If you are still unsure whether you want to take the GORUCK Challenge, please read my good friend Patrick Rhone (of Minimal Mac fame) post about it.
He managed to capture the essence of the Challenge, the why we do this. His post is, for lack of a better word, beautiful.
Thank you Patrick for writing this.
After it was all said and done, and she gave me back my jacket, she said that if not for having it she surely would have quit. What she likely does not realize, and what I hope to make clear, is that keeping her from quitting is what got me through. If I had not given her the jacket I might have quit too.
I’ve heard more than a few Cadre in the course of my research about the Challenge tell the teams, "Look at the person to the left of you. Look to the person on the right. This is not about you. It’s about them!"
These words kept running through my head every time I wanted to give up. If I quit, I was not really letting myself down. I was letting down my teammates who I had pledged to be there for. Conversely, if I had quit, in a way I would be telling them they let me down. This idea rang no more true to me than when I gave Ayn my jacket. It was not about me, it was about her.