Old School GORUCK Tough in Munich

The author overplays their hand and what was an ace is jeopardized in a way that neither the author or the team sought forthcoming. But with each obstacle put forth there are glimpse of light which shine through possible solutions. Thus in one's darkest moments, one should realize that one is not alone at the puzzle given and use the crutches given until one rejuvenates the strength to become the unbreakable spearhead that shall pierce through any challenge put in one's way.

Let this vivid poetic messaging linger in your subconscious as you read through the happenings of the actions experienced by the team of the Old School GORUCK Tough in Munich!

Pre Event

6 hours before the event we got last minute changes, including to take a pen and starting point location. I make my way to the new location which is the skate park, in the Olympic park. There I see that Martin has already been waiting, thus making me second.

While waiting I see other people with rucks wondering around and think to myself, I should gathered them and bring them to the location update.

10 minutes till the event starts and Dimi brings me the ruck I have reserved for the event which is the Rucker 4.0 that comes with a comfort upgrade compared to the Rucker 2.0.

Quickly I transfer the gear to the new ruck with the goal of being ready to move as soon as the Cadre show up.

My Rucker 2.0 I store in one of the cars of the participants. In it I leave my phone and change of clothes for after the event.

With only a couple minutes before the event starts, I start doing the last external setups like carabiner placement for the hose from the bladder, installing the hip belt, placing the fluorescent molle¹, and placing a glow stick.

Sign In and Warm Up

With my back turned towards the entrance to the skate park, I do not see the Cadre coming, and I just finish installing the first half of the hip belt before being told to follow them.

We grab the coupons and follow the Cadre. I add comments while going down the slick sett path to watch one's step, especially on the sides so that one does not get an unnecessary injury from the get go.

The Cadre instruct to get in formation and share the procedure on how to accomplish this task. Next they introduce themselves, Cadre Jassy and Cadre Heidi². Cadre Jassy has a background in leadership from the civilian realm while Cadre Heidi was in German Special Forces Command (KSK) and now coaches people in getting combat/service ready.

Cadre Jassy starts the sign in process by calling participants from the roster and notifies that there is one no-show. Next he starts the gear check process and demands to see the weight, the water, photo ID, and the quitter cash.

Next the Cadre lead us to a grass opening and tell us to create a circle around them. Before we continue with the warm up they ask if the participants have any injuries that should be aware of.

I take the opportunity to mention my injuries and it can be summed up as the left is a liability and the right is a reliability.

Others also mention their injuries and I recommend that future participants should listen, since even if one thinks it is not my responsibility in the moment, it could become one in the future. Because the goal is to get all the participants through the event and if liabilities are known in the beginning then one can act accordingly.

Warm Up

The Cadre choose a participant who should count 100 reps of an exercise. The first exercise are squats.

He starts counting with consistent pace. I quickly notice that some of my teammates are not able to keep up and also the lactate build up in my own quads. I interject at count 30 that we should take a break and the team follows my suggestion.

Walk and shake it out!

The counter continues with the next 30 reps.

Remember this event is a marathon not a sprint!

The counter continues with the rest of reps.

The Cadre chooses another participant who is right of the first person and take a new exercise.

The new counter starts counting also with no communications on when a break will occur. Thus I interject again at 30 to take a break.

Thinking to myself, just because you can harden through the reps doesn't mean the other's have the same amount of grit.

Off to the next counter and slowly communications are made throughout the team on how they will execute the exercise and at which rep count they plan on taking a break. It seems like the messaging through action have been ingrained by all participants.

The Coupons

Cadre Jassy explains how we should take care of the coupons, especially the sandbag jerrycan. He shares that the bag represents a dear friend, Milton, who has unexpectedly passed away 2.5 years ago. He was a valuable member of the European GRT community and in honor of his service to the community, the community hosted a Milton Memorial Tough³ in year 2024. To commemorate his presence in spirit, the jerrycan should be carried in such a fashion that the patch shall always be visible, as if he were a physical member of the team.

In total there are five coupons. The team weight is a 25 lbs free weight. The rolled up fire hose weighs about 20 lbs. The bag filled up with unknown goodies has a shoulder strap which will aid us in carrying it. And there are two jerrycans, one with water for the participants throughout the event at 20 liters, and second being the sandbag jerrycan with the Milton Memorial Tough patch glued onto it weighing in at 45 lbs.

Welcome Party

Cadre Heidi chooses Dan as the first team lead (TL) and his task is to lead the team from the bottom of an incline to the top while doing lunges up and low crawl back down.

Dan attempts his task and suggests that we line up facing the incline and lunge up on his count. The cohesion of the warm up is short-lived. The theoretical mental model of the team moving as an unit breaks with the first struggles of the teammates.

With Dan in the middle of the line, he tries his best to keep the team line up to the top and somehow we make it.

The next task from the top is low crawl back down. I noticed that the incline upwards was so steep that perfect form of lunging up was very hard, especially if one wants to keep up with the cadence that Dan set. While betting that other's had the mental image that they now need to low crawl forwards back down, I imagined of possible injuries about to happen. Thus without hesitation, I suggest that we low crawl backwards and no one challenged that notion.

As a team we all get down onto our knees before laying on the ground and awaiting for Dan's instruction to start. He tries to use the same tactic as previously to move to his cadence. If one thought that the unison of the team was a passing grade on the way up, on the way down it becomes an instant fail.

The left flank where I am located is already at the bottom while looking up and seeing how some are struggling to move any meters backwards and still stuck at the top. With my instruction on the left flank, I tell them to wait for the others to catch up. And at least the last crawls we make them together.

Cadre Heidi comes to us and asks Dan "How many members are in his team?" where he states "13". The Cadre challenges his answers trying to see if he will falter on his knowledge and Dan stays steadfast with his answer.

Next the Cadre asks "How many of those teammates are to the left and right of you?" Many think that the obvious answer should be 6 to the left and 6 to the right, but when Dan answers with this assumption, he quickly notices that it is incorrect. Instead there are 5 to the right of him and 7 to the left.

Cadre Heidi continues "How are you going to lead when you do not even know where you teammates are located?" I suggest that Dan should delegate a role, one on each flank, that vocalizes the movement of the smaller units of the team, so that he can focus on moving the center. The idea is to free up mental capacity from being responsible for the complete movement of 12 down to only 4.

Dan instructs us to lunge up based off of his cadence, which he quickly realizes is just not working as he had imagined it. Thus he quickly anoints Martin as the dedicated counter who vocalizes that we will be taking 5 lunges before catching our breaths. Afterwards the flank leaders vocalizes that their units are ready and we repeat the process.

We make it to the top in better orderly fashion than the prior time and with this small win, we use the same counting tactic downwards.

Now that the Cadre notices that we are understanding the task better and performing under his quality of unison movement, he throws a curve ball and says we need to become faster and do it in less than 4 minutes.

With a new objective we go at it again. This round the line is straighter than the previous round and feel a sense of success. Though Cadre Heidi says it took you 3 minutes to get to the top. We hurry and try to crawl down as fast as possible, but it takes more than 6 minutes in total.

Before we tackle the objective again, I realize from the previous effort that the initial attempts of low crawling downwards has not improved in speed. Thus, I suggest that we move the team 20 meters further to the left, since the slope will become steeper and thereby we can use the momentum to conserve energy downwards.

Dan follows the suggestion and instructs the team to move. Everyone is in the new position and we make it to the top in a timely and unite fashion. Though on the way down, many weren't expecting the momentum and the team broke down into chunks.

The Cadre says "you have made the time hack, but you need to do it as a team".

Dan leads us back into starting position. We repeat the timely fashion upwards. We get into position off to launch downwards and release our hands to glide down on one of our quads. The flank leads occasionally delegate their flanks to break with their hands before continuing with the momentum downwards.

We achieve the challenge in the quality that Cadre Heidi wants and within his time hack.

Thinking of one's values

For the next evolution we move to a Jewish Memorial site and are given the instructions to take five minutes to jot down in memory why the site was erected before grabbing our gear and meet at the steps.

The Cadre ask us what happened here. The team explains that the site was constructed to commemorate the Jewish athletes who were assassinated during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games⁴ due to a failed hostage negotiation and the one German police officer who was caught in the crossfire. The aftermath of the situation is that West Germany quickly founded the police unit GSG 9⁵ which is responsible for combatting terrorism and violent crimes with the mission to prevent the lack of under preparedness from such potential future situations.

Next Cadre Heidi shares

Take out the Blackout the Limit, Mind Map you were given at the beginning of the event and write your values. Think on what you want to take away from tonight's event and how you live out your values through your daily actions. These will not be shared with the team.

We take the time to process historical occasion and think about our values.

Most focus strongly on the blank pages before jotting down their ideas. While I take the time to rest on my back and look up at the stars. I try to remember what my why in life is which is also present on the About⁶ page. The three values I come up with are

curiosity, comradery, consciousness.

In comparison to my why which is

To share intriguing information so that you can be sparked by out of the box thinking to enhance your experience within this lifetime.

aligns quite well and I have practiced the why already so far throughout the event.

Sadly, right before moving out, one of our teammates had to drop the event due to a medical reason and thus our team size drops to 12.

Olympic Hill in the Dark

The next team lead, Ben, gives me the task to navigate us up to the top of the Olympic Hill⁷ while staying clear of the concert.

On the way, we get one mishap, the person who is carrying the jerrycan, the drinking water for us throughout, their grip slipped when repositioning the jerrycan and it fell onto the ground. Some of us thought that a crack happened and wanted to close it with tape. Though in the end it was only that the faucet fell out of position. We quickly learnt that carrying the jerrycan on the rucks won't be possible, thus either suitcase carry or bear hugging it will only be the viable options going forward.

I navigate us to the top of the hill, which is an altitude gain of 60 m. At the top we take a group a picture before awaiting our new instructions from the Cadre.

Cadre Jassy asks "What will be doing tomorrow night?" and I jokingly answer "sleeping". I knew that the answer he was looking for is "Octoberfest" and hoped that someone else would have responded which quickly happens.

Cadre Jassy leads us in the story of how the Munich Rucking Crew⁸ prepares for the Octoberfest with its MRC WOD. He gives us the option to drop the reps count from the required 30 down to whatever the length of the song which is playing as long as there is someone in the team able to sing to the melody. Sadly, none of us had the knowledge of the songs, thus we get to do all the reps.

Cadre Jassy narrates

Imagine going to the Octobergfest and the first thing you need to do is make your way to the tent. Since the area is filled with people this creates a struggle which is simulated with lunges.

Next you make it to the tent and you need to find your peeps, thus you wave towards them. The exercise that equates to this notion is ruck overhead while doing high knees.

Once you sit down at the table, you first order a beer, followed by cheering with your table neighbors. This is done by overhead pressing the ruck and then forward pressing it.

You start grooving to the music and go to the dance stage to dance by swinging your partner around. The exercise is one-handed ruck swing.

After being at the fest for awhile, you stumble onto the floor and since you are a GRT, you don't need help getting up and do what you know from your training of the regular get up.

Back up and jiving to the music you start shaking your booty. The exercise is monkey lovers.

Finally, you are well nourished with beer and tired from dancing, but still need to make it home, so you start your crawl homewards by doing bear crawls.

---

While doing the WOD a group of adolescents are intrigued in our performance and belittle our execution of the exercises only to be humbled when trying it out themselves.

The funny part is that one of the adolescents had a navy hoodie which is well-fitted into the theme of the event.

Navigate and ruck to a bridge upstream

Axel is chosen by the Cadre to be the next team lead. His first goal is to get to the waypoint defined by the Cadre.

The first thing Axel asks is if someone can aid him to navigate to the spot. Since I heard his ask, I quickly go aid him. The Cadre reshows the spot and I memorize the spot.

Axel explains that he sees poorly without his glasses and needs aid. He packs in the map and goes to get a lay of the lands.

As I am about to go and show him how to get to the first navigation point, I am stopped by the Cadre, who reminds me that I am an assistant and not the lead.

I catch up to Axel and ask what kind of help does he require and he is not able to vocalize what he needs. This is understandable, if one has never been put in such a role before then it is really hard to predict what works.

Before I leave him completely alone, I go to the edge of the hill top and explain where he needs to get the team to so that navigation becomes trivial. I share that we should take the same way down as we came up. And before I go ruck up, I double check if Axel understands where he should go and he head nods affirmatively.

Axel gives the command to ruck up and heads downhill. I am in the rear dealing with my left knee flare up which consists of a stabbing pain with each step down.

The team quickly leaves me in the dark and not even a buddy stays back to check on my situation. The only person who accompanies me is Cadre Heidi.

Cadre Jassy quickly catches up to the team and stops them at the side of the path and commands them to put their rucks above their heads and as he sees me come around the corner, then he puts the team into high plank. Quickly as I can, I get in line at the end of the formation.

Cadre Jassy mentions

Did you realize that one of your teammates is missing and you were able to put your ruck above your head followed by high plank. None of you felt responsible to be the buddy. Every time you fail to follow either the buddy system or keep the team together, you will be doing this routine.

---

I feel as if a burden is put onto me, as if it was my fault for physical pain the team had to endure. Though at the same time, I shared with the team that the left side of my body is a liability which means in certain activities I will need to either slow down or alter the exercise.

Sometimes one needs to mute one's assets to let the student, in this case the team, to fall harshly on their face, so they can learn from their mistake. Having a life line on a team is great, but if you pull it on the first hiccup, then you are never creating the environment for myelin to grow. Since the unpleasant struggle is how new neural connections are formed.

In the end my challenge is to bite my own tongue and not speak up on what could be an action plan, thereby robbing them of the experience, and instead let the team lead with extension the team experience how to take on the objective.

---

The team quickly realizes what their fault was and echoes to put Franjo to the front who should set the pace going downhill.

I bet some did not contest that I could become an oxymoron in rucking as in those who have rucked before with me, ingrained in their mental model that I am Speedy Gonzales and need the reins to be pulled back instead of having to drag me.

At the bottom of the hill, I shift gears and put us in a good tempo, and move westwards. I tell Axel that he should find someone who can aid him with navigation and he chooses Michi. I try to portray the notion that he should second guess his objective. I ask if their is a time hack and he is not able to answer the question.

Axel gives us the instruction to keep on rucking westwards. We eventually get to a well lit underpass, where he takes the opportunity to double check the waypoint while pulling Michi aside to help him. A bit overwhelmed with the task, he could not decide if the team should wait for them while they figure out the navigation issue or if the team should continue in half step.

Axel decides for the team to continue moving westwards along the path while he goes with Michi to the Cadre to get a confirmation of the waypoint.

They soon come back and then both take the lead while having the map out and continue westwards. I fall back and take upon the role of last man, since I want them to feel the uncertainty of navigating incorrectly.

Axel and Michi are so zoned in the task of getting to the agreed upon waypoint that they overshoot it and are halted by the Cadre.

Debrief

In the objective debrief the suggestion is made that we should fill up our bladders so that water is better divided among the participants instead of the burden being put on the jerrycan carrier. I mistakenly add a counter suggestion of being weary of how much water one is willing to carry, so that one does not fall in the mistake of potentially having the ruck straps dig into the shoulders. This first goes against the value of comradery that I wrote down earlier and second the "digging into" sensation can be explained away by the poor padding on the Rucker 2.0 over the Rucker 4.0.

20 meter fire hose

The next team lead, Fips, steps up to the plate. His first task is to fill up a 20 meter fire hose under the condition of being very quiet while doing the task. Since we are currently surrounded by multiple blocks of apartment buildings.

I take the initiative and step into the stream. First off by taking the leap of faith and second to cool down the knee. The idea behind the leap of faith incentive is that if one sees someone already complete a task, one is more likely to attempt it as well. In the past, we at the MRC⁸ have waded through this stream and my body was in a similar condition and their my knee felt better after cooling it.

One of my team mates brings down the fire hose, we take off both caps, and slowly pull it upstream. Our idea is to permit the water to fully flow through the hose before plugging the end.

We follow through our plan and silently wade upstream. Meanwhile Fips communicates with the Cadre that he will take upon the full consequences if they fail at the task.

After about 200 metres, Cadre Jassy is waiting in the water. He is disappointed that we failed to fill the hose up to his liking.

Without arguing with him that we already did our best, we knew in the back of our minds that we did not exhaust all possibilities.

We screw off the cap and start filling up the first section of the hose, then the mate who is responsible of the head picks up the hose upwards and waits for rest of the team to slowly wave down the section of water before filling up the next section.

In obvious theory one would assume it should not be that hard to fill up, but lots forget that air also has a volume and is putting force against the water. Thus through the wave motion of the hose, one is giving the air the possibility to escape.

After doing the wave at least ten times, we get the okay from the Cadre that it is full enough and can now leave the stream.

The mates at the head of the hose slowly make their way to the stream bank and slowly climb up while inspecting the path for possible obstacles.

Out of the water, Fips lines us up in single file with the hose right next to us. He gives the command to lift the hose. We put the hose on our right shoulder.

I tactically put myself at the head of the hose. This indirectly gives me the ability to partially navigate to the next waypoint, which is the Nymphenburg Palace⁹. Plus due to my height, I put less of a burden on the team, only one will have to suffer compared to two.

All 11 of us are under the weight of the hose and Fips is free standing as the team lead who coordinates the pain points of the team while also making sure that we are taking the best route.

After a couple minutes of movement, I notice the slippery leaking hose trying to escape the shoulder placement. To put less of a strain on the shoulder, I share the suggestion that each other person should put the hose on the opposite shoulder as the mate prior to them. This additionally also puts some of the load on the ruck and thus less of a strain on the shoulder.

As we journey on, getting wet from the hose is almost guaranteed, since randomly throughout the hose sprinkles of water is leaving. In the front, I am getting soaked from both sides, once from the sprinkle and secondly from the leakage of the cap.

The whole time the only thing I am fearful of getting wet is the mind map notebook we got. Since I put it in my right cargo pocket and it already got a beating from the low crawls. During the wading through the stream, the pocket was well over the water level. But now with the trickling of the water, I am not sure enough that it will not dissolve.

The biggest upcoming challenge will be getting the team across the road in a timely fashion without halting traffic too much. I suggest to Fips about the hose folding in on itself. This means that we convert the single file into a double file and that those who are in the rear create a reverse order and line up with the head of the hose. The only thing we then need to be aware is that we clearly communicate how we shall surpass the obstacles of poles so that we get stuck like horseshoe on a pin.

Fire hose buy out

At the Nymphenburg Palace, the Cadre give us the option to buy out the carrying of the water in the hose. The challenge is achieve an unknown distance (1100 m) within 6 minutes while carrying the hose.

I per se didn't mind the pressure of the hose pushing onto us and eventually the full water weight would have leaked out, though the team does not even open up the floor for discussions and already starts making plans on how to tackle the challenge at hand.

Someone makes the comment that we should do it the same way as we did while tackling the crossing. Another mate makes a comment on for whom is the weight too heavy, either the hose, coupons, or ruck. The team arranges themselves in such a fashion that everyone is able to do their best.

Fips grabs the team weight and leads the way, while Dan and I communicate on which side of bollards we shall take. We follow the route to the best of our knowledge and follow the path in an orderly fashion. We get to the finish only to learn that we are 50 seconds too slow.

The team regroups and critically questions what else can be improved. One obvious observation is that we need to ruck shuffle for longer periods of time and more often. Next we can optimize the route somewhat and cut off a couple of meters by taking the inner lane on curves.

With no time to waste, the Cadre start the stopwatch a second time. Some of the members are relieved from fire hose carrying since they were not able to keep the pace under load. Alex frequently motivates us to keep on going with phrases such as

You can do anything for just 1 minute.

The team gets to the final stretch, many are huffing and puffing. In the hub of the unit one hears Alex's motivational words and with the burning in the legs, one bites the sensation while mentally repeating

It is just 5!

With the finish line just out of reach, some think that we are done, but the head of the unit keeps on going making sure the whole unit makes it. Only then do we look at the time and see that we have 20 seconds to spare.

As soon as we get the okay from the Cadre that we succeeded the time hack, without hesitation, I instantly unscrew the cap of the hose and place it over a drain. I am so fast, that the Cadre do not have the chance to take pictures. The only shots they get are ones where Chris (professional fireman) and Martin (voluntarily fireman) roll up the hose. In its rolled up state, it still weighs 20 pounds.

Debrief

One thing the team did not understand the reasoning behind the weaving of the fire hose from the alternating shoulders. Some assumed it as a ploy to relieve the pressure of the shoulder, but didn't think further about it.

The overarching topic is the lack of reasoning for the actions taken. Though at the same time we did not know that Fips has communicated with the Cadre that he will take upon the full consequences if tasks failed.

Time to play with sandbags

The Cadre lead us along the southern walls of the Nymphenburg Palace until we get to one of the gateways. The Cadre choose L as the new team lead. L's first task is to delegate who will fill up the sandbags in a silent manor at the playground which is only a couple 100 meters away.

L's first task is to sandbag throw the 120, 80, 60, and 40 sandbag in a timely fashion. She first delegates the bags randomly to various mates with two on the 120. After about 5 throws, the two on the 120 need a break and it becomes a challenge to find two who need to take upon the challenge.

Some are intimidated of the weight while other's are open towards the challenge though have trouble in sandbag coordination. Chris who just came down explains to the freshlings on how to do it. One thing that is important is that the two individuals have similar limb dimensions, since otherwise the coordination becomes more lopsided.

While L tries to coordinate the exchange of sandbags, from afar one hears from the Cadre

We never said anything about taking a break.

At the second 120 exchange attempt, the strategy has not improved. Thus I suggest,

If one lines up fresh team mates behind the currently thrown sandbag, then you do not need to stop the flow. After X throws you automatically change out throwers and they go behind the new throwers. This way each thrower will get equal amount of rest and work time.

L takes my suggestion and enacts onto the team.

I want to help with the throwing of sandbags, but even with the 40 sandbag, the left elbow pain liability sprouts into action after one throw. Thus I am put onto team weight carry duty.

What happens to the team when their main asset gets taken out

The team makes its way to the Cadre. L's new task is to ruck to a new location with the sandbags. She gets the directions from the Cadre and asks for navigation help. As usual, I am first to step up to the plate. After memorizing directions on the map and creating a mental map on how to get there, my asset is taken away from the team.

Cadre Heidi says

No one has rucked the city of Munich as well as Franjo.

And with this I am no longer able to aid as a navigator. Next I want to suggest my successor and as I am about to speak, Cadre Jassy stops me in my tracks and says that I am not permitted to aid in tactics.

Well, I guess the Cadre did not like that we have been speed running the challenges.

At the same time I get the advice from Cadre Jassy

You are stealing the learning experience of your team mates.

First being dumbfounded by the response, but also agreeing with the notion. Especially, considering that struggle is a requirement for myelin growth which in return is how one solidifies knowledge.

There is a fine line between hard-carrying the team and permitting them to suffer indefinitely. It is a balancing act and one should permit struggle until the point where action has dropped substantially.

Throughout the event so far, some times I achieved the balancing act while other times, I fully hard-carried.

---

L gets herself a new ATL before starting the ruck whose job is to be last man. L navigates efficiently throughout complex apartment jungle and diverges what she had planned on the map for the brief minute that I got access to help.

We take the steps down before turning southwards and going through the long pedestrian and cycle way tunnel. In it L asks me for assistance, that I sadly have to decline and instead put myself in position to receive sandbags. In brief delusion, L is able to resolve the concern she has and the unit steadily continues to move forward.

Further down the sidewalk, we get the obstacle that the path narrows. L wants to briefly stop the unit to talk through the procedure of doing a single file, but the Cadre are not in the mood, and command single file, pressuring the team to keep on moving.

The exchange of weight has no concise structured approach, but instead is dealt by hollering out that one needs aid and then L asking around who could quickly assist. Although I personally don't think of it as efficient way to do the job, since as a team lead one has a lot of overhead on who needs to do what and thereby can run into issues concerning the primary object. But at the same time, if it works for the team lead, who am I to condemn them.

After about three large road crossings, L realizes that the team has been swamped in motivation and focus, thus decides to take a break. This action surprises the Cadre and when L gets challenged on the notion, she stays steadfast.

The funny thing about this action is that she chose a crossing that has a clock present on the other side. I don't know how many team mates saw it and I bet many were too constricted in the current task to see further than a couple meters in front of themselves. Thus, I pointed it out to the Cadre, who did not show any concern of its presence and they have bestowed trust into me that I won't share the information.

We continue with a new bout of motivation and make it to the position where we should turn left. We follow the path only to get an eerie feeling that both the Cadre and L are lost. Inconclusive of the location, they flipflop their decision either to continue on or turn around. Some mates are grunting out of disbelief that we need to turn around due to poor navigation and then it's confirmed that we have gone the correct detour.

At the waypoint due to the sluggishness of our previous movement, we have to ruck shuffle behind Cadre Heidi. As if we were not tired enough, he wants to make sure that we were not faking it, and that is where some notice that they had more energy than expected.

After this energy check, we finally get to take a rest and fill up our water. The jerrycan also got refilled, so the weight increased immensely.

My body lost both thirst and hunger. I could feel as the energy to perform is about to tank. While ignoring the instructions of refilling my water, I instead popped in a salt capsule followed by a big gulp from my electrolyte infused water.

That was not good, now I feel like I am about to puke! There is no time to verbally complain as the Cadre says to ruck up. Well great, let me grab an apple before closing the ruck and continuing.

The pace is fast up and over a hill. On the other side I take a bite of the apple and hope the fibre will relieve some discomfort. The nausea continues as we follow Cadre Jassy through the west part of the Westpark¹⁰. He brings us to a playground with steep and long slides. I have my suspicions of what is about to happen and at the same time I regret sharing this location a couple months back.

Playground Fun

The Cadre asks if anyone is familiar with Sisyphus where some mates confirm with brief "yeah". Thus, we knew what is about to happen. The Cadre explains

As in the mythology of Sisyphus, you will carry up the sandbags and send them back down via the slide. You are further tasked to keep on moving, no too long breaks, and you should still do the route even if not carrying any load.

The Cadre continues

The team is slow, really slow! In the last evolution you were four minutes late and there is 12 participants, thus you will be doing the explained workout for 48 minutes.

Once everyone is clear of the instructions, the team lead delegates the idea of using a buddy system both in sharing the load and so no one walks alone. Further we are permitted to rest if there are no sandbags to carry up.

I try to pick up the 40 lbs sandbag and the left knee's sharp pain reintroduces itself. This is unfortunate. That means my task will be to accompany those who are carrying. In the first round of carrying sandbags, I stay behind since each carrier is partnered up.

The 120 lbs sandbag is the first one that makes it to the top, followed by the smaller ones. In no time, the next mate grabs one of the lighter bags and I join them upwards.

Round after round, I notice how the motivation of my team mates is slowly declining. I do my best to create some small talk while accompanying those who are carrying and in the later rounds my knees are warmed up enough that I am able to aid in carrying up to the 80 lbs sandbag.

The unit of 4 who is dealing with the 120 lbs sandbag have created a fairytale about the "Unwanted Fat Sandbag Babies" and gave each of them a name. There is Lucca a heavy 120 lbs baby, Roberta at 80 lbs, Sophia follows at 60 lbs, and Anna is the lightest at 40 lbs. The unit creates mini justifications of the clumsiness of each of the babies, e.g.

Oh Lucca why were not able to play restfully at the top of the hill and had to fall down the slide. You are such a clumsy fat baby!

While in the flow of the workout, the Cadre eventually stops our actions and tells the team lead to follow them to the next waypoint. Everyone is exhausted, some grab the lighter weights, so that they do not get voluntold to carry the 120 lbs. The motivation of the team is in the gutter. The team lead re-delegates the order of individuals who will be carrying Lucca. Out of pure wonder Lucca gets to the top of the next hill.

The long haul back to the Olympic Mountain

Cadre Heidi acknowledges the burden of being the team lead and taking upon the responsibility of moving the sandbags and at the same time your team does not have the motivation or energy to take upon the burden. To aid your conniptions we are going to do another journaling session while looking out east and awaiting the upcoming sunrise. The questions you should answer for yourself are

1. What are you currently feeling?
2. What additional strength will you do for the team in the upcoming evolutions?
3. What will you not allow yourself to do?

I do not put much thought into the answers and just jot down what first pops into mind.

1: Feel my body buzzing similar to the sense of a runner's high. Feel the heaviness of my limbs probably due to the low sugar I am experiencing. Feel the aching knee pain that is hindering me from standing still for anything longer than a couple of seconds. Feel the worry of a long lasting knee injury flare up.

2: I will help the team as much as possible without unmanageable pain.

3: I will not forget to hydrate. I will not forget that I am not allowed to speak.

Hydration is an unsung hero that I was only able to share with a few mates throughout the event. I knew that it is the crux of making or breaking the event. Since as little as 1% lost of hydration results into 10% decrease in physical performance and a 3-fold increase in injury.

This is one of the bodily functions I have noticed has become a passive observer and an easy way to conclude its effectiveness is through the frequency of urination. With the last time being more than two hours ago, means I am in dire need to hydrate up.

---

The current team lead is fired and Ben is back. This decision was made by observing the participants during the Sisyphus WOD and choosing someone who was physically still present, but on the cusp of being psychologically gone.

Ben with little hesitation delegates the sandbags away and we easily get down the hill. Back at the site of Sisyphus we see the full glory of the challenge and I think it was good that we only saw a small portion, because that way we were not overburden by all the extra information. I bet it would have been much more difficult in daylight over dusk.

We empty out the sandbags and are only given the instructions to follow the team lead. This a viable tactic from the team lead, since one only has to mentally focus on what one can see and not on what one could see, thus keeping the overhead minimal.

Ben leads us along the south edges of the park and chooses to take detours through the foliage. Some of the mates get the feeling that the TL is lost, but keep those thoughts hidden away in memory. I do not mind the change of optimal routing, since I also do not know what the objective is, thus there is no point of complaining.

In no time are we back on track and even take obvious shortcuts like cutting through grass fields instead of walking on the sidewalk around.

Ben frequently moves throughout the unit and making sure everyone's needs are met. With only five coupons to manage, one would expect everything to run smoothly, but they are barely getting any lighter. Some of the coupons can be well combined like putting the team weight on top of the goodies bag, thus relaxing the hand from gripping. Or one can carry the sandbag jerrycan and fire hose on top of the ruck. It is advised not to carry the water jerrycan on the ruck, since we had a mishap early on in the event, of a hand grip slip and it falling to the ground. Luckily it only slightly twisted away the nozzle and was quickly fixable. Thus one needs to carry it either in front of the body as a bear hug or on the side like a suitcase carry.

Chris being our ace throughout the event, is the one who did not shy away from the challenge of the 120 lbs sandbag, and partially carried it alone. In the last kilometers of the event he is also the one who has been carrying the water jerrycan the most frequent. Every time he needs someone to resolve the weight, I am the first person to jump onto the task. And when he realizes this, he frequently refuses the proposal and carries it a bit longer. I feel like it has become a mental meme, the person who is physically injured is willing to take upon a task, that anyone else is just as well if not better can as well assist. I excuse my actions by saying

Let me carry it for just a couple of minutes, so that you can rest your grip.

As long as one has the feeling of comradery, one is willing to endure much more pains. That is the idea behind jumping onto the task, although we are rucking together, if one does not feel bound to the unit, disarray can arise, thus psychologically drain additional energy.

Additionally, while being in mid-pack, Alex and I shit talk about various topics. This is a strategy to keep listeners distracted from thinking of the doom and gloom of the current situation. No matter if it is the soreness in the shoulders or hips, or the blister that has been developing for the past meters, or the grip that has just come off one of the coupons and questioning how will one take upon the challenge again.

The Final Meters

Slowly and surely we ruck our way back to the Olympic Park. As a final challenge we get to ruck to the top of the hill.

My knee is screaming at me, why are you putting me through this. I slump over and use my arms to press off the knees to save energy while ascending.

We get to the top just to take a team photo before turning around and heading back to the start.

Cadre Jassy closes the event with a story.

Imagine yourself being handed a booklet where you get a stamp for each successfully task accomplished. And while I was doing the Selection¹¹ last year, I was slowly filling it up with various challenges that I circumvented, only to come to the end and being handed a full booklet right before dropping. But you are here with not a full booklet and have shown what you are capable of. Thus you can pat yourself on the back of having an incomplete booklet!

Before receiving the patch, the Cadre shares an observation to each participant. He shares to me

You were mentally sharp throughout the whole event even with the liability of your knee, which surprised us that you were able to push through.

After Action Report (AAR)

All in all, the event was tough!

The biggest learning was finding the right balance of between letting a new team lead struggle with the challenge before sharing a possible solution, versus just telling them a possible solution without any struggle. Since the struggle itself is how we humans ingrain knowledge. If there is no struggle, then no memory can be formed.

The inspiration or the fault of the event is coming in with the notion of being well prepped and then two weeks out, gaining a lovely injury to cause physically a liability, rather than as an asset. Instead I became an experiential asset, only for it to be scrubbed from existence. When looking back, I should have rather graymanned myself and act more like Alex with assistance through action and not informing prior to action, thus hopefully falling under the radar of the Cadre. But this would contradict my why!

It was an old school, tough event, meaning no watches or phones permitted. We never knew what time it was or how much we rucked. Though after the event, I mapped the route from memory, which equated to about 28 kilometers, give or take depending on how many rounds of Sisyphus each person did.

A comment from Cadre Heidi is

No one has rucked as much of Munich as Franjo has, thus giving him the navigation role is cheating.

And as it is always stated

If you're not cheating, you're not trying.

At least in the west part of Munich area, I am well versed. The east would have been a bit difficult and there I would have not been such a big asset orientation-wise.

On the other hand, I feel many don't have the skill of looking at a map, and quickly creating a mental model of where one is and where one needs to go. Since most give away the struggle to navigation apps on their phone.

And

All always remember 5!

References