AAR: GORUCK 50 Mile Star Course New York City

This AAR is a follow-on to a podcast AAR that we did together the morning after the event in Central Park. You can access my podcast on multiple platforms here. The AAR is Episode 21.

Earlier this year in April 2019, my wife and I traveled a few hours south to Columbus, OH and tackled our first GORUCK Star Course 50-Miler and second 50 mile ruck together, the first being in the summer of 2018 at the Eagle Up Ultra in Canal Fulton, OH. That was a very different event that was 10 flat 5-mile loops on crushed limestone whereas the Star Course involves sidewalks, hills and every kind of surface you can imagine in a big city. Columbus beat us up pretty bad physically so we had a handful of lessons-learned to make things right this time around. While my wife had vowed not to do another 50 mile ruck, we just couldn't say no to NYC, a city we love to visit together. It would be very different than Columbus where "normal" people sleep overnight. NYC would be sure to be alive throughout the night...and it was.

Logistics: we didn’t know the Start Point location until close to the event date but thanks to the public transportation on the island, we opened up our aperture for where to stay and opted for an Airbnb a good bit north in the little village (~ 7800 in population) of Hastings-on-Hudson. We found a Tiny House in someone’s backyard and since we’re fans of this way of living (at least up until this trip!), we decided to capitalize on the the opportunity and stay there. We left for the 6 ½ hour trip to NYC on Friday morning of the event, leaving plenty of time to get into the city and make our way to the 9pm start.

We got to the city in plenty of time but my stress level quickly shot through the roof as our location wasn’t near (or so I thought) any major train or subway station. We ended up leap-frogging a few Lyfts to get near the Start Point which was just south of the Bronx, on Randalls Park Island, east of Manhattan. I found a brewery, Bronx Brewery, a 1 mile walk from the start and we decided to get a Lyft there, enjoy a flight together and a pizza. This was a smart call as it got us close to the start with plenty of time to spare. Around 7pm, we walked over to the Start Point.

Training: We do CrossFit together in our garage 5 days a week under the leadership of Pat Sherwood and his affiliate, CrossFit Linchpin. Outside of this, we ruck on our own here and there and occasionally go long and by long, I mean 12 or so miles at the most. We feel that our ace in the hole is our background covering this distance twice before as well our dedication to the CrossFit methodology. Overall, we’re in the fittest condition of our lives at 46 years old and felt that together, nothing would keep us from finishing this and finishing it well. That’s really it. We didn’t follow any GORUCK training plan or any training plan, for that matter. We just do CrossFit and regularly put those rucks on our backs, even if for a few miles on a date night.

In our Rucks: Here is one change we made in comparison to Columbus…how we loaded out our rucks. The weight requirement is 20lbs for those 150lbs or more which we both are. That’s non-consumable weight so food and water can’t count. At home, I grabbed a 10lb plate from the garage and some 5s and 2.5s. This allowed us to build our weight slowly AND distribute that weight around the ruck instead of all in one spot… e.g. on our lower back. So what would I want at the finish? Flip-flops and a dry shirt. I packed them. I also had my waterproof pelican case with my wallet, headlamp, and replacement batteries. That’s about it before the consumables. For that, I carried a full 3L water bladder that weighs 7lbs, a bag of beef jerky, 6 or so gels, lubricant, some salt tabs, a handful of grapes, Triscuits, and 5 or so Cuties. I carried all the food and she carried only her weight, about 6 small bottled waters, Nuun electrolyte tabs, plus her flip flops and a few fresh shirts and a sweatshirt if it got chilly. I weighed in at 22lbs before the consumables. So with it? Probably around 30-31lbs. In Columbus, my fully loaded ruck weighed 37lbs. Once we were all weighed in by the cadre, I took a 5lb plate from her which bumped me up to near-Columbus weight but lowered her burden. This is completely permissible as the Star Course is a TEAM EVENT vs. individual.

Navigation: Here’s another big one. First off, we used the Road Warrior app in both cities and upgraded to the Pro Version for $5.00 then canceled it after the event to prevent another charge after a month. This is one of many apps in the app store where you can add in waypoints/coordinates and have the app “optimize” the most efficient route to take. I was totally unfamiliar with the app prior to using it in Columbus. This time, I made up routes using the app in the week prior to the event to play with the settings because how the settings are set has a HUGE impact on the data it gives you and thus, a monumental impact on your event and the miles covered. The overall point of the event is to hit every waypoint in the fastest way possible and on foot, that’s going to be the shortest as well. In the app, we set it as follows: Round Trip, Avoid Tolls, Avoid Ferries, Shortest Distance (vs. Fastest).

Road Warrior App

Navigation #2: 5 min prior to 9pm, the Cadre gave us the hit list (see images at the end of this AAR)…. Or the way point list. They were listed in random order, all included a required hashtag, and any specifics about the waypoint and if required, what exactly had to be in the photo. At each waypoint, all team leaders had to text a photo of the team, at the waypoint, with the required hashtag. This text went to GORUCK HQ who responded each time, confirming receipt. Just recently, GORUCK transitioned to this from using Instagram...a very welcome change! It was great to get those confirmation texts and I’m sure, much easier to track for HQ and bring more integrity to the event. So back to the Hit List. We went and found some good light to sit down and go through it. It is CRITICAL to know your route before you take one step. Double/Triple check it. Make sure it makes sense and you agree on it. So she read off each way point and I searched for it in the Road Warrior app and added it to the list one at a time. Sometimes, the app won’t find what the list says. That’s where Google Maps saves the day over and over again. Take St. Patrick’s Cathedral, for example. Neither app found an address for it. So to take out any possibility of plotting another cathedral in the city (yea, there are just a few churches in NYC), I grabbed the address of Florsheim Shoes next to it and used that address in Road Warrior. BOOM. The same went for the Charging Bull at Wall St. That bull has no address…but the Planet Fitness right next to it sure does. Never, ever guess when plotting the route. Take the time to do it right the first time. So once we input all 20 waypoints, we hit “Optimize.” This orders the route and if we set it up right, it’s a circle of sorts as it’s round trip. And right here is the BIGGEST lesson learned from Columbus: identify the longest stretches and do them first. In Columbus, we had a LONG 12 mile stretch after we had already rucked 30 miles and it was along a busy highway in the heat. It was absolutely miserable and felt like it would never end. This time, our goal was to chop off big miles early while we’re fresh. That route took us north into some very shady areas but would take us south in the morning when we’d enjoy the awesome sights of Manhattan and Brooklyn in the daylight. We had our plan! We then numbered the waypoints on the Hit List (don’t forget a pen!) and double/triple checked we hadn’t missed anything. A sanity/gut check is necessary from everyone to make sure nothing is missed. So we were off…at 9:27pm.

The early miles went very well. We first headed north to Yankee Stadium, then further north to Inwood Hill Park before heading south to General Grant’s Museum. In those 3 waypoints alone, we had passed by the benchmark 12mi ruck distance and felt great. The cadre were all camped out at the Museum checking folks in and supplying water, Gatorade and cuties. In that 12 miles, we smelled more marijuana than either of us had ever smelled, saw countless street parties, one barber shop after another packed out well past midnight, one skunk, men playing dominos on folding tables in the middle of the sidewalk, and plenty of seemingly mischievous things going down and all we did was move smartly by and avoid eye contact. After saying our goodbyes to the Cadre, we moved east towards the northern part of Central Park and rucked across the top of it. This is where we found the first homeless in great numbers on the benches and a few fat, nasty raccoons giving them a hard time. At the opposite end, the NE corner of the Park is Duke Ellington’s statue, our 4^th stop. It was then we broke a few laws. Little did we know, but Central Park is closed from 1am-6am. Our route took us through it and dang, it was DARK! By the time we emerged from that darkness, New York’s finest rolled on by and asked us to leave which was no problem! The exit was just ahead as was the Firemen’s Memorial near the Hudson River in the back of a residential neighborhood. After that, we moved on back towards Central Park and about halfway down on the west side of it where the Museum of Natural History is...think "Night at the Museum." Out front is a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt on his horse, our next waypoint. Moving on from there to the southwest corner of the Park, opposite Duke Ellington, is Columbus Circle. Nothing really special about this, except a super busy intersection, just not in the middle of the night. Our next waypoint was one of my favorites, the USS Intrepid museum. As a Navy guy previously stationed on aircraft carriers, it was amazing to see her lit up in the wee hours of the morning. Absolutely beautiful!

Firemen's Memorial

President Roosevelt Statue at the Museum of Natural History

At this point, we made a bee line east towards the center of Manhattan...Times Square. If you've ever been there, you've seen the neon flag at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station. That was our next waypoint. Talk about a quiet Times Square. Never have we seen so few people! Still, though...totally lit up! From there, it was time head on south towards the financial district and Washington Square to find the massive arch that graces it's northern entrance, a clear copy of the Arc de triomphe in Paris, France. We had a friendly homeless guy try to befriend us but we had a mission to accomplish so south we went out of there, headed towards Ground Zero which is more on the western side of lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, the memorials where the twin towers once stood were blocked off and guarded in the middle of the night so we couldn't even get close. Just past them, our waypoint was the American Response Monument that was up on a walkway above street level...blocked off. So, a photo of it in the distant background had to do. We passed a few teams here who were taking a breather. This waypoint is a horse statue and dedicated to the first U.S. Special Forces who responded to the attacks of 9/11 and went forward to hunt down the Taliban. After this, we headed do the southern waterline at Battery Park. If you've been to NYC and caught a ferry over to Lady Liberty or Ellis Island, there is a good chance you picked it up here. In Battery Park was our next waypoint, the World War II East Coast Memorial. It is a series of giant tablets with the names of fallen service members who died in the western Atlantic during WWII. In its center and in the back is a giant eagle. This memorial looks over the water towards the Statue of Liberty which, let me tell you, was absolutely breathtaking. She was fully lit up, there was a light breeze blowing, a ripple in the river, and the ultimate feeling of peace. There was no one but us. All we really wanted to do was to take off our rucks, take a seat, and just soak it all in. But...we had to get going. This was definitely my wife's favorite waypoint. On to the Charging Bull of Wall Street!

Times Square

Washington Square Arch

Statue of Liberty

East Coast Memorial

Charging Bull at Wall Street

After a short jaunt north to the Bull, we quickly set off on one of our longest stretches south into Brooklyn. Daybreak was coming soon and it couldn't have been better timed with our crossing of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Bustling with runners, bikers, photographers and even a few brides in their dresses getting photographed, we just loved crossing into Brooklyn at sunrise. Of course, we took lots of photos, too. I had just picked up the iPhone 11 Pro Max and it did not disappoint! This stretch was about 4.2 miles which normally, is easy. However, at this point of our event, north of 30 miles, definitely took its toll. We were blessed to have the surroundings we did, though. This was yet another reason why we went north first. We'd rather be here in daylight vs. up north in the daylight.

Sunrise from the Brooklyn Bridge looking over to Manhattan Bridge

My bride getting her ruck on!!!

Chick-Fil-A Brooklyn

Once we finally passed over the river into Brooklyn, we bee-lined it to the Soldier-Sailor Monument which was yet another arch! BUT FIRST....about halfway down the road that led there, we passed a Chick-Fil-A on our right. Snacks only take us so far and as HUGE fans of CFA, we very quickly made the executive decision to enter, order, and sit down for breakfast together. A real meal! Wow, it was incredible and so appreciated! We rucked out of there with a reborn pep in our step! We also appreciated clean bathrooms. They really are a premium in NYC. So shortly after 7:30am, we continued on south towards the arch. 

While we hadn’t seen any teams in a while, we ran into two teams at the Arch but once we turned around and headed back north, we never saw them again. 2.4 miles after our turn, we made a stop at a fire station where a GORUCK flag hung over their ladder truck, we snapped our pic and moved on towards Jane’s Carousel, a short 0.7 mile away. Jane’s Carousel has a pretty cool history and one that is somewhat personal. It’s an old-school restored carousel with 48 carved wooden horses from Northeast Ohio, specifically the now extinct Idora Park. It was an amusement park in Youngstown, OH from 1899 to 1984. My parents rode that carousel when they were dating. I’m not sure if I rode it as a child but I definitely went to Idora Park. The carousel was built in 1922 in Philadelphia and later installed at the park. On our last trip to NYC with our girls, we visited the Carousel and rode it. Not today, though! A pic, check-in with HQ and we were on our way back to Manhattan, this time via the seemingly never-ending Manhattan Bridge.

Jane's Carousel

This is a photo I took while crossing the Manhattan Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge, One World Trade Center…I just love it. I also took on my wife’s ruck for the trip across the bridge. She needed a recharge and I was happy to provide it. Plus, we could move faster when we did this, even if for a short period. It mixed things up for us and kept the pep in our step! Once over, we landed in China Town and kept moving toward’s McSorley’s Ale House, NYC’s oldest continuously operated saloon…since 1854! This is when the end started coming into focus. TWO more waypoints and it’s off to the finish. First up…the incredible St Patrick’s Cathedral which recently finished a major facelift and restoration. This journey north was much more NYC-like in terms of moving in massive throngs of people through intersections that NYC is known for. Hopefully we didn’t stink too bad! Our visit was quick at St Pat’s but we’d return the following day for a more relaxed visit.

Now…this big final push was one I had told my wife that was around 4 ½ miles long. I plotted it in Google Maps and I was off. It was 5.1 miles. From there, it was 2.4 miles to the finish…so 7.5 to go. We were nearly out of water and she was beat down. I told her “There is no shame in letting me take your ruck. We’re a team. We move the weight together and do it together. Let me help you and you can recharge. Just keep up with me.” And that was that. For the next 3.5 miles, I cranked it up a notch with about 50-ish pounds on my back, and we charged over the Queensland Bridge into Queens. Now that felt like a bridge that would never end. Plus, it was a squeeze on the pedestrian bridge over. Runners, bikers…and us. I sucked every drop of water I had out of my bladder on the way over and once over, we dropped into the first convenience store we saw and spent a worthwhile $3.80 on a gallon of water. We were both out and we’d nearly polish that off on the way to the finish. Shortly after, I shed her ruck and we were off headed north in the hot sun. Our final waypoint was in a northern Queens park with Randall Park Island to the north over the water and the Hellgate Bridge to the east. Our photo had to include that bridge so we had to go deep enough in to get it. Once we did and we did our final check-in, we were off to the finish. But first…

We had to summit yet another bridge to get onto the island where our Cadre waited with cold Budweiser’s and patches…and pizza. By the time we reached the pedestrian path, we had 1.7mi to go. We put smiles on our faces and charged on…together. “Get to the top of the bridge and then it’s downhill to the finish.” My wife says often: “Just do the next thing.” That was more appropriate now than ever. Break it up into pieces, crush them, and move on to the next. Once off the bridge, we passed on through a few parking lots before walking just past Icahn Stadium where we spotted the GORUCK pop-up tent. The island was hopping with sports events and lots of fans…and thus, the smell of marijuana returned. I didn’t miss that! Mocha Mike greeted us back at the tent, shook our hands while giving us our patches, and most-welcome hugs for another Star Course finish. He also greeted us at the finish in Columbus where he lives…but he grew up right there in NYC. We finished in 16hrs, 39min, 40sec. 87 people and 31 teams started. 70 people and 28 teams finished. We were the 10^th team of 28 teams and she the 4^th woman out of the only 8 female finishers. We were also 30min+ faster than Columbus but since we don’t know exact mileages for the two cities, we don’t compare the two as it’s apples and oranges.

At the highest point of the bridge, heading to the FINISH. Hellgate Bridge behind us.

FINISHED!

Removing our shoes for our beloved flip-flops, we were thrilled to see zero blisters. Not one. Our foot care worked and it worked on mostly concrete walking surfaces having never unlaced our shoes once. Even better is that we felt no chafing on our bodies. I mean..we were sore. Sure. But we were far from broken and scarred. We didn’t just finish, we CRUSHED it and did it right…TOGETHER. After laying around a bit, enjoying some pizza and the company of fellow finishers, we began the slowest walk of our lives with our rucks 1 mile to the Bronx Brewery for a normal glass of that Imperial IPA I had the day prior. So good. From there, we grabbed a Lyft back to our Tiny House up north.

Key Takeaways:

• Do nothing new on event day. Nothing. Nutrition, socks, underwear, lubrication, shoes, shirt, shorts…practice it all prior. I wore my trusty and old Inov8 Roclite 290s, a very old pair of Darn Tough socks, Born Primitive athleisure underwear, Prana shorts, and a tri-blend Rogue Fitness t-shirt. On my feet, I lubed them with Body Glide and one baby teaspoon of my lubricant powder. I also used “nip-guards” to prevent bloody nipples and the Body Glide anywhere skin would rub together or the ruck would rub…shoulders and lower back. I never once reapplied Body Glide or the powder.
  

  

• Download the app and practice with it. Know the settings and make sure you’re confident in its functionality.

• Know your role on the team. Who’s the navigator? Not everyone is good at navigating and some are experts at it. Decide who is doing what before you even show up at the event.

• Eat Well: garbage in = garbage out. We didn’t carry much food but what we did have was quality and fueled what we were doing. Again, don’t introduce new things. You don’t want stomach issues during the event. It is very poor planning to carry nothing. This isn’t a 5K and your body AND mind needs nutrition in order to function and function well.

• Enjoy it! We don’t take for granted this opportunity to do something epic and do it together. We’re closing in on 27 years of marriage next month and crushing this together AND walking away from it unscathed just sweetens it all. We actually ended up in Manhattan the next day covering lots of miles doing touristy things. We really felt amazing.

Thanks for reading about our journey in the Big Apple! Keep scrolling down to see images of our Hit List.

Note: If you’re on Instagram, I have archived the many IG videos I posted throughout the event on my profile page as a “Highlight.” Simple click on Star Course NYC to watch video and check-in posts from throughout the event. IG: garageboxnick