ARE YOU READY?
One of my favorite questions from people preparing for GORUCK events is, “How do you know if you’re ready?”
While many GRTs and trainers provide detailed metrics—rucking specific distances, weight-lifting benchmarks, burpee counts—I prefer a simpler answer:
You don’t.
And that’s the beauty of it.
EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN
What sets GORUCK events apart is the element of unpredictability. When I showed up for my first Tough, all I knew was what to pack and that we’d be going all night. Despite scouring YouTube and the internet for details, I found surprisingly little information.
In hindsight, I’m grateful for that mystery. Had I known exactly what I was in for, I might never have shown up. I had just completed a Spartan Trifecta—events where you know precisely what to expect—and while I performed well, I felt little satisfaction afterward. Unless you’re competing at an elite level in those events, there isn’t much opportunity for genuine failure.
THE VALUE OF POTENTIAL FAILURE
Think about other endurance challenges: CrossFit competitions, powerlifting meets, Hyrox events, Spartan races, or traditional running and biking races. In most cases, you know the exact distance, route, and obstacles before you begin. You can reasonably predict your performance.
This isn’t to diminish these events—they require serious training, benefit your physical health, and often provide access to supportive communities. All good things.
But GORUCK is different. In most endurance events, you have a level of control that makes true failure difficult to achieve.
And yes, you read that correctly: Failure can be a good thing.
As Nick Lavery wisely puts it, “We learn more through failure than we do through any successes.”
TO THOSE FEELING NERVOUS
For those with butterflies about an upcoming event—that nervousness isn’t just normal, it’s valuable. It signals you’re pushing into territory that matters.
Remember that every person who’s completed this challenge once stood exactly where you are now. If you find yourself struggling during the event, recognize that this is precisely where growth happens. Your teammates won’t remember if you were the strongest or fastest—they’ll remember how you responded when things got tough, how you kept moving forward despite uncertainty.
The possibility of failure isn’t something to fear; it’s the price you pay to move beyond perceived limits and discover your real ones.
Whatever happens in two weeks, you’ll emerge with knowledge about yourself that can’t be gained any other way.
See you at the Start Point.
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