There was a man named Joseph Campbell. I’ve known about him for most of my life, but recently I learned something about him that surprised me. He was the man that popularized the hero’s journey that we all hear so much about these days. His book A Hero with a Thousand Faces inspired George Lucas to write Star Wars. That’s all stuff I knew, and that you likely know, too. What I didn’t know is that Joseph Campbell was an elite runner. He ran at the Penn Relays in the 1920s as the anchor for Columbia University’s two-mile relay team. The final 880 meters, or half-mile, was his.
If you’ve never run the 800 in training or competition, it’s brutal. It toes a very fine line between sprinting and endurance, and it must be run at max intensity. Many say it’s the hardest race in track and field. Campbell loved it — especially the final kick when it felt like his lungs would burst and every muscle fiber in his body screamed for relief. He loved going to the place inside where will was the only thing pushing him forward. In the margins of one of his grad school textbooks he wrote, “What I dared to suffer / you dare not endure.”
There’s a part of all of us that knows comfort is a slow death. It prods us to ask ourselves — what do I dare to suffer and endure? Because there is very little to suffer these days, and our endurance is rarely challenged in everyday life, we have to ask ourselves and we have to choose the actions that test our reserves — physical, emotional, spiritual. We know on the other side of the test, should we rise to it, we will be different and we will be better. We can honestly answer the question about what we’re willing to suffer and endure. Our reserves grow deeper for the effort.
A few years ago, Chris and I set out to create a unique opportunity for people to ask and answer that question for themselves. The RCR was born.
Enough of The Same Boring, Old Races
“I want to create a mass participation event.”
Chris said this to me as I was leaning against the front desk at Beyond Strength. I replied, “So, what, like, you want to start a cult or something? I’d be in for that. We could get some pretty good tax breaks. None of that stealing other guys’ wives shit, though. I won’t do it. And no kool-aid.” The gym was empty between sessions. We were having one of our many impromptu meetings.
“No, like a race. I want to design a race that anyone can show up to and do regardless of their fitness level. Something that allows a fit person to push themselves hard and truly find out how fit they are, but also a race that someone could pop off the couch and get through without training, even if they have to struggle to finish. But I don’t want to do another 5k or 10k or any other of the old boring shit. I want to do something that tests every aspect of someone’s fitness. I want to do something that shows a person they have the grit to push themselves and become better for it.”
“I mean, our motto is life is better with strength and endurance,” I replied. “Why don’t we create an event that combines them?” Chris liked that, so we went back and forth for a couple of hours, laying out possibilities and realizing that most of them required too much equipment, too much skill, or both. Then I said, “Well, let’s look at the shit we actually do. We both run a lot and we both ruck.”
Chris said, “True. But I feel like we need a third thing.”
I replied, “Dude, the weight plates we have for our rucking packs have handles. What if we had to carry them?” Now, at this point Chris came alive — the boy was electric.
“Yes!” he said. “It’s run, then carry, then ruck!”
“Run carry ruck,” I replied.
And the Run Carry Ruck was born.
No boring 5k. No ultra-marathon that requires training to be a second job.
But instead a test of will, fitness, and grit that lets any person find out what they dare to suffer, what they dare to endure.
7 Miles of Strength, Endurance, and Grit
If you’ve done much running, rucking, or hiking, seven miles likely doesn’t sound daunting.
But have you ever run three miles at a threshold pace, wanting nothing more than to breathe deeply and fully when you reach the end, then had to carry weights that compress your rib cage, making it damn near impossible to get a full breath? And then go on to carry those weights for a mile as fast as you can? Then as you finish that mile, and as your shoulders ache and beg for a break, you load them again with a ruck sack to push as hard as possible for three more miles to grit out a strong finish. I’d place a heavy bet on no being the answer.
No matter if you said yes or no, the real question is — did this resonate with you?
If it hit you in the guts. If you heard yourself whisper in your head, “Hell yeah. I want to find out.” Then the Run Carry Ruck is for you.
Maybe it hit you and you felt yourself pause; you felt a twinge of nerves begin in your center and travel to every limb. You’re not sure if you can do all of that, if you can push yourself for a varied seven miles that asks you to find your reserves of strength, endurance, and grit. If that’s true for you, then it’s time to find out.
What are You Willing to Suffer? What Will You Endure?
The Turnpike Troubadours have a song called “Long Drive Home.” The last verse goes:
People anymore, they got no staying power. A love you come by easy, it’ll leave you just the same. You want something bad, you gotta bleed a little for it. You gotta look it in the eye, you gotta call it out by name.
They’re asking, what price are you willing to pay for the things you want? Will you put your eyes, and your mind, on something that could transform who you are and introduce you to a new version of yourself?
Show yourself you have staying power. Look this in the eye and call it out by name. All that’s between you and becoming a better, sharper, honed version of yourself is seven miles and some ache in your body. When the ache leaves it’ll take with it the shell of the person you used to be. Then you can honestly tell yourself the same thing Joseph Campbell decreed as a young man in the margins of a book. What I dared to suffer, you dare not endure.
And you’ll be better for the suffering and the endurance.
I’ll see you in September.
Get on the pre-sale list here!
Sources: The Explorer’s Gene. Alex Hutchinson. Mariner Books. New York. Boston. 2025.
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