Note: No toenails were harmed in the making of this post

I did my fourth GORUCK Challenge (3rd this year) and didn’t lose a toe nail for the first time. I mean, I only have three remaining in original condition as it is but it’s progress and I’ll take the small victories while I can. Up next on the event schedule is Trek in Florida and I’m following that up with another Heavy because I am seriously stupid blah blah blah. I just like this shit. I mean, the before and after and camaraderie…not so much the during.

This was a fun and definitely “arduous” class like Cadre Rich said. I’d compare it to 766 because that was just a week ago but truth is, I don’t remember much from that one and while we’re being truthful, you can’t really compare two classes. Some are more challenging, some go farther and some just lift heavy shit forever but they all suck and are incredibly awesome. We started out with a lovely, moving Welcome Party, had lots of people get killed off and basically we carried two rucks for the entirety of the Challenge.

Going into this I had no plans except to “sell out” every task we were given. I don’t remember where I read stole that from but I took that to heart after needing a redo of 766. I don’t know if I gave enough since I ran a 5k today but I definitely lifted a bunch of shit as requested. Except for buddy carries. I’ll be damned if I could buddy carry most of those guys. 180/190 seems to be my upper limit (sorry Thomas) but I did resolve (stupidly) to carry the team weight from one rest break to another and that was a terrible decision. It ended up being 2.3-2.4 slow miles. I also decided to try straight water (well, 3 beers were had) for the entirety of the event and only came close to cramping when doing our 343 flutter kicks.

Today’s lessons:

1) You can carry more than you want, farther than you want, and (definitely) longer than you want when your friends are suffering (especially when you’re suffering).

2) I will wear short shorts forever.