GoodFriday: On chosen pain & GORUCK

Happy GoodFriday!

Here's something I heard, thought, and did this week.

Something I Heard: The Most Important Day

“Today’s the most important day.” — Steve Sarkisian, on ESPN this week.

Something I Thought: Chosen Pain

I posted this a couple months ago: sacrifice shouldn't be negotiated, the pain is the point.

I still believe it. But almost all the pain I deal with is pain I picked. I choose the block. I choose the weight. I choose when it ends. That's worth something, but it isn't sacrifice. It's practice.

The reason to go looking for hard things on purpose is that one day a hard thing finds you and you don't get a say in it. You practice so you're not deciding who you are in the moment it matters.

Something I'm Doing: GORUCK

My son and I are doing our first GORUCK Challenge today.

I've wanted to do one for years. Everything I've heard says it's genuinely hard. Hours under load, cadre who don't care how you feel about it. That's most of the appeal.

The bigger reason is who I'm doing it with. There's a difference between telling your kid you'll be there and standing next to him at hour four with a ruck on your back. I want the second one. Whatever it turns into, we go through it together.

And that's why we picked today, 9/11. Carrying weight for a few hours isn't much set against what the day is, but it's more than a moment of silence, and it's what we've got.

Until next week!

-Cameron Harn