PAX also included Heatstroke, Hops, Peppa, and Pongo (not on website).
DISCLAIMER: The following was written through the lens of a guy who was a complete noob at this sort of event. Any vets feel free to add to this in the comments. Also, any cadres, PAX, and onlookers feel free to include your favorite moments in the comments as well.
The event known as F3 Lake Norman's Quarter Ruck VIII happened. It could have been called All Night Suckfest 8, but that might've caused some confusion. Sure it was painful, but most of the pain came from unexpected sources.
At the time of this writing, 30 hours have passed since the end of QR VIII. The mind has been on an extreme roller coaster journey, experiencing the highs of satisfaction and the lows of discontent. Satisfaction from having completed such a great challenge. Satisfaction, and even joy, from experiencing such incredible amounts of physical and mental stimuli. And satisfaction from getting so deep into the suck with your brothers and rising up out of it as a team.
But the discontent…oh the discontent. "How could I have failed so hard as a leader? Why didn't I lead this part of the revolution differently? How could I have been more successful so that my brothers didn't experience additional undue pain? How could I have led better even when I wasn't the Team Leader for that revolution?". That was the unexpected pain mentioned earlier. Each man got a chance to lead as a Team Leader (TL) or Assistant Team Leader (ATL). Each man failed in some way. And when you failed as the leader you hurt your brothers. As the leader, hurting your brothers caused you a bigger hurt mentally than could be caused by any distance of low crawl, any size of log, or any duration of 120lb sandbag ruck.
But, by design, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FAIL. Just as we take our muscles to failure so that we can physically grow, we take our leadership to failure so we can grow as a leader. Sure we had successes. Maybe we learned a little from those. But we learned so much more from our failures, as evidenced by the fact that those stand out to us the most and we yearn for the opportunity to correct those failures whether it be at another event or a similar situation in daily life. "How could I have led better? Not for my sake, but for my brother's sake."
It harkens to something said by Viktor Frankl, who believed that a central piece of one's mental health is purpose. "What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him."
For those that opted out or couldn't make it, I hope this sheds light on what it's about. I strongly urge you to take the opportunity next time around. The physical part of it is such a small part of it. You carry heavy things for long distances and don't get any sleep…so what. It's mostly about learning about yourself as a leader, succeeding as a team not as an individual, and just plain getting in the suck with your brothers. Your brothers, who are ordinary men just like you, that want to be better and want you to be better.
For the 22 that opted in, well done men. Much more could be said, but I don't believe I can add anything more than what had been said during COT, beer and donuts, and many private DMs and text chains.
To the cadres, holy smokes what a well-produced and organized event. You sacrificed your Friday night and likely much of your Saturday to teach other men and make them better. We're extremely grateful. (But next time don't take it so easy on us.)
Additional Important Details
- Quacking makes for an ok cadence.
- Lightweight running shoes are actually heavy.
- The only correct responses to most questions are yes sir, no sir, I will find out sir, no excuses sir, and aye sir.
- The one exception is when a cadre asks you if you want to quit, then "go fuck yourself cadre" is acceptable.
- CPR immediate response includes scene safety, check, call, check.
- A hearty breakfast consists of (sing it with me) orange JUICE, assorted cereal, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, lyonnaise potatoes, TOAST, margarine, donuts, coffee, milk.
- When there's no rain, there's always creeks and firehoses.
- Never forget Chicken Little, age 24. Share your burdens. Reach out to a brother.
- If you want to see a highlight video, go here https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xfr64zoBTAQ
-PC