Continuing Education & The Fruits of Labor

No matter the course of our lives, adversity will be with us always. The only question that remains is “how will you handle the adversity that descends on your life?”

Life lessons.  I seem to look for them everywhere these days.  The passing of my father to cancer a few short years ago, and the battles my mother and her siblings continue to wage with the disease to this day are all reminders to me.  Reminders that life is short, and that adversity will be with you as long as you have breath in your lungs.  I’ve become more mindful of these lessons as I’ve gotten older and have become determined to squeeze as much life and adventure as possible out of the time that I have… ’cause you never know.

A wise man once said “In life, there are more Met days than Yankee days”.  I heard that somewhere.  No matter the course of our lives, adversity will be with us always. The only question that remains is “how will you handle the adversity that descends on your life?”

Maybe that’s what draws so many of us to The GoRuck Challenge.  It offers lessons in courage, humility, teamwork, perseverance, self respect and determination… and it’s a doctorate level course in dealing with adversity.  On April 13th 2013 I would return to The Challenge to continue my education, and address some personal goals along the way.

As you may have gathered, completing my 1st GoRuck Challenge was a watershed moment for me.  I’m no athlete, and at 5’6″ and 165 pounds, I’m not an imposing figure either.  I’m no genetic superhero and am about as useless at any sport that involves a ball as any man can be… but I DO enjoy a challenge.  My 1st GRC took me to the very edge.  At the end, I was amazed to hear another team member ask “Who wants to do another 5 miles and make it a full marathon?!”  I was even more amazed when I looked him in the eye and could tell he was serious.  I could barely walk to the truck after I got my 1st patch.  I hobbled like a zombie and could not lift my arms to shoulder height for days after our event.  It would be a week before I would think of visiting a gym.

In the days following class 229 I was holding my head high, but my body was broken.  Remembering that feeling would be the foundation of my training for class 501.

I came into my 2nd Challenge with a few simple goals, and an “extra credit” goal, which I’ll touch on later.

[evidence]

• Help a teammate through a moment of difficulty
  During my 1st Challenge I was the beneficiary of aid and assistance from my teammates during a moment of difficulty, and I wanted to pay that kindness forward.

• Have gas left in the tank at the end
  When I would shake the Cadre’s hand and accept my 2nd patch, I hoped to do so believing that I had enough left in the tank to “do another 5 miles”

[/evidence]

So I trained hard.  I made my workouts longer and more frequent and introduced new approaches that I hadn’t used prior.  That last goal of ‘having gas in the tank’ was always at the forefront of my mind, and it helped.

A month or so prior to class 501’s Challenge, many of our soon-to-be teammates got together for a pre-challenge training session in Cooper’s Rock State Forest in WV.  One member of our team sought to map out a good hiking loop for us (we did 7.5 miles that day), and I sought to organize a few good WOD’s (Workout(s) Of the Day) to beat us up a bit along the way.  I think we were both successful, as it proved to be a good appetizer for our looming Challenge.  At the end of the day I felt strong, and I felt ready.

The day of our Challenge arrived with the usual butterflies and anticipation, but the team was prepared.  One of our teammates named Clayton arrived with our team weight in tow.

Each GoRuck Challenge class is required to bring one team weight. What the weight consists of is up to the team to decide.  The only requirement is that it be at least 25 pounds.  Our weight was a collaborative effort between individuals on and off our team.

We named her The Albatross and we would all commit our names to her once the war was won.

Clayton offered up a few words to explain this potential moniker for our weight:

The word ‘albatross’ is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse. It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).

In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship — being followed by an albatross was generally considered an omen of good luck. However, the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, which is regarded as an act that will curse the ship (which indeed suffers terrible mishaps). To punish him, his companions induce him to wear the dead albatross around his neck indefinitely (until they all die from the curse, as it happens). Thus the albatross can be both an omen of good or bad luck, as well as a metaphor for a burden to be carried (as penance).

A perfect fit for our day ahead.  I, for one, was immediately sold on the idea!  We would all wear her around our necks before the day was done

Our Challenge would begin with introductions from a relatively new Cadre named Jason.  Some of us would make the mistake of calling him “Sir”.  We would ALL pay for it when we did. (NOTE: I take pride in having avoided making this mistake during our entire Challenge!).  Cadre Jason made a few things abundantly clear at the beginning of our Challenge.  One of which being that we would move with purpose (RUN) all night.  When we didn’t “move with purpose” we were often offered an alternate method of motion to undertake while we pondered the wisdom of our walking pace.

Our gut check would begin early, as Cadre Jason rained down lessons in pain from the word “go”.  We ran through a host of grueling PT drills, water stops in icy Morgantown waters, and more pushups than we could count, all within the 1st hour or so.

As the first few hours wore on, many of us started facing our own individual demons.  We fought, we struggled, and we persevered.  We were all pushed to the brink inside of 90 minutes, but one of us would be pushed over.  He had the heart and the desire to finish, but his body just wasn’t quite ready.  During one particularly grueling round of PT, he collapsed.  His eyes began rolling back in his head and he became violently ill.  Our teammate was seriously dehydrated and was in bad shape.  We helped him descend slowly down the hill and Cadre Jason worked with medical personnel to address the situation further.  I felt bad for him and it was easy to tell he felt like he was letting us down.  I’m sure this was a tough moment for him, but I have it on good authority that this will not be his last Challenge and that he’ll be coming back to give it another try soon.

So our Challenge wore on.  Cadre Jason taught us a lot along the way… new skills and more efficient ways to do things.

A bit further into our Challenge we encountered a problem that would involve us getting a section of telephone pole (approximately 30-35 feet long) down a mountain top.  I won’t get into why or how, as these are the lessons of the Challenge, but suffice it to say this new burden would become a cornerstone of the next 3-4 hours of our Challenge.  It’s also fair to say that Jason was none to pleased to discover a key component of this task was apparently in a backpack… on an ambulance… being shuttled to Ruby Memorial hospital. Despite this setback, we would get the pole down the mountain, and we would pay for our mistake in blood, sweat and tears!

Mission after mission, class 501 would plow forward.  We would make mistakes, and we would learn.  We’d feel our strength give way, and we would push through it.  We slowly began to come together as a team.

One of my goals for this challenge was to “help a teammate through a moment of difficulty”, and I’m happy to say that I was able to do so.  I may be even happier to say that we all accomplished this over the course of the night.  We leaned on each other more and more as the Challenge wore on and not once did a teammate begrudge another for being asked to shoulder an extra burden.  Shared struggle can really bring about some of the best qualities in people and we all had each others backs.

Our final test would involve completing a mission while climbing to the highest point in mountainous Morgantown – a peak called Dorsey’s Knob.  It was a slow ascent with many objectives and difficulties to overcome along the way, but when we completed our mission we heard Jason utter the most rewarding word he’d speak all night.  “Congratulations”.

Jason’s background is as a U.S. Army Ranger and he had a special way of paying tribute to the Ranger’s, and one Ranger in particular, at the end of our Challenge. This tribute, which was class 501’s to relish, would serve as the last moments of our ordeal together.  Our efforts on this day would not simply be our own, but would pay tribute to an “Airborne Ranger in the Sky”.  It was a beautiful way to put a cap on our accomplishment and fill it with even greater purpose.

So my 2nd Challenge was complete.  On our walk back to our vehicles we would share tales from the night – victories, failures, strokes of genius and moments of monumental stupidity.  It was a great privilege for me to share this day with the rest of class 501.  To quote Jason, as he would later compliment us, they’re all “Mountaineers by the word in my book”.

As before, I had the pleasure of seeing my beautiful fiancee’s smiling face waiting for me at the end, which certainly meant a lot.  Her love and support throughout this crazy journey was a big part of my success on this day… but it was a bit different this time.

After class 229 I swore I’d never do this again.  I could barely walk, and I asked Bekah to have me taken away in a straight jacket if I ever considered signing up for another round of this madness. On this day, I was glad she didn’t hold me to that request!  Cadre Jason brought “Good Livin'” by the truckload, and put us through some pain that I will never forget, but my hard work paid off.  I still had strength in my legs, and I dare say I had at least “5 more miles”.  I was tired, I was battered, but I wasn’t broken.  Bekah and I were running errands together the next day and I would turn in a solid workout at my gym two days later.  Mission accomplished.

As for my “extra credit” goal, I wanted to try and answer a question for myself honestly and objectively at the end of class 501.  “Am I strong enough to take on an even bigger Challenge?  Could I take it mentally?  Physically?  What if I were somehow forced to do it all again… Right now.  No sleep.  Twelve more hours.  Would I make it?”  I don’t know.  I’m not sure I would… at least not as of this writing.  The mystery surrounding that question is every bit as scary as the question of “How the hell am I going to survive this night??” – a question I was asking during the first hour of my first Challenge, only seven short months ago.  That being said, I can’t escape the fact that finding the answers to that question was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
T. S. Eliot

You only live once.  What’s life without a new adventure and a new Challenge?  You never know how much time you have.  Inaction equals regret.  I’ve failed at endeavors in life – big endeavors – but I’ve rarely been one to leave regrets of inaction on the table.

I have a few “Yankee” days on the calendar before I undertake any new Challenges.  I’ll be a married man soon, and that will be one of the best “Yankee days” of all.  But if I know myself at all, then I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I test my spirit again.  Sometime soon.  Likely against something even Heavier.