View Full Version : Anyone here ever done a Go Ruck Challenge?
I'm looking at doing a Go Ruck Challenge at the end of September. I've never done one of these before, and I'm interested to hear from others who might have done one of these what kind of gear they consider to be essential.
Madeinhb
08-20-2018, 20:46
I haven't yet but on reddit there is a Goruck subreddit. They have all kinds of posts on what people suggest to bring.
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Bricks/rocks/sand from what I hear.
There’s a portion of the population that thinks you are crazy to pay someone to make you ruck.......
bobbyfairbanks
08-20-2018, 21:21
Ya just go do it yourself. Find a big mountain walk up it. If your not tired enough repeat.
Ya just go do it yourself. Find a big mountain walk up it. If your not tired enough repeat.
Doesn't earn you a 50% coupon off of a Goruck pack though. Besides, what do you know about doing hard things on your own?
Bricks/rocks/sand from what I hear.
...and a big block of tungsten.
Delfuego
08-21-2018, 09:26
I haven't yet but on reddit there is a Goruck subreddit.Did you just say "reddit" and "subreddit" in the same sentence. [facepalm] I'm gonna need to see your man-card real quick...
I know TimK & Stu have done some serious rucking for CD Sniper Challenge.
I thought they had a packing list and recommendations already for their stuff?
Ya just go do it yourself. Find a big mountain walk up it. If your not tired enough repeat.
I'd be doing this with a group of people from my gym.
I already hike regularly on my own.
I thought they had a packing list and recommendations already for their stuff?
They do, but most of it boils down to "buy $500 worth of our stuff and you're ready to go."
Uh, no. I'd rather figure out what I can use that's already laying around, and get a recommendation on some stuff like pants that I need to buy, anyway.
Ah. I wasn’t aware they were like the Amway of physical fitness.
Can't blame them for repping their own gear, and by all accounts it's well made, but I'm looking to do this on a bit of a budget with stuff I've mostly already got.
I thought the point of the GoRuck challenge was to fill your own bag with a ton of weight so they can show you how much better their pack held up through the challenge to convince you to buy theirs instead of whatever you brought. Is it pitched differently now?
I just know what's on the website.
I take 50-60 lbs of rocks for a 4 mile hike almost every day here on base. Passes the time and keeps my feet in the game.
I've got like five AR500 steel plates just sitting around my house. I'm sure they'd make your bag heavy.
I take 50-60 lbs of rocks for a 4 mile hike almost every day here on base. Passes the time and keeps my feet in the game.
Nice.
Did a practice hike on Sunday with a bunch of sandbags and a metal plate (added up to a bit over #30). Went about 4.25 miles. I'm more sore than I would have expected.
This thread is great motivation for upcoming elk season. I should probably ruck around the neighborhood with a weighted pack as much as I can for the next two weeks.
Madeinhb
08-21-2018, 14:52
Did you just say "reddit" and "subreddit" in the same sentence. [facepalm] I'm gonna need to see your man-card real quick...
I know TimK & Stu have done some serious rucking for CD Sniper Challenge.
Haha. I just started using it so I don't know the full lingo
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I've rucked with a buddy who does all of the Go Ruck events. I'm not into paying for workout competitions but I do ruck around town with him from time to time. They have all of the official gear and claim it's very good quality gear.
He's a firefighter, ex-military, does marathons on the regular and as a side hobby does Crossfit. lol He signed up for some 1,000 mile challenge for 2018 and was at like 700 miles already in June. The guy just never stops. At any rate, he and his wife do all of these events and just did a 30 mile ruck two Friday nights ago and have like a 50-mile ruck coming up soon.
I think you can get gear close to what they use that will work but from what he says if you plan to do it regularly you'll want to spend extra to get the gear they use. He says that the packs specifically are worth the price tag if you do these events regularly.
Well, I've gotten all of my gear. I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit for half the cost of the one Go Ruck sells.
A group of us have done several ruck hikes with our gear, including a half incline.
At this point, other than doing a final review and packing everything, I think I'm about as ready as I'm going to be.
I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit, and the cost was about half what Go Ruck charges for their plate.
We start tonight.
schapman43
09-28-2018, 11:10
Well, I've gotten all of my gear. I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit for half the cost of the one Go Ruck sells.
A group of us have done several ruck hikes with our gear, including a half incline.
At this point, other than doing a final review and packing everything, I think I'm about as ready as I'm going to be.
I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit, and the cost was about half what Go Ruck charges for their plate.
We start tonight.
Which part starts tonight? Doing an event? Which one?
https://www.goruck.com/event-12781
schapman43
09-28-2018, 12:34
https://www.goruck.com/event-12781
Good luck and have fun!
schapman43
09-28-2018, 12:40
Not sure why so many negative comments here. There are many other fitness event companies such as Spartan, Tough Mudder etc. Goruck offers unique military based events that typically have a lesson to go along with them. They employ current and ex special forces Cadre to lead the events which I feel is a good thing.
Do you need a company to arrange a fitness event in order to get out and move? Of course not. But I would have had a really hard time organizing 100 other people to ruck around Denver 50 miles in the middle of the night. The events are fun and inexpensive. I've met some really great people through Goruck. I'd encourage everyone to dig up their local Ruck Club and start getting out with them.
The gear, yeah it's expensive. But it's good gear and most of it has a lifetime warranty. They actually encourage you to get out and beat the shit out of it. My Goruck packs are the only packs I have that I'm not hesitant about tossing around. They packs also work really well for what they're intended to be, a piece of workout gear. I can secure massive amounts of weight in it and then toss it around during workouts and rucks.
Well, I've gotten all of my gear. I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit for half the cost of the one Go Ruck sells.
A group of us have done several ruck hikes with our gear, including a half incline.
At this point, other than doing a final review and packing everything, I think I'm about as ready as I'm going to be.
I ended up buying a ruck plate from another outfit, and the cost was about half what Go Ruck charges for their plate.
We start tonight.
Have fun! And let us know how it turns out for you.
i’ve thought of doing some of these myself. I just spent 4 days over the last two weeks hiking a full back pack up and down a mtn chasing elk. Was fun but doing this with a large group of like minded people would probably be fun as well.
schapman43
09-28-2018, 16:48
Have fun! And let us know how it turns out for you.
i’ve thought of doing some of these myself. I just spent 4 days over the last two weeks hiking a full back pack up and down a mtn chasing elk. Was fun but doing this with a large group of like minded people would probably be fun as well.
It is a ton of fun! I would highly recommend signing up for an event and checking the Goruck site for a local ruck club. Most clubs are meeting once a week for a ruck / workout.
schapman43
09-30-2018, 10:48
How did it go?
This event was easily the most physically demanding 12 hours since my college days, and easily in the top 3 of my life.
We started at 9pm on Friday night near a park in Manitou Springs, and finished around 9:30am at Acacia Park in Downtown Colorado Springs. The route we took was pretty circuitous, so we ended up going a total of 15.4 miles. We went up through Garden of the Gods, out through the main entrance, along a road, through a residential area, eventually ending up going under I25 a bit north of Uintah.
The whole thing was led by a cadre member with military experience, he gave us a pretty thorough breakdown of his background, but at this point, I don't recall much of it.
The actual rucking portion of the event wasn't the worst, in fact after awhile, I got to where I was looking forward to carrying just my pack with the weight in it. The way the event was broken down was pretty cool. Since it was in commemoration of the Battle of Mogadishu, at various points the Cadre would stop us, give the time, and a quick breakdown of approximately what happened at that point in the battle. We'd then do a team building event modelled on the event. So, for instance, at one point we were told to go find six rocks that were to represent classified equipment that had to be recovered from the downed helicopter. (Yes, we literally played a game of "Go Find Me a Rock.") We were also told that at any given point, three of the people in our group were to be designated as casualties who had to be carried. So this led to everyone basically trading off between helping with a fireman's or three man carry, toting a rock, carrying the Guidon, carrying the team weight, or being carried as a casualty. Not being the dainty sort, I didn't volunteer to be carried. At certain points we'd stop for a break, drink some water, eat something, and then play some games, by which I mean, engage in competitive calesthenics. For instance, on a normal day I'm not a fan of doing bear crawls, but doing them with a backpack is a whole new level of suck.
After awhile, we traded out our rocks and casualty carries for cinder blocks and a log, so that was new and interesting. On a personal note, the route at one point did coincidentally go within about 2 blocks of my house, and I momentarily considered slipping away and just going to bed.
Probably the most amusing part of the whole thing was as we were getting near the end of the ruck, it turned out there was a marathon event going on in downtown Colorado Springs. I think that between the flag, cinder blocks and and log we made something of an impression on the marathoners and spectators who'd shown up for that event!
Once we got to the final stopping point at Acacia Park, we wrapped up with some more calesthenic activities, the Cadre gave a pretty cool speech about how a group of mostly strangers had become an effective team, and we all were given a commemorative patch and that was pretty much it. He left to retrieve his truck to ferry people back to the start, but one of the people in our group just called an Uber and we caught a ride back to the starting point.
I'd hesitate to call the Go Ruck Tough fun; it was really gruelling mentally and physically taxing, but I'm glad that I did it. I'd like to think I learned a few new things about myself in the process, though.
ChickNorris
10-01-2018, 11:26
How did your gear work out for you?
Sounds like completing the challenge was gratifying at the very least. Same question as ChickN. Are they still offering discounts on their gear as part of the challenge completion?
The clothing I wore worked out fine. I picked up some hiking pants on sale at REI a few weeks ago, and wore that, along with two shirts of under armor material, sock liners, and wool socks. My feet got somewhat wet partway through, but never got really cold. Luckily temperatures were in the 40s so my choice of clothing worked out well.
I used my Arcteryx backpack, and, other than being just a bit on the small side, it worked out well. I picked up a ruck plate from Titan Fitness at about half the cost of the one that Go Ruck sells. and, despite not being as nicely finished, it worked fine.
Food wise, if I were to do it again, I think I'd pay more attention to sugar and protein content, and weight more heavily towards protein. I'd also pack something with potassium as well, because I got some wicked leg cramps at about 4am.
Yes, completing the thing was hugely satisfying, and they did mention that we should see a coupon code for a gear discount show up in our email, but so far, I haven't seen it yet.
Congrats.
I think the “fun” of such things isn’t the fun we typically think of. It’s the resultant realization that you can push yourself, which leads to pushing the boundaries of actually fun things.
I think that's a really good way of putting it.
Congrats.
I think the “fun” of such things isn’t the fun we typically think of. It’s the resultant realization that you can push yourself, which leads to pushing the boundaries of actually fun things.
This is what we find "enjoyable" about Crossfit and I think it's a similar reason people do Go Ruck and other things like that. On paper you often feel like "there's no way in hell I can do that" and then while you're doing it you think "No way in hell can I do this and I'm pretty sure I'm dying" but when it's all over and you realize you not only did it but did better than you thought you would it's a great feeling. It certainly makes you attempt more things you can't do or work on the things you never thought you'd do.
I've heard Steven Rinella try to describe the difference between easy fun and hard fun. East fun is like a roller coaster, where it's fun while you're doing it, but you never think about it again after that. Hard fun is not fun while you're doing it, but you often reminisce about it later and want to do it again, even though you told yourself how stupid you were for trying the whole time you were doing it.
I've heard Steven Rinella try to describe the difference between easy fun and hard fun. East fun is like a roller coaster, where it's fun while you're doing it, but you never think about it again after that. Hard fun is not fun while you're doing it, but you often reminisce about it later and want to do it again, even though you told yourself how stupid you were for trying the whole time you were doing it.
That's a great way of putting it that I never really thought of before and seems to be pretty spot on.
I've heard Steven Rinella try to describe the difference between easy fun and hard fun. East fun is like a roller coaster, where it's fun while you're doing it, but you never think about it again after that. Hard fun is not fun while you're doing it, but you often reminisce about it later and want to do it again, even though you told yourself how stupid you were for trying the whole time you were doing it.
Just like wellfare.. no one really appreciates something they get for free.
I've heard Steven Rinella try to describe the difference between easy fun and hard fun. East fun is like a roller coaster, where it's fun while you're doing it, but you never think about it again after that. Hard fun is not fun while you're doing it, but you often reminisce about it later and want to do it again, even though you told yourself how stupid you were for trying the whole time you were doing it.
That's a really good way of putting it. This was definitely Hard Fun, and I've been reflecting on my experience since then.
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