“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary
Three PAX from F3RVA, NTB, Pad Thai, and L Woods, traveled to Cary, North Carolina for GTE 59, led by Cadres PowerClean and Uncle Rico.
For NTB and Pad Thai, this was their second GrowRuck after Richmond’s event last year. For L Woods, it was a first—completely new territory. After Friday night’s rally, the group started off with the KingBuilder at Carpex AO Shaken Not Stirred in Bond Park.
At 6:00 PM, the adventure began. L Woods was immediately thrown into the fire as Platoon Leader, learning how to form up, march two by two, and lead a unit on the move. After a few rough starts, the group found rhythm and launched into the darkness.
The first stop was a gym, where the PAX rotated through stations: tire flips, sled pulls, box step-ups, air bike, medicine ball slams, and dead hangs.
Stopping at an elementary school 5 hours into the event- we did the PT test. A minimum of 40 hand release merkins and 50 butterfly situps, along with a two mile run to boot.
After rucking back to Bond Park, the Cadres had us link arms and crawl into one of the nastiest ponds in the area. Pad Thai took over as Platoon Leader and led a brutal overnight grind through downtown Cary, which included a three-man sandbag “snake,” a two-man 120-pound carry, and a mix of 60–80 pound bags that made everyone dig deep.
At Cary High School, we dropped the sandbags—only to pick up something worse: a 500-600 pound log that had to travel a quarter mile. Every man took a turn. After it was finally cast into the woods, we picked the sandbags back up and moved on toward the Cary War Memorial.
There, PowerClean gave a powerful talk before calling for a Laredo: two laps, 24 merkins, 24 squats, 24 lunges, repeated until it hurt.
As the sun rose, we rucked back to Bond Park, rotating sand bags. The Cadres had one last test—two simulated casualties that had to be carried across the soccer fields. NTB took one of the larger PAX over his shoulder. Once we arrived at the evac point, the rest formed a protective circle on the ground.