50 miles under a ruck. Just the sound of it was intriguing from the start. A few guys from Churham seemed up for it, so I signed on the dotted line in early March, with 10 weeks before the event. When CK came up to me at a workout and asked about it, everything started to come together. Once he was assured to be injury- and travel-free, he was in too.
Why do such a thing? Well.. the Teddy Roosevelt tie-in was a nice hook. The fact that this was the inaugural event of a new series carried a lot of weight, and hey, it’s just up in DC, which could be a fun road trip. We tried to EH a few others, but our team eventually coalesced down to YHC, CK, and TheExchange (henceforth TE) from Churham. Darby from Raleigh was in for the ride up with us; he planned to take a bus back on Saturday night after the event (!).
Road Trip
I woke up at 0615 to help get the kids off to school, made final preparations, and the four of us left from Durham at noon. On our way, we ran in to some heavy rainfall in southern Virginia. A perfectly-timed Starbucks stop found us drenched in 10 seconds running from the car. If this was what we were in for, it was going to be a long night! As it was, it slowed down our driving, which meant we hit more DC traffic than we hoped.
We arrived in DC and linked up with Todd, our local contact who got us a place to park close to the start, and hung out with us as we grabbed some delicious tacos for dinner. This was huge, not having to park far out and add more complication to the logistics.
Let’s do this
We geared up, lubed up, taped up (I had a couple of toenails threatening to fall off after the Heavy), and headed to the start point. We figured we could find restrooms and water there, but both of those proved more difficult than expected. I had left my bibb key behind – the first logistical fail of the weekend – but I managed to coax some water out of a spigot to fill my bladder. All of this happened between the time we checked in, had a captain’s meeting with BD, got our checkpoint list, and had about 40 minutes to study it before setting off. It added some stress; I should’ve just filled water in Georgetown when I saw some opportunities.
We had debated a bit on whether we wanted to do the long out and back on the C&O canal first, or pursue targets in the city. We had a loose consensus that we would do the canal first, and during the briefing, BD told us we had to do that anyhow. The guys spent some time looking over the maps and conferring with locals while I continued my quest for water.
As 9pm drew near, we gathered with an impressive crowd as Jason led the crowd in some cheers (GO – RUCK; RUNNING – SUCKS) and said a few words. Three air horn blasts and we were off.
The first mile or so was a bit slower than we would’ve liked, trying to work through the crowd. We wanted to keep a moving pace around 17 minutes per mile if we could. Still, it was a great experience being among so many ruckers embarking on such a task. The first few miles we had a choice of the paved Capital Crescent trail, or the crushed gravel C&O towpath. We stayed on pavement for about 1.5mi, then switched over. The trade-off was that due to standing water on the towpath, we had to do a lot of lateral movement to keep our feet dry. This would later become a source of amusement. Dry feet. Right.
Once we were permanently on the towpath, the miles started clicking off at a faster pace. We had some other teams we would leapfrog with, and others we would chat with for a while and then keep moving at our respective paces. At this point, TE was trailing me and CK by about 10 yards consistently. I worried a little that this might not be good for his mental state, but we would reel him in every so often and things seemed to be going well.
Long. Wet. Cold.
We got to the first checkpoint at Lock 11 and had to fumble around to retrieve the checkpoint list, find the hashtag, take the photo and post it. I made a mental note to work on improving this later.
A lot of time and miles later, we hit Swain’s lock and our turnaround point. A banana and some water, along with a photo, and we made the about-face onto the towpath. We had seen the front-runners around mile 13.75, and along with the amazement of how fast they were, came a sense that we were doing pretty well in terms of the pack. We didn’t see a ton of other groups making the turn before us. After we turned, we saw a good crowd, but we started to get a sense of.. “where is everyone?”
The C&O Great Falls Tavern visitor’s center bathrooms earn an MVP award. As we neared them, someone behind us said “they have blow driers.” It was on. We stepped into the bathrooms, and a war zone greeted us. Ruckers sprawled on the wet floor, others wringing shirts out in the sink and drying them in the jet-powered hand driers, thousand-yard stares the norm. We partook of this glory and then resumed our trek south.
Our plan had been to exit the C&O before getting back to the start point. We were told not to do so until we had crossed back into DC. As daylight broke, we were chatting with a couple of other F3 teams, and spirits were higher. We found a pedestrian bridge at a point where we thought it was OK to exit, and we did, having completed just over a marathon on the towpath. A mile or so down the road, we saw “Welcome to DC.” Small mistake, but not one we really gained anything from.
On solid ground
The winding streets to the National Cathedral were also hilly, and that took a toll. We started to appreciate that having to follow traffic signals would slow us down. I went black on water and found a spigot to fill up from. We kept plodding along. Mile 26 had been sub-18; the rest of the distance to the cathedral was closer to 20 min/mile.
We took our picture at the cathedral, and within seconds, my phone died. “No problem, I’ll plug it in as we move and post later.” We headed toward Wisconsin Ave to find breakfast and coffee, stumbling into a Starbucks that narrowly beat out Einstein Bros.
I disappeared into the Starbucks bathroom to do some foot care. I had a hot spot developing on a toe, so I taped it, tried to dry my feet as best I could and changed socks. It felt great. I put on a dry long-sleeved shirt, as I had been bone-chilling cold for the past hour or two. I wished I’d grabbed that poncho to put in my ruck, as the jacket shell wasn’t really doing anything useful for me at that point.
As we were poring over our maps, planning our next few waypoints, a tall guy pouring cream into his coffee offered “hey, if you guys want help with the waypoints, let me know – I used to live here.” It was Jason. Very cool to see him and his team in the trenches with us, doing the same things, and headed to the same next objective. We wrapped up our preparations and headed to the Exorcist Steps. 40 minutes in Starbucks was costly, but it was time well-spent, as we were rejuvenated and ready to attack the course.
The only bad news was that my phone would not take a charge from the USB port. I’d had problems with this in the past and hoped it was just dirty, but no dice. Luckily I got just enough juice in to post the last photo, then we switched to a backup phone.
City waypoints
After Exorcist, we hit Mile Post 0, having asked exactly the right local where to find it (thanks, boat house lady!) We left there just as the waterfront area was being taped off due to the rising waters of the Potomac. At night, we’d heard the roar of the river around Great Falls, and now we understood why. It was a sight to behold.
I had written down the order of the next few waypoints, along with the exact destination and photo requirements, along with the hashtag in my notebook for quick access. This too was time well-spent as it made for quick turnarounds at the waypoints and allowed us to focus any downtime on other priorities of work.
We hit Teddy Roosevelt Island, Arlington, Lincoln Memorial, FDR, and Jefferson next. Then came the long trek down to Hains Point. Our plan had been to go from Hains point to the Supreme Court, seeing that there was a foot bridge off the island to short-cut it. We would then cut back west and do Washington Monument, WW2 memorial, White House and be done.
The grind
As with all plans, this one was subject to change. We saw a lot of teams walking back up the 2-mile path we were descending to Hains Point. I saw Darby and asked “is the footbridge closed?” He nodded an affirmative. Okay. We saw Jason’s team again, as well as a few others we’d been crossing paths with all day. This was one of those moments of shared suffering that GRTs know well. We drew encouragement from those heading back north, and gave it out when we were in their shoes.
Speaking of shoes, I had a few minutes at this point, and we were starting to get worried about our pace. If anything went wrong, or our pace started to suffer, we were in danger of missing the hack. My feet were holding up, and I had the thought that I might need to take an extra ruck for a while, so I took a few minutes at the side of the road to change my socks and put on fresh shoes. I paid for this with an ab muscle cramp when I went to take my sock off – what a wakeup!
Together again, we forged on ahead and decided to save Supreme Court for the last stop before the gym. This was a tough call – to do a very long (3.5mi+) movement now, or to keep it shorter, knock out some quick ones, and then do two back-to-back 2-mile movements to finish. We narrowly chose the latter, even though it meant about a quarter mile longer total distance.
The next few waypoints were a blur; Washington Monument, WW2 Memorial, White House. We all took turns pushing the pace, willing each other on to just keep moving. We wanted to keep some cushion in case one of us cramped up, or had a foot problem.
Last Stop
After speaking with some nice gentlemen from the USSS on Pennsylvania Avenue, we headed toward Supreme Court. (The guys helpfully told us “man that’s like 12 blocks!”) This was tough as we were in the midst of a busy Saturday on the mall, and had to stop in order to cross the street, seemingly every time we had our momentum. I went black on water again at some point here, and was starting to formulate a plan of where to find some, knowing we had a big push ahead.
We reached Supreme Court, and saw a few other teams heading back west. Some were headed to the finish, others needed to go hit the waypoints we’d just come from. At this point I asked TE if he still had that bottle of water I gave him back at Hains, and he did and said I could have it. This was a lifesaver. It’s amazing how the little things like this can have such a big impact. I felt like I could take on the world, me and half a liter of water!
We headed toward the end point and linked up with a few other teams doing the same. Everyone was in similar shape, just trying to keep moving, knowing we were likely to finish. I told the guys to be mentally prepared that when we got to the end point, we’d have to climb stairs or do squats or something. My intuition was right; we found the gym and knew the end point was on the rooftop. There was a sign at ground level saying “ruckers don’t take elevators.” Up we went.
Finish
We reached the top at the same time as two other teams. Volunteers weighed our rucks (mine was at 33lb, with no drinkable water left in it). BD shook our hands, took down our team name, and pointed us to where we’d get our patches and picture taken.
Mocha patched us and took our picture, and we were all smiles. The refreshment tent was classic GORUCK. “Here, take a large pizza. The whole thing. Here’s a beer.”
It was great to see some of the other teams we’d been crossing paths with over the past 20 hours; F3 teams from Tacoma and Grand Strand; the masters team from Texas; colorful characters we noticed; Darby’s TEAMFREEDOMUSA. Seeing Jason and Blayne and the whole GRT community sprawled out on the rooftop with their socks off. I also noticed the absence of some folks I thought I’d see for sure. Maybe they were already gone?
The aftermath
BD and Jason said a few words and revealed that out of 188 teams who started, only 73 had finished. Later on this number would be revised to 64. At that point the gravity of what we’d done started to sink in. We’d been very fortunate not to run into some of the problems that plagued the entire group, and the mental toughness shown by my teammates was apparent.
Jason chatted with us some and asked if we thought it was hard enough. I told him I’d done a Heavy four weeks prior, and that for me it was a toss-up as to which I’d rather do again. I’m still not sure.
Way too many slices of pizza later, and we headed downstairs to find an Uber to take us back to our car. Then on to the hotel (I’m glad my navigational skills on the ruck were better than in Arlington traffic!). We had grand plans earlier of catching some Z’s and then going out for dinner; we slept like the dead.
Take-aways
- Ruck more. Ruck more. Ruck more. In the light, in the dark, in the rain, in the heat.
- Sort out the tech. A waterproof phone case would’ve been helpful.
- Pay closer attention to water. I ended up working harder than I should’ve on keeping topped off. We were not able to resupply in the city as easily as we thought.
- Keep those small stops as short (or nonexistent) as possible. Saving up for a couple of longer breaks is a nice luxury.
- Local knowledge is gold! We were lucky to have worked with a team from DC for a while. Their insider knowledge of which sides of the monuments to approach from, where crosswalks and trails were, and confidence in the route were indispensable.
Notes on preparation
Training
My training plan was basically:
- Do a Heavy on 4/20
- Reverse taper
- Taper
CK and I did a 25-miler together, and I did a couple other long rucks in the run-up to the Heavy. I spent a lot of time in the gym lifting things, and not as much under a ruck as I would’ve liked, but I did a lot of volume. Having done the Heavy and all 44 miles of attendant rucking without foot problems, I felt cautiously optimistic going in to SC001.
Gear
My gear loadout was fairly similar to a Tough: Rucker 25L, enough Tailwind to last me through the event, some Kind and RxBars. I have a somewhat cheap jacket shell, and I grabbed a vinyl poncho knowing that the forecast called for rain.
I usually wear boots for a Tough, but decided to go with my trusty Saucony Breakthru, which I had two broken-in pairs of. I don’t usually take a second pair of shoes, but I did this time. Not sure I would again; a second pair of insoles would be a space-conscious way to do this. I had two extra pairs of socks in the dry bag, again, knowing the wet forecast.
I wore a short-sleeved shirt, shorts, compression shorts. In the dry bag, an extra short-sleeved shirt and a long-sleeved shirt along with the socks.
Tech / Nav
Knowing we would need to navigate and use a smartphone to post updates, I brought two extra battery packs (I also know my Samsung S6 barely lasts through a day normally..) If ever an event called for a Lifeproof or Otter case, this was it; I had neither, just a zipper bag.
A laminated “tourist map” and a folding map went in a gallon zip bag in the outside pocket of the ruck. The maps might’ve gotten more use had it not been raining; I didn’t touch the folding map. The laminated map was well-used. I brought a grease marker for use on said map and didn’t use it much, but I’m glad I took it. At the last minute I grabbed a pen and a Field Notes notebook in my Recycled Firefighter cover. That was a good call.