I May Be Crazy

I have previously written about having finished a GORUCK Challenge. I have also finished three GORUCK Lights, the first in Washington, DC; the second here in Charlottesville; and the third at Massanutten, the ski resort at which GORUCK will stage something called The Nasty in September. Yeah, I'm signed up for that. It's not a race. It will be a challenge to see what I can do, though I won't be doing it alone; I'll be with the sons and younger son's girlfriend. I'm not embarrassed to say that she and I will only do this if the men with us help.

All that aside, I have begun to contemplate doing a different kind of GORUCK challenge. In both March and May of 2014, there will be a GORUCK Challenge here start starts at 9:00 p.m on a Friday, meaning it will end sometime around 9:00 a.m. of Saturday. Five hours later, a GORUCK Light will start that will finish in the early evening hours, perhaps around 7:00. While it would not be the full 24 hours that a GORUCK Heavy takes, it would be the closest thing to a Heavy without actually being one. And while I have no big desire to do a Heavy--being awake for 24 hours? Really?-- I worry that doing this combo might make me want to do one.

If I were to attempt this, I would need to get in much better shape, especially upper body shape. The hardest thing for me to do in the Challenge I did in May was to get my rucksack off quickly and up over my head. I think I actually got it up above my head fewer than half the times we were told to do it. Not being able to get it off and up was really frustrating and made me feel like something of a failure. Were I to do another Challenge, with or without a Light following it, I would want to be much better at the whole rucksack-lift thing. I would also want to be able to carry my own pack for some of the physical training sessions and not rely so much on Steve's offering to carry my rucksack in addition to his.

STOP THE PRESSES! I just found this draft in my list of posts. When I wrote it, I was pondering doing two GORUCK events in the same 24-hour period. Having finished pondering, I registered to do just that, once in March 2014 and once in May 2014. I am, indeed, certifiably crazy.