talking about prepping for a double-heavy or a similar event that is more challenging than your standard line of GORUCK challenges.

Mark: I love it. Would do it. Just let me know.

Brian: You got it man. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we wrap this up?

Mark: No. Not at all. If any of the events that I listed off were in your area, just reach out and we’ll see if we can get you onboard. If you’ve never been to an F3 workout, don’t let that stop you. We have lots of people who get involved in our events, who it’s their first event with F3 and they get their F3 name there, then they get plugged in the community. Just reach out through the Twitter, Facebook group, whatever you want to do we’ll get you plugged in however you want. My tough, heavy, heavy, heavy selection, we’ll support you however we can.

Brian: I love it. No cost to go to F3 workouts. That’s not a barrier either.

Mark: Never.

Brian: Awesome. Mark, thank you so much just for taking so much time out of your day to talk to me about F3 Nation Rucking, how that started, where it’s going in 2018 and just all the exciting events that you guys have lined up, as well as how people can get off that couch at the end of December or early January, get in shape and sign up for what I’m sure is going to be a ton of amazing events in the future.

I am super excited about all of it and I’m so thankful man that you just took the time out of your day to chat with me about this.

Mark: Happy too, Brian. Maybe 2019 we’ll finally do our custom selection that we talked about. That would be great, so that you could have two of them for people to do nothing over a weekend.

Brian: There you go. We’ll see 2019.

Mark: Yeah. Yeah. All right, well thank you Brian. It’s a privilege.

Brian: Thank you. Take care, Mark.

Mark: All right. Bye.

The post ADR 027: Mark Guenther Interview (F3 Nation Rucking) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 026: Corey Modrowski AAR (GORUCK Tough Battle of Lake Erie – War of 1812)

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 15:00:27 +0000

Corey Modrowski joins us again for another AAR through one of his favorite GORUCK events. The GORUCK Tough Battle of Lake Erie – War of 1812 was the brainchild of Bryan Singlyn from CARC.

It’s always awesome to hear stories from GORUCK events that I haven’t done as some of these customs are truly unique. Hopefully you enjoy this episode as much as the previous episode we had Corey on… he’s a great storyteller and has experienced some amazing events so far!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Cory Modrowski who you might remember from a previous podcast where we talked about GORUCK Beached Tough and GORUCK Beached Light which were both beta events. This time we’re talking about a custom event that Brian Singland who you might know as the head of CARC, the Cleveland Area Rucking Crew, spent over a year planning. It’s called the Battle of Lake Erie, War of 1812 Tough, and it sounds like it was quite the event. I’m really excited to have Cory back here because I want to know more about this event.

Cory, how are you doing?

Corey: Hi. I’m just doing fantastic fine sir.

Brian: Awesome. I cannot wait to hear about this. Brian, I know he pours his heart and soul onto everything he does. So if he was spending a year on this, I’m sure it’s quite the event. How did you get involved in this event and how did you find out about it?

Corey: I actually got added to the CARC Facebook page and I remember Brian saying how he’s organizing a custom event to take place at Put-in-Bay which is a little island right off the coast of Port Clinton which is halfway between Cleveland and Toledo on the map. So there’s a nice little island right there and probably its most notable thing is for having a billion bars.

Brian: That’s something that’s kind of nice to be notable for.

Corey: I think they call it the key west of Lake Erie.

Brian: Really?

Corey: That’s one name I heard.

Brian: This is sounding like an interesting place already.

Corey: If you remember anything after going there.

Brian: Yeah. That’s the issue, right? You might head out there, but not know what happens once you’re back.

Corey: I’ll tell you what this event — Last time when I talked to you about beached, I said that beached was in my top three. This event was number one. This is by far my most favorite event I have ever done. So I found out about it on the CARC page when Brian was like, “Hey, this is going to happen.” I was kind of like worried at that point too because I had done a Light in Cleveland for the 4th July and Jeff and Erin were the cadre and I think that Light ended up being like 6 to 8 hours. It was a longer Light and it was more like a Tough.

I was like like worried, because I know Brian and Jeff are pretty tight and I thought for sure that Jeff was going to be a cadre on that. So I started training over time for this event.

Brian: Yes. I see some of the similar workout set Brian and the CARC do, and they’re not easy.

Corey: He’s right in the middle of developing what’s called heavy drop, which is kind of a CARC training for Heavies, I guess.

Brian: Very cool. I’m excited to see what he brings with that.

Corey: Yeah. So I started training my butt off for this and actually I started forgetting about it when I was — Because I was so worried about beach. I remember talking to Brian at beached and I’m like, “Yeah, I got beach and then I got this event and then I got this event and I got et this,” and then he steps in, like, “1812. 1812.” I’m like, “What? Oh, yeah! I signed up for that.

Brian: That’s what happens when you’re signed up for so many events. I have run into that issue a couple times where you get the email from GORUCK a week before and you’re like, “Wait. I’m signed up for something?”

Corey: Yeah.

Brian: Oh, man! Signed up for a lot of events, signed up for 1812, and Brian, it sounds like he’s pretty excited about this.

Corey: Very, very. The guy was just bursting at the scenes ready for this. Before we even get into the start point of our meeting, I remember about a month out we started getting a message on the Facebook page for 1812 and it’s like, “All right. You guys need to organize yourselves in the boat cruise. Ld let me know who the captain is and then I’m sending out a gear list to the captain.”

One of the ships that was at the 1812 Battle, or I should say 1813 battle, because it’s a war or 1812, but the Lake Erie Battle didn’t happen till 1813, was the HMS Detroit. So you know all the D-squad guys are going to be on that ship.

Brian: Absolutely.

Corey: So we ended up being the HMS Detroit and Captain Dean released the gear list. I remember thinking to myself, I’m like, “What did I get myself into?”

Brian: Let’s talk about the gear list a little bit. What’s going on with that?

Corey: Okay. So the gear list was something like you had to pick a boat color and you had to have been bandanas and you had to have all the same T-shirt and then you needed like a bunch of contractor bags, you wanted a bunch of paracord, you wanted like a standard rope. They wanted us to make flags, and then there’s talk of getting like PVC pipes, and they wanted us to make our own boat when we got there. I was like, “What?”

Brian: This is definitely not your typical GORUCK Tough event.

Corey: Right. I’m like, “I got to work. This is more than I planned on chewing.” But then we found out there were some logistical problems, like us trying to put all these gear on to the Jet Express, which is boat line that goes out of Port Clinton to Put-in-Bay and we found out that it’s going to be real hard for us to take whole boats on this ferryboat and go a mile and a half out to the island and then do more stuff out there.

They kind of nicked the boatbuilding thing and we ended up doing something different, but we’ll get to the end of that later.

Brian: Sounds good. So was this event after your beached Tough and beached Light?

Corey: I believe it was about month — A little more than a month after the beached events, I want to say. I could be wrong. It was about — Actually, beached was — It’s about two or three weeks after, come to think of it. It seemed like it was a lifetime.

Brian: Yeah, it happen sometimes.

Corey: Yes.

Brian: That’s nice though, because Battle of Lake Erie, there’s going to be probably some water involved and you’ve just gotten probably 16 hours’ worth of water survival.

Corey: I’m pretty sure Brian took a lot of material from beached and added it to the 1812, because there’s stuff that kind of cropped up again.

Brian: Very nice. So it’s an interesting packing list. Everyone has to get themselves into these boat crews. How many boat crews were there?

Corey: Let me think. I know there’s Scorpion, Niagara, Detroit. I want to say there was about five boat crews, because I can’t think of the other two names. Yeah, about five of them, I thinking, and we had roughly about 8 to 10 people per boat crew. There is a lot of — At the last-minute, people dropping out and people subbing in. It was really kind of hard to keep track of everybody prior to the event start.

Brian: Yeah, it’s always tough. Tough when stuff like that happens.

Corey: Shredder just kind of basically came into the Facebook group and he’s like, “You better get your head straight. If you want a regular GORUCK event, get out of here. Go talk to HQ. Get them to transfer you get. Get your credit. But if you want something truly extraordinary, you just get together and show up on time.

Brian: Man! I’ve had shredder for one event, and he’s a very, very awesome cadre, so I’m glad he was out there for that.

Corey: It was no different this time around. He’s a cool dude and so is cadre Jody, who is the other guy that was there making sure everything went down right.

Brian: Did you have to take a ferry out to the starting point for this event?

Corey: Negative. What happened was it started in the area of Ohio called Catawba Island, which is actually a really nice park that’s real close to Port Clinton. We met up at a park — It’s probably a couple of miles from where the ferry is, but of course the ferry has free parking, so we parked over the ferry and the we had to walk into the park, and we showed up there, it’s like 9 o’clock at night. By this time of the year, it’s pretty dark around 9 o’clock, so we’re just kind of all milling around at the little shelter there getting our gear ready, checking everything, making sure we’re good to go. Then Shredder and Cody come rolling and tell us get in our lines, and that’s where it really started getting tense.

Brian: I bet. So what happened?

Corey: We were instructed to pull out our contractor bags, and from there we had to load all of our gear inside the contractor bags and he wanted us — Essentially, we were conscripted into the Union Army at that point, or not the Army, but the Navy. So we weren’t even technically seaman yet. We were just conscripts.

There was our kind of fitness test I guess or kind of our basic training where we had to run — I think it’s a mile and a half or two miles down the road to a nearby boat launch, and they said, “Get there any means possible, but you got to have all your gear inside that contractor bag.”

Brian: Wow! That’s quite the start to the event.

Corey: Have you ever lose your strap privileges?

Brian: Yes.

Corey: Yes. Well, that’s it exactly like that, except you’re ruck is now covered in a giant slippery plastic casing too.

Brian: Oh!

Corey: I had the poor judgment to also be carrying the team weight at the same time. So the HMS Detroit was what we lovingly referred to as the teabag, because we’re British and the British love tea. So we had a 25-pound bag of gravel in a GORUCK sandbag, and so I’m like, “Do I load this sandbag into the contractor bag or do I try to carry that separate?” I think I ended throwing it inside the contractor bag and halfway down the road I’m like, “There’s no way I can carry all these stuff.” So I ended up taking the gravel bag out and carried that on one shoulder and then slinging my ruck my contractor bag over the other shoulder and getting to the boat launch.

Brian: Trying to even that weight out just a little bit.

Corey: Yeah. I’m like, “If this is what the whole night is going to be like — Oh man!”

Brian: No kidding! For those who are listening and haven’t done a GORUCK event where you lose strap privileges, what that means is that you can no longer use the shoulder straps on your ruck. So you can carry it by any means necessary except for the way you’re supposed to carry a ruck, which is with the shoulder straps. It’s fun for 10 seconds, and then it’s terrible.

Corey: I think it’s even shorter than that, but to each their own.

Brian: Yeah. The novelty wears off quick. You get excited, you’re like, “Oh! We lost strap privileges at this event. I heard about this once,” and then it’s a real, real quick.

You guys get over to the ferry. You’re lugging all these stuff, your arms are probably smoked at this point. What happens next?

Corey: Okay. We go from the park to a boat launch. The ferry is not even in the picture. That doesn’t happen until tomorrow. We go to this boat launch and Shredder instructs us that at some point throughout the whole event we’re going to get 1812 reps in. It could be man makers. It could be burpies. It could be situps. It could be fluttered kicks. We’re just going to do 1812 of stuff.

I think we got down to the boat launch, we get lined in our boats and I think the first thing we did was like 60 burpees.

Brian: Ooh! I was going to say Shredder, he’d start either with burpees or 8 count bodybuilders.

Corey: I don’t remember seeing 8 counts in there, but it all kind of was a blur after a while.

Brian: Yeah. You have to make 1812 somehow. That is a ton of reps, and they probably didn’t buy the whole we’re one team, so all of our reps count individually. Updates in 12?

Corey: No. Definitely not. We were trying to lawyer that one because that just means we’re probably hurt more.

Brian: That usually just upset someone and you’ll just pay for it dearly later. So you’re starting off with 60 burpee.

Corey: That was rough, but it was doable. The people had sign up for this one were fairly athletic crowd and we are kind of hurting, but it was a good warm.

Brian: Yeah. What happened next there at the boat launch?

Corey: I think after that, it was time to go down to the beach. I don’t know what it’s like out where you guys are at. Usually when I see pictures of the Seattle and the West Coast, there’s these nice sandy beaches. The Great Lakes, the beaches are rocks. So it’s just like this whole beach. It’s nothing but real round hard freaking rocks. Immediately, they got us in the water doing a surf check.

Link arms, walk out there until you’re about waist-deep, turnaround. All right, get your heads under. We did that a couple of times. We did some surf PT laying on our backs trying to do — Trying to think of what the maneuver is where you try to almost do like a somersault backwards and touch yoru feet behind you and then come back up.

Brian: The rocking chair.

Corey: I forgot the name. Yes, that’s it. The rocking chair. How could I forget?

Brian: One of the worst exercises ever. How many reps did you have to get for the rocking chair?

Corey: I don’t even remember at this point. I was just like — I read the books, the endurance athlete books and I remember the one piece of advice was get one foot in front of the other. So at that point I was just like, “I don’t even care. Just keep doing reps until they say stop.”

Brian: Yeah. So for those who are listening and haven’t ever had to experience rocking chairs. The ones that I’ve had to do and it seems most cadre make you do is you sit down in the water, you all lineup, you lock arms and then they usually just ask for one rep. One rep for everyone and does it together. If you’ve been to a GORUCK event, you know that means more than one rep. That means you’re going to be in this like 10+ times.

Corey: I think we’re shooting for 10, maybe 20 at that point.

Brian: We’ve got some heavy hitters over there with the solid rucking crews out there.

Corey: Yeah, we still had to do it a couple of times.

Corey: You lock arms in the water and you’re sitting there and they say, “Go,” and you kick your feet up above your head and you kind of do like this reverse somersault thing where your feet go over your head and your feet have to touch the water, so your head is underwater in like this gravel. You’re trying to stay over for a couple of seconds, because everyone has to be doing this at the same time for it to count, and then you come back and you essentially mini-drown yourself multiple times.

It’s quite the way to start an event if you’re doing this. I mean this is probably what? Like an hour in?

Corey: Yeah, roughly. I think at that point — Yeah, I wasn’t keeping track, but I would have to say it’s probably 11 o’clock at night at that point maybe, maybe 10:30. Not sure. I need to learn how to read the stars like Crocodile Dundee or something.

Brian: Yeah. It might distract you little bit from the rocking chairs.

Corey: It’s beautiful. I didn’t realize how much starlight you could see when you get away from the city like that, because it is really nice. I realize I could see that nice of a view at the sky, I just get outside of Toledo.

Brian: What kind of a location are we at here? We’re at a boat launch. Are there small towns nearby? It sounds like there are any major cities if you’re missing all that city light.

Corey: Pretty much the biggest town nearby is Port Clinton, which is the main thing with Port Clinton is you got the ferries to go to Put-in-Bay where the bars are — Everything else, you got Camp Perry nearby, which is where they used to hold the NRA nationals every year, and then they’ve got Davis Besse, which is a nuclear power station nearby. Other than that, it’s pretty devoid of light pollution.

Brian: That’s nice. It’s really nice. You’re out there enjoying a nice night on the beach doing rocking chairs. What’s going on next?

Corey: From there it was time to break up into our boat cruise, and I think it was time for another swim assessment at that point. They wanted us to bring life preservers, and we did. So we had a body up and I think it was — Shredder cracked a couple of cam lights and whipped them out there pretty good and said, “All right. You and your body, swim around my cam lights and get back to the beach,”

Brian: How did everyone do with that? And did you get to bring your ruck with you?

Corey: Rucks I think stayed on land for that portion. One of our instructions I forgot to mention was that we had to make sure our rucks float. That’s a very important bullet point for later on in the event, and that’s going to be a great story that I don’t think enough people pupil heard about that one, but I’ll just tease you a little with that.

So we got our lifejackets on and my brother and I, we were big small boat sailors on Lake Erie. So I was able to grab his life preserver which is one of those ones where you just pull the ripcord and it inflates on its own, but I was like, “I’m not going to waste the CO2 cartridge. I’ll just leave it leave alone,” and I inflated it by mouth. I’m about probably halfway into the water initially and then I hear, “Pss!” and I do realize that my CO2 cartridges went off, so I’m like trying to hit the air release valve on my life preserver so that it doesn’t accidentally pop, and thank God it didn’t, because I needed that life preserver on this event.

Brian: That’s wild. Yeah, I’m glad it didn’t pop too.

Corey: Oh men! I would’ve been so screwed. We did the swim assessment. Got around with glow sticks and then I think it was time to form up as teams, and then it was another swim assessment. I think we had to swim a Budweiser line, which if you’ve never swam it. Basically, your whole team just grabs a hold of a rope. Sometimes you’ll have knots in it, sometime you won’t, but it kind of reminds you of like a six pack holder for beer cans. And so we were swimming as a group. We had to go swim to Shredder at a dock over there at the boat launch and then we had to turn around swim back to the team.

Brian: You’re spending a decent time in the water. What’s the water like?

Corey: Pretty cold. Not as bad as Traverse City, I think Traverse City helped me out there. I was feeling pretty good in that water, but there’s definitely some other people that were feeling the love.

Brian: I’m sure. There’s always someone there who hates the water.

Corey: Darn skinny folks.

Brian: Yup. No kidding. You’ve got this Budweiser line going. You’ve spent a decent amount of time in the water. How are you feeling?

Corey: Me? I’m feeling pretty good, but we’re all kind of checking on each other making sure no one is hyping out, and I know a couple of people were complaining of cramping up during the Budweiser line swim, so those people, you’r ejust like, “All right. Just try to relax and float.”

I remember being like the front of the line — There’s two fronts of the line. We swam one way and then all we did is we just did about-face and swam back to the beach. I was tailing it to swim to Shredder and I was leading it on the swim back from Shredder. I remember feeling my pec start to cramp up and I’d have to switch arms and kind of do a side stroke with my other side in order to get the job done.

Brian: Absolutely. And I hear those Budweiser lines, if you’re in the front, it’s a decent amount of work.

Corey: It’s not bad, could be worse.

Brian: It could always be worse.

Corey: After we got done with the Budweiser line, the Portland police showed up. I already gave you little teaser about what Put-in-Day like. So you’re just imagining the quality of people that those officers have to deal with on a daily basis, if not like at least a weekend basis. They get a lot of people enjoying their grandpa’s cough medicine a little too much and they got settle them down from time to time.

They see this big group of people standing in the water, they had backpacks, they got American flag shirts on and all sorts of weird stuff and they know this isn’t your average crew. Shredder kind of talks to them and tells them what we’re all about and comes back to us and he goes, “You know, those guys are really impressed with you, and now we’re going to start a different phase of the event. Basically, you’re going to do 10 minutes of silence in that water while treading it and these guys are going to watch.”

We get out to the point where we can’t touch and we got to treat water and we can’t be moaning and groaning. You know how it is when you’re in front leaning your ass. There’s always that, “Oh! Mmm! Aah!” noise going on and we couldn’t have any of that for 10 minutes in cold water while treading it.

Brian: Man! I bet there are some people who are not enjoying that.

Corey: There definitely were a few people, but they managed to do a great job of suffering in silence, because we got through that without a problem. The Port Clinton and police were just so impressed with us.

Brian: That’s great. Would you say that the beached, going back a little bit to the beach Tough, you had to tread water for half an hour to 45 minutes. Did that help you at all with this event?

Corey: You could say there was a little bit of muscle memory left over from that.

Brian: So what happened with the police that showed up?

Corey: They were real happy to see some people enjoying the beach in a different way and they pretty much said, “Don’t worry about a thing the rest of the night. We’ll keep anybody away from you,” and they kind of went on back to their patrolling, but the quality of people they usually see is not the GRT quality, So it was a treat for them to see us doing our thing and suffering in honor of something bigger than us.

Brian: I’m not quite sure what they were expecting when they showed up, but it’s probably not what they saw. So that’s really cool.

Corey: We got out of the water briefly to do a little bit of rehydration, grab some gear from the list, and from there we had to unload a U-haul van with lots of interesting looking PVC pipes and various implements, which brought us to our next phase where we broke out in our boat crews and we had to start constructing rafts out of PVC pipes and 550 cord.

Brian: Wow! So did you or anyone on your boat crew have any knowledge of how to construct a raft out of PVC and 550 before you started this?

Corey: I don’t want to brag, but man I know Capt. Dean, Dean Aiken, the guy who is running the Detroit HMS was very, very thankful for my knot tying skills because I still remember how to do my lashes from Boy Scouts. So I was able to go in there and just bang out a couple lashes, get those PVC pipes together.

I remember doing a clove hitch too and just having the hardest time because my hands were cold, but after getting a little light on there and taking a couple of deep breaths, I was able to get it started and then just lash that thing together like a rock star.

Brian: That’s amazing. That’s awesome that you had that prior knowledge, because I for one probably struggle a little bit, at least start getting that together.

Corey: I remember seeing other boat crews not quite sure how they were going to do it. I remember just seeing like two poles, you just lash it. We had one big lashing with paracord on one end and one big lash and a paracord on the other and we were ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

Brian: There you go. Did every boat crew have to make their own boat?

Corey: Essentially. We did some maneuvering with hat those there in the water. I think we had a race or two with those. You know how it is with races. It pays to be a winner.

Brian: It sure does.

Corey: I don’t remember if we are winners. I don’t remember. We probably were. So there was definitely some swimming and some repercussions with exercises for that. Then from there it took a very interesting turn, because these PVC pipes we had like rubber caps with, the device is a hose clamp around it. So these PVC pipes were waterproof and they tell us to drag it up on to the beach and pull one end of the caps off. I’m like, “Okay.”

One of those PVC pipes we had to fill with water. The other PVC pipe we had to fill with rocks from the beach. So then now we’ve got a giant like flush tube and we got a giant tube full of rocks and we’re told that boats had to carry provision, so one was your water in the other was your gunpowder.

From there we had to carry our PVC pipes as a team back to the park where we started, and I didn’t get a real good look at that park when we started, but there’s been a fairly sizable hill in it. I didn’t realize.

One of the things they had to do back in the day would be to ford boats over land and they would have to tie ropes to the boats and drag them across land to get to the next body of water. That was shredder’s next little fun activity for us. We were at the bottom of a hill. We had to drag our boats with — I think it was at least two members from our team on top of the PVC pipes plus rocks up that hill, go down the other side.

Brian: That must have been a fun surprise.

Corey: I can tell you from the HMS Detroit’s standpoint, we were killing it in the other areas and then we would miss in other areas. So this is where we really missed, because during the trip up the hill, one of those rubber caps came loose and we lost all our water. So that was a strike against us.

Then we finally got it up the hill, and then I think we’re going back down and one of our caps came loose and we lost our gunpowder. So we’re double screwed.

Brian: Did any other boat crews lose their water or their gunpowder?

Corey: As far as I know no. So yeah, we looked real bad at that point.

Brian: So what happened with that?

Corey: I think we had to add more people to the pipes at one point. It turned into a Charlie foxtrot. We were trying to push and pull this pipe up hill and it just wasn’t working for us, and I think it got to a point where Shredder just like took pity on us. He’s just like, “All right. Just get down the hell. Get in the front lead and rest,” because it was just taking so much time.

Then I think after that there came more PT. We did probably 120 reps of something. I can’t remember if it was burpees. I remember being on my back a lot, so maybe it was flutter kicks. I can remember because all I can remember seeing is this big long field that we’re in and it was foggy as I’ll get out. It was spooky as heck. I was just astounded at how much the landscape had changed from when we started, because it was probably about 2 o’clock in the morning when this all went down and it looked cool as heck, but at the same time it sucks like hell.

Brian: Oh, I bet. Probably wondering if you actually made it back to the same park you started in.

Corey: It gets better, because from there I think he had us load our stuff back up and go back to the beach, because we had to dump out the rocks and the water on to the beach, which obviously we didn’t have to do. Then we did another little jaunt from the beach that we were at to a park in the Catawba Island area. That’s where it got really interesting, because during this whole event we had to start using code terminologies. So if we’re going to move forward, we had to say make way. If you’re going to turn back, you had to say port. If you’re going to turn right, you had to say starboard.

At one point they took us to this park and we got in our boat teams, they made us put our rucks together in the center and we had to all face out. So we’re kind of this big like reverse group hug. One of the items we’re instructed to have was a bandanna, and we had to blindfold all the people on the boat crew, except the captain. The captain was in the center and it was up to the captain to basically guide us through a trail on this park and we all had to be blindfolded folded. So we had to trust our captain in the directions he was giving us.

Brian: Wow!

Corey: I have no idea how long that was. I just remember taking forever, because I think either the cadre went in and put like a huge freaking log down in the trail or they just hadn’t taken care of the park if there was a huge log in the trail. So we ended up getting like lost in the dark and we had to re-circle around a couple of times, but apparently we’re doing better than the other boat crews, because we are one of the first to finish, I guess.

Brian: Wow! That must’ve been something.

Corey: You got to remember when you’re in a circle like that, not everybody — Nobody’s facing the same direction. So if you’re in the back of it or the stern of the boat, forward is your back and port is going to be your right. So when he calls port, you actually are going to go right, not left. It turns into a giant teamwork exercise.

Brian: Yeah. That’s a lot of stuff to consider, and you’re blindfold the whole time. So you got that going for you too.

Corey: Yeah. It definitely is interesting, because people are calling out about the terrain. I remember at one point being not on the trail and having my footing slipping and thinking, “God! If I go down, I’m taking the whole boat with me,” and I can let that happen.

Brian: Yeah. There’s a lot going on with that. You’re one of the first boats back.

Corey: Supposedly. I couldn’t see it with my own eyes, and I don’t know if they were just bolstering their ego, but I’m hoping that was true.

Brian: Yeah. I was going to say, it must’ve felt pretty good after you guys lost all the water and all the gunpowder previously.

Corey: It definitely gave us a new hope for not being the worst boat.

Brian: So how long did it take for all the other boats to get there? Were they taking different routes or was everyone on the same route?

Corey: I think they started half the group at one end of the trail and the other group at the other end. The trail kind of looped around and came back to itself. So at one point we would cross paths with the other boats and then we have to maneuver around them.

Brian: Oh, wow!

Corey: Then they’re calling out directions too. So you got to try not to listen to them. You’re trying to listen to your boat captain and not get tangled up with the other boat.

Brian: No kidding. That’s almost more difficult than a log.

Corey: It was more mentally taxing than a log I think.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure. So all the groups are finally back together. How’s everyone feeling? Were you able to take your blindfold off that point or were they still on?

Corey: No. Once we finish, we are able to take our blindfold off, get some water and just kind of chill for a few minutes while we waited for the other boats to get done. I think it was probably — We had a good 15 minutes maybe standing around before we headed back to that boat launch/beach for the next evolution, because I think at that point we’re starting to get a little bit of sunshine peaking in maybe or we were getting close to dawn. So that’s when we gotten to some more technical aspects of the event and where we get to probably my favorite story about this event.

Brian: I’m excited.

Corey: Earlier on I told you that one of the requirements was we had to figure out how to get our rucks to float, and this is with standard challenge weight. You got a 30-pound plate if you’re over 150 pounds and you got to figure out how to make that thing float. A couple of the guys on my boat came up with the bright idea, “Go over to Target. It’s the end of the season. They’re selling all their pool stuff. Get a couple of clearance kick boards,” and I think one guy was able to fit like three kick boards in his ruck to get it to float. I opted for cutting a noodle down the middle and hundred mile an hour tape in it to my plate and then just doing to kick boards, because I need a room for all the other junk, and that help float it pretty good. People on the other boats, their rucks didn’t float so good.

Brian: Oh! Let’s hear it.

Corey: We’ll just move ahead. The next evolution was learning how to take tarps and kind of burrito roll them into making rafts out of your rucks. So there is a couple of different ways you can do it. Luckily my know tying skills came in handy there, because you had to basically do another clove hitch and it really was like making a giant burrito.

We got that going and then we had to get in the water with these rafts that we made and maneuver with them. After a few maneuvers in the water you’re going around buoys or swimming here, swimming there. The quality that you put into your work started to show, because some people’s rats started kind of coming apart a little bit. Started taking on water.

One unfortunate individual whose name honestly lost me, otherwise I would name him. His ruck fell out of the raft, and he didn’t do a great job of making sure it floated. He did a great job of making sure it kind of floated. Well, he lost basically his GR1, his plate and everything that was inside it sunk to Davy Jones locker there in Lake Erie.

Brian: Wow!

Corey: Yeah, that’s a huge, huge thing. Shredder pulled us all out of the water and had us to walk a police line and the beach, and we could not find that sucker.

Brian: Wow! That’s rough. That’s something.

Corey: Shredder kind of came out and he’s like, “Listen, We lost a ruck. We’re going to get with HQ. We’re going to make this right. It was but, but we’re going to make it right.” I got to believe at the end of the day they hooked him up real good, and it wasn’t a horrible loss, but man there might be some Lake Erie fishermen that comes across that ruck someday, like he’s got a whopper of a fish. He’s going to find out he’s got a little treasure trove.

Brian: That’s crazy.

Corey: At least that’s how I sleep at night.

Brian: Yeah. Someone will find it. So what happened with that individual?

Corey: He’s still stuck with us. It was just kind of like — I think they end up sticking with the team weight or something, because like, “Well, what do you do now? No ruck.” We just kind of continued on. I mean, we probably spent a good half an hour, 45 minutes trying to search that ruck and Davy Jones took it. So there’s nothing we could do at that point.

I think Shredder could see that morale got a little low at that point. So he had us pleased the beach for garbage and whatnot. We find a couple of gel wrappers or some power beans or whatever or whatever. The junk food that most GRTs pack in their rucks these days take long. He’s like, “Listen. In 1813, they didn’t have all these carbohydrate things. They crackers and they had sardines. So they come rolling out with a couple boxes of crackers and a couple of packs of sardines and they wanted us all to have a little bit of that.”

Brian: How did that go for you? Did you have any?

Corey: I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video that Cody shot, because I had to sound like the biggest nerd, because at one point I remember someone asking me, he’s like, “Hey, Cory. Get in there and get some sardine,” and I’m like stuttering, “I have a fish allergy,” so I must have sound like the biggest nerd, like, “I can’t. I have an allergy the sardines.” I think Cody was videoing the exact moment and I can’t even watch the video, just in case. I do look like the biggest nerd there standing like that.

They’re like, “Well, get the cracker.” I’m like, “No. I can’t eat the crackers man. I’m keto. I don’t eat gluten and definitely not carbs.” So I kind of sat back and fasted.

Brian: Yeah. That is too funny. Maybe I can dig up the video. No I won’t. Just kidding. I won’t dig it up.

Corey: Yeah, I’m sure it’s there. I haven’t watched it, so I don’t know if he stopped it and you don’t see there or what, but I’ve never had the stomach to watch it.

Brian: That happens to me too. The first time I ever I was an interviewee on a podcast, it took me like two weeks to listen to it, because I knew I sounded terrible. It’s like, “Man, I can’t even stomach this. I can’t stomach listing to this. Please, it’s going to be so bad.”

Corey: You’re never 100% perfect at whatever you do the first time. So you’ve only gotten better with time my friend.

Brian: Thank you. Thank you. I know that feeling all too well. They bring out these sardines and crackers. That must’ve been a surprise to everyone. What’s going on from there? It sounds like the sun at this point might’ve come up a little bit since it was peaking earlier?

Corey: It’s got to like seven, maybe 8 o’clock at that point. I think I want to say it’s seven. I can’t be 100% sure. We’re sitting around trying to chow down on these sardines and crackers. Some of the people are like — They’re trying not to blow chunks, because they had a squeamish box of sardines. Other people are just like, “Yeah, this is great. Can I have yours?” The typical trying to gross the squeamish guy out type of thing.

We just kind of sit around chilling, get some calories in us, getting some water in us, replenishing some the electrolytes and just to — You know that magical moment in the middle of a Tough where you’re all just sitting around sharing food. It’s that moment.

Brian: Yup.

Corey: So snack times over and we’re behind schedule, because we spent so much time searching for this ruck. Basically what we got to do is we got to load all the gear into the U-haul van, and you got to remember at the same time this is happening. All the fishermen are trying to come down to the boat launch and drop their boats in the water. So we’ve got like hundreds of people just staring at us like, “What the heck are those weirdos doing?”

We carry PVC pipes up to the U-haul and we get them in the truck. Basically Shred is just like, “All right. We’re behind schedule, so we got to expedite this.” He just points to a boat team, “Get in the van and we’re going to take over to the ferry,” and then that’s kind of what they did, is we got in the van. They took one team to the ferry. The rest of us kind of sit and chill.

I remember during that point, I was getting a little sleepy at that point. So I remember Cody like peeking down, like getting his face near mine and I saw it out of the corner eye and I snapped out or I was just about to fall asleep and I could see that smile on his face, like, “I got you!” We just kind of sat and chilled.

Cody got a pretty good inspiration at one point. He’s looking over their and he’s like, “Hey, Detroit. Are those picnic tables?” We’re like, “Yeah. What are you thinking?” He’s like, “We’re going to send a little love message to Jesse Hein.” And we’re all like, “Heck, yeah.”

He tells us to get over on those picnic tables, hoist them above our head and he’s like — He just goes, “Who is this for?” And we all yelled, “Jesse Hein!” “Who is this for?” “Jesse Hein!” “Who is this for?” “Jesse Hein!” Then we’re done with that. I don’t know if Jesse ever got the video, but I hope the heck he did, because that just sounded cool us call getting out.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Corey: Fast forward. We load out into the van, get to the ferry point. So I think the ferry to get Put-in-Bay, it was like $12 maybe. Something like that. So they’re all like, “You brought your 20s, right?” Everyone is like, “Yeah, except for one guy.” We all get in line and we pay our soggy 20s to a lady and she gives us our ticket and then we’re just kind of milling around waiting for the boat to come in talking about this, that and the other thing, just kind of chilling.

I remember sitting there and like, “Man! How much longer is this going to go on?” Because I had — It was my on-call weekend for work and I’m like getting worried, because I got to go see patients this afternoon and I want to be somewhat coherent to treat my total hip and my lady with a fractured tibia. So I’m like getting a little nervous here, because it’s probably like getting closer to like nine, 10 o’clock.

Riding the ferry, and I remember there’s a great video of Captain Dean. He’s like nodding off on the ferry ride and he’s like drifting through his right I remember Cody was videoing that. It’s on the Tough page, I think. He’s like almost going to fall out of his feet on the ferry and then he snaps out of it at the last second. Sits up and he goes, “And that’s a hard starboard.” Without breaking face or anything. I remember when I got back and I saw that video I laughed so hard.

Brian: That’s amazing. I’m going to dig that up. I’m digging that one up for sure.

Corey: So we ride in the ferry and everyone’s kind of like nodding off. Some of them were talking. I remember, actually we’re sitting next to a couple and the husband had actually written a book on the war of 1812. So like Cody and Shred and I and Brian are currently sitting around listening to this guy talk, and then we finally get off the boat and we got to unloaded and we got ruck it to another beach.

The U-haul van goes ahead of us. Cody is with us and I’m like, “Hey Cody. Man, I’m going to work after this. How much longer we got?” He’s like, “Listen dude. I got a flight to catch out to Cleveland at like 3 o’clock. So I’m on the same boat with you.” But he’s assuring me, “No. You’re not getting fired today. We’re going to end this. It’s not too much longer.” “Okay. Cool.”

We ruck it a couple — I think it’s a mile or two from where the Put-in-Bay ferry puts in to another boat launch/park nearby where Shred takes and instructs us to build a raft out of the PVC that he brought in the U-haul, but we have to have our rucks attached to it. You know, this late in the game people ain’t thinking straight.

We came up with a great idea and like, “Just put your freaking backpack straps through the PVC pipes.” It was like, “Dant! You’re genius, man! So we do that and then we made a burrito out of a couple of rocks and do the whole raft thing again with that. That’s where it gets a little chaotic, because Brian come up to me and he’s like, “All right. It’s time to go. Oh, wait. No, we got a few minutes.” So we took our rafts and we loaded them into the water and we reenacted the Battle of 1813 Lake Erie, and this was so cool. This is probably the best part of the — This was the apex of the event, because what we had to do was we had to kind of mimic the movements of the boats during the war, and what we have to do is we come alongside, the long side of the boat is where the cans were. So whenever we got close enough to one of the other boats out there, the Niagara, or the scorpion, or the others, we would have to fire on them.

We came up with a great idea while firing the cans, mean we splash their asses. So just started splashing like crazy any boat they came close to us. So it was fun. It looked like fun. We had a good time.

Let me describe the situation at this beach. Some of the listeners might know about how the toxic algae blooms in Ohio, or I should say in Lake Erie. They actually get so bad at one point the city I live in, Toledo, the municipal water supply was actually tainted by the toxic algae because our water purification system couldn’t keep up with it. There’s like signs posted all over this beach about toxic algae blooms and how you should be aware. I’m still surprised I didn’t end up with any kind of enteric disease or anything because I know I got a good couple of mouthfuls of that water.

Brian: Yeah, that’s — I’m glad nothing bad happened. Did anyone get sick?

Corey: Not that I’m aware of. I think some people refer to it as ear herpes at some point, but I don’t know of any confirmed illnesses at this time.

Brian: That’s good. I’m glad everyone lucked out. We’ve got a popular start point for some of our Tough events, which is called Green Lake out by us, and they have three or four sensors on the lake on North, South, East and West, and it measures the amount of fecal matter in there. So it’s updated over the summer I think daily. And so whenever we have a start point, they’re always be posting screenshots of that, like, “Hey guys. There’s a bunch of crap in the water, so hopefully we don’t go in there.”

Corey: Oh! Green Lake. Why would they call it that?

Brian: I know, right? So thankfully we never really go in there, but I’m glad that no one got sick at your event.

Corey: Yeah, that we know of.

Brian: That we know of. Yup. That we know of.

Corey: I was like really worried too, because the shore over there was like kind of rocky and they made us —The pathfinder way choose the harder thing. We can go down the nicely made path. Shredder has put the boats over like this deep ends to get him in the water, and I remember cutting the palm of my hand on a rock and like, “Oh! I can put my gloves away now. Stupid me. I didn’t put my gloves on when we did that part and I get a cut on my hand.” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m getting something for sure now.”

Brian: Yeah, right before you get in the water, just some nice blood flow.

Corey: The toxic algae water.

Brian: Yeah. No kidding. Yeah, it sounds like your beaches are kind of like ours. We don’t have those nice sandy beaches. We just have rocks and gravel and pebbles and all that “good stuff”. Yeah, good stuff in quotes.

Corey: Makes it hard.

Brian: Yeah. You definitely earn it.

Corey: Then we have the naval battle. The apex of the naval battle was like — Shredder is like, “All right. You guys did it. You had the battle. There’s only one thing left to do. I need each boat to pick one person and you need to get that person up on your raft and they got to run the gauntlet.”

The gauntlet was that all the other ships got across from each other, and you had to have the person who is on top of the raft had to stand on top of it, Capt. Morgan style, and you had to maneuver the boat through the gauntlet while everybody splash you.

Brian: Wow!

Corey: And it looks so awesome.

Brian: Who was chosen from your boat?

Corey: I honestly don’t remember. It had been whoever was one of the smaller people, because we wanted to get it done. Obviously the rafts were constructed hastily. We wanted to ensure success. So I think it was whoever the smallest person was at that time.

Brian: Yeah, it’s smart. You’re already what? Over 12 hours into the event?

Corey: I think at that point we’re pushing about 14. I did my math wrong when I was coming back on the ferry. I kept like telling everybody it was an 18-hour Tough.” I’m like, “No That doesn’t make any sense, because I’m not late for work yet.”

Brian: Still, that’s a long tough.

Corey: It was significant. Here’s the kicker. I know Captain Dean, who was a little sore on this. This is going on around the same time as I think the hurricanes were hitting Florida. So our patches didn’t get out of HQ in time. So we didn’t actually get patched on the island. We got all our patches in the mail like two weeks later after the Postal Service had resumed. It was so sweet.

I got a great picture on my Facebook. I was driving home from work and I could see that the envelope laying against my front porch with that big arrowhead sitting on it and I’m like, “It’s huge!” I pulled in my driveway and ran up the steps like a little kid on Christmas and tore that thing open.

Brian: That’s awesome. You have to send a picture of what the patches look like, because I’m sure they weren’t the traditional ones.

Corey: Oh, it’s cool. It’s got the — I think the Union Flat on it at the time with like — I think it’s got the arrowhead in the background with this gold lettering for GORUCK, and then a white letting for Battle of Lake Erie 1812, and then you got the silver Tough and it just looks so awesome. I loved it.

Brian: That is great. So do you think this events is going to come back again?

Corey: Oh, God. I hope so. I really, really hope so. This was so much fun.. I know Brian just announced that in January — I think it’s the 19th, they opened up a Battle of 1812 for New Orleans. He’s trying to turn this into a whole series with a special patch for completing all of them. So right now that’s the next one on the list, but I really, really hope they bring back the Lake Erie one so we can work the kinks out of it and make an even better event next year.

Brian: Absolutely. It sounds like it was incredible. There’s seriously unique stuff going on at this event.

Corey: One year of R&D and a lot of love. I got mad respect for Brian for putting this on, because every ounce of work shows.

Brian: Yeah. He is a very dedicated guy and really hard worker. So it’s awesome that it worked out, and I really hope it comes back too, because it sounds like it’s one of those events that people are going to hear about and they’re going to want to do, because there’s just such cool stuff happening there.

Corey: Yeah. Like I said at the beginning, I’m like, “What did I get myself into?” Because it just seemed it was more hassle, but after going through it, I’m so glad I did, because it was so much fun.

Brian: That’s great. What do you think the chances are that you’ll be down at the New Orleans event?

Corey: Like I said, my budget is maxed for this year. So a flight to New Orleans, plus whatever odds and ends we got to carry for that one. Not very likely at this time.

Brian: Yes. It’s the tough part about this traveling for events.

Corey: We just had a Halloween Heavy up here this past weekend. I don’t know we’re B. Yang is from, but he came for the event and I mean I don’t know how you just truck all your equipment across the country like that, because I have enough trouble just trying to get all my gear up to Detroit in one piece, let alone letting the TSA fiddle with my stuff.

Brian: Oh, yeah. I’ve got a hard enough time, give myself half an hour south to an event start. Yeah. I’ve travel a couple of times for events and it’s always, always stressful. Amazon Prime makes it a little bit easier, because if you forget stuff sometimes you can get it in real quick.

Corey: Yeah, I could see that.

Brian: it’s still tough.

Corey: My furthest event, if you don’t count the beach, was Winter Fad in Indie. That was my second distant event compared to beach, which was at 6-1/2 hour drive. Indi is like 3 1/2 hours from where I’m at, I think.

Brian: Very nice. You’ve got a great area it sounds like. A nice radius to get to some pretty awesome events. Corey: Like 2-1/2 hours from everything practically.

Brian: That’s perfect. Is there anything else you want to talk about for this custom Tough?

Corey: I know Shredder’s name is intimidating, but he is a standup fella. Before this event, I never — I didn’t know Cody. The only time I’d seen him was when he was doing the videos for the selection for the year previous to this one when he was talking about how the selection participants undercarriage was getting a little chafed, and that was the only experience I had with Cody up in those point, but when he came onto this event, he was kind of smooth operator and a cool dude and I can’t say enough nice things about either cadre.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’ve had the opportunity of doing an event with Shredder and hopefully sometime in the future I can do one with Cody, because it’s — You hear nothing but good things. Very nice.

Corey: Hoping Jeff can come back next year, and I can rid or some of these anxiety about being around him.

Brian: Yeah. Cory,thank you so much for taking over an hour running through this event. It sounds like it was truly something unique coming from Brian. It must have been really awesome, so I’m glad that we’re able to do this, because I’m excited. I would love to make it out to one of these events, because there’s just really cool stuff going on at it and it sounds like a really great group of people who showed up for it. So thank you again for just taking so much time out of your evening to talk about this. I truly appreciate it, Cory. Thank you.

Corey: No. Thank you my friend. You are my companion on these long days at work were I’m driving from place to place and I need my rucking fixed. So I’m happy to answer the narrative and support the GRT community, and I hope you can make it out here someday, because I know the Detoit squad would love to love to host and maybe we can even do a little show out here.

Brian: That’d be fun.

Corey: It’d be a good time.

Brian: I’ll check the Detroit calendar. Maybe you can send me over the list of events you’re doing for 2018 and maybe we can find something that will work out.

Corey: Right on. I could do it.

Brian: Awesome. Thank you so much again. I truly appreciate it, and this has been amazing. Thank you, Cory.

Corey: Thank you sir. You have yourself a good day now.

Brian: You too.

The post ADR 026: Corey Modrowski AAR (GORUCK Tough Battle of Lake Erie – War of 1812) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 025: Steven Maske AAR (GORUCK Constellation 24)

Thu, 07 Dec 2017 15:00:11 +0000

The new kid on the block for 2018 was definitely the Constellation line of events. There were Constellation 12 events run across the country but only one Constellation 24 event which occurred on the east coast. To get into the Constellation 24 event one must have completed a Constellation 12 event in advance.

Steven Maske completed a Constellation 12 event, showed up for and completed the Constellation 24 event, then took the time to chat with us about his experience at that event. Just a warning: if you are planning on signing up for Constellation 24 and want to be completely surprised at what goes at during that event then maybe skip this episode. Although Steven keeps a lot of it secret there is still a good deal of information in this AAR.

From what we hear GORUCK is planning on updating their Constellation line of events so watch out for those in the future!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian Lohr: I’m here talking with Stephen Mask about the Constellation 24 event that he completed on November 4th, 2017. Constellation 24 is the 24-hour advanced version of GORUCK’s brand new, for this year, Constellation 12 event, which focuses on survival during a disaster.

In order to participate in the Constellation 24 event, one must have already completed at least one Constellation 12. I wasn’t able to attend Constellation 24 unfortunately, so I am incredibly excited that Stephen’s here to chat with me today about Constellation 24.

Stephen, how is it going?

Steven Maske: I’m doing great. I’m glad to be here.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. I’m really excited to have you here. As you know, we’ve talked about Constellation a bit back and forth and I was super excited that they decided to do 24, and I’m very jealous that you were able to go.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I’m glad I was able to make it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to. It’s a bit of a haul for me up in New Hampshire and to being about a 10-hour drive, a little longer than I expected, but I’m glad I did it.

Brian Lohr: Yeah, that’s quite the trip there, but it sounds like it was worth it.

Steven Maske: Yes, absolutely.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Before we get into Constellation 12 and 24, let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you even stumble upon GORUCK as a company?

Steven Maske: It was about four years ago. I was actually just looking for a bag. I’m kind of active on Twitter. There are a lot of people — I work in information security and there’re a lot of info sec people there and I was just poking around seeing what other people were doing, and a handful of people mentioned this thing called GORUCK. Shortly thereafter, I ended up picking up a Radio Ruck and that led to a GR-0, which led to a sandbag, which led to a Bullet Ruck, which led to a kit bag, and then you know how that goes.

Brian Lohr: Absolutely. I know all too well how that GORUCK gear rabbit hole winds up.

Steven Maske: Of course, events come along with that. I had a friend about a year after I bought the Radio Ruck finally talk me into an event that worked on my schedule. We did a Light. About a year later, did a Tough. I have been trying to get another Tough in, but the schedule hasn’t really worked, but I did make it to War Stories and then the 12 and 24-hour Constellations.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. That’s awesome that you’re able to get both a Light and a Tough in before you went to Constellation 12 and 24, because I feel like GORUCK has been running those events for years, so they have them down pat on what they’re trying to do. So when you go to some of these newer events, it’s not always as smooth as one would expect. So that’s great that you had that reference there to fall back on.

When you heard about GORUCK Constellation, were you originally excited? You mentioned you were in information security, and so I know a number of people from that community and all seemed like they were pretty excited by GORUCK moving into this type of an event.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I had actually been holding my breath for Trek to come back, and when Constellation showed up, I figured this will probably be the closest thing that’d get to it.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. I think we’re all holding our breath for Trek to come back.

Steven Maske: It never happened, right?

Brian Lohr: The event that never happened. Yeah. Yeah, the event that never happened, the series of events that never happened.

Steven Maske: Yup.

Brian Lohr: For your first Constellation event, which city was that in and do you remember what class number that was?

Steven Maske: Yup. I was in Boston and it was class number 8.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. I know that the first few events they’re running were a little hit or miss on the Constellation series, but I think at least certainly by my class, they had really gotten to a solid grove and I know they’ve been improving it since. How did your Constellation 12 event go?

Steven Maske: The event was great. They changed the packing list on us a couple of times just by the week leading up to it. They kept tweaking it, but I think they’d learned a lot from the previous events. It was great overall. It was more or less — You’ve done them before. You sit down, you learn something and you get to practice it. I was really surprised, we had about 100 people. I would say about 40% of the people there had never done a GORUCK event before, which really kind of shocked me.

Brian Lohr: Is that amazing? I thought for sure that it would be like a GRT reunion type of event where everyone who shows up has already done at least one other GORUCK event. It was the same experience in Seattle. Just tons of people who had never done a GORUCK event before.

Steven Maske: Yup, and a lot of them were people who are dragged along with other people saying, “Here. Come see what this is like. If you do this, I’ll probably tuck you into a Light later,” seemed to be a lot of the people who are there.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. It seems like a great segue to that first Light or Tough event. For those who are listening and haven’t done a GORUCK Constellation 12 event or looked too much into it, do you want to briefly go through what happened at your event?

Steven Maske: Sure. Yeah. Ours, I don’t know how much they varied, but ours was in a gym in the next town over from Boston in Warehouse District. We’re just at a gym where the cadre would go over different skills and lessons and then they would kick us out. We’d go out into the city and we’d enact what we learned and they give us a time hack on getting back. Although nobody ever got in trouble for missing the time back. So it’s just a little different, I’ve got that Tough event.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. It’s definitely different than the standard GORUCK challenge type event because it was very low on PT. There wasn’t really much pressure to movement. You were instilling pressure on your own team. For those who are listening who haven’t taken part, everyone who shows up, it kinds of like a Scavenger event where you’re broken up into teams. Everyone’s got their individual pods and you learn the lesson, you go out, you work on the lesson and you’re trying to avoid other pods or sneak up on other groups. It’s definitely an interesting event and it’s run overnight, just like the Tough events are. So it’s fun to be out there stalking other groups in the wee hours of the morning.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: How soon after you completed Constellation 12 did you decided that you wanted to register for Constellation 24?

Steven Maske: I wanted to do it right away. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make the timing work. So it took me about a month to square things away with my schedule so that I could actually make it down there. I ended up having to kind of close. I took the day off before. I drove down, did the event, and as soon as the event completed, I actually drove home. It was a little rough there, a little hairy with the lack of sleep, but it was something that I definitely — It was on my bucket list. As soon as I heard about, whether I was able to make it this year or if I wasn’t, I was going to definitely do it next year, but I was very happy to make it work.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. The 24 in Constellation 24 stands for 24 hours, right? So this is a full start to finish event lasting an entire day. So 10-hour day.

Steven Maske: In true GORUCK style, it lasted more than 24 hours. It was about 26 and a half when we’re all set and done.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. Definitely cutting down that time you have to drive back home. So the Constellation events, I mean they have an interesting packing list. You mentioned that your envent they modified it a couple of times, and by the time they got to our event, it was pretty set and they had cut a lot of gear off of the list. Was there anything unique to the Constellation 24 that either gave you pause or think, “What are going to be using this for?”

Steven Maske: No. the packing list was actually surprisingly very similar and very close to the 12-hour. So I was wondering if we were going to go over some of the same stuff. We ended up using some of the things in different ways. But they also had a large section of optional packing list items. We did for the 12-hour as well, but it was like additional medical gears. If you had lock picks, they encouraged you to bring them, “Let’s see. Was there anything else?” There was a handful of things, like extra duct tape and I think extra socks were on there, which is always good for a GORUCK event.

Brian Lohr: Yeah, specially a 24-hour event. It’s nice to get that fresh pair of socks in there.

Steven Maske: Yeah, especially since it rained the entire time.

Brian Lohr: Oh, lucky you.

Steven Maske: Oh yeah. We were drenched.

Brian Lohr: You mentioned that your GORUCK Constellation 12 event took place in a gym and then you would leave and explore the city. Ours did as well. It was in a cross-fit gym in Belleview. Where did the Constellation 24 event take place?

Steven Maske: I’m not surely sure what the park was. It was like a park pavilion that had a bunch of classrooms. This was actually a lot better for me. I like actually sit down in a chair and was like a real classroom style. A couple of them they took out the chairs, because we needed the space to move, but a lot of it was in like more traditional classroom. They actually had a projector with slides for some of it. We would learn and then we’d practice those.

Brian Lohr: That’s very cool. Yeah, our Constellation 12 event, everyone’s sitting on the floor and it gets rough when you’re getting in the five in the morning doing a half an hour learning session sitting on the floor. You can get tired.

I think I had a harder time possibly staying awake at a Constellation 12 event than at a typical GORUCK Tough event, because you’re putting out so much effort the entire time. It’s not too often that you’re sitting in and trying to listen for a set period of time. It’s definitely interesting.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I actually had less problems with that in the 24 event. The first 12 hours was very similar to the 12-hour event, the first 12 hours of the 24, because we had the same kind of format, but it was more compact. It was much more fire hose. We learned so much more in the first 12 hours of the 24 than we did in the 12 hours. But then the second half of the 24 is actually applying everything you learned in the first 12 in mission styles.

More or less what they did is they told us, “Effectively, you’re in Puerto Rico right now with everything that’s going on there.” You’re going to go through real-world scenarios using everything you learned in the first half of Constellation 24.”

Brian Lohr: That’s very cool. What time did this event start at?

Steven Maske: 8 a.m.

Brian Lohr: That’s a surprisingly nice start time. You have your first 12 hours are kind of the fire hose recap, I guess you could call it, of Constellation 12, because everyone who showed up at the 24 should have done a 12 in advance, and then you’re at 8 p.m., so it’s getting dark out and in time to go start applying everything you learned.

Steven Maske: Right. The first 12 hours of the 24 built up a lot of what we learned in the 12-hour. So the medical stuff, we took a step further. We did practiced like doing sutures on like banana peels and we upgraded our gasmasks. Actually, they told us to bring the gasmask that we made in the 12-hour to upgrade the, and if you didn’t have them, just bring the materials to remake it. We actually upgraded them to include a charcoal element and all sorts of different…

Brian Lohr: Really?

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: That is awesome. Yes. I still have got my gasmask in the All Day Ruckoff office. It’s about 20 feet away from me, and building that was quite the experience.

Steven Maske: Yup. I still have mine, and I made sure before I packed it that it was clean with any leftover pepper spray, but this time it had to survive teargas.

Brian Lohr: Really?

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: That’s quite the upgrade from getting pepper sprayed in the face.

Steven Maske: Yeah. Not everybody did so good of a job making theirs second time around.

Brian Lohr: Oh, boy! Whenever anyone asks for advice for Constellation 12, the one piece I always give first is any spare or downtime you have, work on your gas mask and work on making sure that seal is perfect.

Steven Maske: Yeah. Take your time.

Brian Lohr: Mm-hmm. That is not something you want skimp on.

So GORUCK kept their lips pretty tight about what was going to happen at this event. I had asked some cadre and I had even talked to Jason about it and no one was saying anything. How are you feeling leading up to the event?

Steven Maske: I really had no idea what was going to happen. I more or less figured it would be more of what the 12 was, just additional type of information. If figured it would be in the same vein. I figured maybe they’d be something — Some of the cadres had their certain pieces that they don’t want us to talk about, because there was some overlap at the Trek, but overall they just mentioned certain pieces that we couldn’t talk about.

Brian Lohr: Got you. Yeah, I don’t know how I would have felt. I’ve seen some of the pictures from Trek and that was quite the event they’ve put on, and Constellation 24 seems like the closest thing they have now. So I probably would have been a little nervous.

When I was at my Constellation 12 start point, it was pretty fun. Everyone was having a good time chatting. It was kind of like a GRT get together, because we had read about the previous events and we knew there wasn’t going to be too much PTU. It’s going to be a lot of fun stuff and a lot of learning. No one really had the pre-event jitters that you see at a Light, a Tough or a heavy. What was the feeling like at the start of Constellation 24?

Steven Maske: During 24, we had instructions that we had to have our teams established before we arrived. Everybody had to volunteer on Facebook, you needed nine teams. So we had the first nine people to speak up team names. Everybody had two team names. There’s a color and whatever you wanted to call it. We were team orange, also team hue. Then during some parts that they gave us numbers as well.

We had to have those established. So we actually met up. Our team met up in the lobby of the hotel where most people stayed, so we get to introduce ourselves and meet each other. Then we went to the start point.

Brian Lohr: That’s nice. When we started Constellation 12, there was probably about a half an hour or 45 minutes of admin at least at our event getting the teams established, getting everything handed out and making sure everyone knew what team they’re on and what was happening. Getting that stuff out of the way in advance seems like a pretty smart use of time.

Steven Maske: Yeah, that way the team leads went up and they checked everybody in. You didn’t have to wait for your name to be called. There’s very little admin required.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. You met your team in advance, which is probably a really smart thing to do at the hotel. Then you guys all head out to the place where you’ll be learning at the — Was it like a recreational center or like a classroom style area?

Steven Maske: Yeah. It almost felt like a YMCA, but without the gym part. It was just largely classrooms. It was just a big, like community center kind of deal.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Did you spend the first 12 hours in that room or did you head out and explored the city a little bit?

Steven Maske: We didn’t do any city exploring. There was a couple of different rooms where we rotated. Each team was in a different room. Some of it was outside, and we learned what we’re going to learn. We’ve got to practice it most of the time. It was right then and there with the cadre. Then we rotated.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. What was the first module that you started with?

Steven Maske: I think the very first one we did was surveillance, where there was a library across the street and we had a task to find out information about someone we didn’t know. We had description of who they were and who they were meeting and we were supposed to get information from them, information about them to report back. We needed to get information about the building itself. Were there cameras? How many lights were there? Were there lights in the parking lot? Lights on the building?

The cadre intentionally spouted off — I don’t know, probably 20 or 30 different things that he wanted us to find, and he intentionally did it too fast for us to write it all down. It was try and get us to absorb as much information as possible. Go and bring that information back.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Dis every group have to survey the same scene?

Steven Maske: Yup. Yeah. We all did it separately. We knew what the mission was, but then the next team didn’t know. The people who we ended up surveilling came in after, and one of them was a cadre. Who was the other person? I don’t recall who the other person was. They told us whether or not they could see us and what information that we could have gotten that we didn’t get. One of the people hid something in the magazine that they were reading. If we’d actually gone up and looked at the magazine, then we could have actually gotten something that would have helped us later, but I don’t think any of the teams thought that far ahead.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild, and that’s quite the attention to detail on just the first module that you all started with.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. From surveillance, where did you go to next?

Steven Maske: I think the next one was additional medical, where we just learned some additional, first aid. We had actual filament and needles to stitch up and just practice basic surgical stitching in the field. We were told to cut a banana and then basically saw it back together.

Brian Lohr: Nice. That’s not something that I’ve ever done or would have thought to try in a banana. Very interesting.

Steven Maske: The next is the banana has like the different layers that they showed on the screen, like the different layers of the skin, and you more or less mimic that in the banana. It was much easier to look at it and see where you’re supposed to saw.

Brian Lohr: That makes sense. I eat a banana every day and I never really thought of it that way, but I’m guessing I’ll be thinking about that tomorrow. That’s wild.

Okay. We started with surveillance, and then we improved upon the medical skills we learned at Constellation 12. Did every group start with surveillance, or did everyone start in a different position and then you kind of round robin through these different modules?

Steven Maske: Exactly. Everybody started with a different cadre on a different module and then we just rotated through.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. There’s a chance that maybe some of the other groups who had been doing this longer when they got to surveillance, they might have thought about the magazine.

Steven Maske: Maybe, but you learned the thing in a smaller classroom and then you went and did it. Nobody had more time to think about it than anybody else.

Brian Lohr: Got you.

Steven Maske: We weren’t all together at the lessons.

Brian Lohr: From medical, where did you go next?

Steven Maske: I think we went to tying improvised repelling of harnesses.

Brian Lohr: That’s something I did not expect to hear really. Improved repelling harnesses?

Steven Maske: Yup. Basically, they gave us a 10-foot piece of rope and then showed us how to tie it so we could essentially use to repel. Later, in the mission part of it, we would use real equipment, but we actually got to repel off of a three-story garage.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. Did you get to try out your improvised harnesses on like a four-foot wall or something like that?

Steven Maske: We didn’t. They kind of split that piece of the training into two pieces. They showed us the different types of knots you would tie and they tied it to these concrete pillars and basically we did it horizontally instead of vertically so you could kind of lean back and see where the tension would be, and then had us show how to tie the harnesses themselves and we never hooked them up or anything. I think that was more of a safety concern and insurance.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. I was going to say I’m not sure how you get insurance for that. Trying to explain that to the person you’re buying the event insurance from, that people will be making their own harnesses and repelling.

Steven Maske: Yup.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild that you actually got to repel off a building. I’m excited to get to that part, because that is really cool. From this improvised repelling devices, what did you go to next?

Steven Maske: The next thing, they had a beater of a van that they bought off of Craigslist where we did a bunch of practice on. We practiced picking the lock, the door lock. A couple of different ways of doing that. We effectively hot-wired the vehicle and then we also siphoned gas out of it.

Brian Lohr: That’s awesome, and those are both very useful tasks to have in a situation that you’re kind of prepping for at one of these events.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. I’m guessing that’s probably smart that they bought it off Craigslist instead of using a rental.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I imagine that it’s pretty destructive getting the car to run. That’s not something that I’m sure your rental insurance would cover.

Brian Lohr: Yeah, probably not. Hot-wiring your car, siphoning gas. Did you say that you’ve learned how to break into a car or was that not taught?

Steven Maske: Yeah. We worked on a couple of different ways to bypass the door locks with your traditional movie Slim Jim that you see. We used a couple of shims for other ways to pop it enough to hook the door.

Brian Lohr: Very cool.

Steven Maske: I think there was a third one. I don’t recall what it was. It was a very big fire hose kind of day.

Brian Lohr: Oh, yeah. I mean that already seems like a ton of information and we’ve only made it through four modules, which isn’t even half of the event. Going from there, what they have you do next?

Steven Maske: I think our next one was lock picking.

Brian Lohr: That’s cool. Did you practice on — Was it padlocks? Door locks?

Steven Maske: They mostly had padlocks, but somebody had made a contraption that had a whole bunch of different locks in it, and fortunately lock picking is something that I have some experience with just being in security, but whatever reason every single security conference has a lock pick village for just practicing. So I brought my own set of lock picks and I didn’t have to wait to share.

Brian Lohr: Isn’t that interesting? That even in computer security, there’s still a lock pick village or something along those lines that are at conferences.

Steven Maske: Sure. You get into the red teaming portion of it. There’s a logical piece to a lot of your offense of security too. So you might need to break into a server room to be able to perform your function.

Brian Lohr: Absolutely. Moving from lock picking, what did you guys get into next?

Steven Maske: The next one we can’t talk about. That was the one that they said was a no go. Anybody who’s done Trek might be able to guess what it was, but —

Brian Lohr: There you have it. If you want to know what this module is, you have to sign up for Constellation 24 when it comes back probably in 2018. So going from the module we can’t talk about, what was after that?

Steven Maske: I think the last one was more like disaster recovery prep. What would you do in a — This one was more just educational. There wasn’t anything to practice with this one. It was what you do. Actually, maybe this is earlier on than — I might be getting the order out of line, but there was a lot of what would you do in a hurricane situation. What do you pack? What do you have on hand? What do you do if you stay? What do you need to do if you go, if you decide to evacuate?

Brian Lohr: That’s awesome. That is very cool. It’s fine if you get them out of order, because the only people who own that were people who were there. So don’t worry about it.

Steven Maske: Great.

Brian Lohr: Moving form that, was there another module after that one?

Steven Maske: There had to have been. I want to say there were two more, but I’m kind of blanking. We had a training on different type of formations on movement, and those were more — Didn’t really apply to the class, but if we were in a situation where we had people that we were protecting and we have the team more armed, what types of formations we have best to protect the ace in our person and what type of movement would be best to protect the group as a whole.

Brian Lohr: That’s interesting. Those would be super interesting lessons. Have we made it through all of the modules?

Steven Maske: I think so. I may have missed one or two here or there, but I think that was the majority of them.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. That was the first half of Constellation 24, was just a ton of training it sounds like. What did they do after that? Did they group you altogether to start the second half?

Steven Maske: The second half, they had us go to another location and then they had all of us. It was around 8:00. We were told at that point we would not have access to our vehicles for any reason. Some people would ran out for snacks and that sort of thing, and drop off things as we were done using them.

Once we went to the second location, we were all piled in the back of a white panel van. I think there were 96 of us. They just drove us somewhere. They just dropped us off somewhere in Virginia.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. I guess two factors. I didn’t realize there were 96 people who signed up for Constellation 24.

Steven Maske: Yup.

Brian Lohr: That seems like a solid turnout for a capstone style event like that.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I was surprised with that too, especially how many people flew.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. I was just about to ask. Did a lot of people fly in for it?

Steven Maske: Yeah. It seemed that about — My team didn’t have so many people, but I would guess at least a third of people flew in for this.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. That is awesome. They shove you on to a giant fan, drive you out — Was it the middle of nowhere or was it a small town? What did you see when they dropped you off?

Steven Maske: We were next to a field off of just some road and all the team leads had maps and we each had a different mission, each team, and then we were told to accomplish our mission and effectively we were told that imagine that you’re in Puerto Rico that’s everything that’s going on there with lack of energy, lack of necessary medical supplies in some cases. Just before we got in the van, they also took all of our nutrition. So any CLIF bar and gels and jerkies. They took all those from us saying that we’d have to earn them back later.

Brian Lohr: It sounds like a Heavy.

Steven Maske: I haven’t had the pleasure yet.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. So hopefully everyone eat something before they got in that van, because all the food was taken when you were dropped off. The mission you’re given, everyone had a different mission it sounded like. Did they all playoff of a skill you had learned in the previous 12 hours?

Steven Maske: Yeah. We had to use all those skills in different ways throughout the night.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Your first mission, I don’t know if you can get in detail on it, but how long did it last at least?

Steven Maske: All the missions lasted anywhere from — We were told that my team did very, very well on all the time hacks. We got to a lot of places a lot faster. We actually surprised a couple of cadre because they weren’t expecting us, because we got there, the movements were faster than expected. Once you got there — Between rucking and the mission itself, they lasted anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

Brian Lohr: Nice. A decent chunk of time then.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Were there any teams that were unreasonably late?

Steven Maske: I heard there was one that struggled with getting places and the cadre weren’t aware of their location at one point.

Brian Lohr: That can always be tricky in an event like that. At least with Constellation 12, you have the home-base and everyone who went out and then came back to that, but it sounds like here you’re just dropped off and you’re probably making your way back to where you started or back to a certain location instead of just heading back to your drop off point.

Steven Maske: Yeah. We had a map and we ended up in the original location before they picked us up.

Brian Lohr: Very nice. Which are the missions would you say resonated with you the most or was one of your favorite things?

Steven Maske: Most memorable one was where we’re told that we were supposed to meet some people in a cemetery and that there had been an event where they were casualties or injuries and they played it up rather well. They have people there who were essentially acting roles. Once we arrived, there were two people who were on the ground. They had very convincing looking fake wounds that we had to treat and address. One of the cadre kept spraying fake blood everywhere, and I didn’t realize it at first, because it was really dark at that point and there’s no lighting in the cemetery, so we’ve got our red lids and I didn’t realize until after we got the street lights. From the knees down, I was covered in fake blood. I was curious if we were going to blow up any law enforcement or just people out in the street and wondering what was going on.

Brian Lohr: Yeah, that might attack a little bit of attention.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: That is awesome though. Very cool. Were all the groups together in the cemetery for that or was it similar to the first 12 where the groups kind of rolled through one after the other?

Steven Maske: Yeah. We rotated different missions. Just as we were leaving that particular one, one of the few times that we saw another team was just as were leaving that when we saw them coming up behind us to do the same thing. I think that one took a little bit longer than most of the others, at least for us for some reason. Because the two people we had to treat, and then they also had just some more or less quartered there for us to actually stitch up as well, and we had to improvise a gurney.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. One of the things that was interesting with the Constellation 12 events, I think they started to add into later numbers, teams were hunting teams. So it sounds like there wasn’t too much of that in the Constellation 24 event. It was more about survival.

Steven Maske: Yup. Yeah, at no point did we hunt any other teams. We did have to survey some additional cadre later on. At one point we were set up to do a mission that ended up being something without giving too much away. We were told to go something, and the situation was not what we were told it was where it had been with every other mission, and we ended up getting captured by a cadre and handcuffed.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: At our Constellation 12 event, it was one of the last missions, but the cadre were rolling around in their car capturing anyone they can find. That’s interesting that they kind of expanded on that with 24.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. At what point did the repelling come in?

Steven Maske: That was about three-quarters away through the night, maybe closer towards the end. I don’t remember what the particular scenario was. You know what? There was a mob coming to clash with police, I think, and we were stuck in a building and we had to go through the third floor of this garage and the only way out was to repel down the building.

Brian Lohr: That’s awesome.

Steven Maske: They had a cadre there to hook us up and do everything right. They’d literally just — They anchored us to a vehicle and we just went over the side one at a time.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. This is, you said about, two-third, three-quarters of the way through the event portion, so that’s probably nearing the end of it. Everyone’s probably pretty tired. How did you feel during that?

Steven Maske: I think we’re all amped up, because we were constantly moving. Everything we were doing required a degree of attention. We had earned our food back at that point, but halfway through we had the mission, we had to go pick up some supplies and we went to pick up the supplies, they turned out to be in a locked box that we had to pick, and when you pick the lock and open it up, the supplies was actually our food.

Brian Lohr: That is really cool. A great way to get you to use those learned lock picking skills.

Steven Maske: Yeah. It was a lot of fun.

Brian Lohr: Were there any other — Without giving too much away on Constellation 24, were there any other memorable events or missions that you took part in?

Steven Maske: Oh, let’s see. There was one point where we had to use what we learned about the car. They moved the same car and actually put it on the street. This was one of the places where there was one possible physical piece of it. We had to pick the lock on the car, start the car and siphon gas out of it without being seen by any other vehicle on the street. We had a station lookout and they had red lights that they would flash at us, and if they flash the lights, we had to cover and not be seen by the vehicle. If we were seen the vehicle, we’d have to hold the rucks above our head for a minute and every time we were seen, it was an additional minute. First time is one minute. Second time is two minutes. Third time is three minutes.

Brian Lohr: Ouch! Maintaining an overhead press for minutes is a — That’s not fun.

Steven Maske: We didn’t have a problem with that, because we had looked outs and you just pay attention to your lookouts while you’re working. We were able to do that without any issues.

Brian Lohr: Do you know if there are any other teams that got caught in that?

Steven Maske: I don’t know. I didn’t hear if anybody did or not.

Brian Lohr: You probably would have heard if there was some team that was doing five minutes of overhead presses after doing four and three and two and one.

Steven Maske: Probably.

Brian Lohr: That’s one of the stories that usually makes it out.

Steven Maske: Yup.

Brian Lohr: That’s wild. Everyone their different missions and they all go and do them, and so you kind of rotate missions like you’re rotating learning experiences at the beginning in the classroom. When everyone finished their missions, was there kind of a culminating exercise at the end that everyone did together or did it just kind of turned into the patch ceremony?

Steven Maske: At the very end, we had a meet up, which is outside that initial library that we talked about. We met there once. Everybody was there. We thought we’re pretty much done. They told us we were going to hop back in the van and we thought at that point they were taking us back to our vehicles and we’re going to do the patch ceremony there. Instead, they took us to a paintball field.

Brian Lohr: That’s a surprise, I’m guessing.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I was not expecting that, because at that point were like half an hour — We’re about 24-1/2 hours, so we figured we’re pretty much done, but we get to this paintball field which I think it felt like a long drive. I didn’t have my watch on, so I felt like it was at least half an hour in the back of that vehicle, 24 people who had been doing things for 24 hours.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. It’s probably not the best smelling environment.

Steven Maske: Yeah. Honestly, that was the hardest part of the night for me. It was more the motion sickness of moving and bumping, because nobody is sitting. Everybody was standing too. Of course, the cadre being cadre would occasionally break hard or make a hard right or hard left and bounce us around a little bit just for fun. I think that was honestly the hardest piece of the entire night was being a little woozy getting out of that.

Brian Lohr: Oh, wow!

Steven Maske: At the field itself, we practiced a little bit of what everybody else had learned. We had somebody actually in the paintball field who was injured and it was the responsibility of the team to get in there, get the person and get them out while cadre are hunting you.

Brian Lohr: Yeah, I was going to say. So you’re at a paintball field, so I’m guessing the cadre have paintball guns.

Steven Maske: Yes. Everybody had, I think, 200, 250 rounds both cadre and participants.

Brian Lohr: At least you guys had something too. If I were Rooney, I probably would have just given you guys the pistols and give the cadre the actual guns.

Steven Maske: Yeah, and that’s where the formation piece of the training came in.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. What a fun way to practice that final piece there with the formation and the moving as a group. So from the paintball field, did all the teams have to individually go in one at a time and rescue the person?

Steven Maske: They more or less all went in roughly the same time and got different people out.

Brian Lohr: Okay. There are a number of people in there and then?

Steven Maske: Yeah. That whole mission piece beginning to end was about an hour. There was a little bit of the admin there, because everybody had to sign a form. It’s just your basic paintball waiver that you release the paintball place of any liability. There was a little briefing on the equipment.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. You probably signed a worse waiver getting into this event.

Steven Maske: Yeah, right. At one point the cadre were talking about us using our masks that we had made in there, but that didn’t fly with the owner.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. He’s probably a little if-y on the situation already. So homemade masks probably wouldn’t made him very happy.

Steven Maske: He seems like a good guy, I have to understand, he’s got insurance too.

Brian Lohr: Yup. He’ll have to explain that to someone why he let people with homemade masks play on his field. That’s quite the way to end the event. It’s probably a shock with the false finish kind of like when you’re 12 hours into a GORUCK Tough event or something and you run past the start point and you’re like, “But isn’t that it right there?”

Steven Maske: Yup.

Brian Lohr: But that sounds like a really fun time.

Steven Maske: Yeah. I really enjoyed it. I had enjoyed 24 more than I enjoyed 12.

Brian Lohr: It’s good to know, because it sounds like you enjoyed 12 quite a bit.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Would you sign up for another Constellation 24 event or is it one of those events where you do it once and then you’re pretty good?

Steven Maske: I guess it depends on how much they plan on changing it from year-to-year. It’s not like a Tough where you get different cadre who do different welcome parties, you take different routes in different cities. If they plan on teaching the same thing every year, then I don’t know. The missions I imagine could change, but a lot of the skills wouldn’t, so I don’t know if I would need the first 12 hours of the 24. I did overhear that there might be a — There might be something else to follow at 24 later on. I don’t think I was supposed to hear that, but I overheard a couple of cadre talking about another event that might be along the same veins of this. We’ll see if that materializes or not.

Brian Lohr: Maybe bring Trek back.

Steven Maske: It could be a Constellation 48.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. I mean that that second half might turn into what part of Trek was like. That could be really interesting.

Steven Maske: Yeah, or they could just bring back Trek. I’d be happy with that.

Brian Lohr: Yup. I think a lot of people would be. It was one of those events that fizzled out pretty quickly. There are less than 10 of them as far as I know. It’d be nice to bring that back. Is there anything else about Constellation 24 that you want to talk or mention that anything that we might have skipped over?

Steven Maske: You know what? I think that’s about it. There a couple of more missions in there we got to practice, but it more or less mirrored the lessons we learned along the way.

Brian Lohr: Very nice. Was everyone pretty excited at the patch ceremony at the end? It sounded like it was quite the event in terms of length.

Steven Maske: Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I think having a paintball shot at you wakes you up even if you are a little tired.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. It probably helped for your drive home, right?

Steven Maske: Five-hour energy was plenty to get me going.

Brian Lohr: Very nice. Was that a 10-hour drive back as well?

Steven Maske: Yeah. Both times Google said it was going to be eight, so that’s why I did it and be, “Hey, no problem at eight hours. I can do that.” Yeah, each time, it ended up being 10 instead. Yeah, what are you going to do?

Brian Lohr: Yeah. That’s traffic. Overall, was it all worth it?

Steven Maske: Yeah. I would definitely do it again. Well, I’m definitely glad I’m signed up. If they do change it from year to year, I’ll definitely signup for another one.

Brian Lohr: Awesome. You could definitely make the same decision to go for the first time.

Steven Maske: Yeah, definitely.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Man! It sounds like such an awesome event. That’s how I felt when Constellation 12 ended. I was like, “Oh! This was really cool, but I want to keep doing the real-world scenario. It sounds like they really step the game up with Constellation 24. That’s also nice to hear them talk about possibly expanding it with a Constellation, who knows, 36 or 48, because if they’re thinking forward, that means at the very least, they’re probably be keeping Constellation 24 around for people like myself who weren’t able to make it out.

Steven Maske: Yeah. It’s a good point.

Brian Lohr: I know they haven’t added it to the calendar for 2018 yet, but here’s to hoping there’s another Constellation 24 or 2.

Steven Maske: There was not a lot of the special events. I don’t see any beached or accent or navigator is really on there either.

Brian Lohr: Yeah. I think they’re still getting around to them. They just added an accent on August 23rd, I think. They’re coming out with them, but I think they’re still trying to finalize cadre schedules.

Steven Maske: Sure. That make sense.

Brian Lohr: Or at least it’s what I’m telling myself, because I want there to more of those events.

Steven Maske: Yeah. Definitely. If they do a navigator, like the Adirondack Mountains, I’ll definitely be doing that next year.

Brian Lohr: That would be great. I would love to get out to a navigator. That’s the thing with these capstone GORUCK events now, is that there’s so many different styles of them. It would make sense that you’d want to explore one of those instead of doing Constellation 24 again.

Steven Maske: Yeah.

Brian Lohr: Very cool. Before we get going, are there any shout outs you want to give or is there anything else you want to talk about?

Steven Maske: I had a great team. Team Orange, Team Hue was just amazing. Everybody on my team was awesome. We all worked really well together. We got props from the cadres along the way on how well we were doing specifically, which was really nice to hear, because we had no idea how everybody else was doing. Awesome team all around. The cadre were great. They had just amazing information to impart to us. It wasn’t a beat down like a regular Light or a Tough, but they had just a lot of great information to give us and it was really, really cool.

Special thanks to my wife for putting up with me with this weird strange hobby and just for being awesome all around in general.

Brian Lohr: That’s great. That’s awesome. I guess just to finalize, for someone who completed Constellation 12 and is worried that Constellation 24 might have like too bit of a beat down or too much more endurance required of them, would you say that in terms of physical exertion and activity, was it along the same lines as Constellation 12?

Steven Maske: Yeah. If you can stay up for 24 hours and, in that time, walk 10 to 15 miles, I think — We had a couple with GPS running and it was somewhere around 12 miles total for the entire 24 hours. It’s not hard at all. The ruck is lighter than — Your hydration bladder is your heaviest thing. If you can walk, you can do this.

Brian Lohr: There you have it. You don’t even need to carry your own food, right? Because they take it from you.

Steven Maske: Well, yeah. We didn’t have our food for half of it.

Brian Lohr: So the ruck is even lighter. So if you’re worried about the weight of your ruck, don’t worry, you won’t have to carry your own food, because you won’t get it.

Awesome, Stephen. Thank you so much for taking an hour out of your day to talk to me about this. I was really excited to hear that you’re able to make it out to Constellation 24 and I’m just so glad we’re able to touch base and talk about it because it seemed it was truly an amazing event. I was definitely jealous on November — I think it was 5th when all the Instagram and Twitter pictures started coming through showing the Red Constellation patch, because I knew the event was over. So very cool. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate this.

Steven Maske: It was my pleasure.

The post ADR 025: Steven Maske AAR (GORUCK Constellation 24) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 024: Margaret Blankenbaker Interview (Sew Strong)

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:00:34 +0000

Margaret Blankenbaker is the founder of Sew Strong, a GRT run sewing company which produces some very unique products. In this podcast we interview her and learn how she found GORUCK, what her first event was like, and where Sew Strong came from.

Margaret is one of the nicest people we’ve ever met and we were so excited to get this scheduled. We can’t think of a better company to round out the month of November than Sew Strong.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Today I’m chatting with Margaret, who is the founder of Sew Strong. Margaret is a fellow GRT and makes the incredibly popular patch tags and stash tags they’ve probably seen in the Tough group. How are you doing today, Margaret?

Margaret: I’m doing great, fine. Thank you so much for having me on. I love listening to your podcast, and so it’s a great honor to get beyond here and talk to you in person.

Brian: I’m so excited to have you on here. As you know as well, we have a lot of friends in common and everyone just has amazing things to say about you, so I’m incredibly excited that we’re able to talk and finally connect. Thank you for being on.

Margaret: Thank you for having me.

Brian: Before we get into Sew Strong, I want to talk a little bit about your involvement in GORUCK and the GORUCK Community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK?

Margaret: It’s kind of a funny story. In 2015, I had done my first 5k. My mother-in-law actually gave me a challenge, she was going to do the 5k and she said, “Do you want to go with me?” I said, “Sure.” I did. I trained for it and I did the 5k and I loved it and it was such an incredible experience to train for something and then do something physically hard.

Right around that time, I’ve always had a love for backpack. I love sewing them, I love buying them, and I was Googling slick black backpacks, and of course the GR1 came up because it’s very slick and very black and I thought, “This is the coolest backpack I had ever seen.” The pocket design and structure, I had never seen a backpack dealt like that before and it was so practical with really great materials and I fell in love with the backpack first.

Then after doing the 5k I had been looking for another event to do, and then after I found the backpack I found GORUCK have events as well, and so I kind of fell in love all at once with the whole world of the excellent peer that they have, but then also these really neat events that they did.

Brian: That’s awesome. That is really cool. You’ve found GORUCK through the backpacks and then you found the events. Did you sign up for an event right away?

Margaret: I did. When I was at the 5k, I was really blown away by how these different people from difference backgrounds would come together and do this hard physical — To me, was a hard physical thing, and the end they give you free bananas and free granola bars and get a t-shirt. It was like the coolest event. I couldn’t believe this even existed.

I have always loved watching Special Forces documentaries and special Operations documentaries. When I found the backpack and then I found these events and I thought, “Oh my goodness! This is going to be people coming together that have never met and they’re going to do this hard physical thing and you get to spend several hours with an American hero. This is awesome. I was so pumped about this event.

My first event I signed up for was a Light and they said, “If you can do the 5k, you can do a Light.” I signed up and I joined a gym for the first time and I started rucking and I just took like a $15 backpack from Walmart and filled it up with my husband’s barbell weight and started rucking everywhere Louisville I could go and started training for the event. It took about six months of training that I did. Yeah, the first event was the Light in October of 2015 with Cadre David.

Brian: That’s awesome. That is really, really cool. You trained for months up to the event. Your first event was a Light. Leading into that first event, did you get nervous at all or you’re just super pumped because it sounds like you’re amazingly excited about it?

Margaret: I was really, really excited. I get like uber-duber excited, like almost to an annoying degree before an event. I come in just like so excited, but I was nervous. I tried to read every book I could find on Amazon or on Reddit or wherever people were recommending on mental toughness. I may not be physically strongest at the event, but I know I need to learn how to not quit. That’s the beauty of training for a GORUCK event, that there’s the physical training, but then there’s the mental toughness training. I just did a lot of visualization, and while I was rucking I would be thinking about how do you not quit and how do you something harder physically than what you did yesterday and you do that today to push yourself even further.

The more I read and researched, the more I kind of started to realize that these amazing, not only Special Forces soldiers or Special Operations soldiers or elite soldiers or Navy SEALs, one of the things that was a common thread in these books on mental toughness that I red was visualizing the end game or the end goal. I would visualize the end of the Light and I knew if I had a gift to give the cadre at the end, I would be able to finish the event. Found a sewer, so I quilted a gun clinging mat. It’s like a regular quilt of honor, but it was like a mini one, and I wanted to thank him for his service. This was I had something to give at the end of the event. I know I had to finish so I could give him this gift and thank him for serving our country. That training really helped me lead up to the event and give me courage to — It’s not only to show up, but to do it and join the team and be a part of the team.

Brian: That’s awesome. That’s both a really nice thing to do and it’s just such a smart idea to have some — Because you spent so much time making it and if you had quit you wouldn’t have been able to present it. It’s a good way to buy-in.

Margaret: Yes, exactly.

Brian: You completed the Light, I take it, and presented the quilt to the cadre. Did you have a good time at the Light?

Margaret: Oh my goodness! It was so amazing. It was such a blast. It was all the fun I had had at a 5k but on the steroids. The first — I’m so glad I have done this mental toughness training and thinking through and just deciding, “I’m not going to quit,” because within the first 10 minutes my body was physically ready. It was so much harder than what I had thought of and what I had expected.

Cadre David is such an excellent human, but as a cadre, he is so intense and kind of scary. His theme was to do zoo animals, and so we were doing, as you can imagine, bear crawls and crab walks and we had to pretend to be snakes and put our rucks on our backs and slither through the grass. The first 10 minutes was just so intense and it felt like an hour, but it was amazing. Even in the middle of the physical difficulty of doing it and feeling like, “I don’t think I can breathe anymore. I don’t know if I can take another step.”

Our team came together, and there are several GRTs that had done many events that were there that just kind of showed us what to do and how to come together, and that’s what I love about GORUCK events, is you can take a group of people that have never met or that comes from very different beliefs or walks of life and backgrounds; military or civilian, and through adversity and carrying really heavy things and doing really hard things while you’re chaffing, you bond with these other people and you form a team and there’s something really special about that that I think GORUCK is kind of dialed into. That’s what the cadre did so well at each of the events. Yes, it was a total blast and I loved it so much.

Brian: That’s awesome, and it’s so true. It’s one of the reasons why I keep coming back time and time again to events is it’s just amazing to me all the new people there who are willing to sign up for something like this. It’s an amazing community.

Margaret: Yes.

[0:10:15.5] Brian: You completed the GORUCK Light. Did you want to sign up for another event right away or were you pretty burnt out from all the physical aspects of that?

[0:10:25.7] Margaret: You know what? If there has been another event that night, I rather would have been at that night. I was so excited and fell in love with this whole new community and the concept of pushing yourself beyond what you could do physically. Even within that 10 minutes when I felt like I couldn’t physically go on, I was like, “I’m going to do this the rest of my life. These are the coolest events I’ve ever been a part of.” I was ready to sign up for another one.

Brian: Oh my gosh! I love it. I love it. You have signed up for another event after that one?

Margaret: I did. Yes. I did my Christmas present. I got so excited about the event. I told everybody about the events. My husband laughed because he said — I told people about GORUCK, about as much as I told them about Visa. He said I was like evangelizing for GORUCK, “Oh! You guys need to try this event, and this is so cool.”

For Christmas, he gave me the gift of a Tough the next April, which was so special to get to do with my husband and for us to train together and to ruck together and do the event, complete the event together. Cadre Aaron was our cadre, and he was amazing, incredibly learned so many lessons. I love that each event that you go to, even if you do multiple events with the same cadre, but each event and each cadre give you such a different set of lessons and perspectives and you come away growing in a whole new area you didn’t even know existed. Like with Cadre David, his big lessons were perception, action and will. With Cadre Aaron, John and I were at a whole new other set of lessons of appreciating the sacrifice of soldiers that lay down their lives and learning how to truly honor them and how to push past what you literally think you can’t go on, you can go two more lies carrying someone on your back. That was our next event.

Then the other event that I had done was last October, the Buffalo Trace event here in Louisville, and I’ve suckered my best friend into signing up for the event and we did it and we had Cadre Jeffrey and Cadre Danny Stokes were the cadre there, and that one was really a fun event too.

Brian: That’s awesome. I love how you can sign up for the same event, another GORUCK Tough, but just based on the cadre that shows up, it can be an entirely different event. I think that’s one of the amazing things that keep people coming back again and again.

Margaret: Yeah, absolutely.

Brian: Your husband bought you a GORUCK Tough entry for Christmas. That’s correct?

Margaret: Yes.

Brian: That’s amazing. He did that event with you.

Margaret: Yes, he did.

Brian: Was that his first event?

Margaret: It was, and we both always spent time watching Special Operations documentaries together and reading biographies together of American heroes. He saw how much fun I had for the event and how much fun I had rucking and I said, “Hey, listen, you’ve got a backpack, let’s just get out and ruck together.”

It really does something for your marriage where you get out and take a walk with yourself and things kind of that maybe are intense at home can kind of dissipate when you’re out and you’ve got weight in your backpack and you’re walking all over our nation and pushing the limits of what you think you can do together.

I think GORUCK is great for marriages. If you have spouse that is willing, go for it, find an event. To me, it was the most romantic gift, because it was something we could do together and that was really precious. On top of that, he got me a GR1, which I mean that was amazing, because I got to have the actual ruck in the event too. It was really special.

Brian: That is awesome. What a wonderful gift. This episode will be airing in November, so people will be looking for gifts for their spouses. As Margaret has said, a GORUCK Tough event is a good gift.

Margaret: Yes, agreed. Agreed.

Brian: That’s amazing. Let’s move in to Sew Strong a little bit if you’re ready. When did you decide to start Sew Strong?

Margaret: We officially started with the name of our company, Sew Strong, in the fall of 2016, a little over a year ago. Yeah, fall of 2016 is when we officially started.

Brian: That’s awesome, and it sounds like you’ve been sewing for a decent amount of time before that.

Margaret: Yes, I’ve been sewing for about six years now. I think it’s six or six and a half years now. I love sewing. It was a hobby I’ve had into kind of later in life. The sweet lady at our church who’s been a mentor for me for many years taught a sewing class and I said, “I’ve never done that before.” My mom was a beautiful seamstress, and her mother was a seamstress, and so I thought, “This would be a great opportunity to try this out,” and I did. I got behind the sewing machine and just — Oh my goodness! It was like two friends meeting for the first time. I loved it. I love taking a pile of fabric, cutting it up into pieces and then making something, especially a gift for someone else that will touch their heart that you took the time to make it. I just thought that was really special, and so I’ve loved sewing now for about six years.

Brian: That’s amazing. What was the first thing that you sewed that you were proud of?

Margaret: The very first thing I made was a Christmas stockings, and I made one for my mom and one for my girls and one for my dog. That was really special to make, because our dog didn’t have a Christmas stocking, and this way he was able to have his own. That was the very first thing that I made.

Brian: That is wonderful. Then I guess following up on that, what is the most interesting or possibly different thing that you’ve sewn?

Margaret: Well, the most different thing, I can’t tell you yet, because it’s one of our new products that’s going to come out in 2018 that is super-duper cool. You’ll have to stay tuned for that. Could I tell you one of my favorite things that I’ve sewn?

Brian: Yes.

Margaret: Okay. One of my favorites was the quilt of honor that I made for one of the cadre last year, and it was so special to make. It was a large American flag and I was able to get the members of — It was for Cadre Aaron. I was able to contact him and get the names of the men on his ODA team in Special Forces and embroider their names along the outside of a flag. One of the members on his team had passed way, been killed in the line of duty. He’d been in Special Forces and then he became a law enforcement officer. It was such an honor to literally lift my machine, sew their names into the fabric and pray for them and pray for their families. You can do research on their names and find out who they were and the lives that they — The one soldier that passed away, the life that he lived and the legacy he left behind and literally stitching every 50 star on there. It was just an incredible experience and such an honor to spend that much time with Old Glory and red, white and blue fabric everywhere. I just have the national anthem on repeat and every version you kind of ever imagine while I was sewing it and it was such a patriotic experience. Then it’s really neat, the Cleveland area rucking crew. Do you know Brian Singland out in Cleveland?

Brian: He and Molon Labe CrossFit out there, they were amazing, and I was able to mail the quilt to them and they were able to present it to Cadre Aaron for me, and that was last year that we did that. That was my most favorite thing that I got to sew.

Margaret: That’s incredible. What a story. That’s amazing. I can definitely see why that’s the favorite thing you’ve made. Moving into Sew Strong, what was the first product that you made?

Brian: The first product we made was kind of even before Sew Strong was even formed. After the first Light I did, I was so pumped about this patch. The patch, even though it was just a piece of fabric with some Velcro on it, it represented so much to me. The memory of the event, the training that went into the event and the cadre, Cadre David, and all the lessons that he taught and all these new friends that I got to meet and several of them I’m still friends of today.

This patch I loved so much, and I didn’t have a GORUCK bag at the time, and so I wanted a way to carry this patch around with me and just show it to everybody I could show it too. I went to Home Depot and got some Velcro and I was like, “I’m going to make myself a key fob out of Velcro so I can carry this thing around. I did and I got a grommet set and put a grommet in it and that’s what the original patch tag was, where it came from.

We started with the patch tags and if I used it, I thought, “Oh! This would be a great gift for someone.” When I do events, especially if it’s a smaller event, I like to buy gifts for all the participants or make gifts. So the first event, I made bookmarks for everyone. For the Tough, I wanted to make these what they didn’t know would be a patch tag, but would eventually become a patch tag. I made a whole bunch of them and gave them out at the events. I told three GRT, Tina Streeter. She is an amazing human, one of the strongest one that I know. I had sent her a picture of these and she said, “Oh! Margaret, you need to sell those on Ruck Mall.” I thought, “Oh, no. I just make them for gifts for people.” She really encouraged me to start selling them. I’ve put them on Ruck Mall and I thought, “Oh, probably just of couple of people will buy them.”

They started flying like hot cakes, and I found myself all of a sudden sewing every free minute I got and we were able to get — I’d set up vise a in my garage so I grind the grommets in and not hammer them all in by hand, but to grind them in with a vise.

That’s where our first product came from, was the patch tag, and we have the patch tag before we even had Sew Strong.

Margaret: That’s awesome. Did the first patch tag, that kind of give you the idea then to start Sew Strong? It did. Once we started selling them a lot on Ruck Mall, I kind of started thinking, “You know what? This could be really neat to have a small business.” I’ve been looking for something to do kind of on the side to just have a well-supplemental income, just something on the side, a hobby that I love, and it kind of fell into place with the patch tag selling them and so many people wanting them all over the country and I thought, “Well, maybe we can start a business. I’ve never done that before.”

So I went to the library and got books on how to start a business and watched a lot of YouTube videos and that’s where we started the actual business. The name comes from — Sew Strong comes from a bible verse in Proverbs where it talks about, describing a woman and what a strong woman looks like. It’s Proverbs chapter 31, and it says, “She makes her arms strong for her tasks.” I really think that that’s a picture of womanhood, and especially motherhood as well, that often times we aren’t naturally strong enough for what we need to do, but we have to make ourselves strong. For me, a lot of my strength comes from God and from my faith, but also from doing really hard, physical things and having wonderful people around me that push me to do strong things. Since I love to sew, Sew Strong was born, and that’s where the name came from.

Brian: I love it. That’s just such a wonderful history behind the name. That is really cool.

Margaret: Thank you.

Brian: It sounds like the reception to your initial product was pretty awesome from the community.

Margaret: Oh, yes. If you were to pick a customer-base, I’m so thankful to Jason McCarthy for starting GORUCK for so many reasons, but also because he has kind of made this catalyst of a way that all these amazing people, GRTs, can come together and interact with each other. They’re the best customers ever. They’re very straight-shooting. They’ll tell you what they like, what they don’t like and they’re, for the most part that I’ve met, almost all of them have been very honest and very encouraging and very supportive. Not only do they buy your products, but then they go tell three other people, “Hey, you need to go buy this.” It’s a great community of people that love to work hard and do hard things and just will literally give you the shirt off their back to help you. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the best customers in the world, is the majority of the people who buy them. They were very supportive in the beginning.

Brian: That is awesome. I’d have to agree. The GRT community is the best community. It might be because I’m part of it and you’re part of it, but —

Margaret: I’ll take it.

Brian: Yeah, it’s just been so wonderful talking with all these different GRT on the podcast and just interacting on Facebook, Twitter, just everywhere. It’s really hard to find a GRT that’s a bad person. It’s been great.

Margaret: I agree. Brian, I will say that you have been a huge part of making this community really special just with not only with All Day Ruckoff. The neat thing is you have the aspect of the AARs, after action reviews, and so many people that are new to this community are new to special events or specific events. They can go on and read, “Okay. Here’s what it was like. Here’s what happened and here is how someone train for it.” You have training programs and right gear that go with your ruck. Now that you have this amazing ruck, you can get cool gear to go with it. I think you’ve really started something special that not only brings the community together, but the cool thing is now with the podcast, and that’s why I’m such a geek about your podcast. I love listening whenever they come out. It’s so neat to get to go inside the organization, inside of headquarters, who’s there, what they like, and then they get to hear the description of different events that I have never done before that I would never think to do, but after the podcast I think, “Oh! I did sign up. That’s awesome.”

Brian: Thank you. I’m smiling so much right now. Thank you so much for that. It’s been just an absolute blast starting the podcast and talking to all these people that generally wouldn’t have a reason to call them and talk to them. it’s been really fun. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying it. That makes me really happy.

You started out with the patch tag and that did awesome. Your next product was the stash tag.

Margaret: Yes. This one has a really cool story too. After we did the patch tags and they were selling well, Cadre Aaron had actually contacted me and said, “Hey, I would love for a way to carry my patches but also have a conceal pocket, put cash or a key or just a small compartment. Could you design one for me?” I was like, “Absolutely. Anything for you.”

We worked together to kind of design a little prototype of a pocket inside of a stash tag that’s closed with a hook and lid closure and it’s just the right size for cash or a key or bobby pins. I personally keep my store cards, like your gas cars and your grocery cards. I keep mine in there.

Anyway, when he first came with this idea, I was like, “Oh, great. Sure. I’m make you a couple.” I made him some, mail them off. Didn’t really think much more about it. A couple of months later, Logan from Rogue Dynamics contacted me and said, “Hey, these would be really great with a pocket.” I said, “Well, funny you mentioned that. We’ve got — Check out this design.”

We started contacted back and forth and he wanted to get his logo, which is so cool. Rogue Dynamics has an awesome logo with the socks. He said, “Well, I’ll order some from you if you can embroider my logo on them. I was like, “Okay.”

He doesn’t know this, so I guess after he listens to the podcast, he will. I have never embroidered anything in my life and I thought, ‘Well, I really want him to buy these tags.” I just went around every shop in Louisville I could find that had embroider machines and said, “Will this machine sew on Velcro? Will this machine sew on Velcro?” Finally, I found a shop that had a machine that would work and I got on YouTue and learned real quick on how to embroider and started embroidering stash tags, what would become the stash tags. We got the Rogue Dynamics logo on them.

Then another company that Logan connected me with, a guy named Mike and he has grayman industry and he’s got a really cool thing going on. His goal is to really push — Kind of there’s a stigma and a stereotype around the term gray man and what people think that means. He has a passion to really help people understand to be aware of their surroundings and be open to helping other people and being hyper aware of what’s around you so you can help people and prevent bad things from happening but also protecting your family.

Anyway, I got connected with him and got his — He has a really cool logo. You got his logo on some stash tags, and through Logan, that really was a catalyst to really take Sew Strong in a different way. It’s like I really want this to become a full-time business for us where we grow and we make custom Velcro products for people. That’s where the stash tag came from and now we have them. We just put them up in our shop for sale, the plain one, last week.

Brian: That’s awesome. Logan is an amazing guy. I have talked to him for years and finally was able to connect with him the beginning of this year down in Vegas at Shot Show and it was great to meet him in person. He is so awesome. If he’s listening, thank you Logan for all that you do for everything with Rogue Dynamics and for helping out Sew Strong.

Margaret: Absolutely. Yes a big shout out and thank you to Logan. What he did? He just kind of — This is what I found with a lot of GRTs and this is why I love having a small business and working with other GRT small businesses, is that they will just take you under their wing and say, “Here’s what I’ve learned. Here’s what I recommend.”

A lot of the business world is cutthroat and very — You kind of have to watch your back. I think you should always be aware, but Logan just absolutely was such a help in every way in every step of this process, and that he said, “Anything I can do to help you, just let me know.” He’s very humble. Yes. He and his wife are great. They’re a great couple and do a great job with Rogue Dynamics.

Brian: That’s awesome. That’s definitely something I really like about this community is I feel like you can be really open what you’re planning on doing and people aren’t going to try and steal your stuff. That’s great.

Margaret: Yes.

Brian: I noticed that you’re now selling, in addition to the patch tag and the stash tag, you’re selling Honor Guard patches on your website. Is Honor Guard an important program to you?

Margaret: Yes, so very much. I get so excited talking about this. I’ve realized last year when we first launched, so many people came to me and said, “Hey, do you sell patches, or can you connect me with someone that sells patches?”

I knew that when we were going to re-launch our website, I wanted to have some kind of patch tag for sale that people could buy a patch tag or a stash tag and have some patches to go with it. I didn’t want just any old patch. I really wanted something that would be meaningful to people and that would help promote gratitude. I have been looking for a patch that said thank you for long time. I would see a couple come up on Ruck Small. I said, “Oh, that’s great,” and I’d buy some and I’d give them out to people.

Then Kevin Maestri from Knotted Cord, he actually connected me with Chris from Honor Guard and said, “Hey, there’s this guy doing these really cool thank you patches. You need to check them out.” I checked out the patch, I ordered one, and they were so well-made. The embroidery is beautiful. It’s really quality work, teal tight embroidery. I love it. It was good quality. It came with a thank you card and it just came really well-packaged, and Chris has done a very good job of just making it to be really special that you’re proud of to get out to people.

The minute I found these patches, I thought, “This is what I’ve been looking for.” I got in touch with Chris and said, “Hey, do you think we could sell this on our website? I love to help promote gratitude.” I think our communities, we have so much freedom in this country. I know there’s a lot of heat a lot of terrible things going on, but at the end of the day, if you compare America to so many other countries in the world, we have it so amazingly good here. That’s thanks to our soldiers and our first responders and our law enforcement officers and firemen, so many people that put their lives on the line everyday so that we can do these great things, like pursuing Sew Strong, and living with freedom.

I really want to thank them as much as we can in every opportunity. Sometimes I always found when I would say thank you for your service to someone, I really wanted to give them something to take with them so that they could be reminded later on not just that someone said thank you, but that someone really cared and that they are appreciated. When they have dark and hard days, they can pull that patch out and say, “Oh, yeah. Someone does care.”

This was such a great fit. Great partnership to team with Honor Guard and really help them promote what they’re doing of thanking law enforcement officers and fire fighters and military personnel. There’s so many other people in the community, and Chris — Actually, Honor Guard, they have many other patches and the three that we have on our website. You’ll have to go to Honor Guard’s Facebook page and check out what they have going on. Yes, I was so excited to be able to be able to offer those on our website.

Brian: That’s amazing. For those who are listening and don’t know about Honor Guard, do you want to explain what the patches look like and what you’re supposed to do with them?

Margaret: Yes. The thank you patches, they’re all the thin like. If you think of the thin blue line for law enforcement officers, it’s a black patch with a thin blue line on it and it’s just simply says in white embroidery thank you on it. When you order one, it comes with a thank you card that says, “Thank you for your service, your sacrifice and your strength.”

It’s just a really neat way of giving a thank you gift to someone that also it can go on a patch tag or a stash tag that you can give to them and they can then carry it on their keys. Yes. Honor Guard first started by Chris who was a corrections officer in California. He has started — People don’t realize, he had been a firefighter, he had been a first responder, EMS. He’s done the full gamut, and now he’s a correction’s officer. He just found that there’s so many people that just never appreciated. He felt like he wanted to be appreciate in his job, but there’s not a lot of people out there thanking someone. He saw other people in his job that were not being appreciated and he said, “I’m going to change that. I’m going to start thanking people.”

He started designing patches and he actually ended up going across the country, kind of like Jason McCarthy did when he first started GORUCK. Chris went across the country just giving out these thank you patches as many as he could. Now, Honor Guard is an organization that tries to encourage and care for and thank the families of the first responders, the military and law enforcement officers and also thank the actual people as well.

Brian: That’s amazing. It’s such a cool program and it’s such a cool idea. I know at least at some of the events that I’ve been at, some of the GORUCK events, I’ve seen people with the thank you patches handing them out throughout the event. It’s a really awesome idea. If you’re listening and you like the sound of that, you should definitely check out Honor Guard.

Margaret: Absolutely. Two, especially GORUCK events, a lot of times, especially in Tough, the overnight, you’ll run into law enforcement officers or a cadre will connect with local fire departments. It’s a great idea to get a bunch of patches and have them ready. Two, people are always asking, “What are you guys doing? What is GORUCK?” Put a little GORUCK card in there and you can pass out thank you and tell them about GORUCK and just really be out there doing the good work.

Brian: That’s perfect. That is awesome, and that is such a good idea. What’s next in store for Sew Strong?

Margaret: Next, we’re going to be focusing on our products. We have two or three different products that we’re hoping to release and that we’re going to be releasing in 2018. This year, I used to make all of the tags by hand and then doing the grommets myself and hand-sewing everything. Then because of Logan and his awesome support, I ended up sewing so much or sewing about 60 hours a week in addition to — We also homeschool our three girls, and so I’m a homeschool home. Then we’ve got caring for the home and being a wife and everything else and I found that my time was really strapped.

Through some amazing travel squad GRTs, I was able to get connected with a small GRT manufacturer in Seattle of all places. I love Washington. Now, we manufacture all of our tags. Because of that, I’m able to have the time to develop new products on work on the research and development side of things and run the business side of things, and that has freed me up to be able to plan several new products that we have coming out. I’m excited. I think people are going to really like them.

Brian: I’m very excited to see what they are. That is so awesome that you’re able to — You kind of hand that portion of, because 60 hours a week of sewing on top on everything else that you’ve going on; homeschooling and being a mom, there’s no way that you’d be able to continue to innovate Sew Strong and come up with new products. You would have no time to think about it. You’d be spending all of your waking hours sewing.

Margaret: Yes. Yes. I did it for a while. That was hard. Have you heard the phrase when people say I’ll sleep when I’m dead?

Brian: Yes.

Margaret: It was kind of like that for a while, but it’s funny because running a small business, I was talking to someone about this the other day. When you’re an entrepreneur or you have a small business, you work ridiculous hours, but at the same time you’ll love it. You’ll love every minute of it. It was really nice to be able to hand off that big portion of it and I was able to go back to making quilts of honor again and the ton that I do so is sewing new things and new ideas. That’s exciting to get to do.

Brian: That is exciting. That’s awesome. I’m sure you didn’t have nearly as much time for the fun projects, because after spending 60 hours a week sewing the patch tags, you probably didn’t want to spend another 10 hours sewing something else. You’d rather get a few hours of sleep.

Margaret: Yeah. I think my family was kind of glad to have mama back too. We really love homeschooling. It’s been a great fit for our family, and so I think I was a nicer teacher when I didn’t have to sew 60 hours a week anymore too.

Brian: I’m sure. We’ve been spending a lot of time talking the patch tags and the stash tags and those Honor Guard patches. Where can people find all of your products?

Margaret: On our website, our website is wwe.sewstrong.net, and sew is spelled like sewing, S-E-W S-T-R-O-N-G.net, and you can find all the patches there. You can find links to Honor Guard’s website, if you want to go check out what they have going on. Then we have all of our patch tags and stash tags and we even have bundles where you can get all three patches and patch tags to go with them. You can find all that on our website.

Brian: Perfect. For those listening, if you can’t remember sewstrong.net, just check the show notes and I’ll definitely have links in there to everything.

Margaret: Awesome. Thank you.

Brian: Before we go, are there any shout outs you want to give?

Margaret: Yes. I have two. The first one is for the whole GRT community. I wanted to share a tailor to that quote with everyone, because we’re such a great community and we’re a mass of people that like doing hard things. Would you mind if I shared a quick quote?

Brian: Please do.

Margaret: Okay. This is so perfect for GRTs. Petty Roosevelt said, “A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heard and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness if the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage. For us, it’s the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.”

Brian: That’s perfect.

Margaret: It’s a great GRT quote.

Brian: Yes.

Margaret: I love it. That’s really helped me in some harder times. I go back to that.

Brian: That is awesome. That is a perfect quote.

Margaret: The second shout out, it’s actually for my husband, John. This summer, my husband joined the Army and he, as of next Wednesday, by the time this airs, he will probably already have graduated. He is graduating from basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I just want say, babe, I’m so proud of you. I miss you and I can’t wait to see you again, and we love you and we support you and we can’t wait. We can’t wait to reconnect. I know that the GRT community is praying for you and backing you and you have an army behind you and we love you.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’m so excited for you.

Margaret: Thank you so much.

Brian: Of course. Margaret, thank you so much for taking all these time out of your day. I know you’re very busy. You have a lot going on, but it’s just been so fun to finally connect and talk, because I’ve heard just so much about you and I’m glad that we’re finally able to do this. Thank you.

Margaret: Thank you, Brian. Thanks for all you do for the community. You bring people together and you really bring forth the GORUCK — Kind of bring together the headquarters and then the GRTs. I remember when I first find GORUCK just scouring the web and Reddit and every website and reading every article Jason wrote on the GORUCK page. What I love is that the new GRTs coming in can find your podcast and learn so much more than the information that’s readily available because of what you’re doing. Thank you for having me and thank you so much for all you do for the community.

Brian: Thank you. That really means a lot. That means a lot. Take care, Margaret. Thank you again and have just a wonderful rest of your day, and I’m super excited that this coming Wednesday you’ll get to see your husband.

Margaret: Thank you so much.

The post ADR 024: Margaret Blankenbaker Interview (Sew Strong) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 023: Corey Modrowski Interview (GORUCK Beached Tough & Light AAR)

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:00:11 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! In our 23rd episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast we have two AARs with Corey Modrowski. He recently took part in a GORUCK Tough Beached and GORUCK Light Beached events over in Traverse City and recounts his experiences with those here. We hope you enjoy this episode and have a wonderful time with your friends and families!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m talking with Corey Modrowski who is a fellow GRT who was able to take part in two very unique and interesting events. The first was the Traverse City Beached BETA Tough, and the second was the Traverse City Beached BETA Light. I’m really excited to be talking to him today, because these events were definitely unique for multiple reasons and I’m excited to hear what he has to say about them.

So Corey, how are you doing today?

Corey: I’m doing fantastic. Thank you for having me on, Brian.

Brian: Absolutely. It’s my pleasure. Thank you so much for reaching out, and I can’t wait to get into these events. Before we get started with them though, I would love to hear how you got involved in the GORUCK community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK as a company and what was your first event?

Corey: My first event was Detroit Light in 2015, I believe. I had heard about GORUCK — I was doing cross-fit. I was going to Glass City Crossfit here in Toledo, Ohio, and there was another GRT who is a strength and conditioning coach; Michael Yuschak. He told me, he was like, “You need to go check out this event. This is GORUCK, it’s pretty awesome.” I went online, saw the videos, saw what it’s about and I was like, “All right.”

Then the Christmas sale rolled around, I think, because this was about 2014 when he told me about it. Christmas roll is around. I looked up there and events are half off, so I signed up for the Light in Detroit. Was it July? I had signed up for the Mogadishu Mile in October, and that was a Light as well.

I think Larry and Brad were the cadre for Light, and it was interesting. I had never really been up to Detroit before, even though I live less than an hour away from it. I over-trained for it. At least I feel that way, because by the time I got done, I’m like, “Okay. I could do this. This isn’t bad.”

Really, what sold it for me was when I went to Cleveland for the Mogadishu Mile. We had Cadre Jeff Mocha Mike, and I hate to admit it, I can’t remember who the other cadre was that was along for the ride. But I think that was also the event where they made the Mogadishu Mile commercial with Jeff wearing that like skull mask, if you’ve seen it. That was an arduous event. It was blowing, raining, like 46 degrees blowing sideways at us all day long and it just totally sucked.

I remember getting down with that, and I felt like I had been doing something. My brother used to sail boats on like Lake Erie here, and he used to love to go out in October and sail his boats and he’d always yell to his friends, “10-foot waves are splashing up on deck!” He’d go, “Hey! We’re doing something.” That’s kind of how I felt after that event. Ever since then I had been sold on GORUCK. I think the first year I did two events. The second year was something like five events, and this year it’s looking like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 events now, and I just keep growing exponentially. Next year I have — I think it’s going upwards at 21 events scheduled now.

Brian: That’s incredible.

Corey: Are critically dumb on my part, maybe.

Brian: Or incredibly exciting. Yeah, time will tell. Time will tell on that decision.

Corey: Yeah. Hopefully my wife doesn’t divorce me.

Brian: That’s always the goal. That’s my goal too.

Corey: Excellent.

Brian: The holiday sale that year was really nice, the 50% off events, and I know I was able to talk some friends into signing up, because the prices were definitely nice. It’s exciting you got in then, because it sounds like that second event really hooked you.

Corey: Yeah, it really did. Every event since then has just been one more nail in my bank account coffin.

Brian: I feel the pain. I feel the pain too.

Corey: Ever penny I spend on one of these events though is actually worth it, because I learn a little bit more about myself and I meet such great people. I can’t say enough nice things about my Michigan GRT friends.

Brian: That’s got to be one of the best parts, is meeting people who are just also crazy enough for the same thing you did.

Corey: Absolutely. Pretty much all the Beach BETA crew was Michigan GRT, and there was already people I’ve done multiple events with. Really, the Beach BETA event was almost like a family reunion.

Brian: That’s awesome. Before we get into Beach BETA, I’ve got one more question about that Mogadishu Mile Light. When you finished it, did you need a couple of days to calm down from the sideway rain and all of the wind before you sign up for your next event, or were you pretty much good to go? You were hooked and ready to sign up?

Corey: I think I had to really digest a little bit. I remember I had a friend who — She’s a physical therapist at Cleveland Clinic and she let me crash at her place the night before the event. So I was able to go out there and do the event and I come like trudging in I think it was like five or six in the afternoon when we got done and it just looked like death warmed over. I got a warm shower and we got some B-dubs and just kind of told her about it and she just kind of looked at me like, “Why did you pay to do this?” I said, “I don’t know. Seem like something to do.” I don’t think I signed up for another event until — It’s probably closer to the next Christmas sale actually.

Brian: Yeah, but that was only a couple of months later, right?

Corey: That’s right, yeah.

Brian: That’s not too bad. Yeah, after my first event, it was one of those, “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever done. I’m never doing another one again.” Then three days later I was thinking, “When is GORUCK coming back to Seattle?” You need that cool downtime.

Corey: Yeah. I’ve done like a Warrior Dash, and afterwards I just feel kind of empty, because there’s a big buildup and the thing you get out of it the most after that’s over is you’re washing mud out of places for like three days. GORUCK, I mean, after I got done with a GORUCK I’m like, “Well, I learned something about myself.”

Brian: Absolutely. Let’s move into the Traverse City Beached BETA events. Where did the idea of these come from? GORUCK was very quiet about them. They promoted the beached, the actual beached event down in Florida quite heavily, but it wasn’t until almost the week of the Traverse City beached events that they started posting about them. Was that something custom you guys did, or was that put on my GORUCK?

Corey: As I understand it, we knew it was going to be a unique event ahead of time, at least the Michigan GRTs did. I remember, I believe it was Robert Bash was working with Big Daddy on that one. Big Daddy had promised us a pretty awesome event, and this definitely fit the bill. I remember signing up for the event. It was before — I think it was during the Christmas sale. We always keep coming back to this Christmas sale. I remember seeing Traverse City and I’m like, “Yeah, it’s like an 8-hour drive. Whatever. I’ll do it.”

Then it wasn’t until like maybe a month or two, maybe in the spring. I can’t remember exactly. I remember seeing a post on Michigan GRT page saying how the Traverse City events weren’t going to be like regular events, because I was just like, “Oh, the Tough and Light. Whatever. I’ll sign up.” Because I was like kind of bummed this year, because it seemed like Michigan wasn’t getting a lot of GORUCK events. Then, of course, for next year, Jason came through and like gave us 18 events, so I couldn’t be more happy now.

I remember seeing a post in the Michigan GRT page saying they’re being real secretive about it. They weren’t giving us all the details, but they said it was going to be something kind of like water survival. It wasn’t going to be a normal Tough ruck and a Light ruck and we kept getting little snippets of intel here and there, because it was like — I would go check that page every now and then, see if there’s any new information and then people will be like, “Hey, anything new coming up?” Then we get a little note from Big Daddy, and then nothing for a while, and then a little note here, and then a packing list here and then it just kept changing.

Brian: That’s wild. If I ever recall, correct me on the website, it was build as a zombie event? Do you remember if that was the case? I remember it didn’t say beach BETA on it.

Corey: No. It just said regular Tough and Light for the longest time. I think it was listed as a Tough and Light as the Facebook event, but definitely it wasn’t your average event.

Brian: That’s wild. What did the final packing list look like?

Corey: It was chopped down a little bit, because the people from the Florida Beach BETA, they talked about how there was a lot of gear that they didn’t end up using. Originally, we’re supposed to bring a tarp that got cut from the list. There was a couple of other things that got cut from the list and it got chopped down to being real basic. I think we had left was bungee cords, a life vest, 550 paracords, so much 550 paracords, and just little odds and ends, like a knife to cut the paracord and that kind of stuff. It was very chopped down for whatever reason it was. There was like waterproof pens and notebooks that he wanted us to bring and we’ve never ended up needing that at the end of it all.

Brian: Interesting. Yeah, I know that a lot of people were saying from the event down in Florida that they had to bring a lot of stuff that they didn’t end up using, and I know that happened with Constellation too, the first couple of Constellation events. There was just a huge packing list, and then they finally scaled it down when they started bringing it to other cities. It seems like that’s almost par for the course, but I’m glad you guys had a scaled down version.

Starting with that beached BETA Tough event, what time of day did that event start at? Was that a typical night start time on Friday?

Corey: Yeah, it was Friday night at 9:00. They wanted us to show up at some boat launch in Traverse City. I took the day off of work, because Toledo is like right up there at the state line between Ohio and Michigan. I think there was six and a half, seven hour drive, because I left at just the right time. I’ve just been dreading it the entire day, because if you talk to my Pathfinder group, they’ll tell you I do not like the cold. We had Rooney, also famous from this podcast, for Veteran’s Day in Ann Arbor, and it was like 19 degrees up there. I remember coming away from that event where we would — Heat us up and then the wind would blow and cool us down, and I ended up with like some gnarly, like skin condition afterwards from my sweat freezing in my pores. I dreaded being cold at this event and I really shouldn’t have, it turns out, because I feared all right.

Brian: That’s good to hear that you know if the start point is a boat launch, that you’re probably in for a treat.

Corey: I think Cadre Dustin said it best if he would make fun of us during the event. He did this like high shrill voice, and they started off the event. They’re like, “All right. Who came here expecting not to get wet? Okay. Good. Nobody.” Dustin was just joking around, “Oh! I signed up for this event. I don’t want to get wet.” He was hilarious. I can’t say enough nice things about him. He was cool as heck.

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, whenever we get start points inside a beach or a lake, you kind of know you’re going to go in, but a boat launch with a special packing list event, it’s going to be something different. That’s kind of been something.

How long was it before you started to when you got in the water?

Corey: Things moved pretty quickly. We got there at the boat launch at 9:00, and it’s the usual kind of just nailing around. The Detroit people were kind of grouping together. The Highland Hopeless people were grouping together, and then there were just some kind of Brando people.

I think Bomber and Dustin and BD come rolling in and they kind of did a little safety brief right there in the boat launch parking lot and then they’re like, “Line up. Follow us.” They ended up walking us from the boat launch about two or three driveways down the road to an actual private residence.

What happened was like BD had rolled in to town, I think, in a Wednesday or Thursday, and they were just scouting out locations. The problem was they were trying to find a place where they’d access to water, but they could also build a fire so that people could warm up after being in the water.

I don’t know if the Traverse City municipal people were kind of like looking sideways at that or what, but BD had kind of reached out to the GRT community and was asking if anybody knew anybody with a house or they’re on a lake, and there’s one girl that would house it for some folks, and so she got BD in touch with them, and BD went out there and talked to him, and it was a really interesting story, because apparently the wife of the owner, her brother actually had drowned in a lake at some point. When BD was like, “Yeah, we’re going to teach a bunch of people water survival in your backyard,” and they were like, “Heck, yeah! Go ahead.”

Brian: That’s wild.

Corey: It is.

Brian: It’s always interesting to see how the GRT community can come together like that and it seems like everyone knows someone and is able to help out in some ways, so it’s great you guys found a house, and that’s a terrible tragedy for their family. That must have made them feel slightly okay that BD was teaching water survival and maybe prevent some drownings in the future.

Corey: Absolutely. We’re kind of honoring that fellow by making sure it doesn’t happen to somebody else again.

Brian: Absolutely. Let’s get into the event. How did it all start? You’re saying everyone is milling around. You guys headed over to the house. What happened from there?

Corey: They had this awesome beachfront property, big, long dock. I’m bad at judging distances, but it was pretty long. They had us lined up on the beach and they’re telling us, “All right. We’re going to do a swim assessment. You guys are going to get your swim buddy. You need to pick up a random buddy. You’re going to swim out to where BD is.” BD is like marching out into the water. If everyone’s just like, “Well, BD is in there. I guess it’s not too cold.”

He’s like standing out there far away. He’s got a flashlight he’s shining at us and like, “All right. You and your buddy got to swim out to BD, go around and come back, then you’re going to come back on the beach and then you’re going to do it again.” That was just Dustin and BD’s way of kind of seeing who’s a strong swimmer. Who’s kind of not so strong? Who they need to keep an eye on kind of thing.

Brian: Yeah. I don’t know if you can trust BD to judge the coldness of water. He just does not operate like a normal person.

Corey: A little bit better insulated than most of our GRT community, and that makes him just a monster in cold water, let alone with any water, because that dude was in it with us most of the time. If we are in the water, you bet he wasn’t too far behind.

Brian: Yeah, I’ve got a picture and I’ll post it in the show notes. The first ever HCL was in Seattle, or was kind of Seattle. It was in the mountains, and I want to say December, November or December. All the water, all the streams, it’s all glazier melt, and there’s a picture of him just face down in one of the streams to prove to everyone that it’s not as cold as they think it is, but it’s freezing water.

Corey: He’d been posting pics on Facebook all afternoon. He’d gotten like little shark thermometer when they were sticking it in the water and were just trying to get us all freaked out before the event I think.

Brian: I bet. So who from HQ was up there? Bomber Bash was up there, if I recall it correctly.

Corey: Yeah, Bomber was up there. He’s kind of doing pics and he was just kind of another set of hands. Then it was just BD and Cadre Dustin.

Brian: Very nice. You’ve done your swim assessment. How did everyone do? Was there anyone who was struggling or did everyone do a good job?

Corey: There were a few people that were not as confident in the water as other people. Me, I spent two and a half years as an aquatics physical therapist assistant, so being in the water doesn’t bother me too much. There were some people that weren’t as comfortable. We just knew. Stay close to them, help them out when we can. There’s another story about that, but we’ll wait till later in the program. I’ll tell you about one of my friends, Eric Flores.

Brian: Sounds good. What’s next with the event?

Corey: It’s probably like 10, 11:00 at night. We had done a couple of laps in the water and then it was up to us to take some tarps that they had and kind of build a wall around the fire pit they had going, because obviously when you have cold air temperature, cold water, there’s always a chance of hypothermia, so we kind of constructed a little shelter around the fire so that when BD and Dustin were teaching, we were keeping everybody warm.

Brian: That’s great. You got to say warm especially when you’re doing such a water heavy event like that. Do you recall what the water temperatures and the air temperatures were like? Was it pretty chilly or was it not so bad?

Corey: I’m not going to trust my memory a whole lot, because I’m not the best with the numbers, but I want to say the water temperature started out like at 70, and the air temperature I think at the time was closer, something like 50s. That’s when they kind of took downward dive, because BD was teaching around the fire with Dustin. They actually had a guy from the Traverse City Coast Guard come in who was also a Force Recon guy that I think Dustin and BD knew. He kind of talked to us about the dangers of the great lakes up there.

We ended up going back in the water for another little swim and when we came out, people were really starting to feel it at that point. Then we had a lot of people who being fit, don’t have a lot of body fat. Me, I don’t have that problem so much. I’m very well-insulated at that time. One of my friends actually, Scott Man, became a very good teaching point for BD on hypothermia. He told us about the different symptoms, trouble with memory, trouble with spine motor movement, shivering, cold blue lips, that sort of thing, and Scott, he has very low body fat and he was staring to hype a little bit. We got him stripped down, no shirt, still had pants on, got him close to the fire. We’re trying to keep him warm as best as we could.

As I understand it, there were about four other people that we’re having the same problem at the same time. I remember Scott getting thrown into a car with Bomber and getting the heat turned up full blast. That’s when we kind of reached a tipping point with the event where BD is sitting there with Dustin and they’re kind of like, “We got all these people, and I don’t know if we got enough eyes to keep an eye on everybody to make sure we can assure their safety.”

Right around — I think it was about midnight when BD kind of comes out and he’s like, “Hey, listen up. Your safety is the primary concern of ours right now, and right now I don’t think we can ensure it with all the people here. Here’s what we’re going to do. If you want to come back at 7 a.m., you can. If you don’t think you can swing that, if you’d rather take off, no problem. Just get with me. I’ll take down your name and we’ll make this right.”

There’s a few people that kind of split off and went to talk to BD. The rest of us were kind of like, “All right, I guess we’ll just take off.” Some of my friends, like Rob Wheeler, Bryan, they had planned on going to their camp site the next day after the Tough was don, so they couldn’t just kind of leave and go to their campsite because it wasn’t ready yet. They ended up staying at the house with BD and Dustin and Bomber and spending the night right by the fire out there on the beach.

Brian: That worked out pretty well for them. Just to recap a little bit, the event starts Friday night and just a few hours in four people are already almost going or going hypothermic. You get them warmed up and then BD kind of puts the brakes on it and says, “We’re going to take a post and we’re going to resume around 7 a.m.”

Corey: Exactly.

Brian: That’s wild. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an event pausing like that and restarting later.

Corey: It’s a unique event.

Brian: Sure sounds like it. I’m guessing you went back to your spot, got some sleep before coming back at 7 a.m.

Corey: We rolled out to our — We had a rental house and we went back and some of our friends were already there who were going to do the Light the next day and they’re like, “What are you guys doing back?” We’re like, “BD called it. People were hyping out. We got to take a break, so we’re just going to chill and get some sleep.”

Brian: Oh, man! That’s got to put a little bit of fear into the Light people who hadn’t been out there. They had to put a pause in the event that you’re about to go to, because people were hyping out. Good luck.

Corey: It was serious. This was a really reality shock for them.

Brian: Yeah. You get a little bit of rest and then you come back at 7 a.m. What happens from there?

Corey: It kind of really felt like nothing really changed. It was just like, “All right. Let’s get you wet and let’s keep moving on.” From there we got back in the water, started going over different medical stuff. If anybody remembers the acronym from Constellation this March, safety, massive hemorrhaging, airways, respiratory, circulatory, and then if you’re in combat, it’s head injury. If you’re not in combat, it’s hypothermia. We kind of went over, doing body checks, looking for holes and just kind of different medical assessments to do.

The whole kind of premise of this event was like if you’re on a plane and it goes down in the lake, what are you going to do to survive? You got to start triaging people and tying stuff together and finding a way to survive. The first thing to do is you got to make sure your people stay alive so that you can survive and build the team. That’s kind of where we went from there.

After the medical stuff, we went on to kind of waterproofing the rucks and also making sure they could float. We used a lot of contractor bags on this event. For your absolute stuff that you don’t want to get wet, put it in a dry bag. They showed us how you can make kind of a waterproof ruck with just a contractor bag and some duct tape and 550 paracord.

Brian: Very cool. That sounds like just a ton of useful information. Before we get too far, I meant to ask but forgot, when you showed back up at 7, what would you say the percentage was for people who had been there the night before that came back again?

Corey: Probably 80% came back I’d say.

Brian: Did the people who were hyping out a little bit, did they show up again?

Corey: My buddy Scott ended up sitting the rest of that. I can’t honestly remember on that one. I knew we’re down a few people and I think it most of the people who were really having a hard time keeping warm.

That, and then there was probably a couple of other people who just didn’t know quite what they were getting into. That’s all right. It wasn’t their night and hopefully we’ll see them again in a different event at a later date.

Brian: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I’m sure there were a number of people who didn’t quite fully grasp what they were getting into with this event, because if you Google GORUCK Tough or GORUCK Light events, you won’t find anything like this in the AARs or the videos or the pictures. It’s probably a wakeup call to some of them.

Corey: Absolutely, because I think there was a couple of people who said this might have been their first event, which I’m like, “Oh, you guys really picked the duty on that one.”

Brian: Right. Right. That’s like when people say their first events, Bragg Heavy or something crazy like that. How did you even find out about this to sign up for it, because this is one of the hardest events.

Corey: Right.

Brian: You showed back up at 7. You learned some awesome skills. How long did the event go from there, did the Tough go?

Corey: It just kept going. It seemed like we went until roughly about two in the afternoon, 2:30, somewhere in there, before BD ended up patching us. Then he kind of — He’s like, “Who else is coming back for the light?” A lot of us raised our hands and he’s like, “Listen. You guys have been in the water for like 10 hours now. You need to go out of here. You need to go get some food, get some calories in you. Take an hour break. Come back. By that time we get done with all the admin stuff with the Light people and that kind of thing, you should be ready to rock and roll.”

Brian: That’s awesome. BD is one of my favorite cadre and that’s such a good call on his part, because I’m guessing 2 p.m. you’re finishing up the Tough. That’s about the time that the Light is supposed to be starting. You’ve just spent 10 hours in the water, and you guys have been pretty wrecked and worn over.

Corey: A lot of people were, and I’m definitely was feeling it, but I felt like I could have kept going, but that could have been bad because I could have started cramping up. It was probably a good idea to fuel up before we go back into the fire.

Brian: Yeah. Not everyone there had a previous job where they spent two and a half years doing stuff in the water.

Corey: Let me Terantino it back. Talking about my friend, Eric. I remember at one point during the Tough, that big long dock that the people had there, we were kind of doing dives off of it. Not like traditional dives, but Dustin would kind of have us do this little maneuver; look to the right, look to the left, look down, look out, cross your arms. Step off the dock.

I think him and BD had us tread water for — It’d have been a solid half hour or 45 minutes. I think it was without our rucks. I remember my one buddy, Eric, he’s a shorter dude and I could tell he was getting real tired and he was having a hard time holding his head up from the water. I remember just like grabbing his waistband of his pants and just trying to hold him up so he wasn’t getting as tired during the whole thing. There was a couple of times where maybe he got a little bit more lake water in his mouth than he needed to, but he was definitely grateful by the end of it.

Brian: Wow! 30 to 45 minutes treading water. Did they teach you how to tread water in advance of this?

Corey: Oh, yeah. We’ve done a lot of treading up to that point and he showing us how to pull a running shoes off and use those as a floatation. We had pulled our pants off and tie them a knot and fill those with air to use them for floatation. I think at that point they were trying to smoke us so that we’d not perform as optimally, because you start doing dumb things when you’re tired. That was kind of to increase the stress level and make a more memorable experience. That’s what was going on there.

Brian: Yeah. You get a special kind of tired from water work I feel like.

Corey: Oh, yeah.

Brian: I’ve done a lot of lap swimming and a decent amount of open water swimming and it’s definitely a different feeling on your body afterwards than rucking miles or running or weights or sandbag workouts or anything like that. It’s its own beast.

Corey: Absolutely. I think a lot of it comes down to breathing. If you’re not in tune with your breathing, every time you exhale, you’re going to go down on that water, and every time you inhale, you’re going to go up. You got to start taking shallow breaths and just get — I hate to de-cliche, but you got to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Brian: Absolutely. That’s a great way to describe it, because it’s pretty uncomfortable treading water for half an hour.

Corey: It is.

Brian: Before we get into the Light event, is there anything else you want to talk about from the Tough event?

Corey: That was the thing that stuck in my mind the most. There were just so much going on and it seemed like it just went by so fast since that. We just kept going from one thing to the other to the other once that 7 a.m. rolled around.

Brian: Yeah. Sure sounds like it, because you only had 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. That’s what? 7 hours.

Corey: Absolutely.

Brian: That’s not that much time, and you guys really got a lot in on there. You must have just been going, going, going.

Corey: Absolutely. We’re building rafts out of inner tubes and tying it together with a paracord. BD went over water purification, water gathering, using signal mirror. I’m sure that’s not even everything. I’m sure there’s something I’m forgetting or missing.

Brian: That’s wild. That’s awesome. Did you read any of the AARs or any of the stuff that GORUCK posted about the beached event down in Florida?

Corey: I didn’t want to read them, just because I knew it wouldn’t be the same beast. A lot of the people were worrying about sharks during that event and the Great Lakes know that there’s nothing nefarious swimming in that water unless you’re probably in Lake Eerie, and that’s just toxicology.

Brian: That’s not that funny, but that’s funny.

Corey: It is funny. Wait until I tell you about 1812 and the toxicology.

Brian: Oh boy! I’m sure that was something special.

Corey: I remember Dustin telling us about how he was — They had quite a few females on the Florida beach and he said that they were thinking about throwing like Cool-Aid in the water around them when they were doing one of the swims just to mess with them. Like red Cool-Aid.

Brian: Yup. That would have been something.

Corey: Freak some people out.

Brian: Absolutely. Especially the ones that are just far enough away that they see the red and think someone might have gotten bit, but not close enough to see what’s really going on.

Corey: Right. There was a lot of apprehension from concerns about sharks in that group. When he told us that, I think I was this close to a hernia from laughing so hard.

Brian: Yeah. The water doesn’t seem that bad anymore considering you guys have sharks.

Let’s move into the Light a little bit. It’s 2:00. You guys complete Tough. You got patched. You go and grab something to eat. The Light class shows up and they start doing the introduction stuff. You guys come back, would you say around 3:00? About an hour later?

Corey: Oh! 3:00, 3:30. Roughly somewhere in there. They were going through the admin safety stuff. They did the swim assessment that we did. Just now, they don’t have the dark. It was 2:00 in the afternoon, so they can see everything, whereas as had the uncertainty of the darkness.

Brian: Oh, yeah. That’s got to add a whole different element there. Light starts in the day, tough starts in the dark on the water. That’s something, especially for those who aren’t as accustomed so swimming.

Corey: Absolutely.

Brian: How many people showed up for the Light would you say that hadn’t participated at all in the Tough?

Corey: Roughly I’d have to say maybe 20, 23. Somewhere in there.

Brian: That’s a decent number.

Corey: Yeah. We had a good turnout for the Light.

Brian: That sounds like it. Then how many would you say came back from the Tough to get the TL in for the weekend?

Corey: I’m trying to remember. We had a picture of them. I want to say it was — It’d have been close to 12, maybe 9. Somewhere in there.

Brian: Okay. It’s a decent size class in the 30s. that’s pretty exciting. All the introduction stuff is done and out of the way. All the people from the Tough class are back. How did the Light go compared to the Tough?

Corey: It was pretty much a spring version. I think we went back over the medical stuff again, the body checks. It was nice to review, because that happened all the way that morning. I was able to recall it and revisit it. Now, it’s kind of in there for, locked away forever. I think we went over waterproof in the rucks again, which was kind of a breeze for us, because we learned to access our rucks while in the water and tried to keep as much water out of them as possible. We’re in the water trying to keep them dry and keep the stuff out of them. When we’re on dry land and repack and re-waterproofing it, we excelled, because we just don’t have so many times and adverse conditions.

Brian: Yeah. That’s kind of nice so guys got a refresher on the safety stuff, because you’ve been up for a while and you’ve been pretty well-smoked and some of that stuff can be forgotten. That’s good you guys got that, and then it must have been pretty fun to excel at the stuff you had been practicing all morning before. It’s pretty cool.

Corey: It’s kind of nice because we kind of, in the Green Beret sense, even though we pretty much had nothing but rain at this event, we did a force multiplier. In a way, the people from the Tough got to come in and help teach the people from the Light. Whenever you teach something to somebody who’s never seen it before, it helps you reinforcement what you learned, because now you’re having an access to that knowledge and give it back to some new people that never seen it before. You start remembering stuff that didn’t realize stuff there.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. That’s one of my favorite things about doing the Constellation events and then a couple — Or the F3 event I did as well. It was a lot of learn something and then make sure you teach it to at least one person, because it’s one thing to learn something, but it’s completely different to teach it and it definitely helps it stick in a lot better. That worked out pretty well for you guys.

Corey: Now, it’s in my top 3 events.

Brian: Awesome! It’s definitely something that was a net positive for you. Good experience.

Corey: Very more so. It let me revisit some knowledge I had from the Boy Scouts, but then I was able to build on that knowledge. Anytime I can get a refresher and I can get new knowledge, I’m all for it.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. The Light class, how long did that last?

Corey: I want to say we went until about six in the afternoon. It was good four hours, four and a half, somewhere in there. I think we ended up being done at 6:30.

Brian: Did people who signed up for only the Light, did it seem like they had a pretty good time there?

Corey: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. BD said when he started this whole thing, he wanted us to be one tightknit team and that he definitely accomplished that.

Brian: Awesome. Are there any additional stories from the Light that you want to share? Anything else that stood out?

Corey: There’s a really good — It depends on your description of good. There is a picture of me — The people who owned that beach and that house that we’re at, they have these two huge Great Danes. My friend, Eric, who was holding up by his belt, he sat out the Light and he was just snapping pictures and shadowing and there was one point where Dustin had us kind of sprint across the beach just to get us warmed up. I remember, Lucius, a big Great Dane, he was like standing near me when I started sprinting, and he took off right next to me. Eric has got this awesome-ish picture of me getting kind of chased down by this Great Dane. It’s horrible, because like I didn’t wear a hat for this event and I hadn’t had a haircut, so like my hair is like flapping up in the wind. I got like this whole like smile on my face, but my chin is stuck, so I looked like Tommy Boy a little bit. It’s just a horrible picture of me, but it’s a horribly cool picture, because this Great Dane is with me. I’ve got my GORUCK swim trunks on and I got my Under Armor shirt and I’m just like sprinting. You see Brian signaling that the guy who is the master of Cleveland area rucking crew has big old beard and he’s like smiling staring at me getting chased down by this dog. It was a cool point, and Bomber loves to like post that anytime he sees me comment on something.

Brian: That’s awesome. If you feel comfortable with it, you should send it over, or else I’ll hit up Bomber or just go to the Tough group and find it. That’d be great to put in the show notes.

Corey: Awesome.

Brian: Great. Brian is an awesome guy. Huge shout out to CARC.

Corey: I can’t say enough nice things.

Brian: Hoping to meet him in person sometimes soon.

Corey: You should go down to New Orleans at 1812 Tough. That’d be a good time.

Brian: There we go. Are you going to be heading down for that?

Corey: I would love to, but I think the budget is already maxed out with the other events.

Brian: Yeah. Budget over here is probably double max at this point, but we’re almost at 2018, so I think it resets. That’s what I tell myself. It resets.

Corey: Yeah. I’ll try that one. We’ll see how it works out for me.

Brian: Sounds good. Man! These events on wild. It sounds like have really interesting twist on the GORUCK Tough and the GORUCK Light events. When you sign up for a traditional event, there’s usually some rucking involved. Was there any rucking in these events?

Corey: Most rucking we did was probably from the boat launch to the event site, which was probably no more than a quarter of a mile.

Brian: Interesting. That’s cool, that they’re able to spend so much time. It sounded like 10 hours in the water for the Tough and a number of hours in the water for the Light. I’m glad that they’re able to maximize their time use and really bring some interesting skills out.

Corey: The way I look at it is this was basically the Constellation for the water. That’s kind of how I looked at it. I know the name of it is going to be probably changing from beach to Poseidon was the last thing I heard, but to me it was just water Constellation.

Brian: That’s a great way to look at it. That’s awesome. If the beach Tough and/or the beach Light events came back to an area near you, is it something you’d sign up for again?

Corey: BD said he wanted to make it a yearly event up there. I tell you what, I would trade any of my other events, except for maybe Snowdrop, to go to that again.

Brian: Yeah. When I was Bomber Bash on, he said that Traverse City was the most beautiful town he had ever been too and it was his favorite spot.

Corey: I believe his exact words were, “It looks like a postcard y’all.”

Brian: I think that’s what he said. I’m sure that he’ll be trying to get back there too.

Corey: He wasn’t lying. It is beautiful up there. I don’t know why it took me so long to go up there and check it out.

Brian: Yeah, maybe I’ll have to make it out there next time. I do want to hit Snowdrop for next year. I’ve done some events with Rooney and I shadowed part of the Mogadishu Mile Tough out here in Seattle with him this year and he’s got something really cool going on. It’d be nice to make it out there next year.

Corey: I almost have to do it now just because Rooney was in my Pathfinder group and he was talking about it and a lot of the Detroit guys went to it and they had nothing but awesome things to say. I got to make it this year or next year I guess.

Brian: Ronney really is an awesome guy. It’s great that he spends time in the Pathfinder groups. He said that he signs up for at least one GORUCK event a year so he can always remember what it’s like to be on the other side of it. I follow him on Strava and I see the events that he does. He does live his words. It’s pretty awesome.

Before we go, is there anything else that you want to talk about with the Traverse City Beached BETA Tough or Light events?
Corey: You just got to keep in mind you’re environment. If you’re going to come out to one of these events where you’re going to be cold and wet and you’re low body fat, you might want to go grab yourself a couple of cheeseburgers, because it certainly helped me out that I had a little insulation layer.

Brian: Yeah. You definitely have to plan for it differently. I guess if there’s anyone listening who is signing up for one of these in the future, I don’t know if there are on the calendar right now, but it sounds like BD wants to bring them back. You’re going to have to train for this a little bit different than you are for a traditional Tough or Light event.

Corey: Absolutely. There’s no way you can train for the cold. Just listen to the cadre, be smart about what you’re doing and keep an eye on your buddies. If no one was keeping eye on my buddy Scott, this might not ended it so well. Just be a good teammate and things will turn out alright.

Brian: That’s great advice. Before we go, I’ve got a quick question. It’s a little off topic, but I was just wondering why are Michigan GRTs so much better than the Ohio GRTs?

Corey: Yeah, that’s a tough one right there. We’ve got a selection finisher in Detroit. Right there, Cleveland can’t boast that as far as I know. Columbus can’t boast that, Cincinnati can’t boast that. We always see each other at the same events. If there’s one Michigan event, you know everybody is going to be there. We’re a heck of a tightknit group.

Technically, I live in Ohio, but I have a super scientific map that says Toledo is just little Detroit. I consider myself a Michigan GRT. Bryan Singlyn is actually from Detroit, you can’t group him as an Ohio GRT. He’s Detroit down to his core. I don’t know about all the other ones. I would like to get down to Columbus this March and check it out, but I might have just alienated myself from the team.

Brian: Yeah, we’ll see. That’s awesome that you guys have so many groups in such a close area. We’ve got Travel Squad over in Seattle, but the closest City that GORUCK goes, brings events to from Seattle to Portland, which is about three and a half hours away, and then that’s about it. You don’t get too many different groups coming together at events. It sounds like it’s pretty interesting out there.

Corey: Yeah, we got really blessed for 2018. I cannot think whoever at HQ gave us so many events, because we’ve got Extortion 17 coming. We’ve got a 9/11 HTL. There is a Zombie Apocalypse event for Ann Arbor. We got a double Light for Cinco de Mayo. I looked at it and there’s like legit 18 different events going on in Michigan. I got one weekend every month. It’s like I’m in the National Guard almost.

From March until November, I’ve got one weekend where I’m doing either a Tough or a Light or in September I’m doing an HTL.

Brian: Is there a specific event you’re most excited for next year?

Corey: I think the 9/11 HTL, because it will be my first Heavy and it will be my first HTL. As far as I know, just about every single Michigan GRT I know is going to be showing up to this. It’s going to be a killer event.

Brian: That’s awesome. It’s been really fun to watch GORUCK’s events scheduled because they are definitely bringing a ton of new special events out. It should make for a very interesting 2018.

Corey: I definitely agree there, and I can’t wait for it, because I’m going to love every sucky moment of it.

Brian: Absolutely. Before we go, Corey, are there any shout outs you want to give or anything you want to promote?

Corey: One thing I forgot to mention is I’m the rucking coordinator for Toledo’s chapter of Team RWB. If there’s any GRTs in Northwest, Ohio that are listening, I really would like for you to reach out and find me on Facebook and come out to our weekly rucks on Saturday. That would be awesome to have some people.

Then I got a shout out to the Dirty Dozen Pathfinder group run by Hank Stamm, which is just a great group of supportive people. Another shout out to Rob Wheeler who is a new CA within Pathfinder. He’s going to be having his own group for 14 and just the Detroit GRTs, the Murder Squad. Just a great group of guys; Tom Zuck, Dean Aikens.

Brian: One of the best, best club names out there.

Corey: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then Bryan Singlyn, man. That dude inspires me. I hope I can be half a good as GRT as him.

Brian: That’s awesome. It’s been great having you. Corey, thank you so much, man, for taking so much time out of your night to chat with me. This has been awesome, and I was really curious about the Traverse City beached BETA events and just thanks for running through them and talking about everything that happened, because it definitely sounds like they’re interesting and maybe if there are people listening who are excited about something like this, they can harass GORUCK and GORUCK would bring a couple of more of them to different locations.

Corey: It’s my pleasure, man. I’m happy to talk about it. I don’t know if we can call this a sport or not, but I love rucking and I love the GORUCK community and I can’t imagine my life without it now.

Brian: That’s awesome. I don’t know what we can call it, but I love it. I know that. Thank you so much.

Corey: Thank you.

The post ADR 023: Corey Modrowski Interview (GORUCK Beached Tough & Light AAR) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 022: Scott Southworth Interview (Ruck Customs)

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:00:06 +0000

Throughout November we’ll be featuring some amazing GRT companies that service the GRT community. This week we have an interview with Scott Southworth who runs Ruck Customs.

Ruck Customs makes mods for GORUCK rucks including Kydex frame sheets and shooter conversion kits. We recently purchased and reviewed one of their shooter conversion kits and must say it’s an incredible piece of gear.

If you enjoyed this episode let us know and we’ll try and get Scott back on to talk about the GORUCK Jedburgh event he took part in!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Scott Southworth who runs Ruck Customs. You may know Ruck Customs from the Kydex sheets that they produce and the shooter inserts that they just recently came out with. Scott, how are you doing today?

Scott: I’m doing all right. Beautiful day here in Houston.

Brian: Awesome. That’s better than up here in Seattle. It’s nice and rainy. Scott, let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK as a company?

Scott: That was probably back in, I want say, 2012. I was actually looking for a backpack. I was pretty involved in buy it for life forum online, and GORUCK was name that has kept coming up, and so I figured I gave them a look, whatever, the website, and saw all these crazy event things they did and then I saw the backpack I was looking for. I just kind of skipped over the events and bought the pack, but wearing it around town in Houston, I kept getting called out asking who I was, had I done an event yet? I started feeling a little embarrassed that I hadn’t done one. First event was I want to say Halloween 2012, because I just kind of shamed into doing it.

Brian: That’s awesome. That’s usually the case when you run into someone with a GORUCK pack. First question is, “What event did you do?”

Scott: Yeah. When was your flaneur? How many have you done? All the above.

Brian: Yup. I can see how that’d be tough if you hadn’t done an event and had the ruck. Your first events in 2012, it’s the — You say it was a Halloween event.

Scott: Yeah.

Brian: You signed up for it, kind of out of guilt. Leading up to the event, what were your thoughts like?

Scott: I have no idea what I was getting into. I have always been a fairly involved athletic person and I thought I wouldn’t be a big a deal leading up to it. 20 miles was pretty reasonable; 40 pounds, pretty reasonable. We’re communicating in our little Facebook group leading it up to it and bought our team costume and we decided on going as Hooters girls, so we’re all wearing orange silkies and light cutoffs. Halloween in Houston, we still get cold water down here, so I was complexly unprepared for 50 degrees in the water, but I had no idea what I was getting into.

Brian: That’s wild, but you figured whatever you got into how to be better than getting continually asked what event have you done.

Scott: Yeah, just point of pride. Just to brag about a little bit. Also, the people that were always just reaching out to me, I figured there’s a community kind of lurking below the surface there, and I was right.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Did you end up having a good time at that event?

Scott: Oh, no. It was awful. It was one of the worst experience in my life. Just being completely unprepared, just suffering through it. I was sore, beyond sore for over a week, but once I started to recover, I was pretty proud of myself. I was pretty excited that I did something so far outside my comfort zone.

My first interaction with GORUCK was it was someone’s birthday, that Halloween event, and we had to do pushbacks and eat birthday cake off the ground. We had to drink a gallon of milk as a team and then eat an entire panache cake before we did burpees. That was welcome to GORUCK.

Brian: Were you in the fitness community back when you started your first event in 2013?

Scott: That was when I was just starting my career as a personal trainer. I’ve been doing stuff for about six months, I think.

Brian: What was going through your mind when you’re eating that birthday cake, the sheet cake, doing pushups off the ground? Personally, I would be thinking what is this going to do to my body over the next 12 hours?

Scott: I was more like, “What is it going to do with my stomach in the next 10 minute?” I saw what was happening. I knew exactly what they’re trying to do. Thankfully, I managed to keep it down, but I’d say that two-thirds of our group were puking within minutes. Yeah.

Brian: That’s wild. What a way to start an event.

Scott: Yeah. That was the first time that I’d asked myself what I’ve gotten into.

Brian: Did you have anyone quit that event?

Scott: One, from cold.

Brian: Okay.

Scott: Yeah, they put us in a fountain. Temperature was dropped into the 40s and the guy shivered out.

Brian: No cake related quits?

Scott: Yeah, no. None of those.

Brian: Yeah. That’s just a rough time. You still came back.

Scott: Yeah, because 24 hours later it doesn’t seem that bad. Thinking about pain, thinking about suffering, it goes away eventually. You got to push through.

Brian: Yup, and all that’s left are the good memories, until you get out there again.

Scott: Exactly.

Brian: And then it’s pain and suffering.

Scott: Yeah, and then you realize, “Oh, I’ve done this before, and what am I doing it for?”

Brian: When you finish that event, did you want to sign up for another one or did you figured you’d be one and done?

Scott: I went in with the plan of it just being one and done. To just kind of earning the right to wear that GR1, so when people ask me the question, I’d have answer. After about a month, I got this itch, I wanted to do more. There’s definitely a high that comes off of an event like that and there’s no other way to really replicate it.

Brian: It’s so true. After my first event, I said I was never doing another one, and then two or three days later, maybe four days, I was looking online trying to figure out when GORUCK was coming back.

Scott: You’re a bit more eager than I was.

Brian: You’ve done a 2012 event. About a month later you decided to sign up for some other events, or maybe look into it again. What other events that come to mind when you think of your GORUCK experiences have you done?

Scott: I’ve done, I want to say, like seven total. A couple of Toughs, one Light in there. Jedburgh comes to mind for sure. That was one of the best events. Nothing else comes close. It’s a shame that they’re moving on from that model. That was something special. I think it was my third event that really stood out for me in terms of the GORUCK community. It was a scavenger here in Houston and I just remember rolling out of bed just being out and we started drinking at 9:30 and just running around the city doing stupid shit and having a lot of fun. Signed up with a team of six people I didn’t know. By the end of the day, we were pretty good friends and we still keep in touch.

Brian: That’s awesome. That’s the traditional Scavenger formula, at least for me, I found. Maybe sometime we’ll have to do a Jedburgh podcast. I didn’t get some people on who did that, and maybe trying to force GORUCK sand and bring it back, because I’ve not done a Jedburgh, but I hear nothing but amazing things about those events.

Scott: Yeah. It’s something special. There’s something really cool about taking a lot of the components and doing them out in the woods, kind of off-beaten path out of the city, and they’ve been doing it up in the Pack Northwest with some of the — I can’t remember the name of the event, but they did one forest event up there, didn’t they?

Brian: Yeah, we had the Forest Ruck up here.

Scott: Yeah. I think that have a lot of similar elements. Yeah, Jedburgh was totally special.

Brian: Awesome. I’d like to talk about that sometime. When did you decide to start Ruck Customs?

Scott: It just kind of happened, honestly. After a couple of events, I started rucking with sand and I hated how the bag just collapse with sand in the middle. I remember walking away with back pain after pushups and I was struggling to manage overhead presses and stuff. I switched to bricks, and that helped a bit, but I just wanted something that made my bag easier to move around to manage for PT and stuff, and so I started looking to see what was out there and stumbled across — I think it was SH Plates. They were doing kydex at the time. They were charging like 70 bucks a piece and there was no way I was going to pay that. I figured out how to make it myself, and then when my buddies thought it was pretty cool and then offered to pay me to make him one. One of his buddies offered to pay and then all of a sudden I’ve got lists of people signing up for one and just kind of spiraled from there.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Scott: Yeah. I never expected it to grow into a business. I never expected to do it part-time. I thought it was going to be just one or two for some friends of mine, but made somewhere around probably 500 total orders over the past couple of years.

Brian: That’s incredible. Congratulations.

Scott: Thank you.

Brian: I was going to ask how was the GORUCK community reception been, but it sounds like it’s been pretty well if you’re been able to push out 500 orders.

Scott: Yeah. People like it. I have yet to have a complaint as far as the product goes. It’s a pretty simple product. It’s pretty effective and I think that’s part of it. Yeah, people enjoy it.

Brian: That’s great. Have you noticed, if any, how the community response has changed since when you first started, to now that you’re more established, you have more products and you’ve got a website up and running?

Scott: Yeah. Definitely early on, there’s this blowback. I was starting 40 bucks originally, and people were like, “40 bucks for a piece of plastic. That’s crazy. I can buy it on Amazon for like 15,” but they don’t take into account the shipping cost and the labor and then also all the equipment I have to buy to manufacture these. They’re also cut by hand just because the move from hand cut to machine is so expensive. It’s been limiting factor in that. 40 bucks is what I could manage when I was first starting out, because like I mentioned, this is a part-time gig for me. I do I have a full-time job, and so this just cuts into my free time on the weekend.

As I’ve built it, people have come to kind of accepted that’s how things are, except that that’s going to be the cost because of everything involved. As I’ve grown I’ve been able to negotiate better deals on my products, and so I’ve been able to lower that price. That was the biggest kind of pushback I received.

Brian: Yeah, price is always a tough one. I come from the school where if you don’t like the price, then you don’t have to buy it.

Scott: Right. Exactly.

Brian: This isn’t oxygen you’re selling. It’s something to make rucking better.

Scott: Yeah. Beyond that, I went out in my way to help the people that decided to go for themselves. I showed them my how-to videos, give them some tips, told them the tools I used and showed my methods. If you want to go and buy a piece of Amazon and you have the tools yourself, I’m more than willing to help you. What I have here is not something exclusive. Anyone can do it. They’re just paying me for the convenience of having me do it.

Brian: It’s a great convenience, because — I mean the plastic and itself is 15 bucks and I’d probably screw it up at least one or two times, which is, why I decided to buy from you instead.

Scott: Yeah.

Brian: Was your first product the kydex sheet?

Scott: Yeah, just for the GR1, because that’s what I had. That’s something I could model after, really. Then I bought myself a GR2 and so I started making GR2 frame sheets and then started getting requests for other stuff. I went out to my Houston GORUCK community and said, “Hey, I need to find myself an echo, a radio, and then a couple of others, so I can make some frame sheets for them.” I’ve paid people on plastic and I borrowed their bags and got some templates and expanded my lineup from there.

Brian: It’s a great idea. GORUCK community is strong in most cities, so you utilize that instead of buying a ton of bags.

Scott: For sure.

Brian: Let’s talk about the recent shooter insert. Is that the newest product you’ve come out with?

Scott: The newest I’d say is the Shooter Mini, the half size shooter. Yeah, the shooter lineup is what I’ve been kind of refining over the past year.

Brian: Where did that idea come from?

Scott: GORUCK put out the shooter inserts, or the shooter ones. I want to say, was it like early last year, maybe late 2015? I thought it was a cool idea, but there’s no way I was spending $300 on another GR1 when I have one sitting my closet right now. Also, my GR2 is my everyday carry, and I wanted some of that functionality for the bag I had. I don’t want it downsized.

I started experimenting with attaching Velcro just inside the GR1, and that didn’t work too well. Just putting some felt strips inside. I just wasn’t a fan of how it moved toward bunched up, and so I looked at my garage, saw the stack of plastic and put two and two together, instead why don’t I attach these and see what happens there? That was the first prototype there. I took just a sheet of felt and glued it to a sheet of kydex with some adhesive I picked up at Home Depot and started just messing around with that.

My first attachment, I just took a couple of extra scrap pieces of plastic, cut them to about MOLLE size and threaded them through the loops, and I had proof of concept. It wasn’t pretty, but it did a much better job of doing what I wanted to than just putting a sheet of felt inside of a GR1. From there, I made improvements on each of the different pieces till we got the product we have today.

Brian: Nice. That’s awesome.

Scott: Yeah. Some of the first pieces were pretty ugly though. We had lots of problems in the process.

Brian: One of the things that I like the most about the shooter insert is that you can use them in your everyday carry GR1 or echo or whatever pack that you’re rolling with, because a lot of GRTs almost find it like a point of pride how many events their bag has been through and it’s still kicking, and this is just a great way to give it even more use to the same bag instead of forcing people to buy a second bag to take advantage of the shooter pouches or Velcro inserts.

Scott: Yeah. That’s been my mentality behind this entire venture. Remember, I got into this because I wanted to buy one bag and never have to buy another for the rest of my life. All of my kind of invention and all my focus has been on taking one bag and making it better rather than getting an entirely new product.

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, the buy it for life communities, it’s pretty interesting, and that’s one of the ways that I found GORUCK too. It’s always interesting to hear from other people who are involved in that.

Where did the idea for the mini shooter insert come from? Because that’s a really cool idea how it gives you access to both the document compartment as well as provides that Velcro area on top?

Scott: It actually came from just a resource management standpoint. I have this stack of left over plastics from all the frame sheets, so I’m trying to figure out how to use it. I just hate wasting. I hate just taking resources and throwing them in the trash. I experimented with some random ideas. Some of them were pretty off the wall, like Kydex shoulder pads for log carries just to give you a little extra protection or flash pocket inserts to keep that a little more rigid. A lot of them were awful. Just thoughts I had to get out of my head and try and prove that they were terrible.

Then I was looking at my shooter insert and I was a little frustrated by how big it was. I didn’t need all the space all the time, and I saw it’d be great if I could just replace that MOLLE with Velcro, the MOLLE at the top of the bag. That’s what I did. I cut a shooter sheet short. I had a full piece. I just cut in half and put it in the bag and I was like, “This actually works pretty well if I’ve got just my knife and a set of lockpicks or if I just want to put my gun right near the top there. That’s all I need, is just six inches of Velcro. I don’t need a whole sheet.” I put the two problems — Or the two ideas together and came out with the mini shooter.

Brian: Very nice. Yeah, it definitely looks like a great piece, especially for those use cases. For your everyday carry GR1, do you carry it with a kydex sheet in it?

Scott: GR2, and yes, I do.

Brian: Do you see a GR2 now?

Scott: Yeah, just because I’ve got so much stuff I’m going around with.

Brian: Got you. Do you normally carry a shooter insert in there or do you just use that when necessary?

Scott: The mini. I’ll keep a mini in there and just for the convenience, but not a full shooter sheet. When I’m doing a photoshoot, maybe, I’ll pull the full in, but most of the time I just don’t need that much Velcro.

Brian: Absolutely. What’s the most popular item been that you’ve sold on Ruck Customs?

Scott: The GR1 sheet, for sure, the regular standard kydex sheet. It’s what we built the business on. It’s been our bread and butter since day one.

Brian: Awesome. What, if anything, do you have plan next?

Scott: That’s something I’m sitting back and thinking about. One thing I really enjoyed about this venture is that it allows me some creativity, a place to create and to think and to innovate. I found that my style, that comes from a lot of just passive kind of consideration. Just walking around day by day and whatever thoughts pop into my head, and then I’ll sketch it on paper when I get home and I’ll ask myself, “Is this a good idea or a bad one?” Most of the time it’s a bad one and I’ll go on with my life, and then one day an inspiration will just kind of strike. What happened with the shooter sheet, it took a year to refine, but just one day it popped in my head. I don’t have anything under the schedule at the moment for new products, but it doesn’t mean I’m not working on something.

Brian: Right. You’ve always got to be working on something, getting those ideas out. At least trying to figure to stuff out. That’s awesome. It’s motivating to hear. For you, personally, do you have events that you’re signed up for? Anything that you’re excited for about rucking or the community coming up?

Scott: When is that Nasty happening?

Brian: I know, right? I know you listen to the podcast GORUCK. When is that Nasty happening?

Scott: Yeah. Aside from that, I more moved on to some of the more speciality GORUCK events nowadays. There’s a night FAD happening in Houston next month that I’m on the fence for just because I don’t know if my schedule will allow it. I might be traveling that weekend, but if I can make it, that’d be phenomenal.

Now, I’m keeping my eye on some of the weekend expeditions. When finances are right, I definitely want to pull a trigger on one of those. I’m professionally in the fitness industry right now, and so the wear and tear I realized after doing six Toughs, it’s been a little too much for my body and so I’m trying to stay away from those and more towards the community and the skill-oriented events.

Brian: Yeah, it makes total sense. GORUCK is going to be doing some — You could already see it on the website. They’ve got a ton of new FAD events coming out. They’re definitely pushing in that direction, so there will be plenty of opportunity. It’s going to be a pretty exciting year 2018, I think.

Scott: Yeah. I’m excited to see what kind of new experiences they put out there. That’s what’s all, going out and having fun.

Brian: If people want to learn more about Ruck Customs, buy Kydex sheets or one of the awesome shooter inserts, where should they go?

Scott: The easiest place is ruckcustoms.com, all one word. I do have a Facebook page, but I’m terrible about updating that. If there’s something particularly important, I’ll put it on there. Most of the times, that page kind of sits. The website is the place to go.

Brian: There you have. Ruckcustoms.com. You do have a brand new website too, am I right?

Scott: Yeah. I’ve actually gone through several phases, but this is a new one and I’m a lot happier with it. The last one was just basically pieced together. It looks like Microsoft Paint, but this is a big blow website now.

Brian: Yeah, the new one looks really slick. Congratulations on putting that together, because it looks amazing.

Scott: Thank you.

Brian: Everyone can see your products on ruckcustoms.com. Like I said, great website, easy to view everything. If people have questions or any comments, how should they get in contact with you?

Scott: There’s definitely a form on that website, but I’m also pretty active on Facebook, so reach out. Just shoot me a message off on my Facebook posts or you can message me through the Ruck Customs Facebook page. I’m much more likely to reply really quickly to those things.

Brian: There you have it. Ruck Custom’s Facebook page. Hit him up on Messenger there, or you can always go to Ruck Mall, search for Scott or shooter insert of kydex and he pops up for all of them, then shoot him a message right from there.

Awesome, Scott. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day and talking to me about your first event, Ruck Customs and everything you’ve got going on. I’ve always been curious about Ruck Customs since you guys first came on the scene, and I bought a kydex sheet a couple of years ago, bought the shooter insert earlier this year and I just loved it, everything I’ve gotten from you guys. Top quality and I don’t regret a thing. It’s been great to talk to you and learn where all these came from.

Scott: Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. It’s always great to hear that feedback. This is a small business, and so we thrive off of community input.

Brian: Awesome. Thank you so much again, man. Take care.

Scott: Of course. You too.

The post ADR 022: Scott Southworth Interview (Ruck Customs) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 021: Kevin Maestri Interview (Knotted Cords)

Thu, 09 Nov 2017 15:00:02 +0000

Throughout November we’ll be featuring some amazing GRT companies that service the GRT community. This week we have an interview with Kevin Maestri who runs Knotted Cords.

Knotted Cords creates custom items from paracord meant to enhance and expand on some of the gear you already own. Their best seller is a paracord handle for GORUCK packs which has numerous uses that we get into during the interview.

We had a great time chatting with Kevin and hope you enjoy learning more about the GRT run company Knotted Cords!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Kevin Maestri from Knotted Cords. For those of you who don’t know Kevin, he is a GRT and started Knotted Cords a few years ago within the community. Knotted Cords specializes in a lot of gear made out of paracord but the hottest seller at least on All Day Ruckoff is the ruck handles, which Kevin handmakes. In addition to running Knotted Cords, you might have seen him around the Tough group as he volunteers a lot of his time with Cadre Danny Capital Ruck Tour, which is an incredible operation he’s got going there.

I’m very excited that Kevin’s here to chat about Knotted Cords, so let’s get the interview started. Kevin, how’s it going?

Kevin: Very well, thanks for having me on.

Brian: Absolutely man, I’m glad to have you here, it was great meeting you in Seattle when you came just to hang out with Danny, but it was great meeting you in person. I’m glad we’re doing this.

Kevin: Yeah, it was just a nice visit up there, hanging out with Danny for a couple of days.

Brian: Awesome. Before we get into Knotted Cords, I want to talk a little bit about your involvement in the GORUCK Community. How Did you stumble upon GORUCK as a company?

Kevin: I actually first saw their bags online years ago. I have a feeling it was close to when they first came out. But never really had an opportunity to grab one, but my first involvement with GORUCK was actually my first event in May 2014. I had met some of the locals of the local GORUCK community here in Arizona in the fall before that so 2013 during a hiking event we have here in Phoenix and started rucking with them and decided to sign up for Light. That was happening in May. A couple of weeks out from that, they canceled it so I got talked into doing the Challenge, which at the time of the Challenge the night before the Light.

I had never rucked more than four bricks but yeah, that was my first experience with the GORUCK community.

Brian: That’s wild. Sold you on the Light and then pulled the rug out from under you and got you into the Challenge, which is now called the Tough. How’d you feel about that?

Kevin: Correct, yeah. Really apprehensive. Like I said, I had never trained with more than basically packed up for the Light and ended up having to borrow a ruck because the bag I was using was not a GORUCK bag and wouldn’t fit six bricks and water, so it was either six bricks or four bricks and water. So I had to borrow a ruck for the event and that was all four weeks out. First time, about four weeks before the event was the first time I did an overnight ruck. The first time I rucked more than about 15 to 20 pounds. So it was an interesting experience to move up to the Challenge. I’d like to say it nearly killed me but, as most people say, the team is what got me through.

Brian: That’s wild, I mean, we both know water’s important so I’m glad you got a pack so you could bring water with you.

Kevin: Yeah, exactly.

Brian: When you completed the event, what were your thoughts? Did you want to do another one or were you thinking, “Man, this was a little crazy.”

Kevin: I wanted to do another one. The biggest thing for me though was, throughout 2013 and even a little bit of 2012, I was kind of on a path that I was like, kind of losing weight and trying to get back into shape. I’d kind of really let myself go and I wanted to get back in shape and so this was kind of like an evolution. I started doing some other events.

When I did the vent for the Tough, I really didn’t feel like I performed very well, but it really just – I wasn’t happy with my own performance. So I knew I wanted to do another event but I wanted to be in much better shape for it before doing another Tough event. But yeah, I knew I was going to do another one, I just didn’t know when.

Brian: Got it. Did you ever get the Light in?

Kevin: I did get a Light in actually finally this year, 2017 was the first time I got a Light. So it’s been about three years later, I finally got around to doing the Light, and I did Saint Patty’s Day Light this year.

Brian: Oh Saint Patty’s day lights are always a blast, that’s great.

Kevin: Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

Brian: I’m glad you’re able to finally get off out for one of those since that’s what kind of drew you in and then just pulled away.

Kevin: Exactly.

Brian: Moving on to Knotted Cord, what made you decide to start the company and when did you first start it?

Kevin: I don’t know that I had a like, “Hey, I’m going to start a paracord company or hey, I’m going to start doing this.” It was really – I always had like an interest in knots and learning knots and I like learning little skills like that and I’ve always had this interest in learning things like that.

So I always had fun with knots. When I got my GORUCK bag, I wanted to get a handle for it so I decided to make one out of paracord for myself. I had a couple of people compliment it, like it so I made a few for some friends in the area that were doing an event up in Flagstaff and kind of started rolling there.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Kevin: I think that was early 2015. So in the springtime of 2015 is when I made, I finally got around to getting my own GORUCK bag and making my own handle, making some handles for some locals doing the Flagstaff event in 2015.

Brian: Awesome. So how were they received by the people for the Flagstaff event?

Kevin: I wanted to have other people test them out. I had some local a friends that do events on a regular basis, so I gave a couple of handles out to have them test them out. I wanted to try it out before I really started mass marketing them anywhere.

They really enjoyed it, they have different uses and different thoughts on them. Some of them really like just having the handholds for overhead work. Some people actually liked having it to have a buddy grab on to help pull them as they’re going on a route to make sure the spacing, things like that. There were a couple of different uses came out of it because of that event, because there were about four people that had them during that event and they kind of all sound different things that they really liked about it.

Brian: That’s awesome. It’s really interesting to see the different use cases once people actually started using the product and figuring out what they like about it, so very cool.

Kevin: Yeah.

Brian: Before we move on, would you like to describe for those who haven’t seen one of your handles, what we’re talking about here?

Kevin: The best way to describe them, I do two primary of like my standard paracord handles. They’re designed to be attached to the front MOLLE of the GORUCK bags but I can make them custom to any size with the different brand pack but it’s designed to be attached via carabiners and so I either usually do fish tail, which is one type of knot or a cobra knot and both of those can have some variation on one color, two color with some decorative stuff added to them. Things like that. But they’re just kind of meant to be strapped to the front MOLLE so that you can have a good handhold on the bottom end of the ruck since the top handle usually is sturdy enough on its own.

Brian: Awesome. I’ll link some pictures in too but like Kevin said, it goes on the three rows of webbing, and you should use a carabiner to put it in. I’ve seen some people use the Velcro it’s attached with when you originally get it, but you should use carabiners and you can attach it on there and like you mentioned, it gives you a grab handle at the base of your pack and then you also have that grab handle at the top of your pack.

So you can basically turn your ruck into another piece of workout gear. You can do overhead presses a lot easier with it and like you mentioned, with one of these handles you can use it for spacing at events because, you know, the cadre, they love to catch you when you’re a little too far away and turn you into a casualty. So they’re very awesome.

When you first started out, were there any challenges that you faced with Knotted Cord?

Kevin: No challenge, specifically. I didn’t have any specific goal in mind. The main purpose of Knotted Cords really has been to do – create a way for me to give back some of the donations to charities but also to kind of fund my own GORUCK addiction, my GORUCK bag addiction. That’s been the primary purpose.

I haven’t had a lot of like, challenges but I have to give All Day Ruckoff a huge credit to that because really early in the process, I reached you to you to try to get some paracord items on All Day Ruckoff and that really is where things kind of took off and the biggest challenge is actually just keeping stock available on your website.

Brian: Well, I’m glad I was able to help out, you know, in some way there. They’re definitely a hot seller and there was always people on the waiting list. So, you make a good product.

Kevin: Thank you.

Brian: Is there anything you wish you had done differently or sooner when you started out?

Kevin: Not really. Like I said, really early in the process, I kind of reached out to you. I knew All Day Ruckoff was kind of the primary website out there for rucking and the GORUCK community. So I knew if I could get hooked in there, that would really help me as well. So I wanted to provide a product that you didn’t have but also give me a means to get my handles and the other items I make and send it up your way out to a larger community that I would myself because I was so new to the community still as well.

Brian: Got it, that makes sense and thank you for that.

Kevin: No problem.

Brian: How was the GRT community reception when you first start out? I know you said that you kind of tested them with your local ruckers, but when you started bringing it out, I saw the post up in Ruck Mall.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s actually been really good. There’s always people that don’t like the idea of having a handle on the bottom end of their ruck and that’s fine and, you know, everybody has a different way of how they want their ruck setup.

But people that like having a handle, it’s been very receptive, really well receipted actually. Being able to customize colors, that is one of the things I offer as well instead, in addition to you, like the primary colors and the standard colors that are on your website, people can contact me directly if they want handles in their favorite sports team colors or whatever the color scheme that they want.

I am able to kind of customize them and make the ruck more unique for them and that’s why I think a lot of people use it for as well, to kind of just change their ruck up a little bit to make it theirs.

Brian: That has some added benefits as well, right? Because not only, you know, do you add some of your own personality to the ruck but there are times at an event where a cadre will throw all the rucks in a pile or, you know, something will happen and you’ll be tasked with finding your ruck within 40 seconds or a minute and if you have something on there that’s unique like a handle that has special colors in it or colors that you know then it’s that much easier for you to get your pack and help the team out.

Kevin: Yeah, that actually helps me personally a lot as well. Like I said, I have a GORUCK bag addiction and collect all black rucks. I don’t have any colored rucks at all. I had a black with green MOLLE rucker when they’d first come out and for some reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to carry it.

So I ended up selling it so all my rucks are all black and I put different colors on them and it helped me separate them as well but that case works in an events as well when you have a sea of black rucks in pile, yours can stick out with just a handle unique colors in it as well.

Brian: Yeah, and I know that all too well. The ruck addiction. I actually just had a black and red GR1 show up this morning, so I was pretty excited about that. It took a long time to track it down but it’s here now.

Kevin: That’s kind of a unicorn.

Brian: It is, they did not make many of them but I was fairly persistent and I guess it paid off.

Kevin: I finally saw an orange with black MOLLE ruck last night and I was really surprised at how much I like it. It is super bright, though.

Brian: That’s wild.

Kevin: I’m wondering if I would actually carry one of those, which is really weird considering I like all black rucks.

Brian: Only one way to find out, right?

Kevin: Exactly. I’ll probably get one eventually.

Brian: That’s power for the course right there. I would guess that your most popular item would be the ruck handle, has it always been that way?

Kevin: It has always been that way.

Brian: But I also know and I’ve seen posted recently that you’re coming out with new designs outside of the ruck handle. What are some of the newer things that you’re making?

Kevin: Yeah, ruck handles are by far the most popular and what I sell the most of but I like to create other items and customers that have come to me and said, you know, like, “Hey, I have this really cool idea but I don’t know if it’s even possible.” I kind of take that on as a challenge and so I’ve had a couple of customers come to me like, “Can you make this out of paracord or something that does this out of paracord?” That has inspired a few other products as well.

The most recent one was a pace lid leash. So it’s a handle attachment for your pace lid to attach it to a Nalgene bottle around the neck, kind of gives you a handle like the original Nalgene bottles do. Now the original Nalgene lids do. That’s one item. I do key chains, I’ve done bracelets, I’ve had requests for watch bands, dog leashes, dog collars.

Brian: Very cool.

Kevin: Yeah, recently I just had a request for a gun sling so that’s going to be the next thing I’ve got to figure out.

Brian: Well, that should be interesting. I saw that pace lid lease that you made, they looked really nice and, you know, I’ve got a couple of pace lids here, I really like them but the one thing I wish they had was some way to attach them to the bottle because you set the lid down and then you have to make sure to remember to grab it again. So I’m going to have to grab one of those off you.

Kevin: That was exactly my problem as well and I had always kind of thought about doing one of those but had a customer reach out to me and they were like, “Hey, do you have something like this?” It really pushed me, it kind of gave me the motivation to actually get out and make it. So about a month ago, I made a few and gave them out to some locals to try out and test them out and give me some feedback and that prompted a revision and that’s what actually was kind of publicized just recently.

Brian: Very cool. Like I said, I might have to hit you up and buy one of those, because it would definitely come in handy. So it sounds like a number of customers a have reached out for custom products. What’s the most interesting or memorable product that you’ve had to make?

Kevin: Like I said, I like finding and doing products that are kind of a challenge or something unique. They have a specific thing in mind that they cannot figure out a way to do. So those are kind of fun. I had a customer that does runs like an ultra-marathons and running marathons and the event series that they do was going green, which mean that they were not going to provide cups. You had to bring your own cup. So she had a clean canteen pint glass, which has a nice rim along the top.

But she couldn’t find a way to stash it in her running bag, which is basically barely enough for her bladder as it was. So I found a way to create a small attachment to attach it to the outside of the ruck. It did swing around in gypsy camp a little bit but it gave her access to the cup anytime she was on the course. So that was kind of unique and kind of fun to do. The other probably most fun item I made was I did made a koozie out of paracord but that is not probably something I will be doing on a regular basis. They take quite a long time to make.

Brian: I was going to say –

Kevin: But it was kind of fun to figure out how to do.

Brian: That must have taken a lot of work and a ton of paracord.

Kevin: Yeah, it took about a hundred feet of paracord and about two and a half to three hours to get the way I liked it, which is extremely long for any kind of paracord item that I usually make but it was fun.

Brian: It’s always fun to try out something new there so very cool. So what’s the process for reaching out to you and trying to get something custom made or a handle in custom colors. So if someone is listening and they think they wanted one of these, what should they do to get in contact with you?

Kevin: I have a couple of different ways people could reach me. On my website I have a contact me form and that we will work on the Facebook page. They can message in directly to the Facebook page as well and I’ve had many people especially people that I know through Ruck Mall that know me, they will actually just message me directly. Any and all of those methods work but they can email me off my website, contact me via my page or my personal Facebook page.

Brian: There you have it and I’ll include links to all of those in the show notes so people can get info quick, for sure. So is there anything that you have made for a specific use but then you found out it was used for something completely different than you intended?

Kevin: Yes, a couple of years ago I had made pacifier leashes out of paracord. So a clip on one end a loop on the other that you can attach to your pacifiers too when we had our first kid. My grandmother has recently asked me to remake it a little bit with clips on both ends because her and all of her friends when they’re out eating wanted something to help hold the napkin up like a bib. So they actually have about 10 of them that they all wear, kind of like that clips on like you’d see at the dentist office to hold up their napkin as they are eating and I have never thought about using a pacifier leash to tie it like that for that purpose. But it was kind of fun to see and that was kind of fun to talk to my grandmother about.

Brian: That’s amazing. Yeah, I bet you would have never guessed about that use.

Kevin: No, not at all.

Brian: So kind of on the same vein, speaking of customizing products for your own use, what are some of your favorite customizations that you’ve made to your GORUCK bags?

Kevin: The interesting part of customizations for my own bags is that I tend to come up with a product for somebody and ship them out and ends up not having a version for myself for quite a while. So I actually have quite a few products out there that I don’t even have one for myself yet. So I really like shoulder holds. I’ve got a couple of handles that attach to the shoulder MOLLE, they have MOLLE on the shoulder straps. Kind of a nice way to hold your hands up so they don’t get all puffy from long rucks and hanging out when you are out and about with friends and stuff.

So shoulder holders is something that is one of my favorite items I’ve made. It was something that was a request from a customer and we came up with the idea together and that’s one of my favorite items I’ve made. The other thing I really liked is top handle wraps. I like wrapping the top handle of my ruck with paracord. But I tend to do it in a quick release fashion. So it’s something that can get me 10 or 12 feet of paracord in about a second and a half kind of thing, if I ever need it.

Brian: Very cool. Yeah I have seen those in a number of packs wrapping the top carry handle. Haven’t done it on any of mine because I can’t really figure it out yet, but maybe I will spend half an hour someday and do it.

Kevin: I’ve had a couple of customers ask for extra cord in the custom colors of their ruck handle and I’ve shown them through either like a YouTube video that’s out there that somebody else has made on how to wrap that top handle. So that their top handle matches their ruck handle. There’s also a couple of different methods for quick release cord wraps as well. That’s one of the items that I plan on doing also in 2018 is revamping my website and adding more of a how to section as well.

Brian: Well that would be fun, because I know a lot of people get the products and they are curious how they are made. So that would be pretty cool.

Kevin: Yeah, it will be – I mean there is a big want for how to even just attach ruck handles to your ruck.

Brian: I was going to say.

Kevin: Yeah that is one that has been requested a couple of times and a lot of times, I’ve even FaceTimed, Facebook video chatted with people as they’re trying to get it all installed on their ruck handle. I will help out anybody that has questions on that as well. But yeah, I want to do a “how to” section with some picture or video tutorials on a couple of things like top handle wraps, things that I can’t do for you because I would have to have the ruck with me.

So those kinds of things are kind of nice things to have for tutorial for how you can do it and if you want me to ship you a couple of extra feet of cord that’s when you order a handle to max so you can do your top handle wrappings like that, yeah I can do that.

Brian: Very nice, that’s a great idea and it’s definitely more cost efficient than having them ship the ruck to you and then you shipping the ruck back.

Kevin: Yeah, I don’t typically have that happen. I’ve had local, I’ll meet up and then they’ll pay me — they’ll buy me a beer and I will wrap the top handle but that’s about it. Anybody else I’ll just send them the video tutorial.

Brian: Good call. So what’s next for Knotted Cords?

Kevin: My primary task right now is working on an All Day Ruckoff restock. I know you’ve been out of stock of handles for quite a while. I have about 60 ready to go, I’ve got about 30 or 40 that I wanted to get done, but I might just ship you this 60 here right here soon. That’s probably my number one task. It’s been on my list to do for quite a while. I have a lot of small things that I wanted to get done, some key chains I want to get made just kind of like gifts and thank you’s and stuff like that.

But really what drives where I’m going is a lot of more customer requests. So if I have customers that request something new I’ll make a new product otherwise I’ll try to get some stock built up of a few items and continue working on my restock for you.

Brian: That’s awesome and that’s really cool that you have so many people that like Knotted Cords that you can be customer driven like that, so congratulations. That’s very cool.

Kevin: Thank you. It also helps like I said, this is what I do on the side. It’s what I do for fun. It’s what I use to fund my own things and also drive some charity giving and so I don’t have a certain set of products that I need to get made each week, which is kind of nice. What drives me is customer orders and with the case that released recently that’s pushing my work queue up a little bit again right now. So busy with some of those and getting your stuff done right now and then any other custom orders that come in.

Brian: Very nice. Well we are getting to the holidays, so I’m guessing that there will be a few more of those.

Kevin: Perfect.

Brian: So your event calendar this year has been pretty busy. You’ve been doing a ton with Cadre Danny’s Capital Ruck Tour. I saw that Knotted Cords was a sponsor of Capital Ruck Tour, which is awesome and it’s amazing what you guys have gotten done.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s definitely been a fun year this year. It’s been very busy. I am a sponsor of the Capital Ruck Tour as well as there’s eight or nine other sponsors including All Day Ruckoff. That has been my primary events all year long. I actually just finished my sixth Capital Tour stop this week.

Brian: Congratulations.

Kevin: Thank you, thank you.

Brian: I mean those are no small feat. It’s a lot of miles to get in in a night and that’s awesome. Would you like to talk about Capital Ruck Tour at all?

Kevin: Sure. The Capital Ruck Tour is all about Cadre Daniel’s, his motivation and project and what he wanted to do this year and I knew Cadre Daniel from, he was the Cadre for my GORUCK event. So at the beginning of the year he said, “Hey I wanted to do this project.” He reached out to me and I got involved because of Cadre Daniel. I really didn’t know much about Operation Enduring Warrior at the beginning of this whole process but I met a lot of them.

I met a lot of members of that organization and it’s been nothing but even more inspiring than Cadre Daniel can be on his own. So he wanted to reach out and visit all 50 states and have a two-fold mission which was one, social fitness which is getting out, doing fitness and rucking with other people is good for your mental health especially for those fighting PTSD, things like that. So that was one half of the mission. The other half of the mission was raising awareness and funds for Operation Enduring Warrior, which is a charity organization he has recently become involved with as well.

So we ended up 53 stops on the tour this year. So all 50 state capitals. We added Washington DC, New York City and Phoenix ended up with two visits due to the calendar. He ended up having to drive through a second time so we did a second GORUCK stop here.

Brian: Might as well get a second stop in if possible right?

Kevin: That was my thought as well. Since I live here, we made him stop by and said, “Let’s ruck again.”

Brian: That’s awesome that Capital Ruck Tour came through against, you got another chance to ruck your town. What’s next for Capital Ruck Tour?

Kevin: The Capital Tour only has two more stops this year. Ln November 3rd there’s the Carson City, Nevada and November 4th is Sacramento, California and then we’re done. We are having a big end of tour party, Saturday night, November 4th after the ruck. At that point, the tour is done and we’re kind of mission complete and then it’s just wrap up, clean up, get stuff taken care of as far as getting all the thank you’s out and all the information about the tour and especially about OEW.

Brian: Yeah, that is very cool and that’s such a huge project, rucking to the capital of all 50 states and even went back and did what, a couple of them twice so.

Kevin: Only Phoenix twice.

Brian: Only Phoenix twice.

Kevin: Yeah. Danny does have somewhat of a connection here to Phoenix and his mom lives here. So he comes and visits.

Brian: Very nice, well can you let us in on any sneak peek of what’s happening for Capital Ruck Tour or for Knotted Cords in 2018?

Kevin: Sure, 2018 for Capital Ruck Tour we’re still kind of in discussion. We’ve got a lot of ideas. There’s been a lot of ideas bounced around including something as big as a Capital Tour of all the countries in Central and South America. There’s also been talks of trying to figure out a way to repeat the tour or some variation of the tour in 2018. We’re not sure exactly how to do it.

There were a lot of things that worked really well and there is a lot of cities that we had that were really tough. So we want to ease that process and maybe make it more of a team effort so it’s not Danny leading the rucks in every city. Maybe make it OEW athletes that can pick up their area and say, “Hey I want to lead a ruck march in the city for the ruck tour.”

So there is a whole lot of discussions. We need to also talk to OEW and see what their thoughts on it. Danny is going to be more involved with OEW next year as well so this might fall under his bucket there. I’m not exactly sure what the Ruck Tour is going to be. We’ll probably figure it out December timeframe and try to start planning.

As far as Knotted Cords, my goal for 2018 is really to be more consistent with the stock I have for items I have especially with All Day Ruckoff with some items I have. So that way I can have a few items pre-made ready to go all the time that people can just purchase on the fly. That’s my goal for 2018 is just to get better at consistent inventory.

Brian: Awesome. I’m very excited to see what Capital Ruck Tour has for 2018 and it seems like you have great goals for Knotted Cords as well. What is your event calendar look like for 2018? Have you thought about any GORUCK events or anything else?

Kevin: I had some lofty goals but family always trumps that and I have a second kid arriving in January. So my fall calendar and early half of 2018 is kind of completely on hold until things are settled with the kid. So I do have a personal goal to become a little more involved with some of the OEW events. So they’re big on running Spartan races and Baton Death March, the Ruck to Remember in DC. So I’d like to participate more in those including ready to do Spartan races where I can actually help out the team instead of just to run it on my own.

So that’s kind of like a personal goal I have for 2018. I don’t really have GORUCK events on my calendar. I do have a couple of credits I need to burn, which I will probably try to find an event that looks cool and sign up for that. I’ll try to maybe jump in to some of the local especially lights or scavengers because we have a couple of scavengers scheduled here for 2018 as well. So nothing definite until more things are settled out with the kid.

Brian: Yeah, I completely understand that. My youngest is, well when this airs it will be five months or so and events are definitely up in the air with that age. So I’ve got a lot on my list too. I mean GORUCK has just been pulling out a ton of special events, which looks really fun to do, but family first.

Kevin: Yeah, they all look really, really cool. But exactly, family is first and I’ll get out and do events and hang out and ruck with friends locally and that kind of stuff as much as I can until I am ready to go do some more events.

Brian: That sounds good. So before we go, are there any shout outs you want to give?

Kevin: My biggest thing is if you can find something that inspires you and makes you want to move forward, for me this year has been OEW but everybody has that. I just really want people to get involved and find something that really pushes them to better themselves. So I’m just glad that I am able to be a part of that for a lot of people this year that have participated in the ruck tour and so Cadre Daniel is a very inspirational person for me this year.

It’s been really, really nice too. I have known him for a couple of years but I really got to know him this year and really call him a close friend. So thank you to Cadre Daniel for everything he’s done this year, that’s my biggest shout out.

Brian: That’s awesome. Cadre Daniel is an amazing guy and that’s just really good advice all around. Thank you for giving that.

Kevin: No problem.

Brian: Well there you have it. If you want to get something from Knotted Cords, you can check out their website, hit them up on Facebook, on messenger, check Ruck Mall, lots of ways to contact them. Sounds like we’ll be getting a restock soon, which is really exciting. I know the wait lists are getting deep on those products. So everyone wants some and there’s only one guy making them so awesome job, Kevin.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat today. It’s been great having you on and it’s always a pleasure talking.

Kevin: Thank you so much, Brian. I appreciate it especially all the support you’ve had and I’ll touch base with you more on what your wait list looks like and make sure that I get some of those taken care of as well.

Brian: Absolutely man, have a great rest of your week. Thank you so much again.

Kevin: Thank you.

The post ADR 021: Kevin Maestri Interview (Knotted Cords) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 020: Blayne Smith Interview (GORUCK President)

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 14:00:08 +0000

Blayne Smith became the president of GORUCK back in August of 2017. The announcement came as a surprise to some but having met Blayne in the past and seeing his interactions with Jason it really seemed to fit.

Blayne was nice enough to take time out of his day to chat with me about his new role at GORUCK, what he’s been doing, and what it’s like competing with Monster who is the president of GORUCK Nation.

Hopefully you enjoy this episode and if you had any questions about what Blayne is doing at GORUCK it clears them up. In addition, it will be interesting to see what Jason is able to tackle now that Blayne is involved and handling some of the tasks he used to do.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: Blayne, thank you so much for taking time out of your day. I know you’re an incredibly busy person being the president of GORUCK. Thank you. Thank you again for chatting with me. How are you doing?

Blayne: I’m good, man. Thanks for having me.

Brian: Absolutely. It’s my pleasure. Before we get into your current position as the president of GORUCK, let’s start out with your involvement in GORUCK and the GORUCK community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK as a company?

Blayne: I’m not 100% sure, but I think my first sort of real exposure to it was I had a friend named Mike Pick, who’s a cadre, Cadre Chase. If any of you guys have had him out there. We went to the same CrossFit gym in Tampa and he was one of the early members actually of the Tampa Team RWB chapter there as well, and we just kind of got to know each other a little bit. He kept mentioning over the weekend, he’s like, “Hey, I can’t do anything this weekend. I’m leaving town to do a GORUCK event.” I was like, “What are you talking about? You’re making people — What? Like do flutter kicks or carry logs or burpees?” I didn’t fully understand what he was doing.

He started to explain it to me and then I started to look a little bit more into it and I kind of got an understanding of what it was, and this must have been back in 2012 probably. That was my first kind of exposure to it, and then the first time I actually participated in anything GORUCK-wise I think was out in California. I was at an event out there. I think it was like the Clinton Global Health Summit or something, and there was like a custom GORUCK Light challenge that was going on at the end of the event for people that wanted to do it, and I had Aaron down in Cape Coral, Florida. He was out here, and that was the first time I did a Light and actually sort of understood how the whole thing worked, and that was really cool. Then from there it picked up steam pretty quickly once Team RWB and GORUCK started doing some work together.

Brian: That’s awesome. It sounds like you had a good time with that first event.

Blayne: Yeah, I really did. For me, I was — Just a complete transparency, I was very, very skeptical as people were telling me about GORUCK, and you guys are familiar with their community, so you know how it is. People get involved and a lot of them really get excited about them because it could be life-changing and it’s something that you’re not going to do in your everyday life. I would run into these people that were so pumped about GORUCK, and my initial disposition towards the whole thing was like, “I already served in the military. I already went to the real selection. I’m good. I’m certainly not going to pay somebody to make me do flutter kicks and low crawl and carry heavy stuff through the middle of the night. I’m all set with that. I understand that experience and I don’t really need more of it.”

When I did that first Light and I got a chance to do it alongside a really diverse group of people, some had served in the military, some not, some were like big GORUCK enthusiasts and some were new to it. To see the way that it affected the people and the way that they changed from the beginning of the challenge until 5 or 6 hours later at the end, the amount of confidence they had, the way the team formed together, the professionals and with the cadre, kind of quickly realized that this was actually not only a lot of fun, but it was providing a real service to people and that made me really start to love it.

Brian: Very nice. I know you’ve done a number of Light events especially with team RWB. Have you done a Tough?

Blayne: No. My first Tough was supposed to be NYC 9/11, and we had to evacuate because of the hurricane. I ended up driving up to Atlanta with my wife and daughter instead of going to that event. I think I’m going to do Zombie Apocalypse down in St. Augustine in two weeks, two weeks from today. That will be my first Tough as a participant, and then over the course of the next couple of months I’ll shadow probably several events and start to actually cadre some events probably the early part of next year.

Brian: Very cool. That was a question I was going to ask you later since you have the prerequisites to be a GORUCK cadre. I was going to ask if you’ve planned on doing that, and it sounds like you are. Very nice.

Blayne: Yeah, 100%. I think it would feel right to me. Frankly, I want to be involved with as many events as possible. You can count on seeing me out there both as a participant at times and as a cadre at other times. I really want to be as much a part of the community as I can and meet as many people and see as much. I haven’t done a Constellation yet. Big Daddy assures me that I’ve got to get out for a full weekend of firearms day events, so I’m excited about all of that.

Brian: Very cool. You’re going to have quite the busy schedule coming up.

Blayne: Yeah.

Brian: When did you start working for GORUCK?

Blayne: My first official day I guess was August 1st of this year. It would have been about 2-1/2 months ago, but it was probably — God! I guess it was about a year ago that Jason asked me to join the board of advisors at GORUCK, and so I’ve been involved in, I guess, some of my official capacity now for about a year, maybe a little over a year just kind of in that role, not doing much active, but being involved in the organization and having a better understanding of the business and everything that goes on kind of under the hood at GORUCK.

I’ve been doing that for a while. Then before that, in my previous job as executive director of Team RWB, Jason and I had grown pretty close and GORUCK and Team RWB had worked really closer together. I’ve worked with GORUCK for probably over three years now and have been, I guess, kind of officially involved for maybe a little over a year, but my first day as president was August 1st.

Brian: Very nice. Yeah, I know GORUCK and Team RWB have a decent history together now. I figured you had experienced a bit of GORUCK before stepping in as president.

Blayne: It was obviously not a decision that any of us took lightly, but it was something that — The more time that I spent around GORUCK and the more I got to know GORUCK, and Jason, and Emily and the whole team, the more excited I became about the potential and the possibilities for the organization. I think that’s pretty rare, by the way.

There are a lot of companies out there and brands that they look really good on social media. They advertise well and maybe they look like big companies or whatever, but once you start looking at them a little bit more closely, you can kind of start to see their warts. When you talk to people that work there, they’re like, “It’s really not that great after all.” That’s really been the opposite with GORUCK. The more I got to know about the organization and the closer I looked at it and the deeper I dove into it, the more encouraged I felt. The more I liked it and the more I saw a real opportunity to do something important here.

Because that was the case, it sparked a lot of conversation between Jason and I about like, “What could we do with this? How great can this be? What if we could work together on some of this stuff?” Took the leap and I’ve been really excited ever since.

Brian: It’s so true, many companies look great. They have a pristine Instagram presence, and then as soon as you put them even remotely under the microscope or start seeing what’s going on, it’s not as good as it’s cracked up to be. I think that’s one of the reasons why GORUCK has such a strong following, is that the people who do get close to GORUCK like it that much more.

Blayne: Yeah, I think leading with transparency is the way that Jason would describe it, and I really like that phrase. We were doing a Facebook Live thing yesterday and somebody was asking why do we do the state of GORUCK? Why does Jason just offer this completely kind of transparent look at everything from things we’ve screwed up to things we’re excited about to our financials? That’s just what we’ve decided to do. I think in 2017 and beyond, people want to be a part of brands that they know and they trust and they feel like they’ve got some voice in.

It can be a double edge sword, because it’s a lot of work to be in the Tough group, answering people’s questions and to do a Facebook Live every week to tell people what we’re up to, to take criticism and shots from people that aren’t happy with not having the right color they want or having a bad experience in an event. It is no small task to keep up with the fact that we really are directly in touch with our members, our customers, our community. That’s just something that’s unique to GORUCK and we’re committed to it.

Brian: That’s awesome, and I did catch most of the video. I have to finish it up today, but it’s really cool that you guys are doing that. They’re super informational and it’s just great to get that view into GORUCK HQ.

Blayne: Yeah, we’ve had a lot of fun with it. I think that we look forward to it now. I think we’ve done three in a row, but on a Wednesday we’re already talking about, “What are we going to do tomorrow?” It’s really a highlight of the week for Jason and I, because we love feeling connected to our work and what we’re doing. We have a lot of fun at HQ and we certainly enjoy our jobs and the company that we do it with, but there’s still plenty of spreadsheets, plenty of marketing meetings, plenty of conference calls. There are a lot of the things that exist in any business that make it hard or strenuous. It’s not all just kind of like surfing and rucking every day, as much as that would be cool. Having a chance to do something like that is exactly what we want to be doing most of the time. That’s easy for us.

Brian: Nice. You’re the president of GORUCK, and Jason is currently the founder and CEO. I know when you stepped in people were wondering how your two roles differ.

Blayne: Yeah, it’s a good question. To be completely honest, we’re still figuring some of that out with me being 70 or so days into the job, but I think the intent from the beginning was a couple of things. One; for Jason to really have a partner and someone that we can share ideas together, we can bounce things off each other, we can strategize and do some kind of the topline thinking about the direction of the organization. That’s from new products, to new events, to sort of strategic financial decisions, whether we should take on some investment or whether we should borrow some money from small business administration’s so that we can try to grow and buy more inventory and all of those things.

GORUCK’s had a really solid team for a long time and a lot of the components of it work very well almost autonomously. Gear ops runs really well, event ops with BD which runs really well. I think having an additional set of hands to help with some of that stuff on the strategic side is really important. I think part of it was Jason and I just really liked and trusted each other and had a very common vision, a very closely aligned vision for what we thought GORUCK could be.

The biggest kind of impetus for it was let’s get our heads together. Let’s work on this together. It will be a blast and we’ll be able to get more stuff done. There is that, but for the first kind of — I don’t know. Let’s say few months, 90 days, 6 months, maybe something like that, I’ve really been focused on a couple of things. One is kind of internal coordination and synchronization within the organization. Jason is a brilliant mind when it comes to kind of strategy and product development and storytelling and really kind of growing GORUCK as a community. I’ve been spending a lot of my time working with making sure that finance is talking to gear ops so that we’re buying the appropriate levels of inventory and we can pay for it and coordinating that with marketing to make sure that we have the right plan in place so we have good visibility on what products we’re going to have available this year in like let’s say Christmas time so that we can promote those products and make sure that we’re selling them in an appropriate price, just doing a lot of kind of back office kind of business operation stuff.

I’ve spent a lot of time doing that, and then the other piece that I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking at is kind of business development and growth opportunities. We function primarily as a business that is business to consumer, B to C. We make products and have services, events that we sell directly via an online website to customers. I think that’s the intent for us to kind of always do that, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how are ways that we can do that better. Who our audience is that we can reach that would love GORUCK and would love to be a part of this community but they just maybe haven’t met us yet.

I think a lot about and spent a lot of time talking to people from other industries, whether it’s in the kind of like the training and fitness industry or kind of the military and paramilitary spaces to basically find people who are kind of GRTs, they just don’t know it yet, if that makes sense. So that we can continue to grow GORUCK through a base of customers and a base of a community that is consistent with who we are and what we want to be, because we know those people are out there. We just have to think hard about where they’re at and how we connect with them, rather than just taking some sort of like nuclear bomb marketing approach where we just want to sell GR1s to anybody, because that’s not really a sustainable way I don’t think to build our business and to grow and be something great in the future. We want to find the people that resonate with our brand and with our culture and get them into the GORUCK family. That takes a little bit more work and it’s a little bit slower process, but I’m spending a lot of time thinking about that.

Brian: Very cool. That’s awesome. You mentioned that you’re doing a lot of work in the B to C space, business to consumer. I know in the past GORUCK has done some stuff in the B to B space with GORUCK solutions. Are you looking into expanding that at all?

Blayne: We are looking at it for sure. At this point we haven’t really made a firm decision on what’s that going to look like, but it’s something that I’ve spent a fair amount of time on over the last month or so trying to study and understand what the opportunities really look like. If we can do them as kind of a best in class provider.

This falls into a category of something that I call opportunity management, and it’s a high quality problem. It’s something that we’re fortunate to be in the position, but anytime you take energy or resources; money, anything like that, any kind of resource; your time, energy, money, and you apply it to something, you have to understand that you’re taking it away from something else. We don’t just have cash sitting around such that we can hire 15 more people right now to go work on a new problem.

If Jason or I or anybody at GORUCK decides to spend some time, energy, money on exploring a new opportunity, let’s say it’s GORUCK Solutions type stuff where we want to do maybe leadership teambuilding and communication training for a corporation or whether we want to do some firearms instruction as a subcontractor for a government entity. We have the capabilities if we wanted to to do any of those things, which is awesome. What we need to understand fully is how much work is going to go into getting those types of accounts. How much work is going to go into servicing those types of accounts? How well does that pay? Is it worth it when we consider that that’s going to take some time away, at least initially from our ability to focus on things like gear, apparel, Lights, Toughs, Heavies, Constellation, Firearm’s Day?

We are looking at it. We may or may not get a little bit more into that. I think it would be exciting. I think it would be cool, frankly because I think we could do it really, really well. I don’t mind saying. I think we could do it better than a lot of people that are currently kind of providing those services just because we have this depth of knowledge and experience around things like teamwork, leadership, communication, firearms, tactics, etc. The question is; when do we do it and how much effort do we put into it, and is it worth it if it’s going to take away some effort from something else?

We’re first committed to improving our quality and our experience through gear and events and apparel, but if the opportunity is there to do some other stuff, we’ll definitely look at it.

Brian: Awesome. Very logical approach, and it’s always nice to hear that. GORUCK is a little unique and that there’s actually two presidents there. You’re the president of GORUCK, and I believe Monster is the president of GORUCK Nation. What do you two argue about the most and who usually wins?

Blayne: Monster always wins. That’s an SOP at GORUCK, that Monster is the boss. Ultimately we all work for him, and he’s ultimately going to get his way. What do we argue about the most? Two things. One I would say is that Monster shows up at my feet pretty regularly and just lays on his back as if I should drop whatever I’m doing and just rub his belly. I’m wresting with it on a daily basis as to whether I actually just cave and like scratch his belly. Maybe he’ll get up and go away, or whether I hold out and I just kind of say, “Hey, Monster. This is not my job to rub your belly, and I’ve got a lot of important stuff to do right now. You can just kind of lay there on your back.”

But he will hold out. He’ll lay there on his back and show you his belly for an extend period of time until you sort of cave. His will power is pretty good. Then he’ll kind of lay on my feet so I’m paying more attention to him. There’s that.

The other thing is we order a new couch. Anyone who’s been to GORUCK HQ and has seen the old brown couch knows that that is — It’s not a couch you probably want to sit on at this point. Maybe you do, but no lifeguard on duty. You’re assuming some risk.

We got a new couch in our new office space that it’s awesome. It’s leather. Emily ordered it form some place in Canada and people love to sit on it and have meetings and whatever, and Monster will not get off that damn couch. It’s not even worth — I used to try to shoo him off of it and it’s like, “Hey, man. This is the new couch. I don’t want you scratching up the leather or whatever.” He doesn’t not give one shit about that, and I’ve completely given up, and so now it’s Monster’s couch first.

Brian: Oh, man! That brown couch was something. That was one of those that you kind of sit on for the experience and then you quickly get up and make sure nothing came with you.

Blayne: Yeah. Before Selection, we knew we’re going to have a lot of people in town over Selection weekend. Jason and I carried that couch out on to the street in front of the building and we totally took it apart, all the cushions off of it. We pulled — There’s like a Hide A Bed in there. We didn’t take any photos of what that looked like, because it was appalling and it took us quite a long time to get all of the animal hair and crayons that Bomber had eaten and spilled on there and food. It was really bad. It’s a little better now, but there are some stains that just don’t wash it off.

Brian: No kidding. Speaking of GORUCK Selection, how much did you know about that event before class 019 started?

Blayne: I knew a fair amount about it. I paid pretty close attention to last year’s selection, and then obviously Jason and I talked a lot about Selection in the months kind of leading up to it. I’d never experienced it firsthand. I had never been there like to watch it around the clock, but I had a decent idea of mechanically how it ran.

I didn’t fully understand like how it would play out, because if you just look at it on paper it looks like, “Man, that’s just a ton of physical activity.” Just physically, it’s going to break a lot of people off. I remember asking Jason like, “Why are people leaving? Why are so few people completing it? Is it just physical?” He’s like, “No. Most of them quit.” I was like, “Oh, okay. Interesting. Let me see how this works.” I was really curious about it kind of going into it.

In terms of how we were going to cover it and do the Facebook Live and all of that, we were — I guess we had a little bit of an idea of what we kind of wanted to do, but we were sort of winging it, because — Also because we didn’t think that the community was going to come through and sign up for enough challenges in 2018 to sort of earn the live coverage.

Up until I left and I did the 12 miler with the candidates, and I was out walking on the 12 miler and I got a text on my phone from Jason saying they did it. They hit the 2018 points. I was like, “Oh! Crap!” Turned on Facebook Live and we just kind of started doing it.

Brian: Yeah, it was quite the experience this year with Facebook Live. Did you know going into it that you entire weekend might be consumed by following the candidates around filming?

Blayne: Yeah. We laid down — When we kind of laid down the gauntlet and said, “Look, guys. If you want Jason and I to live out of a truck and stay awake all weekend filming this thing, sign up for 2018 events. I’ve informed my wife and I said, “Hey, I might be completely out of the loop for the whole weekend.”

Then, like I said, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. I had kind of started to assume that, “Well, it’s just going to be a normal weekend. I’ll go out there and I’ll watch it, but late at night I’ll go home and sleep in my own bed and all of that.” It wasn’t until late in the game that we realized it was for sure going to happen that way.

Brian: That was awesome. I was one of the people who figured out that you can actually cast a Facebook Live video to your TV, so I had a beer, some popcorn, some chips and had GORUCK Selection going on the big TV. It made for quite the weekend.

Blayne: Dude, it was crazy. I could not believe the number of people that were interested in watching it. I guess I just kind of have that mentality myself. I’m like, “Who wants to tune in to watch this thing that we’re doing?” But I was actually looking just this morning. I can probably pull it up for you. I was looking at the stats of the number of people that watched just that last video, so that the one from kind of Alex walking down the beach during the long walk until the completion, when he earned his patch, and the number of people that saw that video that tuned in and commented and stuff was absolutely mind-blowing. Let me see if I can — I’ve actually got those stats right here. Let me see if I can pull it up.

That video reached over 720,000 people. It got over 208,000 views and was commented on over 11,000 times. That is mind-blowing, that people tuned in to watch one guy walk down the beach for like an hour and a half and get thrashed during the shark attack. It was compelling to be there, so I guess I’m not saying it was a silly thing to do by any stretch, but I was blown away by the number of people that were interested in the story.

Brian: That’s incredible. I’m guessing if someone sat you and Jason down and said, “Hey, how many people do you think are going to view this?” You wouldn’t say 700,000.

Blayne: No. No, of course not. Jason told me before, he was like, “Selection, for whatever reason, is just electric. They’re interested in it. They get behind it. It’s always exciting.” I’m like, “I’ll take you at your word.” If he was really being honest, I don’t think he would have imagined that that many people would have gotten exposed it.

Brian: It’s awesome, and it’s quite the intro for some of them into GORUCK. It was really nice that you guys spent some time explaining during the live videos that this was GORUCK Selection and not every GORUCK event.

Blayne: Yeah, that was a little bit of a double edged sword, because thousands of people were exposed to GORUCK for the first time through this coverage of GORUCK Selection. That’s great that they’re interested and they know what GORUCK is now, but the danger in that is GORUCK Selection is not indicative at all of a GORUCK event. It’s the only event that’s like that. It’s actually really almost nothing like all of the other GORUCK events. The last thing we would want was for people to think that if you sign up to GORUCK, this is what you can expect.

Some of the events are tough. They’re definitely strenuous and the cadre are up in your business, but it’s not —

Brian: Never on that level.

Blayne: Not like that. Yeah. It definitely took some explaining, and I’m sure there are some people that just tuned in and are like, “What the hell am I watching? This is crazy. No thanks. Not for me.” But I hope at least some people were able to kind of separate the two. The truth is GORUCK isn’t for everybody. That’s okay too, right?

Brian: It’s true. You said before that you’re looking for people who are GRT and just don’t know it yet, haven’t done the event. I think anyone who falls in that category after seeing GORUCK Selection, which is give GORUCK a nice Google search and see that GORUCK Selection is one of over a thousand events I think you guys put on a year. It’s just .1% of the GORUCK Event calendar. It’s not the whole GORUCK Event calendar.

Blayne: Yeah, for sure. Look. There are lot of people that look at something like Selection, and if you don’t get a little bit fired up, if that doesn’t make you at least a little bit want to put your rucksack on or do some pushups or climb over a wall or do something, then you’re probably not a good fit for GORUCK. I’m not saying you need to like rush out and sign up for Selection, because that’s certainly not for everybody and I would not recommend that, but it’s just like when you were a kid. When you were a kid and you watched Rocky or you watched Rambo or Terminator or something, you’re hyper afterwards, right? You were like wrestling in the living room with your brother and you were like going out in the yard playing guns or playing commando, because it inspired you to want to do something.

If GORUCK Selection does anything for people, it should inspire them to want to train, to want to be active, to want to commit to something, to take up some challenge that is worth working for and is worth sacrificing for. It shouldn’t be GORUCK Selection for most people, but whatever it is, if you’re not at least a little bit inspired to get out of your house, get off your ass and go fight for something, go work for something, after watching Alex Stavdal put in that kind of performance, then you’re not kind of what we’re looking for, and that’s okay.

Brian: It’s a great way to put it. Speaking of getting motivated, getting fired up, a lot of people watched the live feed, have never done an event, are considering signing up for either a Light or a Tough, what advice do you have for those people who have never done a GORUCK event but are listening and considering either one of those, a Light or a Tough?

Blayne: Yeah, I would say two things. One is you’re almost certainly capable of more than you think you are. I talk to a lot of people that they’re like, “I’m not ready to do a GORUCK challenge. I’ve never done that before. I’ve never carried a log. I’m not in great shape right now.” That kind of thing.

I would say especially for the Lights, you are far more capable that you think you are. Once you get in the environment, once you get started, once you start doing that first kind of welcome party pushup or whatever, you’re going to be — Part of it, there’s going to be the people there, the energy there, and that’s going to allow you to achieve more than you think you can.

I think in most cases we believe more in people than they believe in themselves. Believe you can do it, especially, like I said, in a light, and just show up and give it a go and you’re more than likely going to surprise yourself. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is GORUCK events are team events. These are team challenges, and there are people there that want to see you succeed. I’m not recommending you show up to like the Joe Warner heavy as someone who’s like out of shape and where the team has to carry you. What I will say that if you show up and you work hard and you do your best, the rest of the team, the rest of the class is going to want to help you. That’s one of the beautiful things about GORUCK is that we want to see the people to our left and to our right be successful. We want to see them finish. Nobody wants you to quit. Nobody wants you to get hurt or be unsuccessful.

If it’s your first time, especially if you can get a friend or someone to go with you, show up and the class will help to pull you through the event far more than you might think. I’ve seen a lot of times where people, they want to quit, and someone else from the class is like, “No. Don’t quit.” I’ve even seen a cadre — Don’t tell him I said this, but I’ve even seen some cadre get in people’s ear and kind of say, “Hey, don’t fucking quit. Trust me. You’re going to be upset with yourself if you do. You can do this,” and people carry on.

You’re probably capable of more than you think, and there are people there that want to help you be successful. Just put in a little bit of training, show up with a good attitude. It’s more important probably to be mentally prepared than physically prepared, and you’ll be fine.

Brian: That’s great advice. That’s so true. People are much more capable of things than they think, especially when it comes to these events and just that smile in that face, because they’re good. It’s a good time and it will end eventually.

For people who watch the live feed and get pumped up about GORUCK Selection and possibly signed up for GORUCK Selection based on that, what advice do you have for them?

Blayne: Yeah. This advice would be a little different. I noticed a bunch of things during Selection, and one of them is it’s so hard and it’s so long that some things are just going to happen. You could roll an ankle really bad. You could get dehydrated really bad, things start to cramp up. You have to show up to Selection understanding that there’s a real possibility, maybe even a real likelihood that you’re going to fail. By fail I mean that you’re not going to finish Selection, failing by that definition only. That’s hard for a lot of people, and I commend everyone that shows up and wants to start Selection knowing that there’s a greater chance than not that they are not going to be successful in completing this task. That’s an important thing, because most people in this world just avoid things they’re not good at. They won’t sign up for something unless they’re 100% sure that they’re going to be successful at it. You see this all over the place in every kind of endeavor, whether it’s in business, whether it’s just like a new lieutenant that’s out with his unit and like doesn’t want to do the radio class with his troops because he doesn’t know how to do it and he doesn’t want to look foolish for not knowing how to use it.

One of the worst things you can do in life is avoid the things that you’re not good at, or just avoid signing up for or going after or committing the things where there’s less than 100% chance of success. If you want to be mediocre your entire life, live that way. That’s the first piece of advice I would say is have the stones to sign up and show up and put in your best effort knowing that your best might not be good enough. That’s a painful pill to swallow, but that is life and it’s going to make you better. You’re certainly not going to — You might fail at GORUCK Selection, but you’re definitely not going to be a failure if that’s the attitude you have. That’s number one; give it everything you have, knowing that everything you have might not be good enough and be okay with that. You got to be satisfied with the effort you put in.

Now, having said that, what’s going to make you successful or not is going to be what you do leading up to the beginning of Selection, what you do from the first — The gear layout until the final end, at the patch ceremony, that’s important, but you’re only going to be able to endure that if you’ve put in a ton of work on the frontend.

What I saw — And I commented a little bit of this on the live feed, I saw several people show up and they didn’t even have everything on the packing list. Unacceptable. If this is serious to you, if this is something you really want to be successful and you think you can finish GORUCK Selection, you need to show at least the level of detail to bring everything on the packing list.

There were almost half, I think, of the 30 or so — Not half. Over a third of the people didn’t pass the pushups or the sit ups. Look, that’s not a character assessment. Again, if you think you’re really going to be successful at this, then you should be able to pass the pushups and the sit ups by like double. You should be able to do that. You should be able to roll out at bed at 2 in the morning after being out drinking the night before and pass the pushups and sit ups, because you’re probably going to be nervous. You’re going to be graded to the standard. It might be hot. It might be cold in Ohio next year. If you can just barely do the requisite number of pushups and sit ups, if you can barely run 5 miles in 40 minutes, that’s not a recipe for success. You should have plenty of buffer space in there to account for the unknowns and to account for the conditions and the fatigue and some of that.

Control what you can control. Show up at a minimum knowing that you have every single thing on the gear list that you can crush the pushups, crush the sit ups, crush the run and crush the 12-mile ruck. If you’re “iffy” on any of those, you’ve already got doubt in your head. You’re already stressing yourself where you don’t need to. At a very minimum, make sure that you can absolutely destroy those basic physical requirements, and that way it’s no stress on your mentally, it’s going to be a limited stress on you physically. You can just sort of get that out of the way before the real fun begins at the welcome party.

Then, from there, you guys have seen a lot of this now, whether it’s through last year’s Selection coverage or this year’s, which was more live. You have an idea of the physical test you’re going to be put up against. Prepare yourself, show up ready, and you’ve got a real shot. We’re certainly not trying to prevent people from passing, but in my mind there were only a handful of people that showed up to Selection this year truly committed and truly prepared to the extent they could have made it. Unfortunately, only one of them made it through to the end, but you got to put in the work out a ton.

Brian: Absolutely. Specially a lot of people watching the live coverage don’t realize that or might not realize it if they aren’t used to GORUCK, but you have to put in 17 miles before the event even starts. Just part of the admin phase; the pushups, the sit ups, the 5-mile run, 12-mile ruck, that’s 17 miles you’re putting on your body before you even get to the welcome party into the real GORUCK Selection event. You’ve got to come in being able to crush.

Everyone who’s been on the podcast so far who’s completed Selection had said that you have to come in being able to just crush those standards at the beginning if you want to have any shot at completing the event.

Blayne: Yeah. I had a mentor when I was a cadet, because one thing that future lieutenants are always really worried about is Ranger School. There’s so much anxiety around Ranger School, like, “I’ve got to get my Ranger tab.” “How am I going to pass Ranger School?” “Oh my God! How hard is Ranger School? Tell me about Ranger School.” Anyone who’s been in the infantry or has an experience with this in the army, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There’s so much damn anxiety around Ranger School, that it’s like some crazy Holy Grail thing that — By the way, hundreds of people graduate from every month, so it’s clearly doable.

The advice that this — I think he was a major, gave to me, was, “You need to do two things. You need to be able to absolutely crush all the PT standards, because that does not need to be a concern for you. You need to go in knowing physically, “I got this,” because that will reduce your physical stress and it will also reduce your mental stress and anxiety, because you’re not worried about whether you’re going to fallout of the ruck or fail pull ups. That was his first piece of advice.

The second was, “Just pay attention and do what you’re told.” They’re going to tell you exactly what they want you to do and they’re going to lay it out in pretty fine detail. Don’t overthink it. Just follow their instruction and do what you’re told.

Ranger School is a good course. You certainly learn a lot there, but I would dare to break it down as simply as that and say show up completely physically prepared and just shut up and do what you’re told, be a good teammate, and you’re going to be successful. That goes along with a lot of things in life probably.

Brian: It’s so true. I think from watching the live coverage people can tell that — You told all the candidates what they had to do. You didn’t leave too much open for interpretation. It’d do what you’re told.

Circling back real quick to your new role as the GORUCK president, I mean you’ve done a lot in your first couple of months there. You’ve got just engulfed in GORUCK culture, you got to experience GORUCK Selection on the ground at the event doing the live stream, just tons of different opportunities. What surprised you the most about working for GORUCK?

Blayne: What has surprised me the most about working here? Not to cop out, but I would say I’ve not been terribly surprised about anything, because I was pretty familiar and spent a lot of time at GORUCK HQ before I started. I haven’t been terribly surprised by anything. I think I kind of had eyes wide open in getting into this.

One of the things that has been I guess sort of interesting for me is this kind of change for me and that I get to work in the office with everybody every day, and I really, really enjoyed that. In my last job we had a distributed workforce. We had about 30 employees, but they’re all spread out all over the country. I had a couple of people I ended up working with in the office in Tampa where I was, but for the most part it was Skype and Google Hangout and email and it was all very virtual. I spent the first few years working on that job basically running the organization out of Starbucks on Howard Avenue in Tampa, and that was okay. That has its perks, but I really missed being on a team and being kind of close to people every day. I’ve been — I don’t know if surprised is the right word, but I’ve really enjoyed being able to get on my bike and go into the office every day and be surrounded by people who are working their butts off out of this and to be able to like bullshit about the CrossFit workout that morning or just pull someone aside, just like, “Hey, what do you think about this?” Rather than having to make it a big thing, do emails.

I guess I’ve been surprised at how much more efficient and effective you can be when you’ve got a close knit group of people that are right there with each other. That’s been awesome.

Brian: Very nice. Definitely answers the question. Before we go, is there anything else that you want to talk about, shout outs you want to give or anything you want to say to the community?

Blayne: I would just say thanks to the community at large. I know that I’ve come into this somewhat recently, and although I have a background in Special Forces and Jason and I have been friends for a while, I’ve really only just kind of been involved in the GORUCK community and I’ve not been sort of a hardcore, diehard GRT that’s got like a hundred events under my belt.

I’m sure that there are people that were kind of wondering if things were going to change or who is this dude, but I’ve not seen much of that. People have been really accepting and supportive, and I’ve had a blast already just getting to know a lot of people across the GORUCK community, whether they stop in at HQ or whether I’ve seen them out on an event, or just interacting with them over email or over social media. I really, really appreciate it and I know that this is something that you guys take really seriously. Believe me, I understand that, and that’s incredibly important to me as well. I would just say thanks for kind of welcoming me into the family and being so supportive and putting some trust in Jason and I and kind of our vision for the future, because I can tell you, I sit next to him every day at work. We don’t take it lightly. We take very seriously the community that has been around GORUCK. We definitely don’t want to let you guys down. Yeah, I’m looking forward to years more of it.

Brian: Awesome. Glad to have you. Been great so far, Blayne. Thank you so much for everything, man. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Thanks for being so great with that live coverage on Selection. It’s been fun.

Blayne: Yeah, that’s been a blast, man. Thank you for having me.

Brian: Absolutely. Thanks so much for taking just so much time out of your day to chat. You’ve answered a lot of questions I have and I know some questions that the rest of GORUCK nation has had. Truly appreciate that. If you want to do an event with Blayne, St. Augustine Zombie Apocalypse.

Blayne: I will likely be at the Veteran’s Day in Jacksonville, but I’m not sure. I may be somewhere else at the Veteran’s Day event. I might push out and go to one somewhere. St. Augustine on the 27th of this month, and then I will likely be around HQ at one of the events for Veteran’s Day as well.

Brian: There you have it. October 27th, St. Augustine, do an event with the president of GORUCK; Blayne Smith. Thank you so much for taking all these time out of your day. Truly appreciate it, and I’m just really excited to see what you continue to bring to GORUCK and just everything that you’ve got going on. Thank you so much, Blayne.

Blayne: All right, Brian. Appreciate it.

Brian: All right, take care.

The post ADR 020: Blayne Smith Interview (GORUCK President) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 019: Bill Vernon & Mikey Bee Interview (GORUCK Santa Ruck 2017)

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 14:00:08 +0000

In this interview we’ve got BOTH Bill Vernon (founder of Team Ninja) and Cadre Mikey Bee (GORUCK Cadre and all around badass) here to talk about the Santa Ruck GORUCK Custom Events.

The Santa Ruck events are a huge fundraiser that Team Ninja runs to raise money for the Riley Hospital NICU. The Non-Indy events raise money for local charities so everyone who registers knows that they are helping their local community.

This will be the fourth year that Team Ninja has run this charity event and it continues to expand. This year Santa Ruck events are occurring in Indy, DC, Philly, Seattle, and St. Paul. If you’re in the area we highly recommend checking them out. If you’re not check out the donation link anyways and maybe we can get Cadre Mikey Bee to wear a Christmas-themed Speedo during the Indy event!

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with Bill Vernon, who is the founder of the Team Ninja Ruck Club based out of Indiana; and Cadre Mikey Bee, who is an integral part of this year’s Santa Ruck and Indi Ball events. How are you guys doing today?

Bill: Good, thanks.

Mikey: Great, Brian. Thanks for having us.

Brian: Super excited to have you guys on. I was able to take part in Santa Ruck in Seattle last year, and it was amazing, and I’m just glad to hear that it went well everywhere and it’s coming back.

Bill: Yeah, we had a really good showing last year and it was something that lieu to expand out, and everybody jumped at the opportunity, so kind of keep it going.

Brian: Awesome. Before we get into the Santa Ruck event, Cadre Mikey Bee answer this questions on the previous podcast where he talked about GORUCK Selection, but I want to direct these at you, Bill. Let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you even stumble upon GORUCK?

Bill: My first class was class 182 in Indianapolis in November of 2012, and back then there was no Heavy or Light, it was just the GORUCK Challenge. My brother-in-law actually found out about it first and said, “Hey, you’re doing the Spartan Races and Tough Mudders and stuff, you should do this.”

I took a look at it at the very, very limited material that was available online about this thing called the GORUCK challenge and said, “Okay, fine. I’ll do it,” and expected him to be there as well.

Back then the internet was just blank when it came to GORUCK, at least the challenge part. They didn’t want it to be publicized. They didn’t want it to be out there, and they wanted it to be this unknown. In my head I’m thinking the worst of the worst. It’s going to be nothing more than a drill sergeant yelling at us making us do pushups till we puked. You get ready. You wrap your bricks. You take a pool of laps around the neighborhoods, see how it holds up and over-pack like everybody else does on their first one. We headed out. I actually talked to my brother in doing this as well as one of our friends, and she was practicing and getting ready for this as well. Very much all doing the same thing, trying to do as much of our normal workouts as possible just with our ruck.

Until the day comes, we get to the circle, downtown Indy, and my brother-in-law was a no show, so the three of us ended up with the event. We had Bo as our cadre, and it was eye-opening. All we had to do for our “welcome party” was one perfect pushup in sync for the entire class. It took us well over an hour of just doing pushups to get one pushup. That right there — Finally, just the step-off. Once we got it done and to step-off. It couldn’t have been at a better time. Everybody’s feeling great, and then we spent the entire night going through areas of Indianapolis that I didn’t know existed, under bridges, through rivers, carrying logs. Where have you found these logs? I have no idea. I told everyone not to do this event. This is something you don’t want to do, “Oh! I want to do it. Sign me up. When is the next one?” “All right, fine. I’ll do another one.” I did one with a handful of more friends.

Again, it sucked. It was horrible, but everybody else wanted to do it, so we ended up getting our own custom Light. At that point, Lights had come out. It was Ranger Jason Jay, and it was his first “Light”. All he’d done prior to that were heavy. We got a Heavy-Light, and it killed us, and we still came back for more. That’s my intro at GORUCK, and we’ve had — I don’t know, so many events here locally and we’ve probably had 300, 400 Ninjas go through GORUCK events at this point.

Brian: The question I’ve got is did your brother-in-law ever do an event?

Bill: No. No, he has never done an event. He’s more of a triathlon, kind of running kind of guy. The idea of putting a weighted ruck on his back would probably snap him in two.

Brian: Oh! Well, I’m glad he convinced you to signup, because I’m guessing that without him doing that you would have taken a much longer time to find GORUCK and you might not be as far along as you are with getting all the awesome stuff you’re doing and going. Even if he didn’t show up for an event, thank you to Bill’s brother-in-law.

Bill: There you go, Jeff. There’s your callout.

Mikey: Hey, Jeff — Jeff should at least come out and do the Santa Ruck. Kids do it for Pete’s sake, Jeff. I’m calling you out right now, Jeff.

Bill: I think we’re going to have to force that a little bit.

Brian: There you go, Jeff. Come out, do the Santa Ruck.

Mikey: How many events does your sister does, Jeff? Oh, man! That’s a low blow bro. Just throwing it out there.

Brian: That’s awesome. At what point did Team Ninja start? Was that around before you started doing GORUCK events, or was that formed after you had already done a couple?

Bill: Actually, Team Ninja started about a year prior, so it’s 2011. We were getting ready to do a Spartan, and that’s actually how Team Ninja started, was all around Spartan Races and OCRs in general, or obstacle course races. I wanted to do a Spartan, and so they said that if you signed up a group of 15 or more, you get $5 off. All we had to do is create a “team”.

And so I created this team and I had a group of people from my taekwondo school, and so we were all going to go to the every first Indiana Spartan together. As I’m filling out the firm on the Spartan website, I’m yelling out to Carli, “Okay, I need a team name. It’s going to be everybody from taekwondo school. What do you want to name it?” She came back immediately with, “What about Team Ninja?”

In a 10-second conversation, the name came up and Team Ninja was born. We started there. We did the Indiana Spartan, the very first race of Spartan Race in Indiana with — It was 21 of us. Right after that we found out there’s more of these events, and we pretty much got hooked right then and there. We found out that there are more of these events nationwide, and so we started doing some local races. We were doing 5Ks, we’re doing Color Runs, we’re doing Tough Mudders and more and more Spartans, and then they created that whole trifecta thing, so then we started doing lots of those and we were travelling cross-country to go do Spartans.

Then we got into the GORUCK scene, and so I started really pushing for that and getting people to do those and then we’re back on Spartan and Tough Mudder. Then we started half marathons, full marathons, and as we’re expanding out, we’re taking our tents. So we got these really 20×10 customized popup tent and we’d take that to events and not really pushing the team. More like just going as a place to crash and have people come up and, “Oh! Hey, I want to be a ninja.” “Okay. Go to our Facebook page. Everything is there. It doesn’t cost anything to join. Cool! You’re in. Now you can sit on our tent, done.”

We just had people signing up from there and we have people — As we’re traveling around, we had people in different cities signing up and joining us, and so we started kind of making these mini chapters across the country and it’d be just little groups of ninjas that would get together to do their own workouts or some would only get together every time a race came into town or a GORUCK event came into town. It’s more or less little specialized, but it grew from there and now we’re well over 2,500 members.

Brian: That’s amazing. Congratulations, guys.

Bill: Thanks.

Brian: That’s awesome. Who would have thought?

Bill: Thank you. Not me. I didn’t plan on any of it. I still try to do as little as possible to let the group decide on some things and where the actual team goes and is organized as such. Whatever people want to do we do, and that’s the whole motto of Team Ninja is get up and do something new. Whether it’d be you want to go for a walk or you want to do an Ironman or — That’s kind of two completely — I’d go from one side of the spectrum to the other there, but everything in between. All you have to do is post it on our Facebook group, say, “Hey, there’s an event coming up. It’s a Color Run. I want to go do that,” and see if somebody wants to go with you. Nobody wants to do these things for the first time by themselves. That’s one way just to get people out, get theme empowered to be able to do it by having somebody there with them. It could be a Tough Mudder, it could be a triathlon. It could be going out to do your first half marathon. Well, you need a training partner to get you out of bed in the morning and hold you accountable to get out there and running. That’s primarily what it’s all about. We’re an all-encompassing group of outdoor athletes, we call it.

Brian: I like that. That’s awesome. I’ll definitely put links to everything in the show notes so that if there’s people looking to join up, they’ll know where to go.

One of the custom events you guys were on is a yearly event. It’s called Santa Ruck, and it was just a GORUCK Light, and I think last year was the first year you guys added the GORUCK Tough, but I know it’s back again this year. What was the first year that started and why did you decide to create this event?

Bill: Let’s see. We started in 2014, it was a Light, and Cadre Jesse led that. It was a regular GORUCK Light. Nothing special other than we had some special props. Still, all adult is doing it. It’s still the full speed down, but you made it fun. I think it was just the 35 people from a normal custom event. We had a fairly good group, but it wasn’t anything huge, but the people that it affected — It’s a charity event, so we give all the money that comes from the event, plus the gifts and stuff that we bring to Riley Children’s Hospital, which is the Indiana Children’s Hospital. It’s the biggest one in the state, in particular the NICU unit; neonatal intensive care.

We both do gifts in the sense. It’s not wrapped toys and presents and stuff like that. It’s gifts that the hospital could actually use. We get a list from Riley from every year of what they need. What are they short on? They get millions and millions of dollars from corporate events and big stuff like that, but what does this unit, what do they particularly need that the general population can go out and supply?

We go out and buy what they need, and those are our gifts to them, because the kids in the neonatal unit of varying different ages, they can’t get a stuff there, because the allergens that are there and all the other — You can’t pass them along. The stuff that they get is specialized. We’ll go out and buy some stuff for them and then that goes into our sleigh, and we’ve got a huge nine-foot long, weighs about 300 pounds sleigh that we carry around. In place of a log, we get that. Then we’ve got some additional stuff from there.

We started in 2014 with Cadre Jesse. 2015 saw another Light and that year it got even bigger, and we decided that we’re going to make this a family event. We started adding — If you sign up as an adult, you can bring as many kids as you want, and they’re all free. We had about — I want to say about 250 people at that event, and then 2016 — Yeah, 2016, JC Jordan was the cadre, and that was the first year that we introduced the Tough. That was an experience. That was a full Tough, again, but then the next morning is the Light, which is more family fun. We can get back again to that later.

Then Team Mikey Bee, is it? Again, we’re going to have a huge Light and it will be a family friendly event. Again, kids are free, and the swag that comes out of these events is second to none, and that’s part of what makes this fun on my part, is that Carli and I, my wife, we get to try to design up and prep out all of the logo material. Everybody gets a swag bag when they register, and so you get t-shirts and you may get a hat, you may get a sweatshirt, you may get this, you may get that. I’m not sure what’s coming in this year. You’ll just have to show up and find out.

To see that many people with all of our gear on, doing this event — And the kids get gear too. They get everything just like a normal person, what the adults get. See that many people, 200, 300 people all singing songs underneath the Christmas tree at Riley or carrying in a huge 12-foot long candy cane/pipe. It’s very good and we hope to continue this event for many, many more years.

Brian: That’s awesome, man. That’s such a wonderful thing to do. Provide so much to the NICU unit. That’s such a tough spot for the people who work there, I’m sure, because that’s just got to be very emotional especially that time of year. Thank you. You guys deserve —

Bill: You’re welcome. If you get a chance — Even if people gets a chance, through your link down at the bottom. If they’re interested, I’m going to post the list that Riley gave me. I’m going to post it on the Santa Ruck page, and people can go in and take a look, see all the stuff that we go out and buy, because every person that does the event, they’re required to bring one of these items, one of these bags. They have color-coded bags based off of the different areas of need within the NICU.

Every person brings one of these bags. Last year they had these big containers on rollers. They’re about six feet wide and three-feet deep and we filled three of them with these bags, and they wouldn’t even fit. Everything wouldn’t fit in the sleigh, so we had people run with them. We had to carry them. We had entire trash bags full of them just to keep them dry. It was amazing the amount of stuff that we took to these events, and it probably took us a good 45 minutes just to unload everything, and the bags, the gifts kept coming and coming and we had all of our Riley’s reps in tears because of so much that they received.

Brian: That’s amazing. That would be for this year coming up, where are Santa Ruck events occurring this year?

Bill: Last year we expanded out to Seattle, D.C. and Philadelphia, and they had a great time and everybody is coming back, plus we’re adding St. Paul, Minnesota. We’ve got Seattle, St. Paul, D.C., Indi and Philly.

Brian: Congratulations on the expansion. That’s awesome.

Bill: Yeah, it has everything to do with the GORUCK community. All it takes is one person to say, “Hey, that looks like a ton of fun and we have our local children’s charity that we could raise some money for. Let’s do it and set them up.” They’re the ones that have to do the local organization. If you want one in your city, I’ll help out and do what I can from here, but it really takes local, I guess, boots on the ground to get the events to go. My hat goes off to them every year for the reps that run these events in all these different cities, and the idea that it’s really handling out.

The other thing that I do ask is that you actually do the event one year and then I’ll help you set up for the next year if you want to have one in your town. Yeah, we’re doing Lights in every city. D.C. is doing a Tough and a Light, and then Indi gets our own special event, plus a Light.

Brian: Which city is Cadre Mikey Bee going to be at?

Bill: Mikey Bee, all Indi. He is in charge of the Indi events this year.

Mikey: I will only do Indianapolis for Santa Rucks, and I’m sorry to everybody else, because I’m from the area originally. My mom and stepdad participated in the Team Ninja event. My cousin’s daughter actually passed away there in 2006 from a really rare leukemia, so I didn’t know much about it. I was deployed at the time, but anything I can do to give back to my own community. Kind of like what we talked in the last podcast where GORUCK is this overarching community, right? Team Ninja is like my specific hometown GRT kind of community, if that makes any sense.

Brian: Absolutely. Absolutely, it does. I hear for 2017 there’s a theme for the Santa Ruck events, and I heard it’s Snowman. Can you dive a little into where the name of that came from and why this event will be themed this year?

Mikey: Every year, Bill started out with just a basic logo. What was the first year? Like an Elf, or was it Santa Claus? I forgot which one.

Bill: It was ninja as a Santa Claus. Our ninja guy or mascot.

Mikey: Yeah, it was like ninja Santa Claus, right? Then the next year it turned ninja Santa Claus with an elf. Then the next year, another elf. Then now this year the logo is going to have the ninja snowman in the forefront. This year’s theme is snowman all across the country for the Santa Ruck.

With that being said, some of the cadre in Indianapolis may or may not be dressed as snowman. You may or may not have to carry a snowman that the cadre made for you, maybe at Atlas ball. I don’t know. We’re going to get crazy with it.

I can’t tell you this about the Indianapolis event. This year is going to be different than the other events. We’re showing up with our big beach speakers that run on batteries, and if everybody sings with Christmas cheer, we’ll have fun. If you don’t sing with Christmas cheer for all hear, Mocha will be dressed as Krampus and he will appear, and Krampus loves PT and he will smoke the bags out of you and your little chit ones and it will be fun. Learn you Christmas carols between now and then.

Brian: That is going to be amazing. Cramp is — Oh!

Mikey: Yeah. This is going to continue on too. Every year we add a new character to the patch, so this will be the four years, our fourth year. That’s where Snowman comes from, and then next year, who knows? Maybe the Grinch shows up. It’s all the big white snow and then hopefully — Actually, hopefully one of these years actually will have snow.

Bill: Nice.

Mikey: It was cold enough last year, okay?

Bill: Remember Machine is from Miami. He is coming from Miami, and I told him it was going to be warm according to the farmer’s almanac. I didn’t even look. I told him it was going to be warm this year, since it was cold last year.

Brian: Yeah, he’s going to be happy.

Mikey: What’s funny is that with machine, I think Aaron is more excited to get the gun than actually doing the event. Yeah. They’re all coming for the ball and staying for the event. I’ve sent out some big time request for this ball as well. I sent out a request to Billy Waugh. If you don’t know who Billy Waugh is, Google the name. He’s the guy who’s got the Jackal, one of the very first Green Berets was in the agency for a while. He’s one of the first guys ever do surveillance on Osama Bin Laden

Back in 1979. Really great dude. Great American. Haven’t heard back yet, but hopefully we can get guys like Billy Waugh to come out and be the guest speaker.

Brian: That will be wild.

Mikey: really trying to push this ball. If this thing takes off and does really well, we’d love to try to expand out and send the format out to other cities next year, because it’s a great way to raise money and it’s low threat and it’s a great way to bring people into this community.

Brian: Absolutely. I truly I hope the best for it, because I would love to see a ball here in Seattle sometime. It’s a little selfish, but I hope it goes amazing for you guys.

[0:26:43.5]Bill: Whatever we get, charities, Riley, they get 10 times. All these money that we’re raising for — Let’s put it this way. Everything from the auction is being donated. One way or another, these kids are going to get some big bucks from this, hopefully. We raise a little over $13,000 last year. We’re well on our way to 15,000 this year. We actually had one donor step up and donated $5,500 in cash just a couple of weeks ago, and that just completely unreal and we’re so thankful.

I will do the event in a Santa Claus speedo if we hit 30,000 bucks this year. I will do the entire event, the 30,000 bucks, in a speedo.

Brian: If we can raise —

Mikey: For the kids, man.

Brian: $30,000 for the kids, Cadre Mikey Bee will do the event in a Santa speedo and this I’m sorry machine, this is not going to be a warm event. I want everyone to know right now. This is December in Indiana, so it is going to be cold. A speedo, all right.

Mikey: A speedo, 30,000 bucks. That’s not how much Bill has in the account to pay for events and everything. That’s a giant big $30,000 check I get to hand to Riley’s in a speedo with Bill. That’s what needs to happen.

Brian: That does need to happen. I need a picture of that.

Mikey: I’ll give you the link, so you can click on it anytime you want to check on that current balance, because unlike a lot of other events where we collect all the money and then give it to Riley eventually. When people donate to Riley, we give them the Riley donation link. We don’t touch the money, and plus then they can get all the tax benefits from it too.

For getting to the Mikey Bee’s level of donation to do this. We want everybody to feel 100% sure that their money is going exactly where they want it and they can get all the benefits from it as well.

Brian: There you go, and that link will definitely be in the show notes, at least two or three or seven times.

Mikey: If we had 30,000, dude, I will wear a speedo for those kids. If you guys don’t know, the first year in 2015 I did this with Bill. What was the number I said? 10 grand? I forgot what it was. You raise 10 grand, I’ll wear a pink bunny costume. None of the other cadre did.

Bill: We did that one.

Mikey: It was one my deal with Bill and I wore the pink bunny pajamas from a Christmas story for 10 grand. You want to see me in a Speedo, it’s got to be 30,000 and one cent.

Bill: I don’t know if anybody can really say they want to see you in a speedo.

Brian: How much you have to pay to cover it up?

Bill: Haha raise the money. 32,000 then.

Brian: Yeah, 32,000 and they’ll cover it up.

Mikey: It would scare the kids, okay? I got it.

Bill: Yeah, we’ll make sure you’ll robe you when we have to go into the hospital. I love that.

Mikey: Yeah, or I could just stand outside and be cold the whole time.

Brian: There we go. Maybe if we hit 30 grand, for an extra 5 grand we’ll get to choose a special robe for you to wear.

Mikey: Sexy santa robe. How about that? Hey, if we hit 25 grand, I will let the kids shave my head at the event, 25 grand, straight up, just hair, and I love my hair.

Brian: This is getting better already.

Mikey: Yeah. Okay, the kids, man. 25 grand, you can shave my head. Everybody gets a swipe.

Bill: I’d step up right there with you, but I’m already bald, so it doesn’t really do. It doesn’t have quite the effect, but that’s freaking awesome. We’ll do that one.

Mikey: Hey, I’ll throw Mocha in there. 25 grand, you can shave Mocha and I both, because I know Mocha is down. I wouldn’t do that at the machine. Actually, you know what? As lead cadre — No, I’m not going to do that. It’s a low blow. I know Mocha would totally shave his head, let the kids shave his head.

Brian: That’s going to be great.

Mikey: Hey, and I challenge all the other cadre out there to like do some silly stuff to raise some money.

Bill: Yeah, we need to hear from those other cities too.

Mikey: There’s no shame in it. FTK, for the kids.

Brian: No shame at all. What are you most excited about for the upcoming Santa Ruck events in Indi?

Mikey: Oh, man! I’m excited for so many things. One, I’m a little sad that the kids rucks the brats, rebels, all that stuff — Those kind of faded away over the last 12, 18 months, and like this is a great event to get kids outdoors and to do something and to connect with kids, one; and to do something great for the community, two. Then three — Man! I get to see some of my best friends that I haven’t seen all year, like I get Mocha. I get to hang out with Mocha. I get to hang out with Jesse in the past. It’s kind of like a homecoming for me. I get to see my family, and then all my SF brothers is there to cadre with me. It’s really awesome.

What makes this year different than the last is when Bill asked me to do the event, to be the head cadre for it. I said, “That’s awesome, Bill, but we’re not going to do a Tough.” He’s kind of taken back when I said that and I was like, “The main event is us taking those sleighs to the children’s hospital, and that’s what the Light does. The Tough is just a traditional type of Tough event with the Christmas theme and do it the day before.”

The guys, the heart of the ninja crew did the entire Tough, and then the next morning they looked like death warmed over. It didn’t have the same vibe as the year before, the same amount of energy and enthusiasm, but I know there’s still enthusiasm there, but guys were a little slugging because they had to spin up all night and get their tooth kicked in. I asked Bill, “Let’s do something different instead.”

Knowing how busy how Bill is, because I’m pretty well-engaged with the Team Ninja guys, I know Bill starts usually after like the Christmas in July sale from GORUCK. Bill usually starts like — I hate to say this, for lack of better terms, like Bill Starts panhandling for a Santa Ruck like July, and Carli has kind of talked to me about it in the past. I’ll try to get sponsors, find people to participate and to really push the ball down the court. I wanted to see if I could try to bring something that’s bridging that gap once again for my hometown community. I wanted to bring the ball. Friday night we do a ball where it’s non-threatening. It’s a fun night to close out the year for Team Ninja.

We get together and we show a couple of vignettes and videos and whatnot that the ninjas have done over the last year as well as like just the camaraderie of friendship. Then we’ll piggy back on top of that a silent auction along the walls during this ball, this fancy formal type of dinner and we’ll do a silent auction, that way Bill doesn’t have to be out there panhandling and kind of bearing this huge burden alone. We as a community can take on those burden together, like kind of ties a bow around it. We can talk more about the ball and why do we do it in December and what the ball is all about here in a little bit.

Brian: That’s great. Is this the first year that it will have been for the ball?

Mikey: Yeah, this will be the first year.

Brian: Bill, how did you feel when you told Mikey Bee that you wanted him to be the head cadre and he said no Tough?

Bill: It was something that everybody was looking forward to, and they all want to do a Tough and a Light, because everyone wants to go backtrack. We didn’t make a lot of charity money off of the first Tough, which it was just something new, so we had to limit the number of people that were in. I was thinking and hoping that we would have stand out on it, make it bigger, and it would be a good maturity point right there.

In that microsecond of saying no, I kind of sunk, and it worried me a little bit. He’s like, “No, but I got another idea.” I go, “All right.” Then he started warming up to this and I was like, “Okay. This is way, way outside of my knowledge-base, and I’ve got the Light to get ready for. You know what? Let’s do it. We just need a little help. I’ll wear a Tux, but I can’t be the main point for this one, because I don’t know what is going to happen. We had the girls step up, Carli, my wife, Amy Dixon, Angie Rich, they all stepped up and are now leading the charge with Mikey to get these things set up.

Brian: That’s awesome. That sounds like it’s going to be quite the event. Do you want to take it away, Mikey?

Mikey: Yeah. It’s kind of a tradition every holiday, like around — In the military, the month of December, it’s pretty much like set aside for family time, but before everybody splits off on Christmas vacation we always do this big military ball. What the ball — That’s the one time a year, like on an SF Team, like you get to see your buddies that you’ve grown up with, that maybe on your sister team or another team. It’s the only time that everybody is really home throughout the year is Christmas time.

In the first Special Forces group where I grew up, the holiday ball or the Christmas ball, or whatever they call it now, is this huge, huge formal, right? It’s like got a lot of military traditions to it, and it’s very formal upfront with the protocol that takes place as a receiving line people walk through. There’s a specific dress code. The flags are marched in. We’ll have a POW MIA table. We’ll talk about the history behind different stuff. Militarily, we’ll play all the different songs, render honors to the flag, go into a specific order of like toast for a military formal ball. Then once formal procedures are done, then we’ll kind of digress into like a war story type of environment where a few of the cadre will get up, share a couple of war stories while people continue to bid on the silent auction.

Then at the same time it gives people an excuse to get dressed up, man, and you get to kind of close out the year, wrap a bow around it, like, “Hey, this is where we started.” Like the Santa Ruck, I’ve already started working on a little bit of a video for it. This is everything that ninjas have done since the last Santa Ruck until tonight and just go through all the events, all the memories and just tie a bow around it and kind of close up the year for the ninjas as well as, “Hell, man! You get to go put on your Sunday best and show up and have a good time with your friends and adult for one night.”

Brian: You can’t beat that.

Mikey: Plus, it’s something different, right? It bridges the gap. It’s a military-style ball. It bridges the gap and brings people into our world just for one night, and all the money goes to charities. It’s a guilt-free kind of night. We’re going to have a full bar. Everybody will get a couple of drink coupons when they come. We’re working on a guest speaker right now, but it’s probably going to be somebody. Right now we’re looking at people from like the Vietnam ear to come in and tell their war stories, because you get to hear our war stories every event that you come out to. We’re trying to find some big names and some local heroes to come out and share their stories.

Brian: That sounds like it’s really going to be a unique and memorable experience. It sounds like everyone’s putting a ton of effort, a ton of work into it. It’s not going to be something that you can find out at any other GORUCK event or even any other custom. It’s going to be truly special for this time of year and for everyone involved.

Mikey: The building that we’re using is the — I don’t know if I’m saying this right, but the RAF Skelter. Is that how you say it, Bill? I assume it is.

Bill: Yeah.

Mikey: The RAF Skelter. It’s a really old building. Got a tour of it. It’s gorgeous on the inside. We have a huge ball of room set up. It’s already laid on, but even the history of the building we’re going to be in is pretty cool. It’s an old — It was a German consulate at one point in time for the Midwest. It’s a really cool building, and it was like a German club and then it was a community center. It’s a really old historic building. The venue is great. I’m going to be MC-ing the whole thing. If you watch the Selection videos, you know it’s going to be full of amazing one-liners. There’s no kids allowed, and it’s going to be a fun night of adulting and you get to dress up and come and have fun.

The cadres that are going to be there, it’s going to be myself, it’s going to be Mocha, Machine will be there, Heath, and JC. Did I miss anybody? Oh, and Josh. The guys are still active duty, we’re going to be in our dress blues. Come by, take some picture with us. It’s going to be fun. You get to come hang out with a cadre while we’re all dressed up like Mexican general, looking all fancy, and it’d be a fun night. We still have 35 tickets available and I’m pretty sure after this podcast they’re going to go pretty quick. Check that link below and come on out.

Brian: Does this occur the night before the GORUCK Light?

Mikey: Yeah, it’s going to start at 6 p.m. the night before. 6 p.m. is like start time. Myself and Amy Dixon are going to take the microphone and we’re going to MC this thing, and it’s going to be pretty funny, kind of like an Emmy’s style. A lot of jokes back and forth before and her and I, probably hazing and harassing guys in the audience as well. Then at about 10, 10:30, it will end. Everybody will part ways. They have a private little VIP section outback where people that want to continue to stay and hangout and have beers, if you’re doing a Light the next day or whatever, go downstairs, hangout in there, ballroom/dance floor.

Brian: It sounds amazing. Like Mikey and Bill said, as of a time we’re recording this there’s only 35 tickets left, so I’m guessing when this is posted there will be less. If you’re listening to this, you’re in the Indiana area or planning on travelling there in the early December, then check those links and figure out if you can still get in there.

How many tickets were sold to begin with? What’s the max capacity?

Mikey: A hundred is our max capacity for the event. There’s going to be some pretty cool swag that comes with the ball alone. Some of the cadre are bringing some stuff to give out to people that attend. I know somebody was talking about getting some of their own personal coins made just for that night. All the cadre are kind of — They get into this ball spirit and like want to bring you guys into this tradition that we kind of grown up with our entire adult lives.

You’re going to get to bid on stuff that you can’t touch anywhere else too. I’m bringing — I know this sounds gross, but I’m bringing my deployment boots. I wore the same set of boots on all my deployments. There’s blood and junk all over them. If you were a size 9-1/2, come on out and bid on them. I’m going to have my own basket that’s going to have books, like my recommended reading list, a bunch of shooting stuff, some 80% lowers, a bunch of different stuff. I’m going to make my own cadre basket.

I know Machine is making his as well, and Mocha is going to be bringing some stuff. There’s going to be guns auctioned off. There would be all kinds of stuff, all kinds of swag, rucking gear. I know we got some rucks to auction off. If you’re looking for a cool, unique stuff that you can’t tough anywhere else, a memorabilia for GORUCK and the GRT community, come on out and bid on this stuff and have a fun night.

Brian: There you have it, stuff you can’t get anywhere else. The only place is here, so check those links. You’re not going to regret it.

Mikey: Heck, man! You can get a flight to Indianapolis for like 215 bucks round trip if you buy it now.

Brian: It’s true. Midwest is not that expensive to fly to. No excuses. How are you feeling about this, Bill? Are you excited?

Bill: Oh! Over the moon. This is going to be awesome. Just talking to — I’m out, I am panhandling for everything else for the event in itself, but the ball — As soon as I mentioned the ball, my current corporate sponsors, their eyes lit up. Man, I’ve even landed a few just because of the ball. We’ve got a local gun range that’s now a sponsor as well as their gun shop. We will have them on site filling out the necessary forms in order to have the people that come to the event. They’ll be able to walk out with any of the firearms that they win.

Brian: That’s incredible. That’s not something you see often at all.

Mikey: It’s an event where like — That’s a whole another facet that Bill brought up is the fact that now, it’s something not scary that we can invite people to. Does that make sense? Hey, I’m not going to kick your teeth and make you do pushups and bear cross the next six hours. But hey, we’re just going to come. The fence is going to be down. We’re human. We’re going to have fun with you guys and relax. That’s something that he can invite the sponsors out too, where it’s very low-threat and they can kind of see what they’re getting and what they’re investing into. They can touch it without having to deal with any of the scary GORUCK welcome party stuff.

Brian: Very nice, and I can’t wait to see how this all turns out.

Bill: You should come out, Brian. You should come out. Get a babysitter. Come on out.

Brian: I’ll look into it.

Last time you’re on, Mikey, you had some awesome shout outs at the end of the episode. Do you have any more this time?

Mikey: We don’t have any shout outs besides I love Bill, I love Team Ninja. They do great things outside of GORUCK for their communities. I encourage all the other GORUCK communities to start doing something bigger than share an event. When you’re doing your community service projects, look at something bigger that’s going to change people’s lives or change someone’s trajectory in life. Don’t just — I don’t know, “We picked up trash on the beach.” That’s a great community service project and all, but we’re all better than that, so let’s start thinking bigger as a GORUCK community and looking at doing something ethic that changes people’s lives.

Brian: There you have it. Why about you, Bill, anyone that you want to plug or give a shout out to?

Bill: I got to thank my wife. Carli Vernon is probably more of the actual worker of this group than myself. In her heart she does way more than I do. I got to thank her. I got to thank my local crew. They’re always stepping up to lead the workouts, lead events, help with all of our charity stuff we’re doing for Riley. I’ve got tons of names, but they all know who they are. I’m good there.

I got to thank GORUCK for giving me so much leeway and putting these events on, because — I don’t know, I think we break at least six to ten of their diehard custom event rules every time I say, “Hey guys, can we do one more thing for this or whatnot?” They give me a lot of leash when it comes to doing this. Gotta thank them and for their continued support of the Indianapolis area and allowing us to do our thing, like custom events and fad and, “Hey, have you ever guys ever thought about doing one of these and then using these as the test bed for it?”

We get tons of stuff and I think it’s just because we’ve got enough people here that kind of trust, ruck kind of trusts me that it will be a good event. When you see those kind of beta events that are kind of just the idea in my head coming to fruition. Those are the cool ones to jump in on, because they usually have some really cool ideas that may or may not ever hit the public again. That’s my big shout out to my crew.

Brian: We might need to have another episode sometimes, Bill, where we talk about all the firearms day events you’ve had going on there. For those who are listening and don’t know, Bill has had a ton of firearms events with Team Ninja in Indi, and the majority of them are custom and it’s where a lot of — I don’t know, maybe GORUCK tries out a lot of their ideas combined with Bill’s ideas into these new events. I think that’s where some of the newer firearms day events, like Force on Force and the team ones came from. We’ll have to chat sometimes.

Mikey: Can I jump in on that real quick and just kind of wrap that up for you?

Brian: Absolutely.

Mikey: It’s not a ding on anybody else or any other crew that’s out there. Brian up in Cleveland, he does a lot of amazing custom events as well, but the reality of it is, Bill, is super vocal. He knows what he wants, ask for it and then we tent his enthusiasm with reality and tailor something that fits this crazy idea that Bill has. If you got a crazy idea out there for a custom event, reach out to HQ. Start walking the dog on it, and if it’s too crazy, we’ll do it and tailor it to be something that’s probably 70% to 80% of what you’re looking for based off of time and money and safety constraints obviously.

Brian: There you have it.

Thank you guys, Bill, Mikey. Just thank you so much for taking nearly an hour out of your day to talk with me about this. I had an amazing time last year at Santa Ruck. I’ll be at Santa Ruck again this year in Seattle, wouldn’t miss it. You guys are doing amazing things both with what it sounds like the ball will be and just everything you do for the charities and all the local communities that are having the Santa Ruck events. It’s just phenomenal.

For those listening, I’m going to have the links to the locations, to the Team Ninja website. I believe there’s also a patch on the Team Ninja site that you can buy just to support the Santa Ruck, and I’m pretty sure that’s the case, because I bought one a couple of days ago when I picked up the Mikey Bee set.

Even if you’re not able to make an event, you can still donate money. You can still buy a patch to support the event, or you can even just let people know if you got friends out in those areas that are ruckers, point them their way and get them signed up for something that will be truly memorable.

Thank you guys, again. This was really fun and I truly appreciate it.

Bill: Yeah, thanks Brian. Thanks for having us.

Mikey: Thank you.

The post ADR 019: Bill Vernon & Mikey Bee Interview (GORUCK Santa Ruck 2017) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 018: Alex Stavdal 062 Interview (GORUCK Selection 019 Finisher)

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 14:00:21 +0000

I am beyond grateful to Alex Stavdal for taking the time to chat with me for over an hour about his incredible GORUCK Selection finish. He’s a very humble guy and it was great to talk to him about this huge event.

Thousands watched him over the duration of GORUCK Selection 019 cheering him on from the live feeds. It was truly something special to witness and we were all very excited to see him walk away completing the event.

During this interview we cover how he found GORUCK and his first event, when he decided to sign up for GORUCK Selection, what it was like to fail GORUCK Selection 018, what he changed between 018 and 019, then how it felt to complete 019.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brain: Thanks so much again, Alex, for just taking the time to talk with me. I truly appreciate this and I’m super excited about it.

Alex: I know. I’m stoked, so it’s great.

Brian: Let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you first stumble upon GORUCK?

Alex: Yeah. I have to give credit specifically for signing up my first GORUCK event to my buddy, Eric. I knew him through the obstacle course racing community. It was actually funny, he was one of the first guys I met when I signed up for my very first Spartan race, which was a Hurricane Heat, followed by a sprint, and I saw this dude camping out in the parking lot, like in a tent, and I was like, “Hey, that guy has got the right idea. I got to be friends with that guy.” We met from there. We kind of had a big group that all molded together and we camped before a lot of obstacle course races, that sort of thing.

Just all of a sudden at one point he’s like, “Hey, man. I noticed people are doing this thing called GORUCK,” and explained a little bit about it and said I did one. It was super cool. You got to try it out. Yes, I signed up for my first challenge. He was there, a couple of other friends were there and I had a great time. It was with Cadre Jesse and Cadre Heath in New York City and it was really cool. It was definitely different.

Brian: That’s awesome. Back to the Hurricane Heat, what year was that?

Alex: That was — It wasn’t too long ago. That was 2014.

Brian: Okay.

Alex: Yeah. I did one obstacle course race the year before that, which was the Rugged Maniac, and then I was like, “Yeah, this is cool. I need more of a challenge. I got to train more for this.” Yeah, the next season, it was 2014, and that was the Tuxedo. I did the Hurricane Heat and then I did the Sprint.

Brian: Very cool. When was that first GORUCK event?

Alex: That first GORUCK event, I guess it was probably — It wasn’t the same season, so it must have been the season after that, which would have been 2015, and if I remember correctly, I think it was like the end of March of 2015.

Brian: Very cool. Leading up to that GORUCK event, you’ve done a number of Spartan races, mud runs, the Hurricane Heat. At that point, had they switched it over to the kind of ruck-based individual event, or was it still a team-based event?

Alex: The Hurricane Heat?

Brian: Yeah.

Alex: Yeah. The Hurricane Heat back then, that was still — The Hurricane Heat now is a much more introductory event. They smoke people in the 12 hour, but the Hurricane Heat back then was like — Now, it’s a much more introductory event. They really — They put us through the ringer. Granted I had a lot less experience with any sorts of endurance events or anything like that. Yeah, it was only 5 hours or so, but I remember that event. They definitely — They smoked us.

Brian: They brought it.

Alex: They didn’t mess around back then. Yeah. That was a Tony Matesi event, so that was solid.

Brian: Wow!

Alex: That was still when almost everybody involved with Spartan, especially endurance events, were death racers, from like the old school crew. He put us through the ringer for sure.

Brian: Yeah. I did my first Hurricane Heat back in 2011, I want to say, or 2012, and then I did another one a year after that. I know they’ve changed a ton since then, but they’re pretty interesting back then.

Alex: It’s great, but it gives a scaled event for people that — Just like a lot of the companies, there’s some more introductory and then it gets more advanced as you go. That’s the way they do it now, but yeah, it is funny because we’ll talk about it sometimes, like, “Man! They would smoke you back then, for sure, regardless of the length.”

Brian: Yeah. When you finished your first GORUCK event back in March-ish of 2015, were you hooked and did you wanted to do another event afterwards or did you need some time to process it all and recover a little?

Alex: No. I think I was definitely in the camp of like that was really cool. I loved it. Definitely wanted to do more. I was in Boy Scout all growing up. I was outside a lot. I was used to backpacking. I had done a lot of backpacking trips, heavy packs, lots of miles in the woods. It was funny, because when I showed up to my first Tough, I was, “Oh, man! I know this stuff.” You know what I mean? I was doing this my whole life, and I had my stuff all like neatly tied up in my ruck. I was like, “Ah, I’m going to put,” — it was still bricks then. I was like, “I’m going to put my bricks really high and I’m going to singe down my water bladder and do all these fancy stuff. I know all these. It was going to be great.” I showed up, like, “Oh, I got this. It’s going to be good.”

Still with some hesitation about what was going to happen in the event, but like, “All right. At least my gear is solid, because I know this stuff.” Of course, immediately, right off the bat, Jesse is just like, “All right, dump out all of your shit.” I’m just like, “Uh-oh! Everything is tied up. I have a disaster going on here.” That was kind of like my very first dip in the water was Jesse with a flashlight in my face, like, “Dump all your shit out!” Of course, I can’t, because there’s a million knots tying everything up. It was definitely funny.

As far as after we’re done, loved it. Thought it was totally cool, and my second event, I ended up signing up and buying a GORUCK bag for the Memorial Day Heavy, which was at that point like a month and a half away. I was hooked definitely.

Brian: That’s awesome.

Alex: Yeah, the team sense of it and everything. That’s why I still love doing the team events, meeting a group of people that you don’t know. I think it’s even more fun many times than doing it with a group of people you do know, because you go from nobody knows each other to, “Hey, we went through this thing together that was rough and we forged together and we got to know each other and have a great time. I think that’s one of the coolest parts.

Brian: Yeah, it’s always really fun, especially if you’re doing it in a new city that you’ve never been to. You know, explore a town. At times you generally are now at exploring and you get to meet a ton of people who are also crazy enough to sign up for the same stuff you are. It’s a good company.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. Going city to city is definitely one of my favorite parts and something I want to do even more of for sure. That second event, like I said, was Memorial Day Heavy and that was back when if you signed up for a Heavy, you were automatically signed up for the Tough and the Light. It was my second event. I had done okay in the Tough, but I was not conditioned to ruck. That Heavy was Madi and Logan, and then Cadre Jeff showed up as a surprise, because he was in town, and they went on a solid rotation. That was a 27-hour Heavy, and I still didn’t have a GORUCK bag at that point. I haven’t yet gotten it. It was with bricks, so it was some crappy off-brand ruck, and 27 hours later, like we finished that heavy and I was like, “I can’t walk anymore.” I had done all the prep. I had read all the things, but it didn’t matter. Physically, I hadn’t been training rucking for barely any time a month or two at that point. There was nowhere that the Tough, which at that point was starting in 18 minutes, it was going to happen. I was like, “Nope!”

I finished that Heavy, but that HTL didn’t happen. I said, “Okay. Before they change it,” that was when they were going to go to HTL from an HCL, but I just said, “I want to do it while it still what it was, since that’s what I tried.” I ended up signing up for the Vet Day HCLS the following fall in San Francisco, because that was the only one left. That was awesome, because I flew out to San Fran, met all the NorCal GRTs, awesome group and got to know so many of those people just from doing that trip and it’s all because I failed at the first HTL. Yeah, sometimes things work out like that, and it was super cool. That definitely gave me the bug of, “Oh! I got to go around and meet other crews.”

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, there’s a huge group of GRT down in California. The NorCal group is awesome. That’s great you got out there.

Alex: Yeah, they were really cool. Yeah, even the HTLS class. There were tons of drops, yet it was still like a 30-person, or 31-person HTLS class. Yeah, it was a big group, but they don’t mess around up there.

Brian: No kidding. March 2015 is your first Tough. A couple of months later is your Heavy. A bit after that you do the HCLS. When did you decide that you wanted to attempt GORUCK Selection?

Alex: The first time with Selection, I guess I probably — I remember I was at Wintergreen for the Spartan Super in Virginia. That same group I was talking about. It’s like a big condo there. It was that same weekend and I watched Stoney in Bozeman, Montana and I had never really heard of Selection, once or twice maybe. I knew it was like all these thing that’s much harder than the other ones, but I hadn’t read anything on it or really seen anything at that point.

I remember such a big group between the endurance community and OCR and that whole community. You know a lot of people and then a lot of people know a lot of people and it’s like — I remember like this person — “Oh, yeah! I know this guy. He’s an animal. I know this guy, and he’s an animal.” It was like the huge group of us watching, it was like, “Oh, there’s a ton of horses in the race.” Then it was practically like we went to bed and we got up the next day and nobody is left. That’s what caught my attention originally as well. I have all these people who are respecting the community who are like, “Oh, yeah. I know this dude. He’s a beast,” and they’re literally all gone. I followed through and I watched Stoney finish and I said, “Man! That is awesome that it went down to one dude.”

I guess a little after that is when I started researching it a little more and read some of the past AARs, looked at the low finish race. At that point I had already finished the Death Race, which was a huge item to check off a list. I said, “Okay, I read that original outside magazine review where they’re like the hardest event out there. One and two were the Death Race and Selection. I was like, “All right, if I’m going to train for something hard, Selection is the next thing.”

I didn’t know necessarily how long it was taking me to get ready for that, because I still at that point hadn’t been rucking for that long. I guess probably from the time I saw Stoney do it and then I kind of felt out my training in my events and did another HTL and I said, “Okay, I think —” At that point I started researching or reading everything that I could find on it, even it’s amazing in the past two years how much more is out there versus how hard you had to look for it before. I read everything I could and I guess probably — yeah, it was maybe eight months before my first attempt in 2015 where I said, “Okay, I’m going all in on training.”

I didn’t actually sign up till, I guess, a month and a half before it, because I didn’t see the point in spending all that money if I could have got injured during training or in other events or something, because as you’ve heard Jason mention, a lot of people mention, you need to be motivated to train and then signing up is like the formality. If you think that signing up is going to motivate you to train and you don’t already have that motivation, it’s not going to happen.

I knew there was no rush to sign up. I waited till I knew I wasn’t injured and then I laid out the money for it. Yeah, about eight months for which when I said, “Okay. I’m 100% now.”

Brian: That’s wild, and Selection is not an event that sells out. I don’t even know it can sell out. Makes complete sense to work it that way.

You had eight months to train leading up to your first GORUCK Selection attempt in 2016.

Alex: Yeah. That was Selection 018 in Bellbrook, Ohio last year.

Brian: Yeah, that was quite the event. That was one of the first GORUCK Selection events that there was some real life coverage going on there.

Alex: Yeah, if you looked at past events, 015, Selection 015 in Jacksonville — I don’t know. Something I had maybe four years ago, whatever it was. That one had serious coverage. Then Stoney in Bozeman for 017, they gave some coverage, but most of the other ones before that were pretty black. Yeah, last year was the first year that they started to dabble in some of the more live updating.

Brian: Your first attempt obviously didn’t end in success, or I guess completion. How did that impact the way you trained for round two?

Alex: Yeah. Like I said, for the first attempt, I ended up — Like I said, I did all my homework. Event that small difference in time, I had to put together and find a lot of those AERs and reviews and any little clip for video tidbit I could find online. I scoured and scoured and scoured to find it. I’ve built just like a little notepad file with all the finishers and all the classes and where they were and stuff, because that wasn’t even listed anywhere. There was like no official list, which still — I think some of the blogs in the last year are too funny enough that have maybe put together some of that information. It’s much easier find. Even two years ago, it wasn’t around.

I read, like I said, every AER review or anything I could find. The training was solid. I smoked myself. There was the same kind of dedication, 12, 13, 14 workouts a week before work, after work, weekends, long ruck, short rucks, really heavy rucks, running, weightlifting, the whole thing, I did it. I was ready in Bellbrook.

Part of it, my experience in multiday events or stage races or whatever you want to call it kind of worked against me. Of course, the cadre. The cadres were good at what they do, and it just — Any other event as hard as it is, as gnarly as the stuff they might have you do. When it comes down to it — Even during the Death Race and events like that, you’ll see people and they’ll give you a thumbs up or, you know, like you talk to other people. Selection, one of the things about it is you’re just in your own head. You literally don’t get to talk to anybody the whole event, which that probably — At least I know it. It probably messed with my head. I think that would mess with a lot of people’s heads, because it’s just like during your own head, the whole time, you have to be.

Yeah, that killed me when I dropped and I looked at — Everybody looked at me, the cadre, and they switched out of cadre mode and they’re like, “Hey, many. You were doing great.” In the moment you just feel like, “Oh, I’m doing terrible. This is embarrassing. I can’t believe I’m doing so bad all of a sudden.” You go from winning, winning, winning, and then it’s down the four of you and all of a sudden you’re the worst out of the four. If you don’t really have a good luck on what’s happening, it feels very discouraging. Yeah, it certainly wasn’t a good feeling afterwards, and that I literally never quit anything in my life, but I had said, “Okay, I’m going to do that.” To train so hard and then just, “Oops!” It’s all gone fast. It was certainly a bummer. It was fuel for sure.

Brian: I’m sure. That’s tough, and the other GORUCK Selection finishers that I’ve had on the podcast have said that it’s challenging especially as you get further into the event, because you’re so used to knocking out X-number of pushups or running a mile in a certain time and then as you progress to the event, obviously, your times and your numbers get worse and worse and you start thinking like, “What’s going on? Am I falling apart?”

Alex: Yeah. for me, I guess what happened last year in Bellbrook, it was like — Like I said, the PT test was, “Okay, yup.” I mean I had a plan. The whole plan was like get through Thursday and like if you’re there for sunrise on Friday and that small group, that’s awesome. I crushed PT test, welcome party. I felt in my head like, “Oh, man! I smoked that. That was awesome.” We went through all the evolutions at night. I made it to sunrise, and in my head I’m, “Oh! This is great. The sun is going to rise,” and that’s always a motivation. Funny enough, the sun is always the thing that gives you power. Mark just took off. He just like turned the switch on when the sun came up like an animal and just started crushing stuff. That just happened to be when I was in a dip. I got behind, the sun started to come up and then of course the evolution is a couple of hour along the beach.

I was behind. Each time, he’s resting for 10, 15, 20 minutes in between evolutions. Of course, then he is winning more and more. Yeah, it just gets really discouraging. All of a sudden, like, “Man, I was crushing it all night. How am I doing so bad?” So then you’re thinking to yourself this is going bad. You have the cadre telling you this is going bad. Yeah, it’s weird how you just end up in your own head like, “Oh, man! I can’t believe I’m doing so bad,” even though everybody else looking from the outside, they’re like, “Oh, those guys are all crushing it.” Definitely a great mental teaching moment.

Brian: Yeah. GORUCK Selection 18 is done. At one point did you decide that you’re going for GORUCK Selection 19?

Alex: I was sitting around the fire, the quitters fire if you want to call it, in the back of Jason’s dad’s house. Like I said, I walked back up there. Jason carried my ruck and I think it was Garret made me eggs. I’m sitting there eating and just like, “Man! You’re an idiot.” You’re having that moment of just like, “Oh! I can’t believe I just threw away all of that training.” Is this a mix of like being pissed off and just, “Hey, I definitely — There’s no way I’m waiting two years to do another one or to come back here, because I’m comfortable with it,” or anything like that. It was almost immediate where I said, “Yup, that’s it. I’m doing this next year and I’m going to train just as hard, crush everything and just buckle down and just buckle down, like that’s it. I’m doing it next year no matter what.” It was almost immediate to be on it.

Brian: That’s awesome. GORUCK Selection 019 was in September of 2017. Did you have to make any modifications to your training schedule before you went to that? It seems like you had it pretty well dialed in doing 12 to 14 workouts a week for 018, but was there anything that you found from 018 that made you tweak some of your stuff for 019?

Alex: There really wasn’t too much. It’s funny, because that’s the one question like everybody asks. Obviously, they’re like, “Hey, what did you change? What was the difference between the two years?” There wasn’t much speaking from a strictly physical standpoint. There was very little. I knew that I couldn’t jump the gun and go super heavy into training mode for Selection as soon as I got home from 018, because I know I would have burned out. There’s just no way that you can maintain Selection level training for a full 12 months at least without the high chance of getting injured or having a problem. You’re going to burn out. Even on just the mental social level, it’s just too much. I just said, “Okay, time to reset.” I gave myself time to recover. I focused a little more on lifting over the winter. Just tried to build up strength, bulk up a little bit, and then that’s when I got like little impatient.

When I got to that point of 7, 8 months, it was like, “Okay. Time to start cranking it up,” and I just kind of slowly dialed it up, because as I got closer, did the same thing a little further out this time. It was about three months. I cut out all the alcohol. A little over two and a half months, I guess, cut out all the caffeine, coffee, stuff like that, which that’s really sad, because black coffee is the one thing that keeps me happy during meal prep, but that was it. Just cranked it as I got closer and closer and just did the same thing, really didn’t modify too much as far as a physical standpoint.

The only real focus was I knew it was going to be super hot, so I just made sure to get as much time in the sand as I could and in clothing, uncomfortably hot as I could. As far as the training program, it’s very similar.

Brian: That’s tough. Black coffee is my advice too. Love that.

Alex: Yeah. Black coffee is like the one thing, like whether it’s hot or cold. That’s like when you’re meal prepping and you’re just eating chicken and broccoli constantly and the same stuff over and over, bland and whatever. Black coffee is like that one point in a day where it’s like, “Alright, at least I have that.” Yeah, doing that two years in a row for two or three months is definitely a bummer.

Brian: I bet. During your interview with GORUCK, you mentioned a couple of things that you changed, and just now too, in your life to succeed this time around. You cut on alcohol three months before. You cut out black coffee two and a half months before. It sounded like you were not staying out late. You’re getting your sleep for your recovery. You kind of had to skip summer. How tough was that?

Alex: Yeah. Last year for 018, it was the first time I was doing it. I’ve done similar things for whatever it might be. The first time I did the Killington Beat and Ultra Beast back to back, the Spartan Race or OCR World Championships, of for Death Race or for some of the longer events. I’ve done things like that before, but it’s usually for a much shorter period of time leading up to the event. Selection last year was definitely the first time where I had — It was a few months where I just said, “All right, no messing around. Let me just see what happens. Let me give this a try.”

Selection last year was in October. I was able to at least start halfway through the summer, so it wasn’t so bad. All the Labor Day festivities, my birthday is in September. We’ll have the fun stuff going on. You get into Halloween and stuff. It all sounds silly, but it’s just — When you combine thing after thing after thing after thing where you’re telling your friends like, “Oh, sorry. I can’t do that either.” Like, “Sorry, I got to train,” or whatever. It adds up, but it was okay the first year. It was that thing I was doing. Everyone was like, “Hey, man. That’s awesome,” and whatever.

Doing it then this year again for the second summer in a row and then with Selection being a month earlier, five weeks earlier, whatever it was. Having to kick start it basically at the beginning of summer and do the whole thing again, like a whole summer of drinking, going out late, just skipping a ton of events, or even racing. Not doing obstacle course racing, which I love. Doing all of those types of things to avoid getting injured. It was definitely harder this year just because it was like, “Oh, man! I’m in all these stuff again.” I knew it was the way to do it if I want to finish. It was certainly a good motivation to keep going during the event, like, “I’m not doing this again next summer.”

Brian: Yeah, you don’t want to spend another summer missing OCR.

Alex: Yeah, missing OCR, just hanging out or, “Oh, look at this fun show,” or whatever it might be, concert, fun night out or overnight ruck with friends doing like a fun ruck or something. Yeah, that was it. Like I said, this is the year, because I do not want to do this third year in a row.

Brian: Right. 12 to 13 workouts a week over the summer, what did you do for recovery?

Alex: My TENS unit is definitely my best friends. I just pick that on all the time, that I don’t even know. Maybe it’s more of like a placebo than what it actually is physically, but I love that thing.

Brian: What is that?

Alex: Like a TENS unit with the sticky pads with the electricity, got all different pulse settings.

Brian: Got you. Yup.

Alex: Yeah, the thing they’ll put on you, like a chiropractor or a physical therapy or whatever. Like I said, I don’t know. Probably one of those things where it’s partial science, partial placebo, but I love that.

Most important thing to me for recovery was getting enough sleep. I feel like people try all these crazy, wacky things, and for me just making sure that I was disciplined enough to go to bed so that I can get 8 or 9 hours every single night. That made a huge difference.

The other thing which I think is really overlooked by a lot of people, and I know it helps me massively. Again, I don’t know how much of it is mental, but I do very little sitting throughout the day. I have a standing desk at work. I’m in New York City, so I stand on the subway, on the train in and out every morning. I really try and sit as little as possible. I probably have it down to certain times eating and for meetings and stuff. Probably, compared to the average person who might sit for 11 hours a day or some huge number, I sit for maybe two or three hours a day all today, adding everything up.

I noticed when I started doing that purely from a health perspective, that it actually — I don’t know if it’s just because your circulation is up and your body is actively doing stuff more, but I certainly felt like that helped with muscle recovery. Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t claim that’s a science thing, but I feel a lot better doing that and it certainly seems like something that helps.

Brian: That’s interesting, right? I’ve had a standing desk at my office for six years now and that was awesome and I just got one for the house, I think, two years ago. You can really feel the difference.

Alex: Yeah, it made a huge different. Like I said, who knows what the science behind that is, if it’s just strictly a moving around thing, but I just felt like looser and heavy lifting session after a heavy lifting session after sprint running work and all that kind of stuff, I’m like it doesn’t matter. I get up the next day. I do my morning lifting workout and I’m all standing on the train and it just feels right. Yeah, I feel like that made a big difference for me.

Brian: Awesome. You’ve trained all summer. We’re getting into September. GORUCK Selection is coming up. How are you feeling the week or two before this time around?

Alex: I felt good. Obviously, I think everybody for any event, it’s significant in any way. You always sit there in the back of your head and despite all the workouts, all the dedication, all the time you’re like, “Did I do enough?” You eyeball — As much as I try and stay off social media and ignore all the junk that’s going on there, you look at some — You eyeball what other people are doing. You’re like, “Are they training harder than me? Do I have this all wrong? I am doing the wrong stuff?” You, to a hilarious level, question everything that you’re doing and how you’re doing it. That’s all just in your head. Ultimately, I knew I put in the work. I knew I had experienced it and knew what it took to finish and I felt good. I was just focused on keeping my nutrition on point, making sure all my gear was where it needed to be and not getting injured or doing something stupid post the event.

Brian: Yeah, it makes sense. It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that and just start sucking or third-guessing everything.

Alex: Yeah, I don’t know how — It seems fairly common. Like I said, on a logical level I’m like, “Oh! The confidence was all there. I know it’s all the right stuff. I know it worked for me last time, but it is just funny how, yeah, you’d start thinking like, “Do I have this all wrong?” You know what I mean?

Brian: Yeah.

Alex: Did I just totally miss the boat here? Yeah, ultimately that’s just your head and you got to just brush that stuff aside and compartmentalize and say, “Okay, time to get down to business here.”

Brian: Yeah. That’s how you felt leading up to the event. I’m sure a lot of people felt that way too. You get to the event and for this GORUCK Selection 019 there was a ton of live coverage. GORUCK really used that Facebook Live feed to the max and it was just kind of funny watching from our end Jason’s phone heating up and shutting off because they’re putting out so much live video. You probably didn’t realize that because you were in the thick of it.

Alex: Yeah, I had no idea how extensive the coverage was. You couldn’t hear any of the commentary and so you could see obviously when I went back and watch the guys whispering and stuff. I couldn’t hear any of the commentary. Even, honestly, you’re so focused on what you’re doing and whatever. I could see some cameras around. I figured they were just maybe taking some picture, this or that, or some footage to put together later or something. I had no idea that they were doing the type of coverage that they were doing. I figured that it might had just been like one or two of the years pass where they gave decent update here and then every few hours. Yeah, no idea that it was all live like that and there were just thousands of people watching at all times.

Brian: That was pretty wild. My guess is that the majority of the listeners watched at least some part of the life feed, and so I’m going to put links in because I believe there’s still up on the GORUCK site for those who missed it. What were some of the most memorable moments from that GORUCK Selection event?

Alex: I mean probably to start, I know the live coverage wasn’t there yet, but I touched on this when Jason and I were talking afterwards. I failed the pushups the first time. It was so hot and my nerves were just at like a 15 and I was so mentally locked in and just started banging out these pushups that I literally didn’t even hear Ragnar being like, “Hey, you’re not counting reps essentially. You’re not locking out at the top,” because I was doing them just too fast. You get nervous, you start just — Basically, during training, it was like I would drop to the floor all the time throughout the year. If I couldn’t immediately bang out 80, 90, a hundred pushups in two minutes without stopping, I was like, “Uh-oh! I got to keep training harder.”

To do the pushup test and then just mishear him and then have to start over, which takes two minutes and everything and just totally tank it. I went and sat back down in line and I was like, “Oh, man!” Instantly, everything we just talked about, all that training for two years and prepping and everything. I said, “There is no way that I’m leaving here 10 minutes from now and going back and facing everyone and being like, “Oh, I just really screwed that up.” Obviously you get a retest. I retested, everything was fine, I’d been complaining more than I needed to. That was definitely like an, “Oh, shit! I can’t believe I just did that, or almost did that.” That was before the live coverage.

Once we got started the PT test, the rest of it was standard and the welcome party is always crazy. That’s such a blur. It’s hard to remember much from that. I guess besides that, when I was digging that whole with the shovel, thinking back on it when Mickey was like, “Hey, you’re stopping too much,” and he duct tape my hands to the shovel. That’s hilarious in retrospect. In the moment it was just like awkward, but that’s hilarious to think now. It’s really funny for me to go back and watch some of the footage and just laugh at either the things they’re saying or doing, because it’s absurd, of course. The whole situation out of context is absurd, but duct taping my hands to the shovel was definitely — I’ll probably never stop laughing about that, because it’s hilariously ridiculous.

Then, obviously, I’m such a water person as everyone found out during the event and stuff. The water evolutions with PD, it was super cool. For me, the water is the place of comfort where I feel most secure or comfortable, confident in my skills, whatever. Just being in a dead silence swamp in the middle of the night, seeing the stars, being completely physically beat down and exhausted, but just like swimming through the swamp was cool. I definitely will remember that well.

Brian: Yeah, I bet. There aren’t many people who get to do that.

Alex: Yeah, I mean BD said that afterwards. They’ve never done a water-based evolution like that or to that extent in Selection. That was cool. I guess the plan was to kind of see how the candidate, which was me in this case, how the candidate handled the water. Then when he could see how comfortable I was in the water, they just decided to just crank it a little bit, crank it, crank it, crank it. They ended up with that, so I guess that’s probably — They wouldn’t have went to that extent if it was the guy who was strong and doing really well, but not necessarily a water person. Yeah, that was definitely cool to do.

Brian: Yeah. After the event, you were surprisingly coherent. I remember watching your interview, and I don’t know why, but I was very surprised at how well you were articulating sentences. You could have told me that you just woke up and I would have believed it, that you looked that good afterwards. How are you feeling?

Alex: Yeah, it’s funny. A lot of people said that. They’re like, “Oh! Your interview was so coherent.” As far as what I looked like, I have to give credit to my girlfriend, Anna, because that — Mickey B, the medic, went out and bought a bunch of like antibacterial scrub soap and all the stuff I needed, the sling and all that and he basically pushed me into the outside shower and physically I couldn’t move. Everything was a bloody mess because of the silt and the rocks and sand that was — The sand that you get in brackish water, very high abrasive, whatever that’s in a swamp compared to a beach. I was just a disgusting bloody mess and I couldn’t move. Obviously, I had the issues with my shoulder. Anna was the one who like shoved me under the shower, got everything off of me, scrubbed me down and put my hair back and at least physically got me so I didn’t look like a swamp monster. That’s all her.

Then as far as the coherent part, I don’t know. I guess it’s the same as like when you’re so tired that you’re awake. I don’t know. I think I remember being like, “Okay, there’s a video interview. You just finish this thing and try not to sound like an idiot.” I don’ know, I might just have wired myself because after the shower it was like, “Hey, I sort of feel like a human being again.” At that point the pain hasn’t really set. You’re sore obviously, but you’re still like kind of riding that high. Yeah, I guess that’s probably why I seemed awake.

Brian: Let’s talk about your hair for a second.

Alex: Yeah.

Brian: For those who — Well, I guess even if you did wash the live coverage, you wouldn’t know this, but you have long hair. You have really long hair.

Alex: Yeah, it’s down —

Brian: Does it hit your waist?

Alex: Like stomach — No, it’s not quite waist level. Unfortunately, I’m getting older, so it doesn’t grow quite as fast as it used to. It’s like the middle of my stomach.

Brian: Okay. That’s still pretty long, and you had it pulled back the entire time.

Alex: Yup.

Brian: How terrified were you that that was going to come off?

Alex: The level of prep I’ve put into that is hard to explain and that’s one of those things like all the girls, the female GRTs that are listening will understand, but there’s very few dudes listening that will really be able to grasp it, because when your hair is that long and you’re throwing a ruck on, like I give credit to any girl that leaves their hair even partially down during an event, because to me my hair has been long. I had crazy like punk metal looking hairstyle all in high school, but I started growing it out when I was like 18 and it’s just got longer and longer since then. I’m used to having long hair, but when it’s down and it’s wet and then you’re trying to put a ruck no or something like that and it’s all in the straps, because there’s literally like an extra foot or two feet of it that’s like curled around the straps and stuff. It’s awful. It’s an awful feeling when it’s wet and it’s tugging and pulling. I knew I was like I need to do something that’s going to keep it back and out of the way, because if it’s come down or — I heard about this at another — I think it was 015 where there was like a group of people all with long hair, a couple of females and they were just playing with it, playing with it in the ocean and it was like, “Oh, you guys are going to lose hair tie privileges.” I’m like, “If I got to deal with something like that, that’s —” It’s hard to describe how much more annoying that’s going to make everything. I said whatever I get to do, I just got to get it back and up and out of the way. I don’t want to think about it the whole event.

Yeah, I definitely practiced. Again, it’s only if you have long hair that you’re going to understand, but I practiced the type of bun I was going to use, how many hair ties and how I was going to put them up. It’s like you got to get it up and out of the way. Also, in case it loosens up and it starts to come apart, you got to be able to take it apart pretty easily like during a two minute rest and get it back up. Fortunately, it stayed up the way I had it. Yeah, I did put a comical amount of time into making sure that it’s going to be out of my way for the whole event.

Brian: It’s only comical now, because it didn’t come out. If it had come out, I bet you would have wished you had put more time and do it. It sounds like it all paid off.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, for anyone wondering, trying to keep it back during an event without using hair products, it’s going to just immediately come out in the water. I loaded it up with keratin spray, which is like the protein that’s in hair. It gets very sticky. Keratin spray and then I just gauzed it in coconut oil and then pulled it back. Yeah, any of the female GRTs that are trying to figure out the best way to do it, that’s what I did.

Brian: There you have it. GORUCK Selection 19, from my couch in my living room, as I watched on the TV, there were some parts that seemed — I don’t know if dangerous, but like at least scary. How did you feel during the event? Were there any times where you felt like you were in danger?

Alex: No, I don’t think so, because as brutal as it might seem that the cadre are being, and they are. It’s meant to weed people out, right? That’s the whole point. It’s like you are not prepared to this please quit and go home. You can tell that they’re watching like a hawk. Mickey B, who’s been a medic for the last two years, he’s watching like a hawk. They are constantly reminding you, like, “Hey, you drink water or you’re going to drop and have a serious medical issue.” Keep drinking water.

Yeah, you can tell as harsh as their being and as stern and as up to the standards of their being. You know those guys have your back. I stress this to people all the time with endurance events, not just GORUCK, but it is extremely important if you’re going to go do an event like this and put yourself out there 110%, that you have confidence in the people running the event. I’m not going to sign up for an event where I’m going to push myself past my limit and I could very easily pass out or drown or fall and hit my head or get lost out in the woods because I’m hallucinating and so sleep deprived. I’m not going to do that and put myself in that position unless I know that there’s competent staff running the event that essentially have my back, that even I they are the ones putting me through the ringer, when it comes down to it, they know that, “Hey, these guys are out here giving it their all and they’re paying attention.”

There’s a lot of copycat type of events that are out there, and I would just encourage people to do your research, make sure that you’re signing up for an event that’s ran by people who are either like in this case, where they’re all SF guys and they know exactly how to run a professional event, or it’s put on by veteran endurance athletes who have a long list of accomplishments themselves and understand medical issues that come up and have a team on standby to watch out for you. That way you can go into the event and not even think about your own safety basically, which maybe isn’t the best way to think, but that’s how I think.

If I go, “Yeah, this is a good event put on by good people,” I can just go in and put my all into the event and know that the staff has my back if something should happen to me while I’m out there. I think it’s the same thing with this. For me, I knew those guys were there. Ultimately, if a serious medical emergency went down, they’re going to be able to take care of me. I really had no concerns about anything that was going on during the event.

Brian: That’s great, and that’s almost how you have to look at it if you want to give something your all, otherwise you’re giving it 80% and you’re spending the other 20% worrying about safety or other concerns like that. That’s great advice.

Alex: That’s definitely it. Yeah. There are certain events where you’re way out there, so you have to be a little mindful of your safety. I did Fuego y Agua Survival Run in Nicaragua and you’re like literally out on that volcano yourself. It’s like that kind of event. It’s more of an adventure race. Yeah, you have to be responsible a little bit for your own safety, but if it’s an event where you’re constantly under the watchful eye of a cadre or staff or whatever it might be, then, yeah, you should feel confident in the event you’re participating in and the people running it and just be able to throw everything you got into the event.

Brian: Before we talk about post event and the recovery process, is there anything else that you wanted to talk about GORUCK Selection 019?

Alex: No, I don’t think so. I think I’ve probably been rambling on for long enough. Certainly, do you have any other specific questions? I’d be happy to answer them. No, I don’t think I have anything particular to say. It was awesome and all of its terribleness. It was an awesome thing to experience and train for and take on. It was great.

Brian: Yeah, I don’t think we need to spend two hours describing the event, because there’s just so much live coverage footage out there that people can see it for themselves, everything that you endured.

Alex: I’ve been telling people especially like if they don’t want to go hunting or there’s so many people outside of the endurance community, people at work and all over who they ask questions. GORUCK’s got it on their site at like GORUCK Selection 019, the definitive edition. I went back to be able to look at it myself. That’s got like — You can get the gist of it if you’ve never seen it or you didn’t watch any of the stuff live. There’s enough stuff linked there. That’s good work.

Brian: How do you feel looking at that, looking at the definitive edition? Seeing all those hundreds of pictures that they’ve got on their site, they’ve got videos. Do you look at it and do you remember everything happening or is that kind of you’re looking at — When you look at pictures and you don’t quite remember it even occurring.

Alex: I don’t think there’s any picture I looked at where I said like, “Oh, I don’t remember that,” although it is funny. If I was sitting here and somebody was like, “Okay. Sit here and tell me exactly evolution by evolution of what happened and what you did and who is still there.” I’d probably have a ton of empty spots, because your brain is already in such overdrive to trying to force yourself to keep doing what you’re doing.

When I look through it in a timeline fashion with pictures, it’s very easy, because for me every picture you’re like — It’s almost like you go back in your brain to like that moment of pain. You’re like, “Oh, yeah. I recall that.” Looking at, it definitely keeps it all fresh. Probably, if I was forced to sit here and narrate it step by step or evolution by evolution as well as it does in the timeline like that.

Brian: Yeah, make’s sense. You know, like we said, the only way to give it 100% is to put it all in there so you can spend time trying to remember everything that’s going on. You just got to put out.

Alex: Yes.

Brian: Post-event recovery. You mentioned briefly that during your interview, that was before the pain had set in. What’s the pain and how was that?

Alex: I expected it to be rough, but I have to say compared to last year where I’ve done half that amount of time at Selection or any other event that’s 40, 50, 60, 70 hour long, just how I felt after this just crushed all of those other event. It’s hard to overstate — It certainly ended up being nothing major. Certainly, people go through worst every day in horrible accidents and stuff, but as far as just, “Hey, I signed up for this event and I finished it.” My body was destroyed. As far as cuts and scrapes from that filthy sand, rocky, hard-packed dirt roads, stuff like that on a level as far as my skin, I was missing all the skin around the back, inside my neck, under my armpits where my pecs meet my arms and the strap is just all gone there. My arms are obviously heavily tattooed, but not that it would get own to a level where it messed the tattoos, because that would be like cutting off your skin with a knife. It’s not that deep. The ink is way lower, but I still have giant pink patches where all of the skin on the top layers is all just still growing back.

My legs, the bruises were hysterical, like huge, like I’ve never had before. Obviously, Mickey, he put me in a sling because we didn’t know what was going on with my shoulder, which I did end up going getting x-rays and getting examined. They came short of making me do an MRI, because they felt that it was fine after all the tests. It was just dead basically.

Yeah, my ankles, all the way from the knee down to my feet basically swelled up to such an extent that like I Converse all the time, and my Converse were — The laces were stretched out all the way to the ends of the laces to the fact that I couldn’t even tie them. My legs, my ankles were actually wider than the shoes themselves. It was like hilariously blown up. It made it extremely painful to walk, because I have my shoulders where I couldn’t change my own shirts, I couldn’t tie my hair back. Like I said, just even with the post-event shower, and I had to do everything for me.

We were on a trip obviously. She packed up all our stuff for both of us. She would help me shower, get me dressed, help me sit up in bed if I had to, which was like ones an hour. She drove us. She literally had to do everything for the both of us because I was useless for a couple of days afterwards, and still in strong pain for a week and a half after. Yeah, I was trashed. I had never been beat down like that before. Ohio, last year, doing half the event, I was able to drive myself home, and I drive a car that’s stick. I drove five speed all the way home from Ohio to New York. Stiff and sore and cuts and bruises and stuff, but it was nothing like it was this year. I was definitely destroyed.

Brian: Wow! That paints quite the picture.

Alex: Yeah. I don’t want to make it sound too dramatic. Like I said, people go through far worse things every day. Yeah, considering it was, “Hey, the event that I signed up for and just did and paid money for, yeah, I’ve never been beat down like that.” Mickey was awesome. Mickey checked in with me twice a day every day after the event to make sure, “Hey, I would try taking this. Do this instead. Change this method.” He’d checked in like a doc would and made recommendations and stuff. Yeah, it’s only in the last couple of days where I can really walk around comfortably and wear my ruck to work. I didn’t put the weight plate back in yet, but even my gear from work and stuff weighed something and just to be able to walk and not have like splitting headaches and stuff. Yeah, just in the last day or two, it’s finally like, “Okay, I’m starting to really feel normal again.”

Brian: It’s been a while since the event we’re recording this. We’re almost halfway through October.

Alex: Yeah, I think it will be three weeks on Saturday. I would put it easily at a two-week recovery time.

Brian: I think I know the answer to this question, but it’s so fun to ask. Was it all worth it?

Alex: Oh, yes. It was totally worth it. It was awesome and it’s awesome to — I love just that, just pushing yourself as hard as you absolutely can and really testing what you’re made out of, because it’s really easy especially with how big the endurance community has grown, whether it’s OCR or Endurance GORUCK or whatever. Really easy to do stuff that’s kind of hard and then stand back and look at your wall of patches or your rack full of race medals or whatever and be like, “Oh, wow! Look at all the stuff I did,” and you go on social media and people pat you on the back and stuff and it’s really easy to not truly test yourself and just be like, “Yeah, I’m doing awesome stuff.”

To take a leap of being like, “Okay, this is that next level thing, and I really have to put myself out there and give it all I’ve got.” That to me is very rewarding. I don’t want to end up in that point where you settle and you get comfortable and you’re like, “All right, this is my level.” It’s important to always push.

Brian: Yeah. I see that a lot.

Alex: Yeah and that doesn’t also mean, “Oh! I just started doing these events. Yeah, I got to push myself and sign up for Selection,” even you’re not at all ready. You know, that to me doesn’t make any sense either to just sign up for stuff that’s the hardest thing out there and then just fail miserably and just get used to failure. That’s no good either. You want to work up to it so that — Everybody has a DNS now and then, or everybody failed something. You have to fail something every once in a while because then you know that you’re pushing yourself hard enough. I never want to get to the other point where it’s just like you’re failing everything and you’re signing up for just everything that you’re not ready for and trying to speed through the test. We sign up for all hard stuff, hundred mile races or major events, like Selection and people pat you on the back, “Oh, yeah. You signed up. Good for you.” But then you fail all of them and you just get used to failure. That’s no good either. Earn your way up the ladder, but always reach for the next rung I guess would be the way to put it.

Brian: I like that. I like that, and I think both the OCR community and GORUCK have enough rungs now where you can make that possible.

Alex: Yeah. There’s a good half that’s just — If you want to conquer the hardest stuff that’s out there, all these various disciplines offer. There’s a task there. There are tons of material of how to train and how to prepare and put in the work. Start small and train hard and just get better and better, and especially something like GORUCK where there are team events, like don’t train for a Heavy to just make it through it. You can pick an event where it’s a really big event and gray man your way through and be like, “Oh, yeah. I did it.” That’s not rewarding. Rewarding is knowing that you trained the hardest you could train for that event to be that strongest team member that you could be to be a crotch for somebody else, if maybe they get injured or they’re having a hard low moment or something like that. Train the hardest you can for that event so that you crush it and you can be as strong as you can be for it. Then when you really have mastered that event, then move on to the next thing and challenge yourself that way. Don’t scape by.

Brian: Absolutely. Speaking of training advice, I think you’ve got an interesting perspective on this, because you can give both types of advice. What advice do you have for people who have attempted selection and didn’t complete it and are considering giving it another shot?

Alex: That’s a hard one, because I think it depends on each particular person. Some people just don’t have any time under the ruck. They might be really strong and fit and well-equipped to kind of handle all the different like neat stuff, but they’re just not used to rucking. You know what I mean? Whatever you want to call it, even though if you want to use the word boring, like just miles and miles. They’re just not used to being underweight. Even if they could exercise really good or train really hard, they just don’t have the time under the ruck.

Other people have done a ton of rucking and they’ve done hundreds and hundreds of miles with lots of weight and they could just walk for days-on-end with weight on their back, but they haven’t maybe lifted or they don’t understand the way to properly do, not body weight movements, but movements that are almost like a replication of lifting. Those sandbag workouts, if you don’t know how to clean a bar and suddenly 15 hours into one of the hardest events out there, they’re like, “Okay. Take this 80-pound sandbag that’s now wet and loser to a hundred bag and press clean it for the next two hours or three hours and you don’t even understand the mechanics of a clean, that’s going to be rough on you.

It depends. I guess probably the biggest thing is whatever you’re not good at or whatever killed you at Selection, don’t necessarily just focus on that same, that one type of exercise, but really look at it and just go, “Okay. What was the overall fitness discipline that I failed at,” and train that way harder than the other stuff that you know you can do well.

Brian: That’s really good advice. I haven’t attempted Selection, but, personally, my training, even if I’m doing it half an hour or an hour-long sandbag workout, I find myself drifting towards exercises that I like. I absolutely hate sandbag overhead squats.

Alex: I don’t know what maniac would like those. I guess there’s somebody out there.

Brian: Yeah, that’s my nemesis. I can do an hour-long workout and not put any of them in there just because I hate them that much. I think that’s great advice that to pass Selection you can’t do that.

Alex: You have to train what you’re bad at. That’s the same thing with — You could look at a million different disciplines or professions or sports or whatever, if a guy is a good runner, of course he’s going to do a lot of running workouts, because it’s satisfying, it feels good. It makes them happy. If a guy is just a meat-head purely and hates cardio, he’s going to do all lifting stuff. People gravitate towards what they’re good at. I think that’s an important thing if you want to be the all-around, well-rounded person for something like Selection. You have to focus on what you’re not good at.

Brian: Absolutely. Bridging from that, is there any additional advice that you’d have for someone who’s never attempted Selection but is considering signing up after seeing the live feed and watching your completion?

Alex: Yeah, I guess that’s probably — I don’t know if it’s a cheap answer, but it’s probably the same thing. It’s probably like really understand what your weak points are, because I heard Stoney say this before, and he’s absolutely right. Live feeds have a hilarious tendency to make people feel that, it’s like, “Oh, I could definitely do that,” because when it’s a blackout event and you don’t see much of what’s going on, you just see the dude who’s bloodied and destroyed at the end, you’ll be like, “Oh, that’s gnarly.” But it’s terrifying. Who knows what they had that guy do? It’s scary, because it’s so unknown.

When they broadcast the whole thing and you can sit there — We never used to be able to do that. When you can literally sit there and watch three-quarters of the event live video, it gives you this false sense of security of like, “Oh, I’ve done all that stuff before. I’ve done sandbag workouts and I’ve ran and I’ve rucked and I can totally do all that stuff. I’m going to sign up and I’ll just train a little more than I usually do, and this will be great.”

I don’t want to be negative, but there’s just people who, “I’ll just do a little more than usual,” and you’re like, “Man, those people are going to get so crushed if they even make it out of the PT test.” It’s the same thing. It’s like you got to put down the video for a second, put down the social media. Read some of the AERs, the older ones, the real meat and potatoes of what somebody’s past finishers have said and really understand that these are the guys that finished and they’re all saying, “Hey, you got to commit to this like you’ve never committed to anything.” Almost every finisher had said, like, “This becomes your life for at least six months before.”

If you don’t want it that bad and you’re not training that hard, you’re just not going to make it. The statistics just show, you don’t stand a chance. You have to think about every aspect and eliminate as many variables as you can. Right off the bad, one of the things that we’d hear people talking about is their feet, right? They’re like — They want like the magical sock and cream combination that’s going to save them from any blisters.

To me, I watch people going out on practice rucks and they’re putting on — I’m not going to use any brand names, but they’re putting on all these creams and they’re putting on liner socks and thick socks and boots and like all these stuff. Most of my practice rucks of any sort, whether it’s do it from work or just out and about or whatever, I can tell you did a really old Converse with holes in the bottom wearing socks with holes in them and I stepped in all the puddles I could find and I did that day after day after day literally for years, rucking in Converse with holes in them while they’re wet. That is what protects my feet.

When I do an event, I have a certain way that I prep my feet, but they’re already so toughed up from just rucking in Converse that I would never think about, “Oh, I’m going for a half hour practice ruck, so let me go through a half-hour procedure to prep my feet.” That’s just crazy. You have to train not as your body, but stuff like that. Think about those kinds of things and train that constantly everyday if you wanted to perform what you needed to perform.

Brian: Yeah. I think that hits a few different parts. For one, at GORUCK Selection or some of the more difficult GORUCK events, you don’t always have the time to apply all that stuff to your feet.

Alex: I can tell you, I have very good luck at events, because I train my feet in Converse all the time. I don’t have many problems at all. When I put on boots and Vaseline and stocks from the whole set up that I do, I’m like, “Well, I’m walking on clouds, and I can do a heavy and not even have to change my socks.” I’m just like, “Yes, my feet are totally fine at the end of the Heavy.”

Yeah, the first night it was good. The second day, it was going well. I can tell you, because I was so amped up and ready to go for the long walk. I didn’t do any foot prep in between those seven hours of swimming with BD and then whatever evolutions were after that, and then the long walk. I literally went into the long walk with like destroyed feet. I started it, which was stupid, and that was definitely a lapse of mental judgment at that point. Cody pointed that out, like, “I gave you time for that and you didn’t take it.” My fault.

Anyway. Yeah, I mean, there’s going to be stuff you have to grunt out. I had to grunt that out. My feet were pretty trashed after that. Overall, I got through that, because they were prepped for that. They were doing great up until that point, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Brian: Yeah. There’s nothing saying that you’re going to show up and you get to use your own shoes. For all you know, you’re going to show up to Selection and they’re going to have 200 pairs of whatever, Saucony’s there in different sizes and you have to put those on and do the whole event in those shoes.

Alex: Yeah. Selection, what I liked about it that’s different from some of the other events is it didn’t have that wacky, zany, let’s see how crazy we can make this. It’s standard. Everyone gets the same stuff essentially with the list. You’re going purely based of your training and your performance. Yes, you’re absolutely right. People, they worry way too much about the little tiny details. We’re a year out and they’re just like, “What brand of like middle sock did you have and stuff?” It’s like, “Hey, man. Why don’t you be able to do on your pushups at a moment’s notice no matter when first, or worry about that stuff first and then start to dial in your gear if you ramp your training up?” Get the commitment down physically first.

Brian: Yeah. I mean that makes perfect sense. My rucking shoes right now are a pair of Brooks running shoes that have over a thousand miles on them. I think they’ve got like 1,200 on them. They’re just beat, old running shoes. I did back to back Toughs in them. They are what they are you can’t really purchase your way to completing some of these events.

Alex: Yes, definitely not. I literally — I do a lot of barefoot funning. I don’t like that huge heel-toe rise even in my running shoes and stuff. Yeah, my running shoes, I didn’t even want to change them from last year, because of like a funny sentimental thing. They’re like the New Balance trail shoes that have a zero drop. They’re practically putting on like ballet slippers. There’s nothing to them and they have holes in them, and I run in them without socks. They’re like nothing.

Yeah, when I’m like, “Oh, I can’t wear these, because I got a to ruck and be able to support some weigh, I put on my Converse which are full of holes. Yeah, do it rucky style. Just worry about the physical stuff and not the fancy equipment. Dial in your gear and get used to it and train with it, but worry about yourself and your physical fitness first.

Brian: Absolutely. We’re only — What? Three weeks from this event. Have you started looking towards the future, what’s the next event for you?

Alex: I haven’t picked out anything typically of like, “Oh, this or that.” There’s a few events that kind of live in that same realm of someone like the bigger tier events. I haven’t really figured out a schedule yet. I know I definitely missed obstacle course racing this year. Last year I got to do races in the first half of the year. I knocked out Spartan Delta and I did like an Ultra Beast stuff in Montreal and some miscellaneous other OCRs and trail running and Ultra Marathons and stuff. This year I did very little, because I didn’t want to get injured. I knew it was like my year.

As anxious as I am to get back to that and have another season where I just run elite and try and do as best as I can leaving up to OCR World Championships. I don’t think that’s going to be next year, because I haven’t had a fall or like a late summer fall to myself now in four or five years, because of just all various events. I might do a couple fun, maybe run elite to see how I’m doing obstacle-wise and stuff.

Still fun OCR and maybe one or two bigger events, just have a good time with it. I don’t think next year is going to be a very serious season. I’m not going to be going for points or anything like that. Yeah, I haven’t picked out anything specific. I think for the winter it’s just going to be get back into lifting, get some of my strength back after this long recovery and see where I’m at in the spring. See what I want to do and train for.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t run many OCRs, but I do listening to OCR podcast. There’s quite the selection out there now.

Alex: I like stuff that’s on mountains and through woods, especially whether it’s an early Heat and there’s not many people out, or a later Heat where there’s not many people out. There’s nothing like just flying through the woods recklessly on a cold morning or whatever it might be, a rainy day or something. Yeah, I like just being out in nature. That’s part of why I like OCR so much.

Brian: That’s great. It takes a lot of time, energy and commitment to train for an event like this. Obviously, you’ve given Anna a couple of shout outs so far, but is there anyone or groups of people that you want to give a shout out to or thanks to?

Alex: Yeah. My parents and my family gave me a ton of support. They’re all about it. I think my mom always does like the one handed horror movie watch of like hand over the face and stuff, like, “Oh, I can’t believe you keep doing this to me, but I’m proud of you,” sort of thing. I’m sure that the live feeds were painful for her to watch. My family is super supporting.

Like I said, Anna has been amazing through the whole thing. Early morning workouts, canceled dates, cancelled plans, “I’m training. Yup, no, I can’t drink. I can’t this or that.” She’s been amazing. All my friends, supper supportive. People, especially our group. Like I said, that does all kinds of camping around OCR and trips and hikes and adventures. I love those guys. Even though they’re — We always do a big Labor Day camping trip. We know they’re all partying and drinking and whatever. They all understand what I was doing two years and even before that for elite races and stuff. They’re all just super supporting of it. They’re stoked.

Certainly, everyone that’s fall along and shouted out encouraging stuff while they’re watching the live feeds. That was super cool to see. It’s always fun with Selection, whether it’s me or somebody else. It’s always fun to watch the whole community end up kind of rallying behind the last couple of people that are left and really pushing for someone to finish. That’s always great.

Also, my job. They’re super cool. We’re a small company that’s just growing at a huge rate, and we have a ton of work and they’re like super supporting of how much training I do and the fact that I’ll give it 150% when I’m at work, but then when I leave it, training is super important and my meal prep and eating and schedules like that are important. My job has been super awesome about it as well. A bunch of them were all following along when the live feed was out there.

Yeah, just everybody, trying to surround myself with people that are pushing themselves and doing good stuff and having a positive outlook. I’d say everybody around me has been really positive about it, really cool.

Brian: That’s awesome. A great thing to do is surround yourself with people who want you to be a better person and make you want to be a better person and more successful.

Alex: Yeah, it’s amazing. You surround yourself with people that are doing better than you or working harder or accomplishing things. It’s amazing how much that pushes you to then want to work harder and accomplish more and do better things, like you’d surround yourself with. Yeah, I think that’s very important and that’s definitely something that I’ve seen tenfold and the more positivity is out there and just people encouraging each other and killing balls and crushing life, that just makes you want to work that much harder and be that much better.

Brian: Absolutely. Alex, thank you so much, man, for just taking a ton of time out of your evening to chat with me. I know this is late for you and, man, I truly appreciate this. It’s been a ton of fun for me. Thank you, thank you so much.

Alex: Yeah, absolutely, man. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, certainly. It’s way past my bedtime with how it’s been recently. I’ve been calling in now hours before. Yeah, it’s funny that I’m — Same thing, I guess, still coherent. Yeah, I appreciate it very much. Thanks for having me on.

Brian: Absolutely, man. Take care.

The post ADR 018: Alex Stavdal 062 Interview (GORUCK Selection 019 Finisher) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 017: OBT & Dredd Interview (F3 GrowRuck Custom GORUCK Event)

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 14:00:01 +0000

In this episode I am very excited to bring an interview with both Tim Whitmire (aka OBT) and Dave Redding (aka Dredd) who are the founders of F3 Nation.

There are already numerous interviews out there where OBT and Dredd give the story about how they founded F3 Nation. We wanted to make sure we got the most out of the time we had with them so we focus on how they got involved with GORUCK, their custom GrowRuck GORUCK events, and how their first GORUCK experiences turned out.

It was great spending time with these two at the F3 Custom GrowRuck GORUCK Tough 004 in Seattle and they truly put out a ton of effort at their events. If you’re curious about F3 Nation or are a member then hopefully you get something good out of this!

Resources

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
Charity Challenges Flutter Kick Challenge
F3 Nation
F3 Nation Dictionary (Lexicon)
All Day Ruckoff Facebook Reviews
F3 Map
F3 Nation Twitter
F3 Rucking Twitter
GORUCK
Custom GORUCK Events
Chattanooga GrowRuck Event
Email for Discount
Request F3 Workout
PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program (Current Discount Code: 013ADR)
GrowRuck Twitter
The Iron Project

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: I’m here talking with OBT and Dredd who are the founders of F3. I’m very excited that these two guys have taken time out of their day to chat with me and I can’t wait for you guys to hear what they have to say. OBT and Dredd, how are you two doing today?

OBT: We’re doing well. We’re going to teach some people this morning, so that’s always fun.

Dredd: Yup, having a great day.

Brian: Excellent. I can’t argue with that. Before we get going with your experiences with GORUCK, can we set the stage for the listeners who are tuning in who have never heard of F3 before, who this might be a new concept to them. In your own words, what is F3?

Dredd: F3 is a network of men’s small workout groups and it’s no fee, whatsoever. There is really no agenda whatsoever other than to come together and workout in the morning with the hope of solving three problems that exist in a man’s life, and the first one is inconsistent fitness. The second one is lack of deep lasting male friendships, and the third one is lack of purpose. We call it F3 because we believe what this workout group does is attack those three problems. The first half is fitness, obviously. The second half is fellowship, and that’s making friends, and the third F is faith, which we just defined as a belief in something outside of yourself. That’s really the long and the short of it.

OBT: I’ll jump in there — This is OBT, and just give a little more background on kind of the history. This is something that Dave and I started back on January 1st, 2011 with one workout here in Charlotte, North Caroline, which is where we both live and it kind of grew from there and it’s turned into this really volunteer-led organization. We often say a good organization has leaders. A great organization is composed entirely of leaders, and we happen to tap into a mother lode of leaders in F3 who basically threw their own volunteer efforts, have spread this thing, really, across the country. Actually, all the way out to where you are, Brian, in the Puget Sound area and we’ve now got more than 1,100 weekly workouts scheduled in 21 different states, from here to California and Washington and just launched this past weekend in Chicago actually, and we’ll also be going into St. Louis and Austin, Texas this fall.

Brian: Congratulations.

OBT: Thank you.

Brian: That’s incredible expansion and I think it just drives home the point of how special this is to a lot of people who get to take part in the training and the boot camp style events.

When I introduced OBT and Dredd, you might have guessed that’s not their real names. When you show up to an F3 workout you’re considered an FNG, and at the end of the generally your first workout you’re given a nickname. We’ve got OBT and Dredd here. Do you two want to elaborate on where you got your nicknames from?

Dredd: Actually, Dredd is my real name. My name is Dave Redding and I’m an attorney in my real life, so when I showed up at that workout they combined Dave and Redding and got Dredd. Originally, I was Judge Dredd, like the movie, but after a couple of weeks chopped the judge because I don’t have a judicial temperament.

Brian: Very nice. Dredd is quite the nickname for F3. Generally, the nicknames are pretty humorous, but when you hear Dredd, it’s kind of ominous.

Dredd: Yeah. It doesn’t dread to see me. It just means —

OBT: The corps guys thought it did.

Dredd: There actually are some people that think that. I guess it’s whatever you think it means.

OBT: Some of our guys gave him a monogram towel recently that had his nickname on it. This is to celebrate the 5th anniversary of their workout and they spelled his name Dread on a towel, which everybody got kicked out off.

Dredd: It’s true. Some people thought that.

Brian: That’s awesome. That is hilarious. You guys had a great job explaining what F3 is. You’re on the All Day Ruckoff Podcast right now, which is a podcast about rucking and we both know that F3 is not a dedicated rucking club. It does a lot of things. What would you say the typical F3 workout is like or what would you say that F3 gets at with its workouts?

Dredd: Yeah. I mean that’s a question that we get asked a lot, because I think people look at F3 and they say the first half is fitness. You’re a fitness group and they’re thinking cross-fit or something like that, and we don’t actually promulgate any particular workout routine or anything. We have ideas, but mainly at F3 we act more as a platform to trade other people’s ideas. When we read about some guys in Wilmington, North Carolina doing something good, not only do we want to thrive, we want other guys to thrive too. That’s more of an exchange of ideas.

Yeah, we do a lot of boot camps and I think we do a lot of boot camps, because they’re cheap and easy and fast, right? You don’t need any equipment. In 45 minutes you can get smoked and you can do it in a Walmart parking lot. That doesn’t mean we’re boot campers either. Really, what we’re trying to do is get the best possible workout under the condition that you have available and to try to do that every day that you feel like that you can’t.

That’s why for us, rucking, and what we call ruckership, really is a great extension of what we’re doing, because while there’s probably guys in F3 — A lot of guys say, “Well, I’ve never put on a ruck. I don’t see the point of it. It sounds like a military thing,” or “I don’t like it. It’s too slow.” All the guys that like to ruck all the time and they say, “Boot camps to me aren’t very much fun and I never run and I think it’s bad for you.” Who knows whether or not either one of those things are true? We are not exercise physiologists or experts. What we’re really aiming at is invigoration male leadership and along the way try to get guys to get as much fellowship as they possibly can, which is why for us, rucking is a natural extension of what we’re doing, because it puts guys together for at least 45 minutes or an hour to go five miles and gives them an opportunity to get their bodies moving, their hearts pumping harder and maybe more importantly it really gives them the opportunity to talk.

The workouts in Charlotte, at least, and I was in Wilmington yesterday, and it was crazy hard as well, are getting so difficult that I don’t care how good a shape you’re in and how good a mumble chatter you are, it’s difficult to talk. You lose a little bit of the fellowship that way. A good 45-minute workout, you come back, nobody said a word. All we do was pant. That’s fine, but I kind of miss it, the chance to talk.

When I was in the army, when we rucked, that was part of what we did when we train, just rucking. We’d put on a ruck on and get out there and talk things out. For some reason when you’re walking side by side with a man, it’s much easier to open up to them than it is if you’re sitting across a desk face to face. Who knows why? But that’s really true.

That’s for us why ruckership and rucking has been such a great thing why we consider ourselves, OBT and I, kind of at the center or the tent pole of the big tent of F3, why we advocate on its behalf and why we’re really happy that it’s with us.

Now, that puts us open to the accusation which we hear from time to time, “Well, you guys are just trying to be all things to all people,” and Tim and I always laugh and say, “Is that an insult or a compliment? Yes, we’re trying to be all things, really, to all men, all things positive.” If it works, we don’t care why. We just want to know how to do it so we can do more of it. If it doesn’t work, we’re like, “Don’t do that anymore.” Quite frankly, at its most basic, rucking works. It’s good for your body. It’s good for your heart. It’s good for your soul, and it’s good for F3. We’re a huge believers in it.

Brian: That’s awesome. I love that word ruckership. Today is actually the first time I’ve heard that and it was on the F3 Nation Twitter account. I like that.

Dredd: Whoever that F3 Nation Twitter guy is, he comes up with some good stuff. When we saw ruckership we were like, “Wow! That’s a good idea,” because it obviously combines fellowship and rucking. At least when I — And I heard Jason McCarthy, the GORUCK founder, on the Podcast giving just a great impassioned argument for why rucking was actually a great fitness tool. I remember thinking, “Man! He’s really kind of just captured that idea of what I just thought in a much better way than I just did.” It really is true, man. It’s a fellowship of rucking, so it’s ruckership. Perfect for F3.

Brian: It’s perfect, and it’s nice that rucking follows the rules of an F3 workout, which I don’t believe we’ve touched on yet. Would you mind going over the rules for the F3 workouts?

OBT: Sure. The rules of an F3 workout, and there are only five of them. It has to be free, it has to be open to all men, it has to take place at a publicly accessible location, preferably outdoors. It needs to be led by participants on a rotating basis and with no precertification required. Basically, what’s that saying is if your plan is to come out there with a clipboard and tell other people what to do and you run the workout every week, F3 is probably not for you. Then the fifth and final requirement is it ends with something that we call a circle of trust, and that’s where you’ve seen it in action, but when we sit around on a circle and we a count of the number of guys who are there that day and we’d go around and we see our names and our ages and our F3 nicknames and we have some announcements and then we usually close with what in some parts of the country is a prayer and other parts of the country is just kind of words of wisdom or sort of thoughts for the day. Those are the only five rules for an F3 workout. If you want to go play pickup basketball at your local basketball courts for 45 minutes to an hour and with a circle of trust, then that is an F3 workout and we are welcome to include you in our midst.

Dredd: Well said, OBT.

OBT: Thank you.

Brian: Very well said. Shifting form the F3 workouts slightly into the realm of GORUCK and rucking, how were you two introduced to GORUCK?

Dredd: Well, a few years ago. Really, right at the start of this when we are building the group up, we started doing things like mud runs and Spartan runs, Spartan races and they were great, because guys got really energized. It didn’t have the regularity as just a workout does. It was outside the normal bandwidth of things we were doing. Guys, look, they’re great recruiting tools. We’re looking around for something else to do and I think OBT stumbled into GORUCK somehow. This is 2012. He said, “Hey! This will be a great thing for us to do.” I looked at it and this is early on, so there wasn’t anything on the internet about it that we could really figure out really what it was.

We bought go rucks and fill them full of bricks and we thought the best way to train for GORUCK was to practice running with the go ruck on, or the ruck sack on. We actually did six-mile runs with these things on, which are probably not very good with your knees and got to the point where we’re pretty good at running with ruck sack on. Of course, five minutes into the first one we did. In summer of 2012 we realized that there really wasn’t much else you could do that was of less value to being ready to do a GORUCK, then running with a ruck is one of the one things you won’t do.

We made a mistake there, but we still love the event. We had about 30 guys the first time we did it. It was the hottest day of the year of 2012 and it’d beat us down like crazy, but you still, to this day, we see guys that participated in that first one with us and we laugh about it and talk about it. It just strengthened the bonds between our original set of guys and we realized really right from the start that it was something that was very helpful to F3 and something that we would like to partner up with GORUCK on.

OBT: I’ll add to that. Just to say, actually, I can’t take any credit for it. It was another one of our guys who’s involved in F3 from very early on named Trip Davis who really was the guy who knew about GORUCK and what Jason was doing and kind of the events to sort of demonstrate how tough the rucks were. He was the one who was like, “Man! We got to do one of these,” and we looked at it and we were like, “Yeah, we can probably get 30 guys. We can do a custom class.” I think that was the other thing was, that that first one was all F3 guys in the class and we all kind of did it together. I can still pick out moments from that. First of all, we still talk about how I was the one who planted the flag in some uncertain ground and only to see the flag fall over and got us all punished by and hour’s worth of jock web, so everybody likes to hold that over my head.

There were other guys who really — Brian, you’ve probably seen this in everyone you’ve done. I know I have, where you get down there, two, three in the morning and guys are hitting bottom and that’s where you really see real character come out in some people and you see the guys who are — There’s always going to be some guys who might go, “Great man.” But then there’s some guys who really step up in that situation and we certainly had that happen with some guys that night where we were like, “Wow! We had no idea you were that kind of leader.” That really kind of made it a special event, because the reality behind F3 is it looks like a workout, but it’s really a leadership academy. Guys come in and they get an opportunity to get in shape and develop this group of friends and almost inevitably guys turns into leaders in that context. Part of the whole F3 ethos is if we show up for a few weeks we’re going to ask you to lead a workout yourself. What they do during the GORUCK event just turned out to just perfectly dovetail with what we were doing as well.

Brian: That’s awesome. I think you see that at almost every event, and it’s really cool to see the leadership from participants pulling people out of the gray man role, when you see people start to internalize the pain and kind of gloss over. There’s a great leadership opportunity to bring them back and get them back in the fight. I definitely see the correlations between F3 and GORUCK.

Your first GORUCK event was a custom. That’s pretty awesome, because especially back in 2012, very little information out there about GORUCK, how to train for it and what even happens half the event, the fact that you could pull together 30 guys for a custom event is pretty amazing.

OBT: I actually think they were a little taken on the back by us, I think, because we showed up — What I remember from that night was Dredd has a background in the military. He was a Ranger, so he spent several years in Special Forces. He had sort of prepped us for this whole thing and kind of given us a few ideas about what the cadre was going to do and kind of be prepared for kind of shock and odd techniques.

My memory is that they showed up, it was Patrick and a couple of other guys. They showed up and we were already lined up in formation and we were divided into squads with squad leaders who we had appointed. We were sort of ready to go. It took them maybe a couple of minutes to figure out what we had done and they immediately said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys are all fired. Now, we’re going to put different guys in charge.” Dredd, you shut up and go back in the line for the night.

Dredd: Yeah, they figured out in about 30 minutes who probably the most skilled leadership amongst us were from previous history of our lives and said, “You guys are all dead. You’re not leaving for the rest of the night.” It was interesting to me that they did that, and it turned out to be great. It’s exactly what we needed. We did try to lean forward in the fox hole a little bit and ahead of this thing. As you know, brother, you’re not going to do that on them. They’re going to stop you from doing that. That’s part of it. You can’t game it.

OBT: We’ve kind of carried that forward with the Grow Rucks that we do now where if you’ve done one of these before, you’re going to be kind of last in line to take any leadership role. We really want to put the guys, as Danny does them with us, as we rotate through various leadership roles. Let’s foucs on the guys who have not done this previously and put them in those roles and see how they do.

Brian: Yeah. I really like that from the Grow Ruck event that came to Seattle. This is an awesome segue to the next piece I want to talk about, which is the F3 Grow Ruck GORUCK events. As many of the listeners know, Cadre Danny Stokes was on a previous episode where he talked about his capital ruck tour. Danny has been the lead cadre for each Grow Ruck event and you too, OBT and Dredd, have been at every Grow Ruck event so far as well. Is that correct?

OBT: Yes, my wife will remind of that, but yes.

Dredd: Yes, we have.

Brian: That’s awesome. Grow Ruck is an entire weekend of events which kind of culminate in a custom GORUCK Tough. Where did the idea for Grow Ruck come from?

OBT: This gets into a little of F3 history. As F3 grew, we started doing what we call leap glance, and that means going to new cities that were more than a car ride away from where we could project. We’d put guys on planes and literally leap over the intervening territory where there was no F3 and plants a new F3 workout, somewhere like Nashville, Tennessee, or New Orleans, or in your case, out in Seattle. What we saw was as we kind of extended our range a little bit, some of those locations on the periphery of what we think of as F3 nation, they would tend to go through this cycle where they would grow initially for about 12 to 18 months and then it would hit a plateau. I call this kind of the pizza party phase, and that’s when you got a good group of guys out there. They’re all solid. They’re all really happy that they’ve found F3 and F3 has found them. The temptation is to sit in a circle after the workout and pat each other on the back and say, “Isn’t this great? Isn’t this wonderful? Let’s have a pizza party now. It’s perfect and it’s going to stay this way forever.” The reality is that is the day before I pull a hamstring and Dredd gets fired from his job and has to move to a new city and you go through a divorce and start hitting the bottle too hard and disappear from the workouts and all of a sudden the natural forces of life and entropy and everything pull it this perfect little thing that we had.

For that reason we try to teach guys that there is a growth requirements in F3. If you are not always head-locking new guys and trying to get new guys out to the workout, this thing will inevitably kind of wither and die and you just have to — We call it ABH, always be head-locking, always be bringing new guys out. We started once a quarter made this commitment to, “Let’s go down range to these different locations. Let’s talk to the guys at these workouts about this, about the need to grow.” We came up with a curriculum for it and Dave and I would fly in on a Friday and have some beers with the guys on Friday night and then lead a workout Saturday morning and then we would teach something that we call grow school for about two hours. Then for the first couple of times, that was it. Around noontime we’d wrap up and we’d get on a plane and we’d come back home.

After doing this two or three time we actually happen to be in New Orleans doing one when the 2000th GORUCK Touch Class came through. It was some sort of big GORUCK reunion. A bunch of classes actually came by us and we were finishing up the workout in City Park on Saturday morning as they were getting toward the end of their Tough challenges. We talked to a couple of cadre and introduced ourselves. I think it was after we got back home, we were talking about it and we’re like, “You know what? We got to do a GORUCK with this thing.” You’ve got this growth curriculum, but we don’t know of anything that is a better catalyst for growth among these F3 groups than getting them together to do a GORUCK Tough challenge. That’s an incredibly powerful experience to put these guys through and help them understand kind of leadership and all the stuff that we’re trying to teach.

That was kind of the origin of the idea, and we did the first one in Jacksonville, Florida last November and it’s really just a marriage of what we’re doing before and then adding a GORUCK challenge on to the end of it. We come in on Friday night and we get together and have a few beers. Lead the workout Saturday morning, teach for a couple of hours. We’d give the guys Saturday afternoon off to get their minds right as they say and maybe take a nap. Then about 6:00 on Saturday evening, it’s go time.

The other nice thing that we’ve been able to introduce with that is it’s a chance for guys in the region that we’re going to to really kind of personalize it to their region. Does somebody want to host a party at their house? Do we want to get together at a bar? Where do you want to do the event? What shows off your city or region bets? It really becomes kind of the ultimate F3 getaway weekend in some ways. With a substantial side dose of leadership training as well.

Brian: It’s got to be really fun for you guys too to fly out to these newer locations that you might not have been to as often and see what the F3 groups are doing there and what they’re grown into.

Dredd: Fun. It’s really fun. To us, it’s a shocking honor, I guess. The thing that got started here in 2011 that has just progressed to the point where it’s helping guys three, four thousand miles away to us is amazing. The fact that so many men have helped us do it, have joined us to try to move it along and progress it and help other men just never stops overwhelming us. For us, it’s very humbling experience. Fun, but humbling.

OBT: I would say it’s fun right until about the time the log hits the shoulder for the first time. Then it gets real.

Dredd: Yeah.

Brian: Speaking of the log hitting the shoulder, in our Grow Ruck class we had quite the log in Seattle. For those who are listening, I’ll try and pull up pictures to put in the show notes. Every class says that they have a giant log that they carry. We had a giant log that we carried and it came down to three people carrying the log for, I believe, five or six city blocks and if we could accomplish that, we’re able to put the log down. One of the people who stepped up for this challenge was Dredd, and he, with two others, carried this giant log five or six city blocks. Can you briefly talk about the feelings that you’ve felt each step of the way?

Dredd: Beyond intense pain? Yes. That’s one of those — Part of the reason we do the GORUCk in the Grow Ruck is so that we can form the bond of trust with the men in the workouts that otherwise we really wouldn’t see them other than in the Twitterverse and whatnot. We don’t have that much time. We’re only there for 72 hours and we have to make the most of that. Because of that we want to get the bang for the buck. The GORUCK gives us a chance to build those bonds, the reliance between team members.

We thought about every once in a while, usually in the first few hours after we’re done with one of these things, “Hey! Maybe we don’t actually have to do the GORUCK.”

OBT: Next time we could be in the shadow crew.

Dredd: We could show up and tell them some war stories and encourage these guys. After the pain goes away a little bit, get a little bit of your energy back, you say — Okay, you realize it wouldn’t be the same. If we expect men that we’re meeting in these very short period of time to believe what we say that this works. That if you do hard things together, that builds durable bonds. We’ve got to do the hard things. We’ve got to do them too. That’s the backdrop of this idea.

That’s why, really, OBT and I and then we usually bring at least one or two other guys with us, Robber, comes with us from Columbia and then we usually have a guest or two that we bring along as well from an existing region. Our main thing is we’re not there to lead anybody. We’re there to get under the log. For guys that have done a GORUCK, they know what that means. Some percentage of the mileage has to be done under the log. That’s a basic of it, and that’s really the most painful part of this thing. If it’s an ungodly log, like this one was, it’s going to be ungodly time period.

What we do is we’re there to do the log time. Not to carry the flag. Not to carry any of those stuff, the sandbags or anything else, to get on to the log and to stay under the log so that the other men see that that is where you belong. That is how you help the team prevail. If nothing else, that’s what we’re going to do. We may not say a word but we’re going to be under the log a whole night.

In this particular occasion, Danny being Danny, he had us go a long way on that log and realized, I think, as a group we were doing a good job, but it was killing us and gave us that option, was you can keep going or have three guys carry this thing.

OBT: I think it was a wager with Robber.

Dredd: Oh, okay. Maybe he was. I didn’t hear all that, because I was too busy doing my log time. But I realized once that kind of cut through the fog that there was no way us going to not be a guy that at least held up his hands and said, “I’ll be the guy.”

Now, to be truthful, I’m only five for 10, which puts me on the lower side of the average guy out there.

OBT: Team shorty.

Dredd: Team shorty. I really thought when I raised my hand that, “It’s a pretty good bet that three guys were six feet tall are going to do this,” because you really want to have equality of size. That makes it a lot better, but not everybody volunteered, and then I kind of looked around, we were standing there and I said, “Oh my gosh!”

OBT: I think Brian, I think you and I were both there as willing volunteers, and so like Dredd, I think sort of hoping to get picked. It’s like, “I’m going to put my hand up, but I’m going to hope the teacher doesn’t call me.”

Dredd: Right. I knew I had to be that guy, at least put my hand up. That, to be fair, it wasn’t like I volunteered with the sure thing of having to do it. I volunteered with a good bet of not having to do it, but from a leadership standpoint I felt like I had to and so did Tim. Tim, OBT, raised his hand as well.

But as it worked out from a size standpoint, I was one of the guys. When we put that log on my shoulder, I realized I was either going to thrump on myself or start walking. I just chose the later because it would be less embarrassing. As we moved along an the guys started to cheer us on and the pain turned kind of more like a numbing thing, I kind of got caught up in it and before you know we were there.

OBT: Brian, you can post the video. I think it’s probably still out there on Facebook. Brian and I were among the people cheering loudly. Apparently, we woke up half the neighborhood.

Brian: Yeah, I’ll do my best to grab it and post it up there. It was quite the sight to see, and Dredd, you definitely hit what I was aiming at that it was incredibly inspiring to see both you and OBT raise your hands to step up for this. You guys flew in across the country, three-hour time difference, two days earlier. You’re not in your home territory. You’ve got that working against you. You’re out here, it was roughly three or four in the morning, something like that, which time change. It’s already 6 or 7 a.m. for you guys and here you are saying, “Yes, I’ll do it.” Dredd was chosen to get under that log and got right under there, pushed through and I know for myself seeing it, and I’m sure everyone else who is there, it was one of those — These guys are truly living what they’re saying. It’s not a bunch of talk. It’s not a bunch of text on a computer. These guys are living it and they truly believe it, so it was awesome. Thank you for doing that, because then we didn’t have to carry the log afterwards.

OBT: I said thank you as well.

Brian: From a very selfish standpoint.

Dredd: We’re honored to have that opportunity every quarter. I’m not sure we want to be honored more than that.

OBT: Yeah, it’s a nice quarterly honor.

Dredd: It’s a nice quarterly honor.

Brian: Just long enough to forget about the honor and how it felt.

OBT: It’s a little bit how magically about a year after you have that first child, you remember how horrible that first year was and then suddenly you have that amnesia and then you go and have a second child.

Dredd: That’s good. It’s good analogy.

Brian: Sounds about right. You mentioned quarterly. That’s about what it’s been right now. The first Grow Ruck was in Jacksonville, Florida, as you mentioned, November 2016. Your 5th Grow Ruck event will be coming up in Chattanooga, Tennessee I believe this coming November of 2017. You’re on track for quarterly Grow Ruck events around the country. Clearly, they’re working for the groups because you guys keep putting them out and the response is always amazing.

What is the future look like for Grow Ruck? Are you planning to keep it quarterly or expand it?

OBT: There’s a couple of things going on with this. One is we’re going to keep doing — Those are what we can consider, and this is a little bit of an insider lingo. Those are push GORUCKs, and that Dave and I along with Sean Rankin, Robber, out of Columbia, look at the F3 map and select locations where they’re kind of in that 12 to 18 months now where we think we can get a lot of bang for our buck.

For instance, Chattanooga, we’ve got a new F3 group there. We’ve got still relatively newer groups in Nashville, in Knoxville who we’re going to send guys to it. We’ve got a relatively new group in Alpharetta, Georgia that’s coming up for it and we got just a booming region up in North Eastern, Tennessee that’s sending a bunch of guys down for that. That’s a location where we can pull from several F3 regions and really go in and hopefully have a real impact in one weekend on a number of regions and give guys something to really kind of take home and some leadership lessons to really take back to their groups with them.

We’re going to continue doing those on a quarterly basis. We’re going to go to Ohio I think in March of 2018. It’s going to be the next one on the F3 push cycle. We had a huge bunch of launches last spring in Ohio including Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo. Actually, Cleveland has been around for a while. We’ve had kind of a big spring in the Ohio River Valley. Louisville really took off as well. We’re going to pick a location in Ohio and kind of pull from all of those regions. Do something in the first quarter.

Then Q2 will be Texas, and we’re going to have a group we’re planting in Austin in the next few weeks. We’ve got a group in Houston that’s not just going to cover off the ball right now. Those guys got written up in People Magazine a couple of weeks ago for all the work there we’re doing on Hurricane Harvi recovery down there. We got a strong group in Dallas as well and San Antonio. Again, kind of pulling from a whole region.

Then the other thing we’re going to start doing is the feedback has been so strong from these things, particularly guys saying this is better than any leadership training course I’ve ever taken at my corporation, and I’ve been in the corporate world for 20 years. We’re going to start, and Dave and I aren’t going to do these ourselves, but we’re going to start offering the same curriculum and the same Grow Ruck format to existing F3 locations.

Actually, we’re going to do the same thing for FiA groups as well, except we’re going to do with a GORUCK Light challenge instead of a Tough challenge. That’s more the four to six hour format. One thing I wanted to do Brian, I’m going to read off the list of upcoming events here and the dates. For any of your listeners who are not part of F3 or FiA right now and want to come try one of these things out, we would love to welcome you, get you signed up and offer a $25 discount on the registration price. This is exclusively for All Day Ruckoff podcast listeners.

We got Chattanooga coming up, November 17th, 2017. We are going to do a FiA Grow Ruck in the midlands of South Carolina, which is kind of Columbia and surrounding areas. That’s on December 2nd of 2017. Then F3 in the midlands of South Carolina, so a tough challenge, that will be on January 27th, 2018. That’s been scheduled as well, and that’s an existing F3 workout group where they want to go ahead and do a Grow Ruck as well. I mentioned Ohio will be sometime in March. Texas will be, we think, late April. Hopefully before it gets too hot down where. The guys in Myrtle Beach are talking about hosting an F3 Grow Ruck the weekend of September 28th through 30th, 2018. One year from now. That’s what’s on the calendar right now, and we’ve got some other ideas in the hop or so.

I would just say if you are in interested, if you’re from outside of F3 and FiA and you’re interested in rucking one of these with us and learning more about what we’re about, just drop us an email. My email address, I can be reached at info@theironproject.com, T-H-E-I-R-O-N-P-R-O-J-E-C-T.com. We’re happy to get you setup and get you a discount on the event.

Brian: Awesome. Thank you guys. That’s amazing. I’ll make sure to put the names of the events and a link to your email address in the show notes so that people can easily click that and send the email.

OBT: Awesome.

Brian: For those who are listening and know that I’ve done a lot of GORUCK events and that feeling that you get towards the end of the event, if it’s a GORUCK Tough, I think maybe 8 to 10 hours in, where your team is really jelling, you’re feeling good, you’re laughing with your team. You’re having a good time and you’re really bonding with your team, that’s the same sort of feeling I get at each F3 workout with the guys there. If you’re interested in an F3 workout and you’re wondering what it will be like, those are the kinds of people who show up to F3 are the people who you would meet at a GORUCk event and you’ll feel like you’re on the same team as them similar to a GORUCK event while your soul is crushed for an hour during a boot camp style workout.

Those are the upcoming F3 Grow Ruck events. F3 has done a number of custom events outside of Grow Ruck. I’ve heard of a heavy-heavy. Do you know how often F3 has custom events?

OBT: I would say about once every two months or so. There’s some group doing something and maybe even a little more often. Maybe more like kind of eight times a year. If you’re a leader of any kind in F3, you’re called the queue of something, and he is our queue of ruckership within F3 nation. He’s basically the kind of primarily liaison within F3 too to GORUCK and the guy who’s kind of working with all the different groups, to setup their GORUCK customs and come up with insane new ideas, like the heavy-heavy. Because, I got to tell you, somebody tried to talk me into doing just a plain heavy and I was like, “No, that’s good. I’m good with the tough.” The next year they came along with the heavy-heavy and I was like, “You guys clearly have something wrong with you.” Then we got a good clam digger from Columbia is a good friend of ours and works with us on these Grow Rucks. He went down in Wilmington and did that thing and I was just like, “I got a lot of respect for your brother, but I also think you’re crazy.”

Brian: Yeah, when they’re trying to pitch you the heavy-heavy, the single heavy doesn’t sound too bad anymore, does it?

OBT: Exactly.

Dredd: Yeah. I don’t know. When I’m going with 12 hours, I’m smoked.

OBT: I’ve had enough.

Dredd: Unless 24 hours is not a repetition of the first 12 hours, because if it’s the same intensity, I’ll tell you, I don’t have it.

OBT: Yeah. Have you done a heavy, Brian?

Brian: I have. I’ve done one heavy. It was the 9th heavy class in Seattle and it was a number of years ago. They’ve definitely change since then, but they’re definitely different. They’re not just two challenges stuck on top of each other. That’s good.

Dredd: Maybe there’s hope. I always thought it would just be two challenges in a row, which —

OBT: Not really. No, thanks.

Brian: Yeah. It’s not like you get to the end of the first Tough and they say, “Alright. Time to turn around and repeat.”

OBT: “Hey, let’s have welcome party number two.” “No, I think I’m good. Thanks.” I want to just sort of throw a shout out to Jason McCarthy and Kit and Bomber and all the guys at GORUCK headquarters, because they have been just really awesome for us to work with on this stuff. Extremely — They get what we’re doing with F3 and have been very supportive of us really from day one. The synergy between the two groups, we got plenty of guys in F3 who have absolutely zero desire ever to put on a ruck on. They will tell you about it very vocally how they stupid they think it is. There a ton of us who have done one or more of these events who understand kind of the beauty of what goes on when you get guys together and push everybody to their limits and you hit bottom and kind of see what you’re made of. We’re got a term within F3. We have CSAUP events and CSAUP stands for completely stupid and utterly pointless.

Of course, the whole point of being completely stupid and utterly pointless is that actually there is a big point to it, which is you’re going out there and you’re doing stupid stuff together and you’re bonding and learning leadership skills, but we’ve really — Dave and I, I think, have found no better CSAUP events out there than the GORUCK challenges.

Brian: It’s nice. The GORUCK team, I’ve had Jason on the podcast. I’d have Kit on. I’ve recently interviewed Bomber, but that episode hasn’t released yet, and everyone over there is just very down to earth, very approachable, very nice people, very similar to you two.

OBT: It’s nice of you to say about us.

Dredd: Yes.

Brian: It just makes sense that your two organizations would work so well together.

OBT: I was having this conversation with Jason. I was down in Jacks Beach in July and dropped in to see them and the groups — And they had just brought Blayne in from RWB to be the president of GORUCK. The three very different groups engaged in kind of very different businesses, but with ultimately the same mission at heart, which is at the end of the day, getting people off their butts and getting them to do something and have an impact in the world. We love those guys.

Brian: Absolutely.

OBT: Can I turn the tables on you real quick? One thing that I think might be helpful for your listeners, what did you perceive as different about kind of the way Danny led the challenge as well as having kind of that grow school component layered on to what was done during the challenge? Did you feel like that was a different GORUCK experience from the “traditional” GORUCK Tough?

Brian: I absolutely thought it was a different GORUCK experience. It was really cool how Grow Ruck school in the morning tied into the event. For those listening, as OBT mentioned, there’s a two hour course in the morning after the workout called Grow School where they teach you leadership skills and there’s some practical applications during it. Then there’s that nice break where you get to take a nap, or in my case, deal with a baby with colic for a number of hours before stepping out for the F3 custom Grow Ruck event.

OBT: Sorry, honey. Got to leave. Got to do this Grow Ruck. I hate to do it, but —

Brian: Yeah, their running joke for the weekend was that the Grow Ruck was easier than being home with the children. Between a three-month-old with colic and we have an almost three-and-half year old foster son. It’s pretty busy over here.

Anyway, stepped out for the Grow Ruck event, and it was different and that there’s a higher expectation of being able to perform leadership skills quickly and efficiently. It was really interesting to see how people were pulled out of the class and given leadership positions. As most people know, during normal GORUCK events, there’s a team leader generally chosen and then there’s an assistant team leader and they kind of just keep the group together, figure out where we’re going and make sure everything doesn’t fall apart.

At Grow Ruck, the team leader had three or four kind of assistant team leaders who came up and then they would disseminate the knowledge to their eight-person teams. We kind of had a nice hierarchy there. Just the way Danny taught through repetition, getting into our ranks and figuring that out was awesome. He definitely put a lot of pressure, I think, on the leaders, which is nice, because it is a GORUCK event, but it’s also a safe environment. If you fail getting your class together or getting into the proper PT formation right away, the worst thing that’s going to happen is some more PT. Which isn’t great, but it’s not a life or death situation. It’s not leadership at your job where it’s going to impact your potential performance or your family. There’s no better place to fail under pressure than a GORUCK or a Grow Ruck event.

The way that Danny kind of built that in to the class, it was really cool. I don’t know what your guys thoughts are no that.

Dredd: That’s why we love Danny. He really embraces the idea of improving — And improving is the wrong the word. Enhancing, I guess, would be better, because GORUCK — There’s one we did. Before we did the Grow Ruck, we did three. We talked about the first one and then at least I did two more, and I think Tim did two.

OBT: I did two.

Dredd: One we did, we call is sand rock. Tim, did you do sand rock?

OBT: Yeah, class 707.

Dredd: Sand rock was summer, maybe 2013 or 2014.

OBT: Yeah, August 2013.

Dredd: He’s got a better memory than I do. It was intensely hot, and we moved very fast, didn’t do a lot of leadership stuff. It was very physical. We did the worst logs I’ve ever seen, and it was incredibly physically tough. It was a big class too. It was —

OBT: It was two classes. There were 60 guys.

Dredd: It was two classes together, 60 guys, and maybe it was hard to do the leadership thing that night, but after that one I thought — Well, actually I didn’t do another one for about three years. Not that I didn’t like it or anything, I just thought. Well, I kind of reached the level of physicalness about it. That was probably one of the last ones we did here in Charlotte. That’s fun. I still got a lot out of it and think a lot of other guys did too, but it wasn’t a leadership experience as much as it was a resilience experience. How physically tough are you? How willing are you to preserve through intense pain? Very long welcome party. First movement in a riverbed for miles and miles.

OBT: We got in a sewage catch pond, a water processing plant.

Dredd: It’s nasty.

OBT: We threw sand on each other. We carried just the most monstrous log ever.

Dredd: Right. It was wonderful.

OBT: It was a total beat down.

Dredd: Now, Danny really takes it in a different direction. Doesn’t focus so much on the welcome party and just a physical beat down, but more on combining the mental challenges, the leadership challenges with physical fatigue. You don’t have to do that much to smoke guys, he does it. It’s less of a haze and more of an opportunity for you to learn leadership skills. He shares a lot of his leadership knowledge with guys and he knows a lot. I know guys really appreciate that, and he’s also, because he’s an F3 guy, has embraced what we’re trying to do with the Grow aspect of this.

What we hope is that if you go to the Grow school in the morning, that what you’ll see in the evening and overnight is Danny giving you a chance to take what you’ve heard and saw and put it in your hands and try to do it. The way he’s done that I think has just been wonderful. For us, that’s been a great experience. He’s evolved it I guess is the right way to put it.

OBT: Yeah. When we first came up with this idea, I think Sean Rankin was someone who said, “You got to get Danny to do this, because he totally gets what you’re trying to do.” We went down in Jacksonville, did that first one and it was just the perfect combination of beat down and learning experience. Lest anybody get the wrong idea, and when Dredd says not so focused on the welcome party — As you know, Brian, from being in the water in Puget Sound at 3 in the morning, there was still plenty of stuff to hate. It’s just different.

Dredd: It’s really two different approaches. I went to Ranger school, you got the world’s worst welcome party. It’s like first four days of welcome party. Then you go through Green Beret training, they’re the Special Forces qualification course. Nobody ever yelled at me. Nobody ever raised a voice at me, and I was smoked the whole time. I think it depends on the cadre that you catch, but I think the best ones do a great job of combining those two experiences and challenging you and getting you as close to what I’d like to think of as close as the bottom of yourself as they can get you.

What they get to realize, all great leaders do this, but nobody does it better than our young Green Beret and Ranger NCO, and that’s mostly who these guys are. Nobody does a better of job of showing you that if you think you’re going to do it along, then you’re not going to anything. That all you have is that very shallow reservoir of who you are. If you have a different attitude, if your attitude is that you’re going to see what you’re going to do as part of a team, then the limits of what could be accomplished are infinite.

You could preach that, and I guess I kind of just did, and write blog posts about it.

OBT: Which you just did.

Dredd: Which I just did. Well, I’m reciting what I wrote two days ago, or you’re going to live it out in 12 hours overnight and maybe a combination of those things is really what works, because the first part of if, it will write it on your brain, the second part of it is it will write it in your heart. That’s really what we’re after with this program is to as quickly as we can possibly do, take the things that we have learned in the first few years of F3. What we have seen work in the regions that are growing and are very impactful and then transfer those skills to a new region and take guys that maybe haven’t seen it and as quickly as possible show them what it looks like, so after we leave they can put it into action. That’s really why we started this thing. So far, we think it’s working. We see it working.

Brian: it was an incredible event and you could definitely see the tie between Grow School, Grow Ruck and how implementing everything you learned during Grow School in Grow Ruck cemented it for the future. I have to give you guys props for finding Cadre Danny to do this, because like you mentioned, he’s a very tactical cadre. He doesn’t yell a lot and he’s not screaming at you to do PT, but just the way that he uses these events to test your mind, I guess, is a good way to describe it. Every location that we ended up, we always had to do a gear check. We had to do a whole list of things after rucking a distance and doing PT and every fun thing that comes with a GORUCK event. You didn’t have a 10 second breather when you got to your next location. You had a whole list of things you had to go through. If you forgot something, you’re punished. He just set a really good job of building that.

Dredd: You’re right. You’re absolutely right.

Brian: I would definitely call Grow Ruck in Seattle a huge success. I’m very excited about eh future of these events and it’s really cool to hear the information behind how you plan out where these will be. You look at the F3 groups and when they’ve been planted after 18, 12 to 18 months, seeing where they’re at and then possibly doing the event out there. There’s a lot more behind it than I think a lot of people realize. Thanks for going in depth about that.

Dredd: Yeah.

Brian: For those who are listening and go to the F3 nation site and possibly don’t see an F3 group within their area, what are their options?

OBT: First of all, we encourage you to go and check out the nifty map on the F3 site. If you pull the dropdown on where is F3, you should get to a nationwide map and you can put a zip code in there and it will tell you where the nearest workout is. If you do not have one near you, we would really, really like it if you would click on the link to send an email and ask to have F3 brought to your region, because it goes directly to a very good friend of ours who likes getting those emails and likes to have 50,000 different people ask for every workouts to come to him.

I sort of joke about that, but we are, as I said earlier, I think we’re in 21 or 22 states now. We’re kind of within site to where we can see getting to every major city in the country by 2019, 2020 arguably at our present pace. From there, it’s really a matter of those city groups then planting the regions around them. We used to sort of say when we get the email from kind of Nowheresville, Kansas, well, that’s great. We’d really love to bring you F3, but it’s going to be 2035 before we get there. Quite honestly at this point, the way the growth has been going, I think there’s a reasonable chance that’s going to happen sooner rather than later. We do want to know where you are and we want to be able to get in touch with you when there’s an opportunity to plant and get the culture right.

Brian: That’s awesome. Congratulations, guys.

OBT: Thank you.

Brian: I’ll just throw a side note in there. The map for F3 is really well done, so congratulations for whoever your web dev is.

OBT: That goes to Sleuth out there, to AP in Seattle and then Superman here in Charlotte. They are all over that and really nailed it.

Brian: Awesome.

Dredd: Every once in a while, I get frustrated with those guys and I want to fire them, but since we don’t pay them, it’s awkward.

OBT: It makes it a little awkward.

Dredd: What do you say?

Brian: It’s tough, right?

Dredd: Thousands of hours of work into something.

OBT: Wait? You’re firing me? But I’m a volunteer. That’s what makes it so hard.

Dredd: That’s what makes it so tough.

Brian: For those listening, it’s got all of the locations, and not only does it have the locations, but it has the dates that the workouts are on and the times. So you can easily see when there’s a Saturday morning workout in your area just based on the map colors and the location. It’s awesome and it’s super easy to use. I’ll post the links on the show notes.

OBT: One thing I will add to that too, Brian, is just so people know. This is not something where you got to have a sponsor to show up or you need to know somebody already or let them even know that you’re coming. We literally just show up at the location, be on time, because always start on time. If you show up, I can guarantee you — A guy said this to me recently and it really, really resonated with me, “F3 is one of the only places in the world where you can be a complete newbie, you can be at the back of the pack, a total — In the first percentile of performance out there, and you will be the most celebrated man out there, because there’s nothing out groups love more than to have an FNG, a friendly new guy out there get a chance to nickname him and bring him into the group.” I think sometimes guys are a little intimidating. You mean I just show up? Yeah, just show up and they will be glad to see you tell them that the podcast brought you there and they’ll probably tweet it out and let us know that as well.

Brian: Yeah. I guess I’ll just quickly toss in my input. When I showed up to my first F3 event I didn’t know anyone there. I was told to go there by Dora and Robber. For those who don’t Dora, is Lyle Peterson who runs the Pathfinder Ruck Training program. I’ve had him on the podcast and he just kept pestering me to go out to this and then between him and the F3 Grow Ruck account tweeting at me almost every day saying, “You’ve got to go out to these workouts.” I showed up and knew no one there and it doesn’t matter. Thank you to Robber and thank you to Dora, because without you two then I probably would not have found F3 as quickly as I did.

When it comes to F3 and rucking, I know there’s the F3 Grow Ruck Twitter account. I believe there’s a new F3 rucking account.

Dredd: It’s @f3nationruck.

Brian: Perfect. If you’re curious about the Grow Ruck events, you can easily hit F3 Grow Ruck up on Twitter. If you’re curious about rucking with the F3 crew in general, then F3 Nation Ruck.

Dredd: Yes.

Brian: They’re very responsive, because I’ve talked to them both quite a bit. Thank you OBT and Dredd just so much for taking this time out of your day to chat with me about the Grow Ruck event. This has been awesome. OBT, I know that you have another project that is near and dear to your heart called the Iron Project. Would you want to take a minute or two to talk about that?

OBT: Yeah. That actually could be relevant to some of your listeners as well. Dave, as a partner with me on this, I just happen to be the one who’s kind of working on it fulltime. The Iron Project is a side business that we started to take F3 and FiA leadership principles into other organizations. Dave and I did an event this morning with a group from a company that does IT infrastructure development and we did something very similar to a Grow School where we ran a workout with them that was mainly focused on teaching and introducing some leadership principles and did kind of a two-and-half hour Grow School in the classroom with them. This is something we’re always interested in doing.

We would love to find a corporation that wants to do that and then add a GORUCK Light challenge on to it as well, because I think that basically having an in-house Grow Ruck in a corporate setting could be a really pretty amazing team building experience. Having shadowed a couple of the lights, I’ve got a sense for being a little bit more — A little less confrontational of the people on the physical front than your typical Tough challenge.

Anybody who is involved in the rucking community who happens to be listening and wants to find a way to kind of bring it into your company from a leadership perspective, from using this as a platform for talking about leadership, we would love to have that conversation. Our website is at theironproject.com and the general email address for inquiries is info@theironproject.com, and I would love to field any and all inquiries and pretty much everything we do is completely customized to the client and to the ends that they’re trying to achieve.

Brian: Awesome. For anyone listening, if you think the leadership training, your place of business sucks and you want to bring in something better, like a Grow School plus GORUCK Light event, because we all know, we’re all ruckers, that a GORUCK Light event is a great way to build leadership. Hit up the Iron Project and maybe just send them a message to see how you can present the idea to someone who could make a decision like that.

OBT: We promise no Power Point presentations.

Brian: If I could trade the next five Power Point presentations for a GORUCK event, I would in a heartbeat.

Thank you guys so much, taking the time. It’s been an absolute pleasure. For anyone listening, I’ll put all the links to absolutely everything we talked about in the show notes as well as links to how to contact OBT and Dredd about the Iron Project. I believe that there’s a really good F3 dictionary out there, because you probably heard some terms during this that might not have made a whole lot of sense, so you can use that, pull it up and figure out what they’re saying. Thank you guys, again, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

OBT: Thank you, Brian.

Dredd: Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

The post ADR 017: OBT & Dredd Interview (F3 GrowRuck Custom GORUCK Event) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 016: Bomber Bash Interview (GORUCK Ruck Club Tour)

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:00:05 +0000

Christopher Goad… but you all probably know him as Bomber Bash. In the 16th episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast Brian sits down and chats with the fan favorite, the one and only, Bomber Bash. We get into where the nickname came from, what his first event was like, and what he’s looking forward to at GORUCK.

The only thing that would have made this interview better was if it was done in person and videoed. A huge thanks to Bomber for taking the time to chat and hopefully he doesn’t have to go on any more 18 hour drives with Nick.

Resources

Here’s the links from the show!

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

For those who don’t like listening to interviews here the transcript in its entirety!

Brian: I’m here talking with Christopher Goad who goes by Bomber Bash. Before we get started, Bomber, how did you get that nickname?

Bomber Bash: I’ll tell you. A lot of people asked me because I was in the Marine Corps and they’re like, “Oh, were you EOD? Did you work on bombs?” I’m like “No. I was just in weapons company, I was a pack mule. Bomber Bash is actually a car show that I’ve done for 10 years called the Twin City Bomber Bash. Before Facebook made everyone change their name to their real name, I went by Bomber Bash. It’s kind of strange the whole GRT community knows me mostly as Bomber Bash unless they’re newer and know me as Christopher Goad and they don’t really know who Bomber is.

Yeah, it’s a car show that we’ve done for 10 years. It’s rockabilly. All the cars are rockabilly based who do a pinup pageant, and actually last year we did a custom light, the Twin City Bomber Bash Light and we had David Lyles as the Cadre and had 38 people come down and almost all of them were GRTs that traveled down that came from New England, Texas, allover, and it was a lot of fun. Yes, the Bomber Bash is actually a car show called the Twin City Bomber Bash.

Brian: That’s really interesting and I’m sure you do not expect this to happen then for everyone to call you Bomber Bash from here on out.

Bomber Bash: No sir. No sir. It’s funny because, Robert Bash, when I first met him as that same weekend that you were here when I first moved here. He’s like, “Hey!” I’m like, “Robert Bash!” He’s like, “Oh! You know who I am.” I’m like, “Yeah, we have the same last name.” Anyway, he’s a great guy, but it was funny because people have confused us before or asked me how we were related. That’s when my name was still on Facebook as Bomber Bash.

Brian: That’s awesome. Bomber, how is it going?

Bomber Bash: It’s going fantastic. I’m having a great day. Little tired from the selection weekend, but other than that I’m feeling great.

Brian: Excellent. I’d imagine pretty much everyone down there is a little tired from the selection weekend.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Nick is extra cranky this week more than his normal crankiness. There’s that.

Brian: Bomber, let’s start out with your involvement in the GORUCK community. How did you stumble upon GORUCK?

Bomber Bash: In 2011, I signed up for a Tough Mudder and I know a few people remember this from back in the day. There was actually a link to GORUCK with a little bit of video. It had like a little Tough Mudder logo with the hand. I watched the video and checked it out and I was like, “Man! That seems cool.”

I did a little research and I think the only video or any information I could find, because back then they still kept everything that went on in evens pretty quiet. I found there was a video from a Philadelphia event that was shot with a first generation GoPro. There wasn’t a lot of information out there, and by watching that video is when I decided to sign up for one. It was about six or seven months out to order a GR1 and then my first event was in October of 2012.

Brian: I think I know what video you’re talking about. I’m pretty sure I watched that video a dozen or two dozen times before my first event, because that was the only information out there.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Yeah, for the longest, it was the only video.

Brian: Yeah. Where was the first event you signed up for?

Bomber Bash: It was in New Orleans, which I’m from Shreveport. I was living there then. It was about five hours away and I knew the city and felt I would be more comfortable doing it in the city that I was familiar with than traveling off some place.

Brian: This was back in 2012. There’s not much information out there. No one really knows what’s going on with GORUCK and the events. What were your thoughts leading up to the event and how did you feel during that event?

Bomber Bash: When I want to do something I just need to go ahead and sign up for it, because if I don’t I’ll talk myself out. I signed up for it the same day that I first saw the video Tough Mudder page. Just was nervous. Now, there’s all kind of training programs, squads, there’s the ruck clubs. You have so much more information out there. There was a little bit of anxiety about what we were going to do, and my training just consisted of — As I look back, it wasn’t the best idea, but I just ran, I did some five 5Ks with my ruck, add my six bricks in there. When I signed up, you could still do it with four bricks if you were over 150 pounds. Then they went away from the flame patch and then went to six bricks. Yeah, I didn’t do any push-ups, sit ups, anything. No overhead. Just squats, just ran with it. That’s what I thought I needed to do.

Brian: Those were the days, right? Back when a tough — If you’re over 150 was four bricks, and under 150 it was two?

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.

Brian: I remember, and they made a switch to six and four. I was thinking, “Man! This is getting real.” When you completed the event, how did you feel? Did you know that you wanted to do another one or were you thinking you’re going to be one done?

Bomber Bash: I was one and done. I was like, “This is stupid.” It was class 294. Had a great route. There were a couple of people there that done multiple events. A lot of the New Orleans crew was there. There was a couple of other events. Team Farm was down there for a Scavenger back in the day and it was crazy, crazy. I just remember being exhausted and then I wanted a beer, and I bought a 32 ounce bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon and then took a very long nap after I had that. I was wiped out, man. It did me in.

Brian: Sounds like a pretty good way to celebrate.

Bomber Bash: It was. It was.

Brian: Going fast-forward a bit, when did you start working for GORUCK?

Bomber Bash: That would be in — My one year anniversary is coming up. It’d be September 28, so a couple of more days will be my one year anniversary for being here in Florida at HQ, which is now the PX.

Brian: Congratulations!

Bomber Bash: Thank you, sir.

Brian: Hopefully I’ll make it down there again. I think I was down there on the weekend that you started with Team RWB for a ruck club meet up.

Bomber Bash: Yes. Yeah, I had a little luau. Y’all were here Saturday. It was a lot of fun.

Brian: That was a really good time. Speaking of ruck clubs and meet ups, you’ve been traveling the U.S. hanging out with ruck clubs. Is that correct?

Bomber Bash: Yes.

Brian: Who had the idea to send you around and do this?

Bomber Bash: I hear Lee likes to say it’s his idea. Nick says it’s his idea. Jason said it’s his idea, so I’m going to stick with that it’s my idea. It was totally my idea to do it.

Brian: I like that. I was worried it was someone else’s idea just to get you out of the office.

Bomber Bash: That’s most probably. That is totally correct. I think they pretend that they’re excited to see me when I come back, but sometimes I don’t believe that.

Brian: Yeah. I’m sure they’re excited to see you.

Bomber Bash: Yes.

Brian: You’ve been leaving GORUCK and traveling to various ruck clubs in the area. Where have you gone so far?

Bomber Bash: It kind of started in North Carolina with Brag. That was kind of the first trip that I went down with the company. On the way back we stopped by to see Andrew Handley in South Carolina. Met up with a lot of the GRTs there, the South Carolina area. We’ve been to Detroit. Well, all over Florida first. Went down south, Miami, went across Tallahassee, Fort Myers and just kind of followed all around the coast and came back and then do the blog, just told their stories.

After that, Detroit, Cleveland, had a blast with them. Then went to Texas and went to Dallas, Austin and Houston. We’ve done a few other trips. We went to Auburn for the Raider Ruck Nick and I did and did a couple of the legs with them and had a good time. I feel very fortunate, very blessed. We hung with the F3 guys. It’s been a lot of fun.

Brian: It sounds awesome.

Bomber Bash: Traverse City also. Yeah, for beach. I went up to Traverse City, which has been the whole town looks like a postcard. It was beautiful.

Brian: That’s awesome. You’ve got to make out to some amazing places.

Bomber Bash: Oh, for sure.

Brian: When you travel, do you mostly fly or drive?

Bomber Bash: We drove a lot with Nick, with him and I taking turns, and we’ll take Ripley with us his German Shepherd. After driving with him to Detroit, I decided that I didn’t want to ride with Nick anymore. I was like, “We got to fly.” We were in the jeep like 18 hours. It was crazy. Ohio was a long way to drive across. I will tell you that, sir.

Brian: That is a long trip. Did you start in Florida for that?

Bomber Bash: Yeah, I’ve left here from Jacks Beach and drove straight.

Brian: That’s a trip. One thing I’ve noticed when getting out and driving around between states. Some states are a lot better to drive in than others. Where is the worst place that you guys had to drive through? Either in terms of road quality or drivers or just how you’re feeling.

Bomber Bash: Nick wasn’t with me on these two trips when I went back to Shreveport for Extortion 17. Louisiana on I20 is absolutely horrible. It’s like it’s been bombed by the B52s at Barksdale Air Force Base. It’s just a horrible place to drive. In Dallas, if you’re not driving 80 plus miles an hour, you’re going to get run over. There is two speeds there. It’s stopped and then as fast as you can go. I would say those are the two places most challenging to drive in.

Brian: It sounds like it. On the flipside, what’s the most enjoyable place you drove through?

Bomber Bash: Traverse City was absolutely beautiful. Also, driving around Detroit, that was really cool. Then we went to — I guess it’s called the Sand Barren, Sand Flats at Fort Bragg. Nick has to get some photos there of some gear and we camped out and it was really — That area is really pretty.

Brian: Very nice. You’ve been to a lot of new cities traveling for GORUCK. Has you been to a lot of these cities before or was this your first time there?

Bomber Bash: I’ve been to Ohio before. Detroit was the first for me. Traverse City was the first, and I had not been up to the Fort Bragg area before. I am getting to see some places, and I hadn’t been to South Florida. Most of my experience from Florida was here in Jacks Beach or in the Palm Kendall. I have seen a lot of America and met a lot of the best people.

Brian: When you first get to a new city, is there anything that you try and do?

Bomber Bash: As soon as we’re there, connect with some of the local GRTs. Just let them know, “Hey, we’re in town, and let’s go eat.” We want to go in eat and have a beer at the places that they go to and just kind of have their experience and show us your town. That usually we’ll check into our room and like, “Hey, where are y’all?”

Brian: Awesome. You show up to town, check into a room, hook up with the GRTs and grab some food and beer.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.

Brian: Where you have gotten the best foods so far?

Bomber Bash: There’s a couple of places. Andrew Handley’s place, Andrew Handley’s Pub is absolutely amazing. He had a huge spread of food there for everyone and he took really good care of us. Man! There’s GORUCK memorabilia all over the place. It’s a really cool spot to hangout. I’d love to go there again with my girlfriend. Blacks Barbeque in Austin, Texas is one of my favorite places. Really, just all the local spots. BD and I, Traverse City at a hamburger place that was just amazing. I tried to stay away from the chain places and just support the local businesses.

Brian: Yeah, absolutely. You always grab a beer when you’re getting a meal. Do you stay with PBR or Bud?

Bomber Bash: No. We’ll go to the local breweries. We’ve been to some really cool ones, especially — Oh! I’m not going to call out any certain ones, because there’s so many favorite ones. The craft beer business is booming and we’ve had some really quality beer. I just like to go there, see what everyone else is drinking and have one of those. Yeah, usually stay away from the Budweiser and PBR just so I can experience what the locals are drinking or what they’re making.

Brian: It sounds amazing. Fly to a new city, hang out with some GRT, eat the good food, drink the good beer.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.

Brian: You’ve been to a number of spots already. Do you have plans to keep the tour going and drive out again or fly out again?

Bomber Bash: Yeah, and I need to do it — It’s probably going to happen next year, go up and do the Snowdrop event. I got to go hang with those guys and then I’ll be up at Bragg next year, but we’re entering to the holiday season here where it gets super, super busy, so probably no more trips.

Brian: Yeah, Rooney was calling you out on that, wasn’t he?

Bomber Bash: Oh my God! Yes. I’ve got probably about five unanswered messages from him on Facebook that I’ve got to answer today.

Brian: I just talked with him a couple of days ago. I interviewed him about Snowdrop and that event that he runs in Appleton.

Bomber Bash: Yeah. That’s an amazing event and he’s probably my 40th or 50th favorite cadre at GORUCK. He’s a great guy. I love him so much.

Brian: Yeah, he’s awesome. I did an event with him out in Seattle, and Rooney is a great guy. Next year, you might be out then in Appleton for Snowdrop.

Bomber Bash: Yes. I committed to that with those fellows. Yes, everybody.

Brian: There it is. If you want to do an event with Bomber Bash, check out Snowdrop, Appleton, Wisconsin 2018.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.

Brian: Let’s talk about ruck clubs and custom events. I heard through the grape vine that there might be a custom event for members of Rucks clubs coming up. Can you elaborate on that?

Bomber Bash: Yup. One that I would like to talk about is Mark Otto who’s put together for the Veteran’s Day Parade in New York on November 11 a spot for 200 GRTs and are going to have people from the ruck clubs come. I know the Cleveland rucking crew, there’s going to be a lot of them driving over that will actually be in the parade. There’s a couple of cadre coming. I’m really stoked about that. It will be great to be — I’ve never been in a parade. I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to go up there. 200 GRTs are going to be marching with our rucks in the Veteran’s Day parade in New York, and that’s pretty cool. He’s already done a couple of interviews. He was on Fox News last night talking about it. I didn’t get a chance to catch it, but that’s going to be a fun one. I’ll be up in the New York area the first weekend of November.

Brian: That’s awesome. If people want to sign up for this, is there a link on the website or where should they go?

Bomber Bash: We got it as a private link, but if they want to hit me up, it’s bomber AT goruck DOT com. I’ll make sure to send the link to them.

Brian: Perfect. Thank you so much, Bomber. GORUCK has a ruck club battle coming up in early 2018. That will be in Jacksonville, Florida. How excited are you about this?

Bomber Bash: I’m super stoked, man. Lucas, he reached out to me. He’s down with the Palm Beach Rucking Crew. Shot me a message and he was like, “Hey, man. What about let’s do a custom event where we have all the ruck clubs come?” You already got almost 50 people signed up for it and it’s going to be a Light. Probably Garrett and Cody and everyone’s going to be teamed up. I’ve got a couple of people from HQ that are going to sign up, so we’re going to have our little team going to. I’m really stoked. It’s a great idea, and if I didn’t like Luke so much I’d say it was mine. I’m really stoked about that. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a pretty tough Light. There will be a lot of fun involved, but we’re going to get thrashed too.

Brian: It’s probably for the best, since everyone showing up is in a ruck club. Luke is a great guy. I had him on a previous episode where he talked about the Brad event.

Bomber Bash: For sure.

Brian: He’s always fun to talk to.

Bomber Bash: Yeah, he’s an awesome dude.

Brian: We’ve got the ruck club battle coming up, GORUCK Selection just finished, and so you guys are all recovering from that. What else is going on?

Bomber Bash: I look forward to see what the beach events turn into. I think they’re going with calling them Poseidon. Super stoked about those and just being able to see the one in Traverse City, and it was a lot of fun. That’s what I’m excited for event-wise, is to see what happens with it. Constellation is constantly evolving and changing and there’s people that have done a couple of them and talked about that event has evolved and got better. I did the second one of the Betas and I look forward to doing one of the others one come up. They had one in St. Augustine this weekend that a lot of people come in. They caravan from here down there did it, come back. It’s one of the few times I’ve not offered hugs, because all of them smelled like pepper spray.

Brian: Yeah, I’d stay away from that.

Bomber Bash: Yeah. I’m like once you’ve showered, for real, give you a hub, but let’s just fist bump.

Brian: Yup. No shirtless Bomber Bash hugs when you’re covered in pepper spray.

Bomber Bash: That’s right.

Brian: GORUCK’s already released the date for 2019 Selection. It’s September 20th in Ohio. Can we expect you up there for the Bomber Cam?

Bomber Bash: I’m hoping so. I’ve put in my request to BD to let me go up there to Selection, because mostly I got to see the index and I got to see the PT test. There were a couple of people I’ve known for a while, but I want to go and watch them and give them a little love while they’re doing it. Most of that weekend, we work up here at the PX and just making sure everyone had a cold Budweiser in their hand, making sure they were checking out the gears. Also, a ton of people brought their rucks in and Joe and even Christian, who is our quality control guy, got them turned around same weekend. There were very few that had to stay due to the repairs on them. It was cool for people to bring their rucks in and let them inspect them and did grommets for a couple of people, repaired some straps, sewed up a few holes and everything. That was another cool thing that happened this weekend. I’d like to say congratulations to Alex and everybody else, but that dude is a beast, man. It was crazy watching him on the live feed and then it was an honor to see him finish here at the PX.

Brian: He was surprisingly coherent during the interview with Jason afterwards.

Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah. I think he was absolutely wiped out, but he was still him, and that was pretty amazing to me. Yeah, that was an hour or two after he had finished. He had got a little ice cream from his girl and got some beer, Kill Cliff, and water. He got to recharge his batteries, which that was cool.

Brian: Yeah. Let’s talk about the PX and scars now in Jacksonville.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir.

Brian: When I travelled down there last year, I came and hang out and the GORUCK office and that office is what it looks like has been turned to the new PX and the new scars.

Bomber Bash: Yes. When I moved here, there are like I think like 21, 22 or us and it got up where there was almost 30 people, like 27, 28 folks. It was just so packed in here. They moved HQ down the road for the business part of GORUCK where marketing, the inventory folks, finance, Lee was there heading up on our fire base partnerships and over off to the left where I used to be, they’ve got all the scars. All the machines are set up and they’re kind of — It’s a really cool system of how they check them in, do the inspections, put them in the queue to be repaired, have them repaired, then ship them out. It works really well and SP says really fast. Joe block party. He handles all the scars, emails coming in, and then he also sew some and we have Christian that’s in our quality control, that he gets behind a machine as well.

They do a pretty quick turnaround and it runs around very smooth. Jason is over here, myself, Nick is over here. We just got a little small crew and I feel very fortunate to — I’m not seeing everybody every day like before, but it’s cool to be over here, because that’s where the GRTs come when they want to visit.

Brian: That’s awesome. I’ll have to make it out there again and see everything going on, but it’s very cool —

Bomber Bash: The plan is eventually have us all under one roof again, and I’ll be stoked when that day, but it’s also having scars here at the PX and watching those guys do their things. They’re a great crew.

Brian: Yeah, and it’s got to be awesome seeing all those beat rucks from GORUCK events coming and get nice and patched up and sent out for more adventures.

Bomber Bash: Yes. Oh, and my note to them, because I love these guys, is make sure you wash your rucks really well before you send them. There’s a couple of them that I’m like, “Oh my God! Ugh! Ugh!”

Brian: You just kind of get the box and the box wreaks before you even open it.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Brian: You’re wondering if they sent you a backpack or a dead animal.

Bomber Bash: That’s right. I’ll have to start shaming those folks on the Tough page.

Brian: That seems like a great way to do it.

Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah.

Brian: You’re very excited about the GORUCK beached events that are coming up. We’re about to hit the super busy season for GORUCK, which is the Christmas time, holiday season.

Bomber Bash: Yes.

Brian: What are you most excited for about the future of GORUCK?

Bomber Bash: Just seeing where the events go. Jason is working on a lot of secret apparel stuff. The apparel lot is really going to expand. I’m stoked to see what happens with that. Not only like the GR3 did really well. It’s a fantastic travel ruck and just seeing what the next big thing is going to be. I just like seeing the ruck clubs expand, the family grow and just when you think, “Oh! This is about it. Something else comes along.

Last year, Constellation beach come back around and is turning into something new. I just like to surprises that are in store.

Brian: Yeah, and Constellation 24 is coming up, so that should be incredibly interesting.

Bomber Bash: Oh, yeah. The reunion this year is going to be in Austin, Texas. I’ll be down there for sure. I got my daughter and son-in-law lives down there. I really — Austin is an awesome place. There’s a lot of good food. There’s a lot of hills to go up and down.

Brian: Perfect. Awesome, Bomber. Is there anything else that you want to talk about or tell the listeners?

Bomber Bash: As I always say, monster is the best part of HQ, and the people, are the best part of GORUCK. I enjoy meeting everyone, having them come up here and hangout with them. I just want to tell them thank you and come get a shirtless hug.

Brian: You heard it. Come get a shirtless hug from Bomber Bash pending no pepper spray on your body.

Bomber Bash: Exactly. Thank you for clarifying that for me.

Brian: Yeah, I’m just looking out for you. Got your best interest though, Bomber.

Bomber Bash: I appreciate it.

Brian: Bomber, thank you so much for taking all the time to talk with me today. It’s been awesome, just awesome to connect again and chat. I truly appreciate it and we got to do this again.

Bomber Bash: Yes, sir, anytime. You take care and I hope you have an awesome day.

The post ADR 016: Bomber Bash Interview (GORUCK Ruck Club Tour) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 015: Cadre Roony aka Josh Hass Interview (GORUCK Snowdrop Challenge)

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 14:00:02 +0000

In this episode we interview GORUCK Cadre Roony. We discuss how he found GORUCK, his favorite events, and his upcoming custom event Snowdrop.

Cadre Roony puts a ton of love into every event he runs so we are very excited to see how this year’s Snowdrop turns out. We’re sure it’s going to be an incredible weekend for absolutely anyone who is able to attend the event. Although it doesn’t fit in our schedule this year maybe there’s a chance we’ll travel out there next year for it.

If you’re within distance of the event you should definitely give it some consideration. It’s not often you find charity-driven events like this that are also going to be incredible fun. Plus, you’ll get to see Roony pull the winner for his raffle and, probably, make a similar face to the one he did last time!

Resources

Here’s the links from the show!

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Brian: So I’m here talking with GORUCK Cadre Josh Haas, aka Cadre Roony. Before we get started with how you got involved with GORUCK and the Snowdrop line of events, let’s talk quickly about your nickname. Where did Roony come from?

Cadre Roony: Roony came from my grandmother. I was her oldest grandson and she started calling me Joshua Roony and my aunts and uncles and eventually cousins picked up on it. It got shortened to Roony and I was just Roony when I was a toddler all the way up until currently my aunts and uncles, grandmother still call me Roony. I guess it stuck.

Brian: Now the entire GORUCK community calls you Roony too.

Cadre Roony: Yes, absolutely. Yes, when I first became cadre, there was already a Cadre Josh and I didn’t want to be Cadre Josh II or anything like that. I went with nickname I’ve always had and it kind of stuck. It does confuse people because a lot of folks are like, “Is that your last name?” It’s just a nickname that my grandmother gave me and I went with it.

Brian: That’s awesome. Yeah, I think Cadre Roony is definitely better than Cadre Josh II.

Cadre Roony: Yes, absolutely.

Brian: Speaking of GORUCK, how did you first hear about GORUCK?

Cadre Roony: I first heard about GORUCK over 3-1/2 years ago I guess it’s been now. One of my friends that I’ve met through crossfit was asking me if I’d ever heard of it and if I would do it with him. I asked, “What is it?” and he explained it to me and I just gotten off act of duty and I kind of looked at it and I’m like, “You want me to pay to go do what I’ve been doing my entire act of duty career? I think I’m not. Take a hard pass on that.”

He was really into it and I told him I would put on some miles with him while he trained for his first event, and he’s excited about it. Then GORUCK had a promotion going on. I think it was called the Buddy Pass, where it was a buy one get one free. It’s like, “Hey, I paid for the event in Milwaukee, it’s on a buddy pass. I’d really like for you to do it with me. It’s not going to cost anything.” I caved in and said, “Alright, I’ll do it.”

The event date came and my youngest son was really, really sick and I decided that I was going to take a pass on going to do the event because I didn’t want to be gone when my son had a fever that was right on the border line of him going into the hospital. I didn’t go. Woke up in the morning and my son was magically A-okay, his fever broke overnight and my friend went and got his patch and became anointed as a GRT and I had a credit and then that following September 11th, some friends from the local police department SWAT team were going down to do the 9/11 light in Chicago, so I cashed in my credit to do that and it was at that event three years ago, just crushed three years ago where I met Brian Squared, Cadre Logan and my first exposure to GORUCK. Had an awesome time. Had a friend come up from St. Louis who is a former FISTER from the 101st and he’s a SWAT team leader down in St. Louis, so he came up and we did it together and we had fun, but I had to see what GORUCK was about, so I thought, “This is the light. I need to see what it talks about. On the drive from Chicago back from Wisconsin I signed up for tough in December in Milwaukee, which is probaBriany a bunch of that decision all rolled into one. It was Cadre Mickey, and I met Mickey there. Had an awesome event. We got to talk in and I did my application to become a cadre and here I am, just crossed the two year special as a cadre.

Brian: That’s awesome. Completed one light, then one tough.

Cadre Roony: Yes. Then after the tough, before I got hired, but while I’ve got the tough and the light under my belt, let’s see what the heavy is all about, and signed up for Memorial Day Heavy in Chicago and that’s where I’ve met Flash and Jason J. at the Memorial Day Heavy in Chicago and shortly after that is when I got the phone call from Garrett Noonan. He said, “Hey, I’m hearing some good things. Let’s see if I’ll get you on board.” Here we are.

Brian: That’s awesome, and you’re still doing events.

Cadre Roony: Yes. I enjoy the heck out of the community and I love everything about it. I had an epiphany at an event where we’re in the welcome party and one of my good friends told me after the event, he said, “Hey, it would have been anybody else’s cadre, I probaBriany would have quit at the welcome party because that was pretty brutal.”

I thought to myself, “It’s pretty easy for me stand here on the beach and tell these guys to front, back, go and roll right, roll left and all that fun stuff. It’s easy to kind of lose touch with the emotions and struggles that the GRT are going through while they’re participating in the event. I promised myself that I would do at least one event per year just to kind of keep my roots and understand what everyone’s going through in these events. I don’t lose focus about what they’re going through and that sort of things. I’ve exceeded that one event per year thing and it’s easy to do, because we all know how fun it is.

Brian: Absolutely. Speaking of being a cadre for GORUCK and running events, what are your favorite events to run?

Cadre Roony: My favorite events to run. I’d say just the standard tough is a lot of fun. I think the ones that I get the most out of believe it or not, is the lights, because you get a lot of people who are kind of dipping their toe into the GORUCK pond and they’re not sure what it’s about. They’re not sure about their ability level and if they can do it. When you show them their ability and that they can do it and that light bulb goes on over their head, that’s when it’s really rewarding.

You see that in all the events, but at the light you have a much broader base of ability level for this level and that sort of thing and when you show people the value of teamwork and DFQ and that sort of thing and show them what they have inside, maybe you like that, they realize at that point there’s probaBriany a bunch of other stuff that they’ve never tried or even thought about attempting, because they’re always believed that they haven’t had the ability and now they realize that, “You know what? Maybe I do have the ability and what else can I do that I never I could do?” That’s what’s really awesome for me.

Brian: That is awesome.

Cadre Roony: Scavengers of course are a lot of fun too.

Brian: Yeah, you can’t go wrong with those.

Cadre Roony: No, absolutely not.

Brian: All GORUCK Special Operations Cadre clearly need to have a military background. Can you elaborate a little bit on yours?

Cadre Roony: Absolutely. I did eight years active duty. Had seven deployments, one to Iraq, the rest are all with Afghanistan. Served in various roles and capacity as well as part of the regiment the last four years, I was in a Regimental Reconnaissance Company, 6-man reconnaissance team and that was some of the best memories I have from my time on act of duty.

Got off act of duty in 2012, moved from Fort Benning back to Wisconsin. Moved back and just kind of took a break from military. Really missed the brotherhood and camaraderie and shared sense of purpose that the military offered and end up joining the Wisconsin National Guard, and I’ve been in the National Guard for almost three years now. Currently a platoon sergeant, I was light infantry company air platoon and recently we were activated. I was actually in Chicago getting ready to start the 9/11 heavy. I received a phone call, it said, “Hey, you are effectively on orders for Hurricane Irma release. I need you to report tomorrow morning at 8:00.” I’m like, “Well, I’m in Chicago. I’m running this thing. I can’t get back till Sunday.”

They decided to let me report on Sunday. I worked with Cadre Chad, ran the heavy then ran the tough. Put on a pretty good welcome party for those guys and then went straight from North Avenue Beach back home and grabbed my gear and reported in to the unit. We deployed down to Florida and we’re down there for just over a week and helped out the people down there. Get back up on their feet, recover from Hurricane Irma. Got back here to something — Monday, was it? Sunday. Yeah, I got watch Packers. I got back on Sunday. Got back on Snowdrop again.

Brian: That’s wild. That’s truly amazing.

Cadre Roony: Yeah, it was a pretty busy 10 days.

Brian: I’m sure.

Cadre Roony: Yeah. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it, and I definitely have a sense of serving, helping out the community and just being part or something that’s bigger than me. That’s what service is for me.

Brian: thank you so much for both your service and for continuing to serve. Let’s talk a little bit about your custom event, Snowdrop. Where did the idea for Snowdrop come from?

Cadre Roony: When I first became a cadre, I wanted to do every event I could. I wanted to get out there and meet as many people as possiBriane, but I also wanted to kind of showcase the area that I live in Wisconsin. It’s a great community. Tons of stuff to do here, and I think it’s a great city to host events. I decided I wanted to do a custom here just to kind of bring people here and maybe bring up some interest in the community in GORUCK.

If I was going to do that, why not try to raise some money? The local police department was really involved with Snowdrop Foundation, which is a pediatric cancer nonprofit and I was like, “You know what? I don’t know what I would ever do if I found out that my boys had cancer, and I hope I never find out that I want do everything I can to help the families and the kids that are suffering because of it.”

I put Snowdrop as the benefactor and ran the first event three years ago, so 2015 it would have been. We raised just under a thousand bucks. Didn’t have huge numbers. Didn’t have a lot of third party if you will fundraising going on. We covered the cost and raised a little bit of money. As I gained experience and kind of looked at other customers to see what they were doing, the ideas started to populate in my head, if you will. Last year we did the second Snowdrop and we were aBriane to raise just under 8,000 and that was the large part to efforts of GRTs that wanted to help contribute.

We raised money to get a Pikachu costume. We raised money to get me to wear a Chicago Bears jersey after the event at the post-event party, which was humiliating.

Brian: They must have raised a lot for that.

Cadre Roony: Yeah, they did. They actually raised enough money that need to participate in the Joe Warner Bragg Heavy, and unfortunately for fellows that helped get me to that level, I wasn’t aBriane to participate last year, because I had to work an event. I still owe the community a Joe Warner appearance. That is still on the taBriane. I don’t know if I can commit to this year or not, but we’ll see.

This year, instead of just doing a light, we added in a tough and a scavenger. We are on phase right now to come in right around 10 grand after all the classes are covered for planning the event, etc.

Brian: Congratulations.

Cadre Roony: Yeah. We’re on phase for 10 grand and a lot of that, again, is due to the efforts of the GRTs that have helped me with creating raffles. I think I’m going to be carrying a big concrete yellow crayon during the event and sort of a Pikachu costume. What else? Something else — Yeah, we’re doing a big raffle for calling it the UberRuck. The raffle is going to be fore a GR1 that comes with donated Shadow Tactical frame sheet from Ruck Customs. A donated Shaddox Tactical plate pouch. Some company, All Day Ruckoff donated a ruck handle as well as some patches and a tac-hat. It’s all going to go into this UberRuck raffle and got a bunch of other stuff that we’re going to all pull winners for after the Ruck.

Brian: Speaking of the location for the event, this occurs in Appleton, Wisconsin. That’s correct?

Cadre Roony: Yup, that’s right. The Appleton area is called The Fox Valley, and there’s some cities that comprise the Fox Valley. Appleton is kind of the hub and everything branches off of it. First year, we did it on east side of Appleton. Last year we did it in a town called Kimberley. This year we’re going back to Appleton, but we’re going to cover different terrains.

We’re going to have it in Appleton or the Fox Valley. We’re going to explore different areas every year so that people aren’t seeing the same old stuff every time they come here. Got a lot of repeat offenders that have done every event coming back, so just want to give them a different taste of the area every time they come.

Brian: For those who aren’t familiar with Wisconsin, Appleton is not the biggest city. It’s not the destination city for Wisconsin. It’s pretty exciting that all of these people are traveling in to Appleton just for your event.

Cadre Roony: Yeah. Last year we had people from Phoenix, New York City and all the big cities in the Midwest, so Minneapolis, St. Paul, Iowa. We had some folks coming from Iowa, Chicago of course, as well as Milwaukee, Indianapolis. The Team Ninja crew showed up in fourth last year. They’re coming back. Got some representatives from the Cleveland area rucking crew coming in. The same standard folks from the Minnesota Ruck Club are coming. We got gentleman coming from New York City another one coming from Alabama. The very first person to sign up for the event, all three events, he’s coming from Japan. I think it’s pretty badass, but there’s somebody that’s going to travel to Appleton, Wisconsin from Japan to help raise money for Snowdrop Foundation and have a good time as GRTs know how to do.

Brian: That’s amazing. That’s quite the trip.

Cadre Roony: Yeah, definitely. It’s hard to do, but kind of left me speechless that someone would do all that to support and help raise money for Snowdrop Foundation.

Brian: After you completed the first Snowdrop event back in 2015, did you know that you wanted to make this a yearly series, or did it take some time before you realized you wanted to bring it back again year over year?

Cadre Roony: After the initial event kind of took a week to let it all try to sync in and did a lot of looking back, “Hey, what could we have done better?” and got a lot of feedback from GRTs that have completed it. As I’ve said, I was a pretty new cadre at the time. Really, kind of a baptism by fire, if you will, and took a lot of the suggestions part and really started to get the wheels turning for how can we do it better next time, because I know we could definitely Brianow it out of the water.

About a month after the first one was over, I reached back out to my contacts at Snowdrop, I’m like, “Okay. I want to do this again and I want to do it better.” After last year’s success, and the feedback I got, it become evident to me that it needed to be a yearly thing.

Brian: Very nice. Speaking of this year now, what are you most excited for about this event this coming year?

Cadre Roony: I’m excited for the tough, because it will be the first time there’s been a tough in Appleton. There’s lots of varying terrain and, of course, water with the Fox River running right through the city. I think the thing that I’m most excited about is the fact that we’d be playing knocker ball during the light. Do ever seen those guys trying to playing soccer while they’re inside those big rear bubBrianes? We’re going to be integrating that into the light and some former fashion. Should have some pretty good pictures and video footage from that.

Brian: Absolutely.

Cadre Roony: Then of course the scavenger. The scavenger will be fun as well.

Brian: Very cool. The tough is Friday night, which is going to be October 6th. The light is Saturday during the day and the scavenger is the following day?

Cadre Roony: and then Sunday morning we’ll go and get our amulets and Brianoody Mary’s.

Brian: Sounds perfect. Sounds like the ideal GRT weekend.

Cadre Roony: Yeah, absolutely. Some people that are coming in the day early, going to take them out to good old Wisconsin supper club, show them what that’s all about. Show them what a real old fashion tastes like. Maybe teach them how to play bar dice or something like that. The idea is I just want to get people a real good taste of the culture and the people that basically I grew up with and grew up around. I think the people here are like the salt of the earth and know how to work hard and play hard and that’s what it’s all about.

Brian: I love it. That’s awesome. Do you think spotted cow is going to make an appearance here?

Cadre Roony: Spotted cow is always an integral part for Snowdrop. One way or the other way, spotted cow is going to get worked in the event.

Brian: Perfect. I have to thank you for getting Cadre Danny Stokes to pick up spotted cow and bring it back to Seattle, because I was aBriane to enjoy some of it down at his house and usually I only get it on my trips back to Wisconsin. It was quite the treat. Thank you, Roony.

Cadre Roony: Yes, you’re welcome. I wasn’t aBriane to meet up with him in St. Paul for the capital tour. I was a military course and I had some people bring in some spotted cow and I wasn’t there and they gave it to him and it’s made its way in your hands. It sure was a welcome treat for you.

Brian: Sure was. Is there anything else that you want to promote about the Snowdrop 2017 event?

Cadre Roony: The biggest thing that I just want to say regarding Snowdrop is thank you to the community for all your support. Thank you to the GRTs that give up some of their free time to help me out with the fundraising efforts and all of them that travel to come do this event. A big thank you to all the companies and folks that donate product, like All Day Ruckoff and Shaddox Tactical and Ruck Essence helping put together pretty awesome raffle package to raise money. Snowdrop won’t be anything without the community and the people that pitch in to give me a hand with setting it up and running it. Just a big thank you to everybody.

Brian: I can say at least from All Day Ruckoff, I’m more than happy to support in any way I can. I’m sure the other companies feel the same way too. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to support you, because we appreciate that.

Cadre Roony: Absolutely, man. Appreciate you having me on here to promote Snowdrop.

Brian: Absolutely. Thank you, Cadre Roony, for taking the time to talk with me about your military experience, how you found GORUCK, your GORUCK experience and this incrediBriane custom event that you’ve set up and run for the 3rd year now in Appleton, Wisconsin. Thank you for taking the time. I know you’re an incrediBriany busy guy and I truly appreciate this.

Cadre Roony: Thanks a lot for having me. I appreciate you giving me a platform and, as always, rangers lead the way.

The post ADR 015: Cadre Roony aka Josh Hass Interview (GORUCK Snowdrop Challenge) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 014: Mikey Bee Interview (GORUCK Selection 019 Cadre)

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:00:33 +0000

This interview with GORUCK Cadre Mikey Bee focuses on the GORUCK Selection event. We get into how Mikey Bee found GORUCK, why he loves being a Cadre for GORUCK Selection, and he shares some incredible advice on what it takes to succeed at Selection.

The release of this interview falls on the very day that the GORUCK Selection 019 class is kicking off in Jacksonville, Florida. There’s under 100 people registered for the event and GORUCK’s team of cadre will ensure that they reach new limits.

We truly hope that everyone who shows up to GORUCK Selection succeeds in the event and can’t wait to see how it all shakes up.

Resources

Here’s the links from the show!

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 014: Mikey Bee Interview (GORUCK Selection 019 Cadre) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 013: Chris Way Interview (GORUCK Selection 001 AAR)

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 14:00:46 +0000

In the thirteenth episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast we’re back with another interview with GORUCK Cadre Chris Way. This time around we talk about about GORUCK Selection Class 001 which Chris was one of three finishers of.

The next GORUCK Selection starts in one week down in Jacksonville, Florida so we thought it would be interesting to bring another Selection finisher onto the show. Chris provides an interesting point of view because of his depth of event knowledge outside the realm of just GORUCK events.

If you’re signed up for GORUCK Selection then this is definitely a podcast episode you’re going to want to listen to. If you’re not considering Selection then you can still get some great insight into the mind of someone who completed this event.

Resources

Here’s the links from the show! I’ve included links to PACE Lid because Chris Way runs that and it’s always nice to promote him.

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
GORUCK Selection
GORUCK Selection Class 001 Blog Post
PACE Lid (GORUCK)
PACE Lid (Official Site): Use the coupon from the podcast here
PACE Lid (Amazon)

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 013: Chris Way Interview (GORUCK Selection 001 AAR) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 012: Eric Kling Interview (GORUCK Selection 002 Finisher)

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 14:00:23 +0000

In the twelfth episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am very excited to interview fellow GRT Eric Kling about his GORUCK Selection event. We talk about how he found GORUCK, why he signed up for GORUCK Selection, and he gives some amazing advice to those currently registered for GORUCK Selection.

During the interview we talk about the moment that Kling was the last remaining participant of GORUCK Selection class 002. The video below is of when that happened and you can see that Kling is pretty out of it.

Resources

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

Podcast Transcript

Not everyone likes listening to audio… we get that. For those that don’t here’s a transcript of our interview.

Kling: What’s up man?

Brian: Hey, how’s it going?

Kling: Doing well. How about you?

Brian: Not too bad.

Kling: Cool. Cool.

Brian: Thanks so much for taking the time.

Kling: Yeah, for sure man.

Brian: So let’s talk about your first GORUCK event.

Kling: Yeah, my first one was Class 074 with Dan Plants who was the cadre for it. It was down in Savannah, and this is back when it was just a challenge Friday night and then a challenge Saturday night. The guys … Actually, Kovak was there. He did my Selection class too, but he was there the night before for Class 073 and he, a few of the other guys showed up to show us off. It was in Savannah, so they ended up meeting up with us down on River Street and started yelling stuff at us. We’re like, “Who the hell are these guys? Why are they yelling at us? And how do they know what GORUCK is?” Like nobody knew what it was back then-

Brian: No one.

Kling: We crushed it man. I think we only had 14 people in our class and five or six of us all showed up together as a group, that were stupid and listened to me, when I said we should sign up for this event. But a lot of them were there for my first Tough Mudder, which is where I heard about it. I saw about it on there, on the Tough Mudder website. It was, I think it was going to be in February in Georgia, late February. And also I was looking at the GORUCK and I clicked the link and followed it and saw what it was, but it was two weeks before the Tough Mudder and I mean to be honest … I think the Tough Mudder was the first big thing, I had ever done. So I was practicing on a mountain biking trail here, that’s about eight miles long. And the Tough Mudder was supposed to only be 10 miles, but it ended up being just over 16 miles long, which was stupid.
But yeah, I was training, you know running for that, doing trail runs and stuff. And I was like, “Yeah, I’ll try that GORUCK thing next time.” And then actually saw some dudes on the Tough Mudder trail and talked to them and offered to get them a beer at the end. So I was like, “What you guys do is bad ass.” And the guy goes, “You don’t have to wait till the end, here.” I said… “What do you, what do you mean?” Because I started jogging off and he just like, “Yeah, drink’s in my bag and grab a, grab a beer.” I was like, “There’s no way you have beer in there?” And he’s like, “Yeah, just- just reach in and grab one.” Like he almost had to talk me into it. And I grabbed one and he allowed me to grab one for each of the friends that was with me and so they jogged on and we walked and drank our beer. And I was like, “That’s something I need to be a part of. This is one of the best beers I’ve ever had.”

Brian: That’s awesome.

Kling: Met up with them at their tent, after the event and hung out with them and stuff and drank more beer. And that’s when I was like, “Yeah, this is what I need to be a part of.”

Brian: So that’s when you decided it was time to sign up for an event?

Kling: Yep. Found the next one that was coming to Georgia and then signed up for it. And we had no idea, the website told you-

Brian: Nothing-

Kling: Nothing at all about what to expect. There was I think one YouTube video and the guy in it, said that the event was in New York. And he’s like, “This was harder than the Crucible which is the culmination of the Marine Corps training.” And I was like, “What the hell am I getting myself into? This is dumb.” But we all signed up and showed up anyway and ended up doing really well.

Brian: That’s awesome. So did you have a good time during it?

Kling: At the end, yeah. During it, I mean I guess because I didn’t know what I was getting into. And didn’t really know how to train. During the event, parts of it was, were cool, and then other parts I was just like, what the hell did I sign up for? This is nuts.

Brian: Yeah, I think a lot of people feel that way.

Kling: Yeah, especially the people that were in like the under 100 and then like the 100-ish classes-

Brian: Yeah-

Kling: Just because there wasn’t a lot. You know like you guys? What was your first one?

Brian: 053.

Kling: Yeah.

Brian: The running joke during our class was that we would’ve all quit, but we didn’t know where the hell we were, so-

Kling: (laughs) Yeah.

Brian: We wouldn’t be able to get back to our cars, even if we tried.

Kling: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we were in Savannah, I don’t even remember everywhere we went. We went places in Savannah that I had never been before. Go to Savannah, decent amount it’s right down, it’s about two and a half hours away from me, so it’s fun. We got friends that live down there. You know I’ve been there a few times, but I … Yeah, I had no idea where we were for part of the events.

Brian: Yeah. That was a trip back then.

Kling: (laughs) For sure.

Brian: We started off our event sprinting, we were doing Indian runs trying to catch up with the cadre. And I just remember thinking, if the entire event is just sprinting with weight around Seattle, this is going to be a nightmare.

Kling: Right? My third event was like that. It was back with Cadre Dan again. I did 074 and then 106 and then I think 130-something. I might have them backwards. No, I think Patrick was second and then Dan was third again. And it was in Atlanta. They were working on some stuff for Trek, on how to move heavy weight over distance, and like if it could be done. And then Dan said that, he was talking to the other cadre about it and was like, “Oh, shit. I’ve got Atlanta coming up. You know, I’ve got those guys that are coming up for my Savannah group.” He’s like, “Nah, I got this.” And he just loaded us down with shit to carry. Like it was one of those, the first events where like he just showed up with a truck full of stuff and you’re like, “What is happening right now? That’s a lot of stuff.” And then yeah, it was 10 miles of Indian sprints.

Brian: That’s brutal.

Kling: Yeah, I had friends that came with me that actually never did an event again. They were like, “Nope, that’s cool. I got my one patch and I’m done.” It was just crazy man because even … It was to the point like I had … That was my third event. So like I knew kind of what was going on by now. And I was even to the point of like, “God damn, like are we still doing this?” Turns out that when he had like looked on the map, he didn’t realize how far out the starting point was, from the one part that he wanted to everybody to meet at, to the one we were going to. So he actually adjusted it for the next class and brought them like five miles closer to it.
And when we met up with him the next night, we’re like, “Dude, what the hell? We were at the start point, there’s nothing there.” He goes, “Oh, yeah. So that was a rookie mistake. I shouldn’t have done that you guys. So I moved it for these guys.” And we’re like, “Dan, what the hell dude? That’s not cool. Like you fucked us man.” But looking back now, I mean that’s one of the things in the challenges that’s really cool about the cadre is … and you know this already, but the fact that they can adjust on the fly what needs to be done. Like if we’re taking too long or something and that was just a, it was a smart move to make because they would’ve just taken way too long. Plus, I didn’t have to carry half the stuff we did either. He really was just using this as guinea pigs.

Brian: And you got a good story out of it.

Kling: Yeah.

Brian: Probably didn’t feel so good at the time.

Kling: Man, sitting in that park. It was one of those, you know you’re not supposed to be in there after dark. And so we’re doing all this PT stuff and the ground’s frozen. There’s icicles on the grass and there’s a bunch of people from my gym. And like it was one of those, all of us were like, I’ll never forget that sunrise in that park. Just watching the sun finally creep up over the Atlanta skyline.

Brian: Such a good feeling.

Kling: Ah, man. Dude sunrise is the best, isn’t it?

Brian: Yeah, it’s probably one of best beers you ever had at the end of that event too.

Kling: Yeah, that was a good one. That was definitely a good one. I remember … Yeah, Selection was sunrise. Dude, I was just sitting there, after that first night, just looking, there’s still a couple of us left. And I remember just looking at the sun, just like trying to will it to move up. Like please, hurry up. Hurry up, I’m so cold and miserable right now. Like if I can just get some sunshine on my face, I’ll be happier.

Brian: Yeah, that sun’s a game changer.

Kling: Ah, for sure.

Brian: So speaking about Selection, how did you first hear about Selection and what made you want to sign up for it?

Kling: I actually knew some of the guys that were doing the Selection screener because one of the guys, Carey was up, near Atlanta. And then Christian was doing it, and then a couple … I knew a couple of the people that were doing it, but for some reason like I hadn’t been training a lot or a think I traveled. I went up and did a workout at their CrossFit gym, up near Atlanta. And we were talking about it, and I was like, “Nah, you know I’m not physically ready.” It was like in a week. And they’re like, “Yeah, man. You know just email headquarters. I’m sure they’ll let you come down,” because you had to … for the screener you had to apply for it.

Brian: Yep.

Kling: And I was like, “No, I … There’s no way I can train in a week to get ready for this 48 hour event that I have no, that I know nothing about.” And then afterwards, you heard about the people that passed and the people that didn’t a little bit, but they wouldn’t say anything, except for you know sign up and do it. So I was like, “All right, I’ll give it a try.” I was never one of the people that did the back-to-back challenges. Like I would do a challenge and legitimately be tired. I never understood, how somebody could do a 12 hour, 13 hour event and then pop back up, and want to go do it again. And I’m not trying to like say anything bad about anybody sandbagging or anything, but I just never had the drive. I get done with one event, I was like, “Fuck yeah, man. I’m done.”
That’s how Selection came about, was all those people talking trash on the Tough page, like, “Oh, I’ve done so many back-to-back events. I’m awesome.” I was never one of those people. I was like nope, I did my 12 hours, I am good. So I don’t know why I did it, looking back, but I guess it was like I done … I think at that point, I had done three challenges. And then I did a fourth one, right before or you know a little bit before Selection, during my training for it. But I guess it was one of those like, well I’ve done two events with Dan and he didn’t kill me. I did an event with Cadre Patrick, who Darth Vader has nightmares about, and he didn’t kill me. So let’s see what’s going to make me quit. And so I signed up for it.

Brian: Back then, I mean I think we mentioned it, it was just the GORUCK challenge. There was one event-

Kling: Yep.

Brian: And I think the Screener came out even before Heavy did.

Kling: It did.

Brian: So you had the options of the GORUCK challenge or you had Selection. Those were the only two ways-

Kling: That was it. Yeah-

Brian: Yeah, that was it. So there was no Heavy, no HTL, HCL. No other way to test yourself. You’ve done the challenge, the only other thing you can do is Selection.

Kling: Correct. Yeah, man. Because I remember after I did it, and they had come out with the Heavy, I remember thinking like, would I have done a Heavy first, just to see what I could do for 24 hours? And I wonder how that would’ve affected my thoughts on it, but kind of glad they didn’t. It was just, you know screw it. If you’re going to go hard, go hard.

Brian: Yeah, and it was interesting back then because it was shrouded in so much mystery. Like no one knew what was going on-

Kling: Super secret. Yeah. Now they’ve got the Outside TV did a special on it. And you know they do all the Facebook Live videos for it. Like hell, everybody knows what it’s going to be for the most part.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah, it was different.

Kling: It’s still fun.

Brian: Yeah, it’s definitely still fun. It was just different back then. I think that’s why a lot of people signed up for it. There was nothing coming out, after the events of what happened. So if you wanted to know what happened at Selection, you had to be there.

Kling: Yeah, exactly.

Brian: And I think the people who are curious enough to want to, you know really know what happens there, are the same people who would sign up anyways so.

Kling: True. They’re the ones that are like, “Yeah, screw it. Let’s go give it a try.”

Brian: Yeah, why not? I don’t need this weekend.

Kling: Yeah (laughs).

Brian: So leading into the event, was there any time, you know going weeks up into the event, where you were thinking, “Man, I really shouldn’t have signed up for this?”

Kling: I don’t remember thinking that. For me it was a lot of mental training because I knew I never done anything that hard. And I don’t know if this was an intentional part of my training, but it was. It was just a mental thing like, first thing every morning … So quick step back. I bartend, and as such, like there aren’t many grooming or you know the grooming requirements are a little looser for like facial hair. So I can grow a beard when I want to, when I’m bartending because that’s all I do. So anytime I would get ready for a Tough Mudder or a GORUCK challenge or something, I would always start growing my beard out. And we jokingly called it, “my tactical beard.” You know totally as a joke.
So one of the things I did to get ready, I was … and it was, started off as a joke too was, I was like, if I’m gonna do the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I’m gonna have to grow the biggest beard I’ve ever had. And so like I grew out a beard for the five months of training. And when I showed up, I had this big scraggly beard, but because of that, you know you wake up, brush your teeth … I’d look in the mirror and there’s my face with this beard that I normally don’t have. And I was like, “All right, you got a fucking thing coming up. You got to train for it. So today is your day to train and every day.” And I’d go to bed, brush my teeth, and look at myself like, “All right, you got a thing coming up.” And so it was always, every time I looked in the mirror, there’s that visual reminder of … Hey, you’re doing something. You need to focus on it. And so that really kept me mentally focused.

Brian: That’s smart. That makes a lot of sense. I saw the pictures of you in a, the GORUCK blog Selection 002 post, and that’s quite the beard.

Kling: Yeah (laughs). One of the ladies, that I work with at a different place. When I was at the Ronald McDonald House, she would always give me a little bit of hell for it. She’s like, “You look like you live under a bridge. You need to go shave that thing.” And looking back at it now, it was pretty rough-looking.

Brian: It was, but the event’s rough so. I think it works out.

Kling: Yeah, and it helped. The whole mental focus, I think a lot of people put too much on just the physical and they don’t mentally prepare themselves, for what it is they’re getting into. Like this isn’t just a double heavy. This is 48 hours of the cadre, as a pack of wolves, doing anything they can to get in your head and crush your spirit to make you quit.

Brian: Yeah, and it makes sense. I mean for a number of reasons. So I can’t … I don’t know if GORUCK still does it, but back when you completed Selection, there was the Selection bonus, right? Where if you completed Selection during your year, then you got free entry into a number of events for the rest of your life?

Kling: They haven’t told me, no yet. And I’m not gonna ask them about it, as long as they keep letting me show up at places and do challenges and lights and stuff like that. But yeah, the Selection Sweetner, the bonus was really nice.

Brian: That was it, Selection Sweetner. And so I mean not only the cadre, you know grilling you and that’s their job, but GORUCK’s got some money riding on this. For everyone who finishes, they’re basically promising unlimited events, or at least at the time, for the rest of your life so. If that’s not motivation to try and make everyone quit-

Kling: Yeah, for sure. I mean that was a big thing for them, because especially when you look at events like you know Ascent or Beached or Trek or Navigator, none of those events were cheap.

Brian: No, they were all like 1,000 bucks.

Kling: For what they are, they’re a good deal. But yeah, they were … Yeah, they’re definitely up there.

Brian: Especially back in, whenever this was 2013-

Kling: Yeah-

Brian: 2012, 2013 when the prices were different than they are now. And they were quite a bit higher, I believe.

Kling: I think so too. Yeah, I think they were … Especially yeah, Beached and stuff. I was really looking forward to Beached, but it was, I think two weeks after Selection. And there was just no way I was going to be able to do that. So that’s when Beached was in the Keys at the Special Forces dive school.

Brian: Yeah, it was different back then. So you’ve got this beard. You’re reminding yourself every day that you’ve got this event coming up. It’s finally time, so where was your GORUCK Selection at?

Kling: I was in Jacksonville Beach.

Brian: That’s what it looked like from the pictures, Jacksonville Beach. So you’re traveling out there. You’re bringing all your gear with you. What was it like at the start?

Kling: Well thing is, I read the website wrong and I thought it started Friday morning and not Thursday night. It was a little hectic for me. Because I thought that I had plenty of time because thankfully, I live within driving distance. I live in Macon, Georgia, so it’s not far away. But I was actually texting some of the other people that were down there, and I was telling them what my day was going to be. And she goes, “Are you gonna make it here on time?” And I was like, “Yeah, no big deal.” And then I was like, “Wait. Oh, shit. What do you mean am I gonna make it?” And I pulled up my phone and pulled up the website and I was like, “Oh my god. It starts today.” And (laughs) yeah.

Brian: (laughs). Oh.

Kling: I was like shit, this is not good. I thought I was going to have time to get down to Jacksonville. Like I just tossed my stuff in my bags and was going to get down to Jacks, have a good dinner, get a good night sleep, repack all my stuff so it was spot on and perfect, and all those plans went straight out the window. I just … I got on the gas, I called in a favor to let them know that I was on the way, that I was running late. I was flying down I-75 South. I had eye contact with a Georgia state trooper. And I don’t know how or why he did not pull me over.
But dude, the travel gods or somebody was on my side that day. And yeah, like I brought some snacks with me, but it was just like, oh, I had some carrots left over in the fridge. And I was like, I’m going to be gone for the weekend, I’ll take them with me. So I’m eating everything that I can find in my truck that would give me any kind of, you know anything. So I was like, shit, I’m not going to have time for dinner. I’m not gonna have time for anything. I was like, how did I mess up this bad?

Brian: And that’s such a mental disaster too.

Kling: Oh yeah, dude. Yeah, I was stressed the whole drive down there.

Brian: So what time did you get down there?

Kling: Right at the start. I got there and everybody else had finished weighing their bags. I was like, I parked my car and the guy goes, “Are you here for Selection?” I was like, “Yeah.” I don’t even remember who it was. He goes, “It’s over there.” And grabbed my shit and ran over and they were like, “Give us your food. Weigh your ruck. Go get in the water.” So like I was skin of my teeth, made it.

Brian: That is … That’s insane.

Kling: Yeah (laughs). Talk about being stressed and showing up to an event and just … Yeah.

Brian: Well it’s quite the start. I mean I guess it’s a good thing that they dump all your shit out and make you repack it like six times-

Kling: Right?

Brian: Because all of your stuff was a mess to begin with.

Kling: It definitely wasn’t how I wanted to start the event. You know relatively empty stomach. Not enough sleep. Not packed correctly, but I don’t know man, it worked out.

Brian: And you finished. Incredibly non-ideal situations like, literally the worst situations starting this event. Short of like forgetting your ruck at home.

Kling: I couldn’t think of it being much worse, you’re right. Except for forgetting your ruck, but yeah, somehow it worked.

Brian: Ah, it’s wild.

Kling: I don’t … If anybody’s listening to this, don’t do what I did, all right? Get sleep, get dinner, don’t show up late.

Brian: Double check the start time. Maybe triple check it who knows?

Kling: Yeah, for sure. Man, there was that one guy that showed up for one of the Selections in Jacksonville, we called him Jesus. He like bicycles down the coast from New York and went to headquarters I think, didn’t come to the start point, was just hanging out at headquarters. And then I guess realized that nobody was there, that he might be in the wrong place. And in fact, like looked it up online and found out where he was supposed to be. Don’t do that either. Don’t bicycle down the East Coast to come to your event. That was terrible idea.

Brian: I can’t even imagine. Your legs would be smoked. It’s not like there’s any-

Kling: Right?

Brian: Walking in Selection. You don’t really ruck during that event, do you?

Kling: No, not at all. There’s no long walks or anything like that.

Brian: Goodness.

Kling: Yeah.

Brian: So your event, you were the only person left … was it after 24 hours, just about?

Kling: Roughly, yeah. Yeah, about 24 hours. I don’t know the exact time, but I know that it was night time.

Brian: So before the second sunrise.

Kling: Oh yeah, way before. It was right after sunset, I think. I know it was dark when the last person dropped because it’s … I mean I remember being confused as to where he went and then there’s that video that GORUCK has that shows Cadre Chris being like, “What is that?” And I’m so confused, because I’m like, “Where the hell did this dude just go? Like I thought we were good to go on this.” And then he’s gone.

Brian: That’s a good video. I’m gonna link it from the page, so everyone can see it, but it’s … That’s classic GORUCK footage, right there.

Kling: Yeah, I am so out of it too. I look back and I’m like, good God, look at me, I look terrible.

Brian: So looking back … I’m watching that video. Do you remember that happening? Or were you in kind of a daze at that point?

Kling: I remember it, but I was also, you know there’s so much going on. And it’s such a, just such a extreme event where I don’t … there’s a lot of things I don’t remember from it. There’s quite a few I do, but yeah, I remember that. We had paddled a leaking zodiac through the Intercoastal’s and made our time hack by seconds to get back to where we were supposed to be. And then they did the Midway AARs with us. And then we were rucking back to the beach and that’s when there were three of us left.
And like I remember Cadre Garrett was trucking in front of us, because he’s a madman and he was doing it barefoot. He’s like way in front of us. And we’re struggling to keep up with him, but you know there were three of us left and I remember that three people passed the DC Selection. That was a month before mine. And I was like, “Guys, there’s three of us left. We can do this.” We all were in high spirits at that point. And like yeah, we can do this. We’ve only got another … You know half of it is almost done. We’re almost good. But you know, plans and reality are two totally different things.

Brian: Absolutely.

Kling: So it sucks. I was looking forward to finishing with the two guys. I mean I know it’s not a team event. And we knew it wasn’t a team event and we weren’t going to do anything like it was a team event, but still just to have somebody else there with you-

Brian: Just to draw eyes, right?

Kling: Well that and maybe just the fact that they’re suffering with you. I guess at that point, it was more so just that. Like hey, I’ve got … Even though we can’t talk, there’s a little bit of camaraderie there. But I guess I didn’t realize that it would’ve also been beneficial to have somebody else there, taking some attention off of me.

Brian: Yeah, you know you can look over at them and say, “Hey someone else is doing this. So if they can do it, obviously I can do it too.”

Kling: Exactly.

Brian: When you’re the only one left, it’s all in your head.

Kling: (laughs) Yeah, for sure.

Brian: Is there anything else, you know memorable from the first half that you want to toss out there? I mean the leaky zo- How did that happen? Did they give you a leaky zodiac and tell you to paddle?

Kling: I guess they didn’t expect for there to only be three of us left at this point, because we’re with Cadre Carlos and we were somewhere in the Intercoastal’s and we had to take a zodiac and carry it, just the three of us, and our rucks and Carlos’ ruck. Carry it from the trailer, down the trail, into the water, and then paddle it. And so we’re like, “All right, cool. You know it’s no big deal.” And then we found out almost immediately, “Oh shit, this thing’s leaking. Like come on man.” So two of us would paddle and one person would bail water. And it was just kind of how we did it. And nobody knew where we were going because none of us lived there. So we had to rely on the cadre and then the cadre got us to one bridge. And he’s like, “Oh hey, this isn’t the bridge, it’s the other bridge.”
And so of course we went 180° the wrong way. And so I had to paddle back to the other bridge and then get out. Yeah, that was … I was like come on, man. Like nothing, obviously nothing’s easy at Selection, but a leaking zodiac? That just sucked.

Brian: That’s wild. And you have to wonder if they, you know poked a nice hole in it for you in advance.

Kling: Yeah, you know I wonder if it was that way or like maybe it got a leak and they’re like ah, screw it. Don’t patch it till after the event. Or if they even knew, I don’t know.

Brian: That’s wild.

Kling: Yeah, I think I was thinking it was other things at that point. Not exactly wild, but-

Brian: It’s pretty jacked up.

Kling: Yeah, right?

Brian: So second half of the event, you’re the only one left. I mean that’s got to be something. Was it tough staying relatively sane throughout? I mean I’m guessing your mind’s playing tricks on you.

Kling: Yeah, it’s definitely mentally tough being the only person. I can only imagine what it was like for Paige, when Paige did her Selection, I think everybody else quit before the 24 hour mark. I think she was by herself for 30 hours. So she’s tough as anything. She’s awesome too. But yeah man, it’s tough being by yourself. And you know the cadre aren’t there to entertain you, they’re just there to give you directions. So there’s no one to talk to. There’s nothing really positive going on in your life at that point. You just got to do this, all the work, and nothing you do is good enough. So there’s … It’s yeah, it just sucks. You know nothing’s good enough. You’re not fast enough. You’re by yourself.

Brian: I mean your body’s in a state of decay at this point.

Kling: Ah, dude. I lost 10 pounds in 48 hours.

Brian: So not only are you disappointing the cadre … Well they’re probably not truly disappointing you, but they’re telling you that they’re incredibly disappointed in all of your actions.

Kling: Exactly.

Brian: But every single thing you’re doing with your body is suboptimal compared to what you would normally do during a workout. So the amount your, you know your ruck, pushing it over your head is way harder. You can get way less reps. Push-ups are probably near impossible. So just that whole mental thing like I can’t even do this and I normally can, that’s got to be tough.

Kling: Plus, you’re coated in sand because it’s Jacksonville Beach. And you just been rolling around, you’re in and out of the water, you’re coated in sand.

Brian: That’s a real beach too.

Kling: Dude, I got out of there and I kept finding sand on my body. I don’t know how many days after the event. I was like, I’ve taken multiple showers every day and I’m still finding sand. Like where is this coming from? Yeah, that sand was no fun.

Brian: So was there ever a point in the event when you didn’t think you were gonna make it?

Kling: There were many points during the event where I wanted to stop, but I knew that I couldn’t. Like I just, I wasn’t allowed to quit. One of the times, I was doing a … I was supposed to be running down the beach. It was just one of those, “Hey, run down the beach, report to cadre. Don’t go in the water. Don’t go off the berm. Don’t do anything.” Middle of the night, I have no idea what’s going on. I just know that I’m supposed to run and like I just kept going and I’d fallen sleep while walking. I had turned 90° and I don’t even remember how far I walked, but I was getting close to the water. And when I snapped open my eyes and I was like … Oh, shit. What is going on right now? And it’s just like, all right, got to keep going. So I turned right and headed back down the beach to wherever the cadre was supposed to be and just kept going.

Brian: That’s insane.

Kling: Yeah, I mean it’s those times where you’re like, I don’t want to say you doubt yourself, but you’re like, dude like what am I even doing right now?

Brian: No kidding. On the flip-side, was there a point during the event when you knew that you were going to finish?

Kling: Yes, and I was wrong. I was so wrong. It was so disappointing because I built it up in my head. It was towards the end of the long walk and we’re heading back down, I guess it was Atlantic Beach, heading towards Jacksonville Beach. And you know I’ve been rucking for 40-something hours. And the sun’s starting to go down and it’s starting to get late in the day. And then all the way down the beach, I see like five dudes. And they’re holding paddles and they’re like in a line facing me, and I was like, “Oh, yes. It’s almost over. I’m gonna get to have food and I’m gonna get to have a beer. Ah, I can’t wait.” Like and all I would fantasize about for the rest of the walking down the beach was just getting dinner and having a beer. And I was like … Yes, finally. It’s over with. I was wrong.

Brian: That was not the end?

Kling: That was nothing close to the end. That’s when they just took turns beating the brakes off of me.

Brian: Oh, that’s gotta be just a mental catastrophe.

Kling: Horribly … Horribly demoralizing.

Brian: So what were your thoughts during that? I’m guessing it was a ton of PT.

Kling: Oh yeah, it was … They would take turns like five minutes at a time. Like during Selection they would sometimes be with you for an hour or two at a time doing whatever evolution they wanted you to do. But they would just five minutes of this, and then the next guy would come in and start screaming at you from the other side. And you’re like, oh shit, what’s going on now? And then you got to start listening to him. And then he has you do something completely different. And Jason even jumped in. And then God, if anybody’s ever done an event with Jason, you know how much of a madman he is.

Brian: The guy’s crazy.

Kling: Just insane. Lou was there. Jason was there. Garrett was there. Dan. Dan had been with me, I think for the whole second 24 hours. It was-

Brian: That’s nuts.

Kling: Yeah, it was just insane.

Brian: So how did it end?

Kling: I was low crawling and they were like, “Low crawl this way. Low crawl this way. Follow my voice. Get your face in the sand,” kind of thing. And so I’m just low crawling with my ruck and then I knew where we were because I had seen the cadre, but at this point, I wasn’t sure where we were going or what was happening. And we crawled over the berm that takes you to the team house, low crawling, and then all of the sudden they’re like, “Come here. Congratulations.” And I was like, “Oh, shit. I’m done. This is great.” But I think they just … That last hour plus was so crazy for me that I just was like … Oh shit, man. I think I was just kind of out of it at that point.
You know I mean they, you know they took my ruck off me and they’re like, “Hey, cool. Congratulations. You finished.” There was a flag there. Other Selection finishers from the Screener and from Class 001 that were there and it was cool, like everybody’s happy. And I was like, “God, I just want a beer right now.” And then somebody handed me a beer and it wasn’t really cold and I was like, “Can I get a cold one?” And they still haven’t stopped giving me shit for that. Every opportunity they’re like, “Wait, Kling needs a beer. Make sure it’s cold.”

Brian: That’s awesome. So that was probably a good tasting beer.

Kling: Yeah, when I finally got a cold one it was. I was like damn dude. I nearly lost my life out there, just give me a cold beer.

Brian: So you finished GORUCK Selection. I’m guessing the recovery process and that was pretty brutal.

Kling: Yeah, I ate a lot and drank a lot for like the next week or two. And then the next week for sure, I just ate everything I could.

Brian: That’s what you got to do. You lost 10 pounds.

Kling: Yeah, I didn’t realize I lost so much weight either, but I definitely, definitely lost weight.

Brian: So if you had known everything that you had to do during this event, would you still signed up for it?

Kling: No, I don’t know man. It’s a good question. I think maybe so. Even if I had known, because at that point having done handful of challenges and a handful of other things. Like I wanted at that point, I was like, well what’s going to stop me? That’s why I signed up for it. So even knowing what it is now, I think I probably still would have back then.

Brian: So do you ever head down for the Selection events to hang out at the end?

Kling: Ah man, I tried to get to every one that I can. I was up in Ohio last year, that was a great one to be at. When it’s down in Jacksonville, I’ll take off that weekend from work and head down and hang out. And we kind of have like a little Selection reunion most of the time. Whoever can come to it, does. We’d hang out and we’ll drink a few beers and watch the shit show take place and-

Brian: So do you have any will to sign up for another one?

Kling: (laughs) No. No way. Even Dan, after that event goes, “You ever think about doing this again, you call me first.”

Brian: So is there anything else you want to talk about?

Kling: It was really good afterwards and somebody made me a bunch of brownies and whoever you are, thank you very much, because I will never forget those brownies either.

Brian: Whoever made the brownies, thank you.

Kling: Oh, for sure man. I got done and it was beer and brownies and beer and brownies. And then we grilled out and they made me a giant steak. Java was there, wanted some of it. And Jason was like, “Come over here.” It was a lot of fun man. Well looking back at it now, like being done with it. It was good. I’m glad I did it, but doing it again? Yeah, that’s … I don’t know about that. You got to have really strong reasons to do it, to begin with. Then you got to have really strong reasons to continue, to not quit. That’s the part that, I wonder if people have. Like I had … When I did it, and all those times where it got really dark and I had to go into my own head and give myself reasons not to quit. It was the reasons from home. It was the guys at my gym.
I trained at an MMA gym at the time or I still do, but at the time, our fighters had gone two years without losing and like I couldn’t just imagine the idea of going back. And they’d go, “All right, Kling, how was it? Did you pass?” And I’m like, “No, I got cold.” Like how do you go back to a gym full of winners and you’re not one? So I just … I can’t go home without this patch. Like I got to finish. I’m already here. Like if it was 24 plus hours where I was, how would I come back and do it again? That would suck because I mean I just wasted the last 24 hours. So I was like, I’m already invested this deep in it. I might as well and stay and just grid it out until the sun goes down again.

Brian: You know when you say it like that, any excuse to quit, sounds pretty bad.

Kling: Right? I invested five months of training. I had to change my whole life. I was a bartender. You know we like to go out, we like to drink, we like to have a good time. And I changed everything for that. Like I don’t understand how I would sign up again, change my life again, invest another five months or more of training to come back and have to do that again. Like I’m already there, I already took off work for the weekend.

Brian: You already paid the money.

Kling: Yeah, I’ve already given up enough. I’m not going to come back and have to do it again.

Brian: Makes sense.

Kling: So I just kept walking.

Brian: Good advice. So Selection’s coming up again in September.

Kling: People will be winding up their training. Yeah, they’ll have what? Maybe another week or so of training, lightish, nothing crazy. Taper down that last week, so you’re not abusing your body and you got time to be 100%.

Brian: So for anyone listening, who signed up for this coming Selection. Do you have any words of encouragement or thoughts for them?

Kling: It’s been really cool at some of the Selections, seeing people with my DFQ patches and at different events, I see them. And that’s it, man. Like Dan told me, because I was asking him for advice. And he gave me the whole knife-end, he’s like, “Just don’t fucking quit.” Those are easy words to say, but dude those resonated with me, like no other, when I was doing the event. Like that’s it, when it comes time and you think it’s, you’re down and you’re dirty and you’re miserable and you’re cold and you can’t get your ruck up anymore. The sun’s going to come up or go down, depending on what time it starts. The event’s going to end at some point, like nothing last forever. So as long as you don’t quit, you’re gonna be okay.

Brian: There you have it. Just don’t quit.

Kling: All those people are there for a reason. You don’t sign up for Selection without having some sort of reason, like a deep reason. You don’t just sign up for that as something to do that weekend. You like you got to find out what that reason is and keep it right there. Find your motivation and keep it. And just think about that, whatever it is. Whether it’s you, whether it’s your gym, whether it’s I didn’t want to come back to customers at my bar, because like I said, they ask me all the time, “Hey, what are you growing out your beard out for?” I didn’t want to come back and be like, “Ah man, I got you know tired. I was really tired, so I quit.” Like how do you come back and tell people that? You spent so much time and money. Like you’re invested in this one event. This is something serious. There’s no reason whatsoever to quit.

Brian: That’s powerful.

Kling: I hope that helps man. We’ll find out in three weeks.

Brian: Yeah, I hope for anyone listening, signed up for the event. I hope that helps.

Kling: Yeah, you’re a bunch of tough people. Whoever signs up for it man, you’re already tough to dive into something like this. So I just hope they remember how tough they really are. We always have high hopes for people. Like we don’t like it when there’s a black class, nobody does.

Brian: I’d imagine, the cadre did a ton of work, planning out 48 hours and for a number of those hours, not to be seen by anyone. It’s got to be a little disappointing.

Kling: Yeah, it definitely is.

Brian: Well thank you so much again, for taking the time to chat with me. I truly appreciate it.

Kling: My pleasure man. It was hopefully … Hopefully, people get something good out of it. And even if not, go drink a beer, enjoy your life.

Brian: Good advice. Even if you don’t enjoy this podcast. Drink a beer, enjoy your life. That’s Kling.

Kling: (laughs). Yes.

The post ADR 012: Eric Kling Interview (GORUCK Selection 002 Finisher) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 011: Kristie Iverson Interview (GORUCK Beached Core AAR)

Thu, 31 Aug 2017 14:00:32 +0000

In the eleventh episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am very excited to interview fellow GRT Kristie Iverson about her recently completed GORUCK Beached Core event. We talk about her first time shadowing a GORUCK event, her first GORUCK event, how she felt going into Beached Core, and what occurred at the event.

Kristie has done a ton of events including one previous GORUCK Beached event. After her first Beached she swore she would never do another one again…

… and here we are interviewing her after completing another one. If this is an event you are even remotely interested in then make sure to give this episode a listen. You won’t regret it!

Resources

We talked about a lot of stuff during this podcast and here are links to everything!

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 011: Kristie Iverson Interview (GORUCK Beached Core AAR) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 010: Danny Stokes Interview (Capital Ruck Tour & GORUCK Cadre)

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 14:30:46 +0000

In the tenth episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am very excited to interview GORUCK Cadre Danny Stokes who has run 150 events for the company. We discuss his 2017 Capital Ruck Tour and what it’s like to be on the Operation Enduring Warrior Masked Athlete Team.

We start with how Danny found out about GORUCK and what his first (and only) event as a participant was. He’s got great stories from the night that he shares in detail and they’re definitely worth listening to.

Then we dive into how the Capital Ruck Tour came about and what the goals are for that event. We finish up with potential plans for 2018 and what the future could hold for the events!

Corrections

The idea to turn Capital Ruck Tour into a charity event for Operation Enduring Warrior occurred between a conversation between Cadre Danny and Chavela Briones, owner of Fitlife Healthy Vending.

Resources

We talked about a lot of stuff during this podcast and here are links to everything!

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 010: Danny Stokes Interview (Capital Ruck Tour & GORUCK Cadre) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 009: Luke Cussen Interview (GORUCK Brat Event)

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 15:30:00 +0000

In the ninth episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am very excited to bring you an interview with fellow GRT Luke Cussen, whom you might know as Luke MC on Facebook. Luke is part of the Palm Beach Rucking Crew and was able to convince GORUCK to host a Brat event in Florida.

After the GORUCK Brat event he posted in the GORUCK Tough group about the experience. I reached out because I was curious how the event went and how he was able to get GORUCK to host one as there are none on the calendar at this point. We ended up chatting on the phone which turned into this episode!

A huge thank you to Luke for taking the time to chat and, more importantly, working to hard to make this event what it was.

Resources

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 009: Luke Cussen Interview (GORUCK Brat Event) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 008: Kit Klein Interview (GORUCK Firebase Program)

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 14:00:22 +0000

In the eighth episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am incredibly excited to bring you an interview with Kit Klein. Kit is currently the relationship manager (between GORUCK and their Firebases, Gyms, and Affiliates) for GORUCK and was part of GORUCK Class 003.

In this episode we focus on the benefits of being a GORUCK Firebase and what a ruck club can gain from that program. In addition we talk about Kit’s first GORUCK event and a bit on what it’s like to work at GORUCK.

Kit is one of the nicest guys around so if anything we talk about interested you then definitely reach out to him!

Show Notes

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for listening! If you’re interested in taking part in the “GRT Community AAR Podcasts” please drop us a line and let us know what events you’re interested in talking about. We’ll get them organized and start contacting people within a few weeks!

If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 008: Kit Klein Interview (GORUCK Firebase Program) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 007: John “Big Daddy” Croft Interview (GORUCK Senior Director Events)

Thu, 03 Aug 2017 14:00:01 +0000

In the seventh episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast I am incredibly excited to bring you an interview with John Croft aka Big Daddy aka BD. BD was the cadre for Heavy 009 which I took part in with him in Seattle. Since meeting him for the first time at that event I’ve tried my hardest to make it to any events he is the cadre for within driving distance.

In this episode we focus on GORUCK’s new Beached Core Beta event which launches on August 19th. We discuss what will happen at the event as well as how the event came about. It’s a great episode and one you will not want to miss if GORUCK events are something that interest you.

Show Notes

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 007: John “Big Daddy” Croft Interview (GORUCK Senior Director Events) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 006: Chris Way Interview (GORUCK Cadre & PACElid Founder)

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 14:00:03 +0000

In the sixth episode of the All Day Ruckoff podcast I am proud to bring an interview with GORUCK Cadre and founder of PACElid: Chris Way.

As a GORUCK Cadre Chris spends the majority of his time working in the Expeditions department as well as the newer Constellation event.

We start the podcast off hearing how Chris found GORUCK and what his first event was like. Then we move into how PACElid became what it is today and finish up talking about some of the GORUCK Expedition events.

For those who have never seen a PACE lid before the above two pictures are what we are talking about in the show. I do my best to describe it but, truthfully, nothing beats a picture.

Show Notes

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary: If you are confused about any of the terminology in the show you can look the meanings up here.
Tough Mudder
GORUCK
GORUCK Expeditions
GORUCK Constellation
PACE Lid (GORUCK)
PACE Lid (Official Site): Use the coupon from the podcast here
PACE Lid (Amazon)

YouTube

What’s Next

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 006: Chris Way Interview (GORUCK Cadre & PACElid Founder) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 005: Jack Barley & Kevin Dee Interview (EVERGOODS)

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:00:06 +0000

In the fifth episode of the All Day Ruckoff podcast I am proud to bring an interview with the founders of EVERGOODS: Jack Barley and Kevin Dee. These guys have been so busy with their insanely successful Kickstarter that I am honored they took so much time out of their day for this.

During the interview we learn how Jack and Kevin met, how EVERGOODS was formed, and what they have planned for their fledgling company. Jack and Kevin talk about the packs, what makes them special, and the aspects they like most about them.

If EVERGOODS is a company that you are interested in, or if you just want to hear one of the co-founders of GORUCK talk, then make sure to give this a listen. It’s always special to hear passionate people talk about their interests and these two guys are truly passionate.

Make sure to listen through to the end to learn how you can win a free entry into PATHFINDER Ruck Training class number 013!

Show Notes

Here are all of the links and notes from the episode:

YouTube

Contest Winner

The winner of the free entry into the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program Course #13 is comment #5 F3_Stallion! Thanks so much for the support everyone and check out our future podcasts for more chances to win!

What’s Next?

Thanks so much for listening to our fifth podcast! If you missed any of our earlier episodes you can give them a listen right now. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Did you enjoy the podcast? We’d love a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Didn’t enjoy it? Leave a comment here in the show notes and let us know what we can do better!

Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 005: Jack Barley & Kevin Dee Interview (EVERGOODS) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 004: GORUCK XMAS in July, GR3 Pre-Order, and EVERGOODS Kickstarter

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 16:55:18 +0000

Two podcasts in two days… what’s going on? So much has happened in the rucking community in the past week that I thought it was worth trying out a new format within the All Day Ruckoff podcast. This episode is your host (Brian) talking about time sensitive news in the community.

With all of the announcements and emails it can be tough to sift through and figure out what’s important and what can wait. The goal of this episode is to quickly get that information into your hands so you don’t miss out on anything.

The episode is less than 10 minutes long and parts of it are summarized below. We’ve got another giveaway for a PATHFINDER Ruck Training course in this episode as well so that’s some incentive to give it a listen :)

Show Notes

Here’s the math from the episode for the savings on the GORUCK GR3.

Product	Promo Price	Retail Price	Notes
GR3	$325	$425
MOLLE	$10	$10	Customization won’t be available on the general release GR3
Side Handles	$20	$20	Customization won’t be available on the general release GR3
First Run Tag	N/A	N/A	Won’t be on the general release GR3
Sternum Strap	$0	$9	Free bonus
GR3 Leather Patch	$0	~$10	Free bonus
GR3 Tough Bag	$49	$65
Total Price	$404	$539	25% Savings
Total Price (XMAS in July)	$354	$539	34.3% Savings

As you can see if the GORUCK GR3 is a pack that you want you should buy it before XMAS in July ends on 7/17/2017.

Here are the links for the items mentioned during the podcast:

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
GORUCK Christmas in July 2017 Ends 7/17/2017!
GR3 Pre-Order: Best deal if ordered by 7/17/2017
EVERGOODS Kickstarter: Best tiers selling out fast!

Edit: EVERGOODS has been kind enough to add more entry level tiers for the CPL24!

Listening to this podcast after 7/17/2017? Check out our posts on the GORUCK Christmas in July 2017 Sale and the announcement of the GORUCK GR3.

YouTube

Contest Winner

The winner of the free entry into the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program Course #13 is comment #1 khigbie! Thanks so much for the support everyone and check out our future podcasts for more chances to win!

What’s Next?

Feedback! I would love feedback on this podcast… more so even than the interview podcasts. If these stay in rotation there’s no way they’ll be weekly… more likely monthly or quarterly and only when necessary.

Reviews: If you enjoyed the podcast we would love if you would leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Didn’t enjoy the show? Let us know what we can do better and give us a chance to improve… we’re still getting the hang of this!

We’ve got an incredible interview in the works for next week’s podcast so make sure you subscribe so you won’t miss it! Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 004: GORUCK XMAS in July, GR3 Pre-Order, and EVERGOODS Kickstarter appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 003: GORUCK Founder Jason McCarthy (Q3 2017 Interview)

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 20:10:51 +0000

The third episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast features an interview with GORUCK founder and CEO Jason McCarthy!

We were lucky enough to grab nearly an hour of his time during one of the busiest months for GORUCK. We discuss a TON of different topics including:

Christmas in July
GORUCK GR3 Pre-Order
GORUCK Workshop
Operation Clearfield
Jason’s Summer Plans
Past Six Months
Constellation 24
Jason’s Next Event as Cadre
Jason’s Next Event as Participant
Spearhead Embroidery on Rucks
GR3 Configurations

Don’t worry fellow GRT… this is a no-nonsense interview and we don’t waste your time explaining what a GORUCK Light is or any of that other Basic GRT stuff.

The above picture is from when Jason and I hung out in 2013… which was two years after my first event and the first time we met. Time flies and it’s always great to connect and see how he’s doing. Our goal is to have Jason on the podcast a few times a year so we can pick his brain about GORUCK and their upcoming gear and events.

Want the opportunity to win a free entry into PATHFINDER Ruck Training Class 13? Give the podcast a listen, follow the directions, and we’ll choose a winner on 7/20/2017!

Show Notes

Here are the links that we mentioned during the episode:

YouTube

Contest Winner

The winner of the free entry into the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program Course #13 is comment #7 TAGG! Thanks so much for the support everyone and check out our future podcasts for more chances to win!

What’s Next?

Thanks so much for listening to our third podcast! If you missed the first or second you can give them a listen right now. We already have guests lined up through (almost) the end of the year and are getting more excited after each podcast is released. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 003: GORUCK Founder Jason McCarthy (Q3 2017 Interview) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 002: Lyell Petersen Interview (PATHFINDER Ruck Training)

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:25:47 +0000

We’re here with the second episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast! In this episode we interview Lyell Petersen who operates the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program. PATHERFINDER is one of THE most popular ruck training programs out there and one we’ve registered for (and paid for) multiple times. We are so happy to be able to have Lyell here for episode number two because he is doing some awesome things with PATHFINDER and we love supporting him.

Throughout the podcast Lyell discusses his first GORUCK event (dubbed SNOWRUCK) and dives into the interstices of the PATHFINDER program. After listening to this podcast you’ll know exactly what you get when you register for a PATHFINDER Ruck Training program and how you can get the absolute most out of it. In addition you’ll learn more about the guy behind the program and why he loves it so much.

As we mentioned in the podcast we’ve got an awesome discount for you if you want to register for either the Forward or Endure PATHFINDER Ruck Training programs. Use the code 013ADR to get 20% off of your registration for class 013!

Want the opportunity to win a free entry into the upcoming event? Give the podcast a listen, follow the directions, and we’ll choose a winner on 7/13/2017!

Show Notes

Here are the links that we mentioned during the episode:

GORUCK & Rucking Glossary
PATHFINDER Ruck Training Website (Current Discount Code: 013ADR)
GORUCK
GORUCK Light
GORUCK Tough
GORUCK Heavy
PATHFINDER Facebook
PATHFINDER Instagram

YouTube

Contest Winner

The winner of the free entry into the PATHFINDER Ruck Training Program Course #13 is comment #9 Victor Barczyk! Thanks so much for the support everyone and check out our future podcasts for more chances to win!

What’s Next?

Thanks so much for listening to our second podcast! If you missed the first you can give it a listen right now. We already have guests lined up through (almost) the end of the year and are getting more excited after each podcast is released. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is very new to us so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 002: Lyell Petersen Interview (PATHFINDER Ruck Training) appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.

ADR 001: RuckFit Elite: Operation Summer Siege

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 13:49:37 +0000

When we sent out the June newsletter we said there were going to be some exciting projects for the coming months. This is one of those exciting projects… we are very excited to introduce the All Day Ruckoff Podcast.

In the first episode of the All Day Ruckoff Podcast Brian interviews Jason Galindo (Old Line Co-Owner) and Justin Nickel (RuckFit Director) from Old Line CrossFit. Why Old Line CrossFit? Old Line has an awesome RuckFit program which features 90 (ish) minute team-based ruck workouts.

In addition Old Line and RuckFit are very active in furthering the rucking community. They have started their own ruck event series which is why we wanted to reach out to them for an interview.

It’s not every day you see new ruck event organizers show up to the scene so we wanted to take this opportunity to see how they were doing and what they were planning.

In this episode the topics we cover include their first GORUCK event, their RuckFit program, and their upcoming 8 – 10 hour ruck event called RuckFit Elite: Operation Summer Siege. Give it a listen and let us know what you think in the comments!

Show Notes

Here are of the links that we mentioned during the episode:

YouTube

What’s Next?

We already have guests lined up through (almost) the end of the year. Hopefully you enjoyed the podcast and are excited about the next one. This is our first jump into this area so we would appreciate it if you would cut us some slack as we work on perfecting our methodologies. Thanks so much for the support and make sure to check out the links in the Show Notes. Subscribe through iTunes, Android, Google Music, Stitcher, or TuneIn and never miss another episode!

The post ADR 001: RuckFit Elite: Operation Summer Siege appeared first on All Day Ruckoff.