10 Mile Ruck With A Bacon And Eggs Chaser

Had an outstanding morning here in Comal County, America. There are now 68 days until the Mountain Man Memorial March in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The group training, as far as the actual rucking is concerned, is beginning to get a wee bit taxing mileage wise. Good news is though, the rucks will get only longer as the weeks progress.

When I think about trying to "Live In The Arena", a significant portion of that involves interacting with like minded individuals. Hanging out with friends and good people to put it simply. If I'm going to get up at 0500 on a Sunday morning to go train for the next "mission", it sure is nice to do it with friends. When I got out of the Army back in '98, it did not take me long to realize the camaraderie you sense in the military is tough to come by in the civilian world. As a civilian, you really have to go search for it. I was lucky to find Comal CrossFit, because of the genuine camaraderie to be found there.

We are taking a big group to the Smoky Mountains in April, and a full dozen of us were able to make it for the training this morning. This course started at Brandon Bonser's house just like the last training did. We all finished in good time, and Brandon even invited us in his home to cook breakfast once we finished. A ruck followed by bacon and eggs. It was a good morning.

Twelve Ruckers for 10 Feb 2012: Photo By Ryder Bonser

It is no doubt that our tech-infused society has changed us. We communicate all the time through electronic devices, but the face to face human contact with other individuals has diminished. Email, texting, Facebook, blogs (even this one), and all that other stuff is good...but heck, some old fashioned face to face time with one another is even better. That's one of the great things about training for the Mountain Man Memorial March. You get to spend time with some good people. It is all about the process.

When we scheduled these rucks on Sunday mornings, we thought it would be good if we had a short devotional and prayer to get things going. A fellow rucker, Todd Burgess read this morning about how life is, in a sense, a race. We just need to ensure that we are running for the "big prize" so to speak. It sure would be unfortunate to break our backs racing up the ladder of life, only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall.

It's my sincere hope that we all do our best to run the good race, and that we are blessed enough to have some good folks around us to run the race with. So until next time, let's run to win.


"Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize."