Normandy GORUCK HCL 2015: The Light

Light start point. Omaha Beach D Day Monument

The Normandy GORUCK Light 2015 AAR

After the Challenge wrapped up, Steel had the great idea to get these amazing French donuts (the most amazing chocolate filled eclairs) before making our way back to the team house. Outside of the 50 km ride back to the house I didn't nap (or shower) before the light. I figured I only had another 4-6 hours before the completion of the HCL so i would just suck it up. I refueled with a protein shake, some peanut m&ms, and Pringles. Clearly food for champions 0=)

Good news about the Light: (1) we're almost done with the HCL, (2) i got to remove 2 bricks from my ruck sack (leaving me with 4 bricks), and (3) our two team weights are now only 15 pounds.

The atmosphere of the Light is...well...light. Cadre Montreal did a great job setting the tone and we were all smiling by the time roll call was complete. I'm sure the beers en route helped some of my housemates keep it light.

Roll call.

Cadres Aaron and Dan briefed us again on the defensive and offensive positions of Omaha beach. Great speeches the first and second times hearing it. But by the third time....it was struggling to stay awake. 

The struggle is real. Trying to stay awake during the briefing.

The beach PT during the Light was, by far, my favorite. Perhaps it was the sun. Or perhaps it was because my ruck was lighter. Either way, i had a lot of fun with the beach PT despite it being the longest beach PT session of the HCL.

Lined up in our Higgins boat

Pee break....i'm mean the start of beach PT.

We stormed the beach a few times. The first time we had to make our way down the beach and back with "i'm up, he sees me, i'm down".

The second time we stormed the beach we had to high crawl once we reached the beach. The next few times we stormed the beach we had to low crawl until we heard the cadre say 3-5 second rush. With that command we had to do an "i'm up, he sees me, i'm down".

A few people lifted their head during the low crawl. (During the low crawl your face is down in the sand.) So those people who had they heads up got sniped. The rest of the team had to drag the casualties while low/high crawling.

Buddy drags through the sand

After the beach PT we were told to fill up 14 sandbags with 20 pounds of sand. We learned from the Challenge and we counted the bags on the beach. After we filled the sandbags, Cadre Montreal had us do 5 fireman burpees to clean off. A fireman burpee is where you go chest to deck, roll over to the left, then roll over to the right and then get up. Apparently i didn't get the memo where you can keep your face above water. Oh well, my face got 'clean' too.

I was the dumbass to submerged my head each time. Can you spot me?

We rucked up into the hills where we saw some big ass German gun. Then, we made our way to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. En route Cadre Montreal yelled 'reach'. Our line spread out too far some people were not within reaching distance of the person in front of them. As a penalty we had to do some bear crawls and crab walks prior to being briefed on the Cemetery/Memorial.

Cadre Montreal had a mini scavenger event set up for us in the Cemetery/Memorial. Our first task was to find the tombstone of our teammate's relative who fought in Normandy and was killed in action. Our second task was to find a fallen soldier from the State that we were from, and our final task was to find a headstone that is a Star of David. Cadre Montreal assigned us these three tasks, specifically, so we can take the time to reflect on the enormity of D Day and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

There are 9387 souls buried in this cemetery. Some of the headstones are for those that are 'missing in action'.

"Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God."

Light Endex

The 2015 GORUCK Normandy HCL was an incredible experience. Of course being active and meeting great people is always a good time. But this event, in particular, was remarkable because of the history. Cadres Aaron, Dan, Jason, and Montreal were all really passionate about D Day and the history. Their passion was definitely contagious. I'll be back next year for some more Good Livin'.

HCL #014

Normandy GORUCK HCL 2015: The Challenge

Challenge start point. Utah Beach D Day Monument

The Normandy GORUCK Challenge 2015 AAR

Team House A Photo before the Start of the Challenge

Those of us doing the Normandy HCL had about 5 hours in between events. Just enough time to shower, eat, take about a 1-hour nap, and head out to the Challenge start point (about 50 km away from the team house).

Huge shout out to Sonja and James for shadowing and transporting us between locations. I'm pretty sure i wouldn't have made it through the HCL without you guys.

Tough Challenge Class #1495

The Challenge started with the usual roll call and then some administrative information (e.g., rucks and coupons can't touch the ground, order of the flags, etc.).

The Cadre arranged for the class to talk to Private Jack Port, a recipient of the French Legion of Honor (France's highest award for his actions on Utah beach on D Day. Someone in the class asked him what is the most vivid memory about landing on Utah beach. He basically replied, that they were just kids storming the beach. Even the soldiers on the German side were just kids.

What amazes me about him was how humble he was about his experience on D Day and the fact that he kept challenging the class to arm wrestle him. His generation is often called the greatest generation. He claimed that we are the greatest generation, not him. Again, humble man.

Private Jack Port

After our time with Private Jack Port we followed him to Utah beach for the lantern lighting. We were instructed to form 2 ranks in the following order:

• The flags (2 American flags with big ass flag poles, 1 UK, 1 French Resistance, 1 French, and 1 POW MIA flags)
• Private Jack Port
• The rest of the team

Once we reached the beach the team carried Jack to the lantern lighting (the sand was soft so it was difficult for his family to push his wheel chair). As part of the D Day celebrations, 197 lanterns are lit and released into the air honor the 197 soldiers who died on Utah beach on 6 June 1944.

Utah Beach Lantern Release

Above photo is not mine and is from last year. Photo credit to: http://lorkin.co/utah-beach-lantern-release-commemorating-the-197-soldiers-lost-on-d-day/

We were instructed to make our way down Utah beach, away from the lantern lighting. It was time for some history and some beach PT. Cadre Aaron and Cadre Dan briefed us on offensive and defensive positions of the beach.

You know, experience is a great thing. Before the heavy I was afraid for how cold the water was going to be. After 29 hours my thought process shifted....i mean the water was still cold as fuck but it was survivable. With this new experience my first thought after lining up to get in the Channel was that I was thankful for the opportunity to pee :)

I'm so thankful that they put us in height order with the taller people going further into the Channel. I had a rookie mistake during the Heavy where i was second going into the water. This meant i was over waist deep when we were told to go in so the whole team was knee deep.

Lined up in two Higgins boats

Cadre went in the water with us :)

Our first beach surge was to leave our Higgins boat formation, storm the beach, and climb to the top of the sea wall.

Demo on how to high crawl

Our next few beach surges were to run out of our Higgins boat formation and once we hit the beach to high crawl to the sea wall. We did this another two times. The second and third time we had to also move a casualty that was on a stretcher.

This shit is a lot harder with 40 pounds on your back.

The last part of the beach PT was my favorite. We had a little obstacle course. We had to climb this rock and then high/low crawl our way up and down some hills. Low crawling down a hill with soft sand is a lot of fun. It's like a dry, slightly scratchy, slip-n-slide. You are also left with sand everywhere.

After the obstacle course we had a few minutes of Admin time where we could change clothes/socks and we were instructed to fill 14 sandbags with 40 pounds of sand. The Cadre had a scale and told us that the sandbags were going to be weighed again so we better not come up short.

After the Good Livin' on Utah beach, we were told that the rest of the Challenge would follow the American paratroopers in Normandy. Over 13,000 paratroopers of the 82nd and 101 Airborne divisions made night parachute drops on D Day.

Bee and Steele were our first TLs. They did an outstanding job setting an example and ensured that we had a good plan to meet our time hack (20 min/mile pace for about 4 miles) and to carry all the shit to Saint Marie du Mont. Because we left the beach a little late we had to make up time. This meant that we ended up ruck running part of it. Our team had to carry:

• 6 flags
• 1 stretcher
• 2 team weights (25 pounds each)
• 14 40-pound sandbags
• 1 log (it was our Bangalore)

Fun fact: In 1912 the British Army developed the Bangalore which is a cylindrical metal tube that is filled with explosives. These cylinders can be inserted through barbed wire. During the explosion, the metal is broken into multiple fragments that destroy the iron and opens up a path.

After hustling through the first leg of the this Challenge, we successfully made our time hack. What i learned here is that GORUCK events are about rewards and punishments. Miss your time hack and we get smoked with PT. Make your time hack and we get rewarded. This means either no PT or if the Cadre lets us some Admin time.

We made it to this church and they Cadre briefed us on the history. To be honest, i don't recall the name of church (it wasn't Ste Mere Eglise) or its significance as all my energy was focused on trying to stay warm. Also i learned from my teammates that shivering is good and when you stop shivering that's bad. That means you are going into hypothermia. I was still shivering was that was 'good'.

After our admin time, we got two new team leaders and were informed we needed to move out to the next location (about 6 miles if i recall correctly). We still had to maintain the same pace but the quick pace on the previous segment definitely took it's toll. We had one teammate who embarked upon the HCL with stress fractures in both of her legs, another with IT band syndrome, and another who was puking through the heavy and challenge. We ended up carrying one on the stretcher and the other two were not able to carry as much weight as if they were healthy. That left a lot of us suffering under the sandbags with little relief. BUT WE KEPT PUSHING and made our time hack. Really incredible.

We reach our destination on time (yay, no extra PT). Honestly i can't recall what was at the end of the second segment as any time we stopped i got super cold. (Help me out class, what was here?). We get two more TLs who split us up, initially be height order. The taller folks were put on the Bangalore, stretcher, and sandbags. Since i'm a shorty, i was put on flag crew and to be honest this sucked. I was so cold i just wanted to carry something heavy to create heat.

The team kept pushing with all our weights/'coupons' and our next objective was to make it to the bridge at La Fiere and Chef-du-Point which cross the Merderet River.

Interestingly, the Germans defended the causeways by controlling the lock that controlled the water level in the marches. Rommel ordered the lock's flow valves to be open at high tide and closed at low tide to flood the entire area.

Once on location we were assigned two new TLs with military experience. They were to lead us through an operation of us blowing up the bridge with our sandbags. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole HCL. We had one wave of about 5 people clear the area with their pretend guns. We got into it and even made the sound effects: "pew, pew, pew". The Bangalore and the sandbags followed with another team providing cover fire. The Cadre wanted the smaller people on the sandbags. I'm not necessarily small, but i grabbed a sandbag. Once the Bangalore was placed to create room to get to the bridge we placed the sandbags in 6 locations on the bridge. We had to take cover and we 'detonated' the sandbags with some amazing sound effects.

At this time, the Cadre noticed that we only had 13 sandbags. We were sent to retrieve the sandbags and looked for the 14th. Some thought it fell over but I suspect we only had 13 from the start. Lesson-learned: count your shit before you leave the beach. The Cadre then weighed all the sandbags and we had two sandbags that were under weight. This meant we got to carry those two sandbags the rest of the way. Joy!

From there we made our way to the Endex location: Ste Mere Eglise.

Monument to John Steel who was caught on the church spire during D Day

Cadres Dan and Montreal told us about the story of Private John Steele, an American paratrooper who landed on the church tower in Sainte-Mere-Eglise. This village was the first village liberated by the Americans on D Day. His parachute was caught on one of the pinnacles of the church leaving him hanging there on the side of the church. Although wounded, he hung there limply for hours pretending to be dead before the Germans took him prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his divisions.

A little PT at the Endex

Cadre Dan told us that we had to do a little PT and depending on how well we performed the Challenge would be complete. We worked our way through the PT as Cadre Dan quizzed us on what we've learned throughout the Challenge. Collectively, we were pretty bad at this test.

We made all of our time hacks. Great job everyone.

Lessons-learned from the Challenge:

• Rucking is pretty easy. Rucking fast is fucking hard. Especially with my short ass legs.
• Beach PT is fun
• Count your sandbags
• Bring both Advil and Tylenol. If in a lot of pain, these two can be cycled back and forth so that you do not exceed the daily dose.
• Always bring warm clothes because it sucks to be cold.
• Paratroopers are badass!
• People are right. The hardest part of an HCL is showing up to the challenge. 
• It's your job to stay close to the person in front of you. Keeping a steady quick pace is better than occasionally running to catch up. This is especially true when you are carrying heavy shit.

Challenge Class #1495

GORUCK Dublin 2015: Heavy After Action Review (AAR)

Heavy Class 062

It's been a little over a week since my first GORUCK event and, therefore, time for a little reflection. What is kind of funny is that when I returned to Vienna, I watched a short YouTube video by the GORUCK founder explaining the different event patches. When he starts to explain the Heavy patch, he says:

"This is not where you want to start. 24+ hours of the ultimate team event. If you haven't done a challenge I really, really, highly recommend that you NOT start here. We have more time with the heavy so we can expect more: teamwork, leadership, communication."

Well F%&K me... I definitely did not see this video prior to signing up for the GORUCK Dublin Heavy. It's a good thing I had the privilege to be on a team with some bona fide bad asses. Multiple people on the team have finished over 5 challenges. One beast (and I mean that as a compliment) finished 14 challenges. We even had a Selection finisher among us. Simply Amazing.

The Heavy

First and foremost, let me say that the GORUCK community is absolutely incredible. Even before the event there was so much camaraderie. I've never been around such an inclusive group before.

My ruck weighed in at 35.2 pounds dry and over 40# with liquids added. The team weight was a 50# sandbag and we had two flags (American and Irish).

All packed up and ready to go

35.2 pounds of Good Livin'

We started at 17:00 with roll call and there are 12 of us there. Many more registered but for one reason or another many did not turn up to the start. Perhaps they couldn't find the rugby pitch or CrossFit Fianna. Cadre Brian and Cadre Logan introduced themselves and provided some event background information (the ‘scare brief’) while inspecting our rucks. Then, they took all of our electronics and watches for the event. Good times.

Yes, it was as cold as it looked...and it only got colder!

I should mention that the Cadre told us that if we quit during the team portion of the Heavy we would have to first tell the cadre that we wanted to quit and then we would have to explain to the team that we wanted to drop. Wow, guilt is a powerful motivator to keep going. And when that fails, and you have a strong team, the team is there to support you.

Our first task was the "Physical Readiness Test". It's the only individual portion of the Heavy. This test consisted of 2 minutes of push-ups (US Army standards), 2 minutes of sit-ups (US Army standards), and a 12 mile ruck march in less than 3 hours with all the team shit. (Side note: I forgot that the standard was not chest to deck but rather chest to one fist above the deck…oh well I got a little stronger with the more rigorous standard.) Our ruck march ended up being 15 miles with about 5 miles at 40% grade up hill. Damn. Oh, and at the start of the ruck march the Cadres said "this is the individual component of the Heavy. No talking. No encouragement." Double Damn. We were sandwiched in between the two cadres: one was setting the ideal pace for the group and the other was pacing the cutoff time.

2 minutes of unbroken pushups. I got 43 with no warm up. That was a PR.

2 minutes of unbroken situps. I think i got 58. This was not a PR. I blame the tabata GHD situps earlier in the week.

The start of our timed ruck

For me, the timed ruck march was the most difficult task of the whole Heavy. I need to somehow learn how to walk faster with my short legs. While we were on level ground I was able to keep up by alternating between walking as fast I could and jogging. By the time we started to hike up the mountain it was clear that the jogging part of my strategy was going to be really tough. To make matters worse, at about 1/3 of the way up the mountain I realized that I already drank my 3 liters of water. Fuck! Thankfully the cadre allowed me to drink from a shadow's water bottle. During this ruck march we had a drop because his ruck malfunctioned. We were down to 11 people.

Somehow, I made it through that ruck march and to the top of the mountain. We had incredible views of Dublin along the way, but to be honest I couldn't really appreciate it as I was caught up in my own head:
• You ran out of water
• You’re only 1/8 of the way into the event
• You already have blisters on both feet
• You’re cold.

It was night time when we were there so this image of Cairn at Fairy Castle is from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fairy_Castle_Cairn_and_Trig_Pillar.jpg. 

I probably would have cried on top of that mountain if my tear ducts were not frozen (joking…sort of). If we weren't in the middle of nowhere, then I may have dropped and grabbed a cab back to the comfy and warm bed at the Gresham hotel. It’s a good thing we were in the middle of nowhere because once the team portion started the event actually became fun.

Before we hiked down the mountain, Cadre Brian pointed to this dark area in Dublin (we would later find out it's a Phoenix Park) that we would be hiking to. He also told us that from that point on it's about the team and we needed to tighten up. The rucks are not supposed to touch the floor and could not be supported by an inanimate object.

The hike down the mountain was a lot better than the hiked up. Yay for gravity! So glad i didn't drop!

As we marched to the park we found a gas station that was open and we were able to refill our water bladders. We also got our first PT session with jumping jacks, 8-count body builders, 7-count man makers, mountain climbers, and flutter kicks all with the ruck. I much prefer the PT sessions to the mountain hike.

After our PT session we continued to march to the park with a few stops sprinkled in to learn 1-person and 3-person buddy carries, do few sprints, and learn some commands:

• "straps" - the straps to our rucks could not be used and we had to carry the ruck by hugging it or by carrying it on top of one shoulder.
• "reach" - where within a 10 count you had to touch the person's ruck in front of you. I say a 10 count instead of 10 seconds because at times cadre would count really fast.
• "high boat" - walk with your ruck overhead with arms locked out.

At the time, this little command game was a sucky kind of fun. But in retrospect, it kept our minds active in the middle of the night so there was a method to the madness.


After the command game, the cadre assigned a team leader and told us who the "casualties" were (meaning they could not carry their ruck and the team had to carry them). The team leader a certain amount of time to formulate a game plan (on the order of 1-2 minutes). We continued to march throughout the night with the cadre rotating the team leader and casualties. We, of course, had more PT along the route with bear crawls and reverse bear crawls up and down steps. That got spicy fast!


We finally arrive to the park around sunrise and had a nice PT session. There's nothing like some bear crawls, crab walks, duck walks, lunges, seals/walruses, and monkey f&$kers to start the morning. After the PT session, the two Cadre switched off and Cadre Logan assigned a new team leader. This time, only the team leader knew our destination. We had to get to this location within a certain amount of time (I think we had 1 hour 25 minutes but I can't remember exactly). In fact, we really just had to move as fast as possible because we didn't actually have a watch to check our progress. We were 11 people and we had 3 casualties to deal with. So that's 8 people left to carry the 3 casualties, their rucks, the team weight, and two flags. Good times. This was a character builder and tested our team strength. The team was strong and did not waver at all.

Needless to say we missed our time check. Cadre Logan asked the team leader how much time would we need to get to the target. Moving forward we would now "only" have two casualties. He said "part of being a good team leader is knowing what your team is capable of at any given time". We had to pay for the extra time in reps of PT. We were also told that if we missed the next time check, the cost of more time would be more expensive. The team leader settled on 55 minutes and we were told it would be 5 reps per minute. We did a mixture of seated military press, squats, and flutter kicks to pay for our time. We made the next time check with a few minutes to spare. Go team!

Cadre Logan had to leave us at that point due to a family emergency and Cadre Brian was back to lead us through some more Good Livin'. At this time we also learned that one of our teammate's IT band was flaring up and the only way he could walk was with his leg in full lock out. This guy is a real badass and so mentally strong!

In the park, Mother Nature gifted the team a water soaked log. Joy! When I say this log was heavy....I mean this log was fucking heavy! Cadre had us pick the log up and told us 1) the log had to stay up and 2) he has a distance in mind so it doesn't matter how long we are carrying it for. Thankfully part of the rotting tree broke off so it made it a little lighter. It was lightER...it definitely wasn't light. We carried that log through the woods and even around this little gully near a road bridge. I thought we were going to fall into that gully! This was an extreme test for the team. We kept getting to this point where some of us would be hunched over so that our muscles were absorbing most of the weight. Cadre taught us how, in a coordinated fashion, we could all pop the log up and stand up so our bone structure could take more of the weight instead of our musculature. We needed team work for this because no one person was strong enough to stand the log up on their own.

"I'm up....he sees me..."

"...i'm down"

That damn log! So heavy!

Low crawls...

After the log exercise we start to march back towards the start point. Cadre took us through more PT, walking lunges, more casualties, and command games along the way back. Honestly most of the long walk back to the start location was a blur to me.

The start of the long walk

90 degrees...wow my hamstrings were tight!

6 inches

That moment Cadre tells you to push your rucks away...

I do have a few lessons-learned from my first GORUCK Heavy:

• Sip your water; don't gulp it as you don't know when you'll have an opportunity to refill it. 
• The body can accomplish a lot if the mind is committed to the task. In the event your body fails you, there is a team that has your back. 
• "Suffer in silence" - this is a new favorite motto of mine. At my gym, people tend to get caught up in grunting, panting, talking about how 'hard' their workout was, etc. What I learned during the Heavy is that that kind of talk is a lot of wasted energy. You have to embrace the suck and suffer in silence because everyone is suffering. Vocalizing the pain, difficulty, and frustration doesn't help the team. Energy is contagious: Both positive and negative. As cadre says, you have “find a reason to win”.

At the end of it, the 11 people who started the team portion finished. Normally, the GORUCK Heavy has a 50% drop rate. That speaks to the strength of this particular team. We went 52 miles in 21 hours. We got stronger together. We tackled different challenges together as a team. 

The look of victory! (or exhaustion)

We started the event as strangers but left as friends.

Here's a map to give you a sense of the distance traveled in 21 hours. Our rough path was: start at CrossFit Fianna then hiked along the water before going to Fairy Castle. From Fairy Castle we hiked to Phoenix Park and stayed there for a while doing PT and rucking to different points. Then we headed back to CrossFit Fianna.

My feet took a beating!

But it could always be worse...

I'm definitely hooked on these events. I survived the Dublin Heavy in large part due to the strength of the team. As I look forward to the HCL in Normandy (that’s back to back to back Heavy, Challenge, and Light events), I want to do more than just survive it. I want to excel by being more prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically.


Pictures taken by Marie Louise Brand, David L Thomas