CrossFit KOP

What is the GORUCK Challenge? 

Think of it as guided tour of the best a city and its surrounding environs has to offer. Your Cadre will be the finest military professionals in the world - Green Berets, Recon Marines and Navy Special Warfare personnel. Their goal, to teach you the leadership lessons they’ve learned serving in the nation’s most elite units, in the world’s harshest environments.

The GORUCK Challenge is a team event, never a race. Think of it as a slice of reality found in the most elite schools in Special Operations. Leadership is taught, leadership is demanded. Physical strength and endurance are important parts of the Challenge, but mental toughness and the ability to gel with your teammates will determine your success.

GORUCK HQ advertises the Challenge as “8-10 hours and 15-20 miles of Good Livin’”. You can expect, however, that your Cadre will under-promise, and over-deliver.

Upon successful completion of your Challenge, you and your teammates join the GRT family and earn the GORUCK Tough patch - which can ONLY be earned and will NEVER be for sale.

If your idea of fun is the same as my idea of fun, the GORUCK Challenge is for you. The next Philly GORUCK challenge is October 6, 2012, and you can check out the website here:https://www.goruckchallenge.com/Events/Details?id=52 Note that $10 of every registration goes to the Green Beret Foundation, a cause close to our hearts.

Here's what KOP's very own Mike Petrizzo has to say about the GORUCK Challenge: 

"I’ve completed GORUCK Challenges in Philadelphia (023, 080 and 165), New York City (063) and Raleigh (115). As one of my teammates put it, the Challenges are excellent training “for life”. For me, the Challenge taught me how to push past what I perceived to be my physical and mental limits, how to keep my wits about me in an exhausted state when all hell is breaking loose, how to step back, analyze a situation and approach it with targeted and (in the most positive way) violent intent, and, most importantly, how to function both as a member of a team and team leader. These lessons have made me more effective in my career, and a better father, husband and friend.

Speaking of friends, the relationships you develop at a GORUCK Challenge will last much longer than the 12 – 16 hours (remember what I said about under-promising and over delivering?) of the Challenge.

I’ve seen many strong and lasting relationships born from the GORUCK Challenge, both at a personal and professional level. Members of the GORUCK Tough community share advice and experience on professional matters, ratchet up the Good Livin’ to include other extreme organized events both within GORUCK (such as Scavenger, Selection, Trek, Beached, and others) and outside of GORUCK (such as SealFit and Spartan Death Race). We come together to raise money for charity – both military and non-military related. We occasionally get together to do things . . . well . . . just because (anyone up for 4,000 Ways to F**k Up a 10 Mile Run on August 11th?)

Most importantly, there’s always a group of GRTs somewhere simply sitting back talking about life and enjoying a cold beverage or two.

You can find out more by attending the free GORUCK WOD at CrossFit King of Prussia on August 26th at 11:00 a.m., going to http://www.goruckchallenge.com/, or by chatting up a local GRT."