This past weekend I decided it was a great idea to sign up for another event through GoRuck. In case you aren’t familiar with GoRuck they were founded by a retired Green Beret who wanted a way to test the gear he was making and selling. These events have since expanded to a very extensive team building and fitness event. The event this past weekend was located in Columbus, OH and was hosted by four Cadre, each from a different branch of military Special Ops. It is truly amazing what each cadre brought to the table as they shared a sliver of their experiences and expertise.
The event was, so far, the hardest physical event I have done in my life. The outcome and what I carried with me from the event was worth every bit of the pain. While most that are on the outside looking in may think this is purely a physical exercise, it is much more than that. These events not only help you to test yourself physically but mentally as well. They are designed to get everyone out of their comfort zone and teach each participant that while one person may be able to complete all the tasks, it only matters if everyone completes them together. So they also teach an incredible amount of team building.
The event I took part in I only knew one other person there, I came away knowing roughly 32 people and having a better understanding of what it takes to make sure everyone has the same goal in their mind and that everyone knows what needs to be done to get to that goal.
The best part of all is this event was only the LIGHT version. It was like the sampler of what their main events are. The biggest reward of everything that happened that day is the fact that there were 72 people from all walks of life that got together in a park and everyone walked away a better person. GoRuck prides itself in building better people and so far, I haven’t seen anything but 100% delivery on that.
Whether, you are doing a burpee in a mud pit. (see below)
Or trying to make it through a seemingly endless leg lift with a ruck on, the only thing you have to worry about is making sure that you keep the person next to you going because they will in turn do the same. You’ll be impressed with what you can do when you get rid of the “can’t and won’t” from your vocabulary and learn to ask for help, you can and will achieve the impossible.
As for me, an event like this allows me to refocus and makes me see the forest through the trees of day to day life.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager / GoRuck “Weirdo”
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF