GORUCK KILL THAT 5K RUCK RACE REPORT NYC

GORUCK KILL THAT 5K RUCK RACE REPORT - RANDALL'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY

Do you love America? Mom? Apple pie? $1 beers? If you just screamed out "yes I do" then GORUCK is for you!  The 'GORUCK Kill That 5K Ruck Race' is good family fun and entertainment for everyone. Not only are kids and dogs warmly welcomed, but they are encouraged.  Tom participated in a GORUCK Light event back in the early days, when it was more...intense, for a lack of better words.  But explaining the concept of GORUCK is a bit challenging.  I would say you're probably better off visiting their website (before I screw the whole thing up) but eh what the hell, I'll give it a try:

THE HISTORY OF GORUCK AND HOW IT WAS STARTED:
First of all, GORUCK has a cult following all it's own.  I mean they even call it GORUCK Nation. Now, what is it? Well, it was founded in 2008 by Jason McCarthy, a recently retired U.S. Army Green Beret.  The word "ruck" is short for rucksack or backpack.  EVERYTHING you do in GORUCK involves the use of a weighted rucksack.

GORUCK is actually a company that manufactures military-grade rucksacks, designed by Jason to be an improvement on some of the equipment he was issued in the Army.  As a way of testing the durability, Jason initially made contact with the Tough Mudder people and he, along with a few of his Green Beret friends, participated in the very first Tough Mudder event, all the while wearing their GORUCK GR1 rucksacks.  As fate would have it, this turned out to be extremely popular and civilians began clamoring to participate as part of the GORUCK team.  This opened another door in which Jason and his friends developed a series of their own "GORUCK Challenges", endurance challenges which have become wildly popular in the OCR community.  There are presently a variety of GORUCK challenges and events held throughout the United States, with some even held in Europe and Asia.  All are lead by at least one active-duty or retired Special Operations cadre, representing units such as the Green Berets, SEALs, USMC MARSOC and Force Recon, and USAF combat controllers.  There's even a cadre who's a retired Israeli commando.  They will put you through your paces and, over the hours, build a cohesive, well-functioning team from the group of strangers who begin each event.  And you don't get a flunky finishers medal, instead you receive an embroidered patch, handed to you personally by a certified badass Spec Ops cadre who congratulates you on your accomplishment.  Ultimately, the main goal of GORUCK is to "bridge the gap" between the military and civilian worlds and give civilians a small taste of what the military lifestyle can be like.  If you think you're up to the challenge, I highly recommend you checking them out.

Ok, so now that you still don't understand our fascination with GORUCK, let me move on.  Saturdays race turned out to be a last minute decision. Originally, we signed up for the race months ago, but with Tommy's recent diagnosis we weren't sure if he should even attempt it.  But then Caitlin came downstairs all ready to go, so we packed our rucks and headed out the door to Randall's Island.  Tommy and I were signed up under the "competitive age groupers" while Caitlin was signed up for the "fun run".  When we arrived at the race, Tommy and I requested to switch from "competitive" to "fun run". and our request was easily granted.

Females racing under the "competitive" category had to carry 20 lbs of weight in their rucksack.  "Competitive" males had to carry 30 lbs and anyone in the "elite" category had to carry 45 lbs (this included both men and women).  A weigh-in station was set up where the competitive folks were required to have their rucksacks weighed. If you didn't meet the weight requirement, you either had to find something extra to put in your rucksack or you couldn't compete.  It was as simple as that.  Most folks came prepared and carried either bricks, a bag of sand or steel plates to meet their weight requirement.  A small handful of folk had to scour the parking lot for rocks (I kid you not). Even the "fun run" participants were required to carry a minimal amount of weight in their rucksacks.  Tom and I opted for bricks.

The course was an out and back course in 95 degree heat.  I knew it was going to be challenging for Tom.  While we waited for the race to start we struck up a conversation with a wonderful gentleman.  He was telling us about his cancer diagnosis 5 years ago and how radiation gave him strange tingling sensations, even 5 years later.  We were so shocked to hear this because Tommy had just started experienced those same sensations, only we didn't realize it was linked it to the radiation treatments.  Now it made sense. We told him Tommy's story and you could see he genuinely took heart with our situation.

It was 4:30 pm and the race was about to begin.  The elite group lined up first, followed by the competitive men, followed by the competitive women, followed by the "fun run" crew.  Each wave before us took off and then it was our turn to go.

The horn blew and a large group of us began our journey.  A few yards out we passed a group of folks enjoying a picnic and barbeque.  At first they thought we were weird but then they decided to cheer us on.  Several participants carried American flags which is common for a GORUCK event.  The group began to thin out a bit but we all continued to march along.  We walked along the waters edge and enjoyed the cool breeze and Manhattan skyline.  Smart folks (like us) brought their own bottles of water.  But a lot of people relied on water stations that they expected to be set up on the course.  This was kind of dumb considering there was only 1 water station set up on the entire route, and it was after the turn around point at the half way mark.

We made our way out, turned around and simply headed back.  At one point Tommy was rucking by himself at a good pace while Caitlin and I fell a bit behind.  I figured he may want some personal space to himself, so I just let him go.  After the turn around point he stopped and waited for us and we continued our journey back together.  We chit chatted with the other participants and we chit chatted with each other.  I wanted to get photos along the way since this was Tommy's first 5k race since his diagnosis.  It was fun, it was casual, it was challenging in the heat, but I was so glad we did it.

As we approached the finish line Caitlin and I ran a little ahead of Tommy. I wanted to video tape him coming across the finish line.  Since it's our belief that you should always try to run across the finish line, Tommy remained true to that belief.  After he crossed and received his patch, we noticed the gentleman (whom we were talking with earlier) standing there waiting for him.  He approached Tommy and gave him a big brotherly hug and wished him all the best. It was simply touching.

The food line was long and the beer line was even longer. We each had one coupon for a free beer however we opted for food instead. After your first free beer, remaining beers cost $1 until they ran out.  We got a couple of hot dogs, relaxed with everyone else and then headed home when we were ready. It wasn't the most eventful 5k I've ever done, but to see Tommy back to his old self for a little while, doing what he loves to do made the entire experience well worth it. Plus, all of the GORUCK folks are really, really nice and that makes the experience even better.  So get out there and KILL THAT 5K...GORUCK style!