We rucked 4 miles.
OK, that might be good enough for 15 T-Claps, but it misses the mark on what makes F3 more special than Camp Gladiator. (Yeah, you heard me @skipper: F3 > CG.)
When I preblasted the ruck for Tuesday morning, I noticed the high probability of rain (thunderstorms even) and made sure I had a first follower before inviting other idiots to join me on the dance. SweetC offered a SC but switched to an HC after I held him accountable (aka harassed him) about being a wuss for not wanting to get wet and arguing that tacos could not be enjoyed without first putting in the work. The latter threat must have worked because he quickly acquiesced (word of the day).
Titan was next up, complaining that he didn’t want to be struck by lightning. We comforted him by offering to let him walk between Sweet C and YHC where the shorter object would be sheltered by the non-vertically challenged ruckers after which he reluctantly agreed. The Count, EtCh-A-sKeTcH and LawnDart were easy after that proving once again that the “dancing idiot” holds water. #punintended
In typical F3 fashion (with the exception of The Vern), the rain had moved on before the workout had ever begun. I had my raincoat ready, but left it at home since the storm had ended its shift earlier. I have been having an issue with the car battery so rather than risk missing out, I opted to ruck from the house. I arrived just prior to 0500 to find everyone suiting up, offered a quick disclaimer about wet bridges on the greenway, and off we went. Little did I know of the foreshadowing that disclaimer would be.
A mile in, we hit the greenway trail behind Melbourne. As we crossed the creek prior to the T-intersection, we commented on how high the creek was. Where normally it is about 4 feet wide and 3 feet below the bridge, today it was right below the bridge and maybe 12-16 feet in width! We scurried across the overpass and made a right at the intersection heading for Bradford Hill Lane. That’s when we reached our first obstacle.
Why do towns put in greenways? Are they to encourage a more fit populace? Are they to offer a respite from the stress of the daily grind? Or are they like disc golf courses which are installed because they are fairly cheap and can be placed on otherwise unusable land? Perhaps it’s a little of all three. In any event, the Torrence Creek Greenway sits on some low lying land. And today, that low lying land was about 6 inches lower than the water level following the overnight downpour.
Six ruckers came right to the edge of a 12-foot swath of muddy water across the trail. A few (who shall go unnamed) suggested an about face. The Q considered the request for a few moments before recalling that this was an F3 event and we were made of tougher stuff than running clubs and camping gladiators. We had already thrown off our pace by pondering whether we would be swept away by the undercurrent, so without further delay I did what any good leader in F3 would do: I lead. I never even turned back to see if the pax would follow. I knew that these F3 men would follow their fearless leader to Hell and back. Because we’re F3. We’re men. And we’re morons.
We would cross a few more sections of the trail that were submerged before getting to the main road. We did not hesitate again although there was much mumblechatter to let me know that I might not be qualified to lead men in a free workout. I reminded the pax that they now had clean shoes, cool feet and high roads to look forward to. YHC cares about your shoes, your feet and your fitness.
For the most part, the remainder of the ruck was uneventful. We did lose two comrades temporarily who thought they were on a Sunday stroll instead of a Tuesday ruck. And EtCh broke off from the pack to chance the shoulder-less McCoy road to shave off a half mile and get home for breakfast — something about eating a tomato before taking the kids to school — but I digress. Our feet had already been in the gutter today; no need for our minds to go there as well.
With six now down to five, we rucked up Julian Clark into the business park and followed the loop clockwise back toward Gilead. We noted that the fine town of Huntersville kindly added a new sidewalk from the loop up to Starbucks which was much appreciated. We saw Frogger moonlighting at Anytime Fitness where Titan saw fit to do some monkey humpers against the window to show his displeasure. Or was it his pleasure? :thinkingface:
We returned to Starbucks right on time, completing our ruck with an 16:30 average pace. I’m sure we would have been faster had Little Finger not been busy at work this week. But we still managed to be first in line for coffee where we were able to save seats for MiniMe (#waterboy), Calypso (#forestgump) and Hall Monitor (#fartsacker). We may have had wet socks to show for it, but we are all better off for pushing each other to get better.
And that Mortimer, is how we do a proper back blast in F3. YHC cares about the recollection of your morning.