Monday, November 21, 2011

GO RUCK (Challenge) Yourself

Finals week is fast approaching. For my cohorts of IR/Poli Sci majors, that means papers. Big papers. 10, 15, 20 page papers. It really is not that long as we have had all semester to do it (and for once I am on top of my game, having laid out much of what I intend to do on large sheets of butcher paper in my room. The topics I am writing on get a few concerned looks from my housemates who saw the underlined titles of “Piracy” “Syria and Israel (Israel’s fault)” and “Killing.” The first is for globalization, the 2nd was assigned by the prof for Arab Israeli Conflict, and the final is for my psychology of aggression class and focuses on the research of Lt. Col Grossman in the book On Killing.

This marathon of double spaced, cited, edited, torn apart, reassembled and title paged academia I am producing allows for some free time of internet wandering (25 mins productive, 5 min break. Rinse. Repeat.) One of the more interesting things I found from the Minimal Mac blog I read was a marathon (ish) of Special Operations awesomeness. It is called the GORUCK Challenge. A ruck (or Rucksack) is the backpack used in the military. It allows one to carry what they need in combat. This event, it is not really a race, but a test-your-limits-for-10-hours-suckfest ditches the ammo magazines in favor of bricks…and push ups…and dead weight carry… and buddy carry, all while perusing through a city. Des Moines is in March. I am tempted as I know this would be a great way to get my training in gear for OCS.

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