A few weeks ago, I noticed that the Q sheet for Basecamp was open for St. Patricks Day and couldn’t resist signing up.  Beer and rucking go together like peas and carrots, so it seemed like a great day to make the trip south.

I had hoped to bring a Durham contingent with me, but even the temptation of a Guinness on St. Patrick’s day wasn’t enough to lure any of my brethren that deep into Chatham county.  Sales plug – to any pax that haven’t visited yet, this AO provides an endless selection of rucking routes, including roads, greenways, and singletrack trails, and it only takes about 25 minutes to get there from S. Durham.

The Basecamp terrain choices offer a lot of options, but, to make it interesting, I wanted to do something a bit different, so I planned a workout to offer a unique challenge for each mile.  After a scouting run the previous week, I figured out a route that allowed me to drop various coupons for us to pick up in strategic locations prior to the workout.  My 2 goals were 1) to get 7 miles in and 2) to deliver Rambler to Sunnyside on time.  (We ultimately failed one of these goals.)

Thus was the Thang:

Mile 1:  Fellowship pace

Mile 2:  15 Minute Pace (Road)

Mile 3:  13 Minute Pace (Singletrack trail)

Mile 4:  Sandbag carry – two 40 lb bags, alternating between pax in 1:00 intervals

Mile 5:  Sandbag carry and farmer’s carry with 2 25 lb. bells, alternating between pax in 1:00 intervals

Mile 6:  Recovery mile

Mile 7:  Beer mile

Ultimately, we got the seven miles in, but must have relaxed our pace a bit too much during the beer mile, because the clock struck 8:00 as we hit the parking lot, and, thus, Rambler was late to Sunnyside.  (It’s also possible this happened because Doi took too long to decide between Guinness and Harp, costing us precious time.)

After a very brief COT without any announcements, YHC pointed the empty clown car north back to Durham.  Props to Rambler for coming out the day before the half-marathon challenge (which it appears he crushed, along with the other Pax).