I had the good fortune to be able to compete, my second year in a row. It was one of my most challenging and rewarding athletic experiences. Full review below.

Competition

This year featured a whopping 549 competitors across 10 divisions (male and female Scaled, Rx, Elite, Masters, Team), up in a big way from the 116 individuals and 10 teams from last year. Just to throw a few stats out to illustrate the growth, and by extension how popular CrossFit has gotten, there were 74 Rx men and 36 Rx women in 2013, compared to 37 and 11 from last year. On the team side, there were 65 total teams compared to 10 last year (!!). With that many competitors, Wodapalooza II may have been the largest CrossFit competition in the world–I’m defining competition where all the athletes are in one place, thus eliminating the CrossFit Open. Oh yeah, by my count, the CrossFit Games had 508 competitors in 2012.

If someone knows of an event with more competitors, please let me know.

The field was also incredibly competitive, with heavy hitters in the Elite divisions and badass guys and girls in the Rx. Competing in the men’s Rx, I felt like I was going against the best guy(s) from their respective gyms, as opposed to a run-of-the-mill Rx dude. I was thoroughly over matched. That’s not a criticism. I loved the challenge and it’s an observation about how popular and competitive CrossFit has gotten in the last 12 months. You simply can’t show up at a big event like Wodapalooza and hope to do well unless you’re a serious firebreather. Meeting the published standards are not enough. You have to be able to exceed the standards and crush them.

From a personal standpoint, I’m stronger and more skilled than I was a year ago, and I still finished towards the bottom in my division. I didn’t move up the curve as fast as my Rx colleagues.

Programming

The programming for the most part was excellent. All of the WODs were challenging and creative. I did have a couple of points of contention, which I’ll touch on below. The triathlon, chipper, bar complex, DB snatch triplet, and farmer’s carry / rope climb were all awesome (Rx). I opened with the paddle boarding / Watt Bike / double unders (DU’s replaced running due to weather) WOD and I really loved it. I had one issue here…my paddle board was missing a fin, which was game over. I basically couldn’t steer the thing. I believe the judges removed the board from the course after my heat but the damage had been done to me and probably a few other guys. Besides that, paddle boarding in CrossFit is totally cool. Loved the addition.

The bar complex of 3 hang cleans, 3 front squats, and 3 jerks in 60″ of max weight was challenging. It took perfect concentration to execute and a great game plan. Like some of the other competitors, I skipped the second attempt to get more rest and nailed my max weight on the third attempt. Kudos to whoever created this WOD, it was intense and fun.

The 70 lbs dumbbell snatch, 30 inch box jump, and chest-to-bar pull-up triplet was awesome and disgusting. I had never done heavy DB snatches in a WOD before so this one really kicked my ass. I was glad just to get through it without getting time capped.

The one programming gripe I had was the wall walk & overhead squat WOD, which a large number of guys in the Rx field didn’t complete under the 8′ time cap. I thought it was too much constant load on the shoulders. Combined with all of the shoulder work we did for the rest of the weekend, there was an injury risk. One hint that this may have been over-the-top was when the programmers changed the rep scheme on wall walks from 9,7,5 to 7,5,3 on Sunday morning. My guess is someone tested it out and realized how brutal it was. I can normally do 115# overhead squats no problem, but the wall walks made my arms and shoulders numb. The bar started flying and I saw a lot of bad form.

Another possible programming issue were the legless rope climbs for the Elites, both men and women. If you’re going to do legless climbs, at least put down padding. I’ve seen too many people fall off the rope messing with these.

What I’ve noticed in the last couple of years are competition programmers pushing the envelope with load and complexity and getting overly creative. Sometimes I think it’s too much and some restraint should be shown. There’s nothing wrong with using a classic CrossFit movement in competition instead of something completely new. I’m a little torn on this, though, because I like the creativity and I like to see new stuff. My advice is to err on the side of safety.

Pro’s

All of the same highlights from last year were in place. The venue was spectacular. You can’t beat the cool factor of being next to the water in Bayfront Park with downtown Miami as your backdrop. It’s just…awesome. Competing at night, with the lights and the cheering of the crowd and loud music is an experience unto itself. You’re on stage and it’s total sensory overload. If you’re good enough to compete in one of the last heats at night, you feel like a rock star. Glory is yours.

Six WODs in 36 hours!!! I loved it. Energy management and recovery were huge factors. It was awesome to be able to hang out with the other guys and gals from my gym and watch everyone compete. There was always something going on. Some of the best moments are the moments in-between WODs when you’re comparing notes on performance and getting ready for the next one.

There were a good handful of Regional and Games level competitors in the Elite divisons, so that was a real treat to be able to mingle and watch them go to work.

The soundtrack was amazing. There were three DJ’s, one for each stage, and they played awesome music from morning till well after sundown. I’m a little biased because I’m a huge EDM fan, and they spun a ton of EDM, so I loved it, but trust me it was killer for both audience and competitor. It’s like being at a concert all day long.

The organizers, judges, and volunteers were all super friendly and accommodating. There were some issues with timing and they accommodated the athletes as best they could. Huge kudos to all the organizers for pulling off such a massive event. I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into it. It has to be a labor of love.

Con’s

Some suggestions for improvement: They needed more bathrooms – there were zero port-a-johns. Could have used more food options for folks who didn’t bring food. A couple of food vendors in the vendor village would have been awesome…I would like to have seen Paleo Rx Cafe or someone similar cranking out plated meals all day.

The competition ran late both days. This created ambiguity for when your heats started. To illustrate: WOD 1 ran 2 hours late and WOD 2 ran about 1 hour late. The two WODs were on two different stages, so I had to run back-and-forth between the two staging areas and track exactly where I was in the heat order. The differing heat timelines actually caused the two WODs to catch up to each other so they were practically back-to-back. On Sunday I missed my heat because of this weirdness, but the organizers were kind enough to slot me into a different heat.

To be honest, the cons I listed above are minor gripes for me. I’m fairly used to being uncomfortable and figuring shit out from doing all the GoRuck and adventure sports stuff I’ve done in the last year. The only thing that matters to me is the competition, and that was outstanding. I’ve read they didn’t have a lot of amenities at the first couple of CrossFit Games, and the early Games are enshrined in legend and lore, so really there’s nothing to bitch about.

There was a group of great photographers snapping pics all weekend…check out a few:

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Personal Takeaways

The level of competition was eye opening. It was much harder than I expected. It changed my perspective on the training I do in the gym and what’s happing on the competitive scene. Basically, there’s a huge difference between doing Rx in the gym and Rx at a competition. Guys are stronger, working out longer, and more skilled…to compete, you need to put in serious gym time and be the best guy in your box. It really inspired me to step up and do more when I got home.

I had some challenging personal moments. I’m terrible at heavy dumbbell snatches and I knew I was going to get pwned in the triplet that featured 70# DB snatches. I had only ever done maybe 5-6 reps at that load ever. Anyway, I came in DFL in my heat and it was one of those situations where everyone was watching and the other competitors were cheering me on to finish. It was a humbling couple of minutes. But, it was cool because it forced me to push through all the mental trash and those are the moments I look for as a competitor.

The Wodapalooza experience does a great job of making you feel like you’re on stage and giving the performance of your life…mostly because you are. It brings out your best. If you truly love performance and the rush of competition, Wodapalooza delivers. It’s one of the best competition rushes I’ve ever experienced and it’s something I’ll count down the days for until next year.

Shameless self promotion: Me and my two partners, Jack and Corey, launched our  latest Web-based endeavour, unbrokendeals.com. We did some pre-launch marketing at Wodapalooza and got great feedback. Site is launching in February. Give us some love on Facebook.

Bottom Line

Best CrossFit competition on the planet not named the CrossFit Games. Guido Trinidad and the Peak 360 crew do an incredible job and it’s only going to get better in the future. Bring your A game or you’ll get rocked. Also, Wodapalooza is already super popular and sells out in a few hours…it’s a question mark how tough it will be to register in the future. Get in and get to Miami if you can.

Here are just a handful of exercises you can do with a good sandbag:

• Any kind of clean
• Squats (front or back)
• Thrusters
• Any kind of press
• Oblique swings
• Bentover rows
• Get-ups
• Lunges
• Running with weight
• etc

If you want to see how versatile sandbags are, see this index of 33 sandbag exercises at Catalyst Athletics.

There are several advantages to having sandbags in your arsenal. First, they’re dynamic in movement and shape, so it takes more core strength to keep stable. This adds another degree of difficulty to any sandbag exercise. Secondly, they’re more forgiving than a barbell, so you can throw them on your back without smashing your neck or shoulders. And thirdly, they are far cheaper than a barbell and bumper plates. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re a serious CrossFitter sandbags aren’t intended to replace bar work, but they’re a great change of place and accessory movement.

One quick note. For the most part, tactical sandbags are designed to be super tough, but they’re not intended to be slammed on the ground because the sand liners themselves can open or even break inside the shell of the sandbag. The type of filler you use also makes a differences…if you use fine playground sand, expect it to work it’s way out of the liners. I’ve seen other folks use pea gravel and even mulch to alleviate this problem.

For the second part of this blog post, I’ll review the Tactical Sandbag by Firebase Gear, one of the higher quality ‘bags on the market. I had the opportunity to borrow a demo sandbag and work out with it long term. Full disclosure, I’m a member of CrossFit Firebase, who also owns Firebase Gear.

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Tactical Sandbag by Firebase Gear

The first thing you’ll notice about the Firebase bag are the handles. It’s festooned with handles, seven handles to be exact, which is five more handles than the bags made by Rogue and Muscle Driver USA, both commonly found in CrossFit gyms all over the country. The two handles most common on tactical sandbags are perpendicular to the long axis of the bag itself, thus limiting you to a suitcase-style grip. With the Firebase sandbag, you’ve got a variety of different grips you can try. More grips means more angles and different ways to hit the muscles on your accessory lifts. There are even a pair of handles on the sides of the Firebase bag in case you want to try sharing the bag during a run with two people. Also notably, the two handles parallell to the bag allows a more natural clean grip.

Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice the Firebase bag is seriously rugged with near bulletproof construction. The primary material is MIL-SPEC 1000 denier Cordura, with the bottom having two layers of Cordura for insane-o ruggedness. I wouldn’t recommend dropping it out of an airplane, but if you did, it would probably survive. (If you do drop it out of an airplance, please send me the video). The stitching is high quality and the handles are sturdy and comfortable.

Another nice touch is the label window in case you want to slip in a piece of paper with the name of the gym or the amount of weight, useful if you’re using multiple bags in a WOD or competition. Firebase sandbags get a big plus for using American manufacturing as well. They are available in multi-cam and black.

The only potential drawback is cost. Firebase Tactical Sandbags are currently $90 for just the shell, with liners costing between $18 and $25 depending on the size you want (liners are sold separately). You can of course use any liner you want or just fill it with heavy stuff like slam balls if you have those handy. Compare that to the $55 MDUSA bag or the $55 medium-sized Rogue bag and you’re paying about double. I’ve used both before and I prefer the Firebase bag because of it’s off-the-charts ruggedness and extra features. It’s like a damn good sports watch…I can do more with it and I know the thing is going to last forever. I don’t mind paying a premium for high quality equipment.

Bottom line: A super high quality bag that’s rugged and gives you all the options for workouts at a premium price point.

What I liked about the RAA was the chance to spend a day hiking a section of the coast I had never visited. The most I’ve ever hiked in a single day is 20 miles, if you don’t count the GoRuck Challenge as a hike, which you shouldn’t. My crew opted to walk at a brisk pace, about 17′ miles. Leisurely compared to the GRC, but still aggressive enough that it was tiring. I thought the RAA backpack weighed about 20 pounds, but I wasn’t sure. It felt light but it burdens you just enough to wear you out, especially by the end.

Our leg took us from Hobe Sound to West Palm Beach. At the beginning there is a nine mile stretch of nothingness along US1 as it skirts Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It’s just a road with no sidewalk. We walked in the grass with trucks blasting by and picked stickers out of our shoelaces. It was dusty and not scenic but the conversation was good and we got honked at a lot. I told stories about Kokoro 25 to Mike Shelly and he shared his experiences from having done five Challenges. We talked of family and travel and living abroad. The conversation was enviable and the miles melted away.

The reward for that brambly stretch was a stopover for beverages at Judy’s Highway Cafe, a gem of a dive bar. We passed around a boot of Guinness between the four of us and it was the finest tasting Guinness I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was the heat from the miles or because it was lunch time, but the beer tasted like nectar.

We did a round of Underberg, German bitters infused with ginseng, that all of us except for Brenna thought were goddawful. The proprietor shooed us out of the bar and went home because the cafe didn’t officially open until 3:00. We hit the road for a few more miles and stopped at Guanabanas, a great outdoor restaurant on the water, for burgers and suds. It was an absolutely fine journey thus far. Mike tried on a jumpsuit from the Martin County Fire Department that fit him perfectly.

The next leg was a long stretch down 1A along Juno Beach, which as far as hiking in Florida goes, is not a terrible way to spend the afternoon. There was an easterly breeze and the ocean was just to our left, stirred up with uninviting whitecaps, and you could smell the salt and the water. This was my favorite stretch. It’s never bad to have a good ocean a few dozen meters away. We cut west on PGA Boulevard until we reached Downtown at the Gardens, a posh outdoor mall. Total distance on that leg was about 10 miles.

At the mall we were greeted by Jeff Berman, the owner of the complex, and a few other officials. Mr. Berman had donated $500 to the Green Beret Foundation via Mike Shelly. We took pictures and shook hands and were glad for the break and greatly appreciated the donation. We had another refreshment at Dirty Martini and strategized the rest of the route. Since we were seated outside, I tried some stretching and yoga for recovery.

At this point we had 21 miles in the bag with 8 miles until the finish. My lower body was tightening up pretty good and both feet were blistered. I’ll talk more about the affect of a long distance hike, but suffice it to say it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

Mike Shelly and I completed the final stretch, which was mostly through the rough neighborhoods of Rivieria Beach and West Palm after dark…not the most pleasant of hikes. When we finally reached the hotel around 11:00 I was glad for being finished. We ate pizza, drank beer, and told stories. It was about as fine a day as you could ask for.

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Takeaways

It’s special thing to take a day and hike a long distance, even if it’s in urban areas of South Florida. I was looking forward to my Ruck Across America leg for months because it was the opposite of my daily routine of being plugged in and rushing from place to place. The RAA is slow time and good conversation for hours on end. There are moments of deep shared experience and laughter and honesty and some hardship with all the hiking. We got cranky and I thought it wouldn’t be a proper experience if we didn’t, so we could feel relieved and happy when it ended.

It makes me think that GoRuck is amplifying a movement of hiking and rucking…I see more and more GoRuck Alumni getting together for ruckoffs. Getting humans to go out and walk 20+ miles is a pure experience, almost sacred, and I think it may be the best benefit of GoRuck the company…more so than the gear or even the Challenge. There are a lot worse things I can think of than having a nation full of hikers and ruckers.

Mike Shelly raised $2500 and we had a number of items donated for our leg, which we’ll auction off at the end. I feel proud to have been part of such a worthy cause. I was glad to be part of something much larger than myself and able to fulfill my role for a cause I feel passionately about. I hope the RAA becomes an annual event.

We flew an American flag the entire journey and got honked at dozens of time, which was excellent. One guy on a bicycle stopped and donated $40 cash on the spot.

I was wrecked from the hike and had to limp the last 4-5 miles. It felt almost like I ran a marathon. I don’t recommend a 30 mile hike unless you’re trained up for it. Walking takes a toll on your body!

Big thanks to fellow Firebasers John and Brenna, your company was very welcome. Huge props to Mike Shelly for being such a beastly rucker. I thoroughly enjoyed our hours of conversation and sharing my experience from Kokoro 25.

Good luck with Selection 002, I know you’ll kill it.

The pack continues to journey, past Key West and back up the west coast.

I have been a fan of a smattering of baseball players, the occasional basketball player, and a few elite rowers. If there was any larger than life sports figure I was an uber-fan of, it was Lance Armstrong. I admired his approach and I liked that he was a brash, domineering Texas a-hole in competition. At his height, he was a killer on the bike and he made his rivals look like bad.

For nearly a decade Lance owned cycling and it felt good to be an American sports fan when he won. It gave us something to root for during the dog days of summer, during the stretch before football started.

And then there’s the nearly $500 million he helped raise for cancer research through the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Livestrong. Viewed outside of sport, Armstrong was a marketing and business freight train. There was a lot to be admired about one of the best athletes on Earth in the 2000s.

Lance affected my life in other ways. His training and race strategy revolutionized how cyclists approached the Tour de France. I read Chris Carmichael’s book The Ultimate Ride and used it as a blueprint for developing my own training strategies early in my career as a rowing coach. At the time, training in cycling was well ahead of the curve compared to rowing, so I would mine articles on Lance and related books for kernels of knowledge, looking for an edge I could bring to my own sport. In my first years as a head coach, I photocopied an entire chapter on nutrition and sports physiology from a Lance book and passed it out to every athlete on my teams. I used Lance as a example during lecture sessions. I had a copy of It’s Not About The Bike on my desk. He helped make modern training methods cool and accessible. Lance himself was cool.

Somewhere in there I became aware from listening to other cycling afiocionados and reading articles that Lance and company were probably doping. This awareness happened around the last of Armstrong’s Tour wins, perhaps 2004 or 2005. Of course they were doping. Despite the excellence in training, it’s simply impossible to dominate an event as rigorous as the Tour without some kind of help. I’ll be perfectly honest. I didn’t care if he was doping or not. I reasoned everyone was doing it and the good Lance was doing for cancer research outweighed the bad. I figured, just don’t get caught, and if you do get caught, take responsibility for your transgressions.

But he didn’t do that, and in the process of systemizing his cheating and piling on the lies, Lance bullied and otherwise screwed up other peoples lives. I read this article on cnn.com about how Lance turned against former friends Frankie and Betsy Andreu and accused personal assistant Emma O’Reilly of being an “alcoholic prostitute” when she disclosed information about doping. He purposefully destroyed relationships and made life harder for other good people to keep himself at the top.

The question of remaining a Lance fan has plagued me the last week, as I’m sure it’s affected many other sports fan. Do I remain an admirer because of the good or denounce him because of the bad? There are so many facets to the story, it’s hard to keep track of everything. The story is further complicated by the fact that Lance has never officially failed a doping test.

When I stripped everything away from the Lance Armstrong story, it became easy for me to decide where I stood. Lance Armstrong is an monumental asshole and the worst kind of winner. He traded away integrity and honor for wins, celebrity, and self-enrichment. He chose to destroy relationships rather than improve them. He sued regular people because they dared to tell the truth. His cabal had people blackballed from the sport, and thus their livelihoods, for not drinking the Kool-Aid.

What I learned at Kokoro 25 is that when a Warrior is stripped of absolutely everything, down to the core, if you retain your honor and integrity and your relationships with your fellow humans, than you still have everything. You are a giant. Your relationships are everything in life and to purposefully destroy relationships is destroying yourself. The measuring stick of the value of our lives are our relationships.

Lance is in the middle of losing everything. It’s my hope that through the process he becomes humble and seeks to repair his relationships. It’s my hope he spends the next forty years of his life living with honor and integrity and learning to be a good winner. I’d like him to find his Warrior Spirit.

I don’t want to end this post by saying I’m now a Lance Armstrong hater. That doesn’t mean much. While I mulled this post it was useful for me to compare Armstrong to two recent Americans in the news, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, the former Navy Seals who fought ferociously and gave their lives during the Benghazi terrorist attacks in order to save lives. The more I read about them, the more certain I am that their deeds are among the most heroic of all time, certainly that I’ve aware of. They had no material obligation to enter the fray, being independent contractors and not part of the security detail, but they still answered the call and rushed into the breach. Their obligation was about honoring their relationships and honoring their Warrior Spirit. That’s what men of integrity do when the call comes. These are the types of heros we should admire, not cyclists and basketball players and professional athletes.

Honor your relationships. Everyday.

I saw this quote a couple of different places when researching this post:

Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. … Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. — Tecumseh

Further reading:

• Remembering A Hero
• Woods’ Sacrifice Honored at OHCS Assembly
• The Noble Lie
• Lance Armstrong’s Endgame

Clothing

I bought regular white t-shirts from a drug store for like $10 for a pack. You don’t need anything better than that. You want at least 8 shirts at Kokoro…change your shirt every single chance you get so you’re dry. Having a dry shirt also gives you a little morale boost.

For pants, I rocked ripstop TDU pants from 5.11 Tactical. These pants are frigging awesome and I highly recommend them if you can afford it. They’re comfortable, durable, and performed decently despite not being the ideal pant for working out. They’re chock full of features like having cool pockets-within-pockets and a snug-fitting but flexible waistband that is critical for the amount of movement you’re doing. I only brought two pairs, which worked okay, but I recommend having three pairs.

Note the price tag of $47.99 each. If you buy the recommended three pairs, that’s over $150 with shipping. Ouch. I’ll talk about total costs for gear later, but you’re gonna spend some serious cheddar getting geared up for this event.

I bought these coolmax boxer-briefs ($20 each) from Adidas that I thought would be ideal because they wick away moisture. That component was fine, but these are not the ideal underwear for Kokoro. Chaffing on your thighs and nether regions is a huge HUGE problem and I think the ideal underwear is a tight fitting spandex or thigh-length compression short. The tighter the better. You want to form a shield that will absolutely keep away sand from your thighs. I did not have this shield and my thighs got so chaffed it took two weeks to heal afterwards. It was absolutely brutal. Every step by Sunday of Kokoro was a step into exquisite suffering. I literally had to bandage my thighs for days afterwards. Junior wore compression shorts and did not have this problem. He picked the right piece of equipment.

Bring a hoodie or sweatshirt for the stretches you have an extended break. There are a couple of these. Assume you’re going to be freezing your ass of from hours of surf PT so wearing a sweatshirt during down time helps. Also bring a towel so you can towel off and knock off sand.

Bring a jacket for the Palomar hike. It’s cold on the top of the mountain. It can also serve another critical purpose. A decent jacket or sweatshirt will provide some padding for your shoulders from the shitty ruck sack. This helps a lot because your shoulders and back will get brutalized. If it’s warm out, I would even try rolling the jacket up and using it as pad for your shoulders. On the Palomar descent I was sweating my ass off but I didn’t want to remove my jacket because the padding was so helpful.

One last thing. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had nasty chaffing on their knees from the interior of their pants, which gets filled with sand. You’re doing tons of squats which compounds the problem. You can avoid this completely by wearing cheap knee supports underneath your pants, which also has the effect of preserving your knees on the descent of Palomar. I wore these for like 15 hours straight and it was a huge win. Very little rawness on my knees. I bought cheap knee supports at Sports Authority and they worked great.

Boots and Socks

Dealing with feet may be the most important part of your entire gear strategy. You want boots that drain well, are relatively lightweight, and super comfortable. There were a bunch of guys that had fucked up feet from boots that were poorly chosen or not broken in enough. That’s a huge mistake. I recommend breaking in your boots at least 6 months out from the event date. Even if the boot is advertised as usable right out of the box, forget that, put in serious miles and get those puppies broken in. They should be creased and feeling practically like a running shoe. You will be constantly running and hiking in boots and your feet will be constantly wet. Do everything in your power to prepare for this.

I wore the Nike Special Field Boot, which was a good choice for Kokoro. Very comfortable and decent to run in. I did not break them in enough, but despite that I still had minimal problems with my feet. I tested the 8″ Taclite boot from 5.11 and they were very comfortable for hiking, but had a deleterious affect on my legs when running. I got severe pains in my achilles and calves when running as little as 3 miles. I had to go with another boot.

Get good boot socks. I wore the Taclite 9″ socks by 5.11, which are absolutely phenomenal socks. They are comfortable, stay in place, handle moisture, and go with boots perfectly. I also wore a thin athletic sock underneath (Under Armor) and I believe the double socking contributed to me not getting any blisters or raw spots on my feet. A huge win.

In addition to my sock strategy, I also coated my toes in anti-chafe and put moleskin patches on my heels. No raw spots. Bring 2-3 sticks of anti-chafe. You’ll end up sharing. Make sure you have a stick and apply everywhere at every break.

Change into dry socks every chance you get. You’ll need many pairs of socks, perhaps 6-8 pairs.

One issue I had and still have is a mild case of trench foot. I had constant tingling in my toes after Kokoro was over and I still have intense tingling in both big toes that is annoying and affects my coordination on things like Olympic lifts. I think this is some kind of nerve damage from all the compression and moisture. Other guys have complained about the same thing. I may have been able to prevent this by getting a boot that’s a half size larger. Who knows, but it’s weird. Junior has numbness in several toes.

A bunch of the guys had torn hands from doing pullups and grinder PT (like bear crawls). I didn’t have any issues with this but it’s something to be aware of. You’ll want to bring athletic tape and wrap up your hands if it happens.

Hydration and Nutrition

Hydration, electrolytes, and nutrition is something you need to have a major strategy for. It was hot during Kokoro 25 and I couldn’t get in enough electrolytes and water. On the first afternoon I got de-hydrated and experienced electrolyte loss after just 3 hours. It contributed to severe calf cramps in both legs that screwed up my running for the rest of the camp. The cramp was so bad in my right leg that it actually resulted in a muscle pull.

There is a team room where you stow all your gear and a table with some basic supplies. Among those supplies were several canisters of electrolyte powder for anyone to use. Do not rely on these. Bring your own kickass electrolyte and have a system for quick replacement. I think the ideal system is a ziplock bag full of tablets you can stow in your cargo pocket and pop during any quick break. Pop these constantly.

On the first afternoon I was so dehydrated I experienced kidney soreness and had dark urine. I never experienced anything like it and I knew it was bad. I pulled out of it by drinking a ton of chia seeds ($12 at GNC) mixed with water. These are an absolutely amazing natural electrolyte replacement and I think they saved my ass in a big way. Without these I would not have made it through the camp. I mixed them in my canteen every single chance I got. I can’t say enough about chia seeds.

You can stash anything you want in the team room and there are a few stretches where you can get access to it. I recommend bringing bananas, gallons of Gatorade, gallons of water, protein powder, and other snacks (Oh Yeah! bars and the like). Bring athletic tape, duct tape, a knife, and a pair of scissors. Share with the team. It helps everyone. We didn’t do enough of this but you can certainly do it. I think being prepared is as important as any other component of Kokoro.

I also recommend ingesting caffeine, either caffeine gels or caffeine gum. It helps big time in the middle of night, especially on Palomar. Your mental state is going to be crazy throughout the camp and the caffeine gave me a few hours of clarity here and there.

Equipment Costs

I haven’t tallied the bill for my gear acquisitions, but I know it’s well over $400. Factor the gear cost into your budget if you’re planning on attending. Combined with the cost of camp itself, it’s a serious budgetary obligation.

I hope all this info helps. If you need more tips, shoot me an email.

What I Liked

The way I think about Mega the race, I think of a great fighter who humbles me when I finally show up for the battle. I get a good long beatdown and a tremendous learning experience. It is good to be humbled as an athlete, because it gives you perspective on your physical self. It’s healthy for the spirit. Every climb at Mega is a cathartic experience and every descent is a victory. Simply finishing the race is an accomplishment. If you’re a serious athlete, you have to put yourself through these grand experiences or else you’ll never grow. That’s something I figured out last year and something I’ll continue to schedule yearly as long as I’m healthy. Mega is the perfect grand experience.

The terrain is wicked and beautiful and the course itself is artful. It’s design is perfect. It’s hard to describe the suckage of some of the climbs, but suffice it say I remembered them as being much easier than they actually were. I recall standing on Raw Trail this time around, looking straight up with my hands on hips, and swearing at its brutality. My friend described it as a “kick in the junk.”

What gets you is that right before many of the climbs, you’re running a straightaway and your heart rate is elevated. Then you turn a corner and start climbing, not realizing it was right there. So you’re hitting it in a fatigued state and it sucks the life out of you.

This years race was faster and hotter, making hydration a major issue. I experienced cramping in my calves and hamstrings and that took me down a peg around mile 10. I liked Mega 2011 because it was a gut check with the extreme weather, but both editions were amazing. This year I ran more miles and had only a few miles of hiking.

I had my best moments climbing the Boulder Field. I was really feeling it and bouldering is something I’m decent at. Of course that was followed by my worst moments, which was severe cramping in my legs while we were cruising around on Rattlesnake Ridge. I got nervous I was going to have to walk the rest of the way, but fortunately I managed the cramps and picked it up later on.

The race organizers and everyone involved with Mega, including the other runners, were awesome. Of the many road races and events I’ve done, Mega by far features the nicest crew I’ve ever encountered. The positively and good vibes really enhanced the whole experience. You have to experience it to believe it.

Just to give you an example of Mega hospitality, the race director planted some pink flamingos and a sign for CrossFit Firebase at mile 22 on the race course. It was a real pick-me-up and an awesome shout-out to the Florida contingent.

It was a nice day and finishing earlier allowed us to take advantage of the free beer and food. With such a large group, it turned into a fine after party.

Also, it’s something special to be able to share the Mega experience with 20 of your best friends. The fellowship and camaraderie can’t be beat. It’s one of the gifts of CrossFit that it can bring all these like-minded people together in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania for a trail marathon. Many individuals in our group had never run anything close to a marathon distance before.

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 Gear

This year I ran with Saucony Xodus 2.0 trail shoes. I won’t mince words here, they were terrible. Poor fit, too narrow, generally uncomfortable, and an absolute liability on rock. I won’t ever wear them again. I didn’t do enough testing and research with my footwear. I had a better experience with Merrell Trail Gloves last year and those were tough on my knees. I think the ideal shoe for Mega is a super light trail runner, even a running shoe, provided you want speed and you’re sure footed on the rocks. Next year my plan is to use regular Saucony Kinvaras and gun down the course.

I only ate 3 gels from my pack and relied on the refreshment stations for calories and Gatorade. I packed way more supplies in my Gregory Wasatch bag than I needed. Next year I may try a minimalist rig to squeeze a little more speed out of my run.

Last year my knees were annihilated by the technical downhilling. I fixed that problem by wearing neoprene knee supports. Both of my knees were totally fine after the race and the next day. I considered this a huge win and I recommend this tactic if you have knee issues and you’re doing Mega. They cost $32 for a pair at Sports Authority.

Bottom Line

The funnest, hardest trail marathon you’ll ever do. It’s a legitimate challenge and makes mud runs and obstacle course races look like picking up the mail. Training-wise, CrossFit is almost useless for something like this. You need running miles and preferably a lot of trail miles with ascents and descents. You can strengthen your knees and hips in the gym but it’s not the same. I like the way Mega smashes you and gives you a new perspective on fitness and athleticism. It’s also great to be outside all day, crushing a mountain. Or being crushed by one. I can’t recommend Megatransect highly enough. I sit around while I’m at work and dream about it.

Personal Fitness Standards

Coach Divine recently updated the fitness standards for Kokoro and they are the following:

• Minimum 50 push ups (40 for women), 50 sit-ups and 50 air squats in 2 minutes each.
• 10 dead hang pullups for men, 6 women
• 1 mile run in boots and utility pants on road in 9:30
• Body Armor (aka Murph) with 20# pack (15# for women): 1 hour and 10 minutes minimum
• 10 mile run in less than 1:20 (recommended)
• 20 mile ruck hike with load in less than 6 hours (recommended)

This is me speculating, but I think because of the growing popularity of Kokoro Camp, Coach Divine is putting a renewed emphasis on the basic skills of running, rucking, and body weight PT to make sure attendees have those skills.

One tidbit I’ll reveal. One of the first evolutions we did was the personal fitness test in boots and pants. I passed all the standards (run time was ~8:39…note, this included running with a pack w/o sandbag) but I still got ripped for performance. Lots of the participants did too. The instructors used this as ammunition throughout the camp and I personally got extra ice tub torture because of my numbers. My advice is to train specifically for the PFT and put yourself in a position to absolutely kill it.

 My Training

Here’s my training broken down into bullet points:

• CrossFit four days per week until three months prior to Kokoro.
• Olympic lifting class with a strength training component twice a week until about two months before Kokoro.
• One SealFit workout on Saturday morning prior to the the normal CrossFit WOD. We’d do both WODs back-to-back, with the express purpose of doing up to three hours of work at a shot.
• Added several runs per week 3 months before Kokoro. I would have added running in earlier but I was recovering from achilles tendonitis.
• Running included a solid stair running workout every Thursday.
• Occasional rucking with weight. I also did the occasional run in boots.
• I did a GoRuck Challenge in May that was helpful for mental preparation and heavy rucking.
• Junior and I experimented with a body weight training plan that was heavy on pushups, situps, and pullups on top of everything else.

My evaluation after thinking about it long and hard was the training worked decently, but needed to be much heavier on the running and rucking. I’ll talk about that more below. Performance-wise, I was no better than mid-pack and closer to lower middle pack. I definitely had some highlights (the Muscle Beach Evolution comes to mind), but I had some lowlights where I totally sucked. I was pretty good at grinder PT and doing zillions of pushups. I was decent on the log PT and beach PT. I was bad on weighted Murph. I was terrible on the ascending on the Palomar hike and awesome on the descents.

The strength gains I made this year were useful for things like pushups, log PT, and sandbag PT, but they also took away some of my foot speed and endurance. I have an endurance training background from years of rowing and running and I think that kicked in on the back half of the  camp.

My Recommendations

For running, I suggest getting on an intermediate half-marathon training plan where some of the runs are boot runs and the occasional run is a moderate weight ruck. This plan from the Hal Higdon Training website would work fine.

Build your rucking up so you can crank out 4-6 miles easily at a brisk pace. What would be even better is if you can do some rucking on a mountain. If you can squeeze in any ruck hikes between 10 – 20 miles, even if it’s just once or twice, that will give you a tremendous amount of confidence on Palomar.

In addition to a run training plan, I suggest doing CrossFit 2-3 times per week for the strength gains. That will help get your shoulders, hips, and back in the right shape for all the PT. Your shoulders will take a pounding from the log and the shitty ruck sack, but having strong shoulders helps. If you wanted to really step it up, you could do either SealFit WODs or SealgrinderPT workouts instead of CrossFit.

I said this in my earlier post, just doing CrossFit will not get you ready. You want to be a runner and a workhorse. Don’t even think about showing up at US CrossFit without a bunch of running miles under your belt.

If you can run a 7:30 mile in boots, you’ll kick ass at Kokoro Camp.

Your Body Will Do Some Weird Stuff

Consider taking a Saturday and working out all day long, for like 12 hours straight, just to see how your body reacts. Avoid injury, but do work. You want to know how to handle the hydration and nutrition demands for such a long time period. You also want to see if anything weird happens, like muscle cramps in strange places. I had terrible calf cramps in both legs after about five hours and that plagued me for the remainder of the camp. I think it was a combination of electrolyte loss and rucking on sand and it’s something I wish I had known about beforehand, because I think it could have been prevented.

If you have any kind of lingering injury, like a bum shoulder or knee, you can guarantee that injury will re-surface. Get it fixed before you arrive. You want to be 100% healthy rolling into this thing. Fifty straight hours of work will find the chinks in your armor and slay you.

One thing I did well was wearing knee supports on the Palomar hike and the next couple of Evolutions on Sunday. I’ve had knee problems in the past from long hikes to the point where I could barely walk afterwards. Wearing knee supports reduced the pounding and keep me in the game for the rest for the camp.

Last Thoughts

Memorize Invictus and the Seal Code before you get there. It will save you a ton of grief.

I’ll try to answer the question of why to do Kokoro, or at least why I did it, because it’s a legit question. This will be the first in a 3-part series of posts on Kokoro. I’ll address training and gear in the second and third posts:

• Training Recommnedations for Kokoro
• Gear and Nutrition for Kokoro

Evolutions

Kokoro is comprised of a series of evolutions, where an evolution is a workout or a challenge combined with some teamwork, mental toughness, and leadership elements. Ostensibly the purpose is to evolve you as an athlete as you progress through the work. Some of the evolutions are short, say one hour, while most of them are multiple hours. The longest evolution we did was over 10 hours. The entire camp itself is a macro-evolution, with a long build-up, climax and denouement.

I’ll describe a couple of the evolutions just to give you a taste of Kokoro. I think it would be a disservice to the event to reveal everything…part of the fun is the unknown and being surprised by what’s around the corner. It’s a truly unique experience and the full monty should be reserved for the brave few who sign up and experience it themselves.

It’s worth noting there are plenty of videos online that show extensive Kokoro highlights. I posted one below. These give a good sense of how it works but do not come close to the actual experience. There are hours of surprises in the waiting. Also, Kokoro is several levels more difficult than the videos portray, if you can believe that. It exceeded my expectations by a long shot and I went into it knowing it was going to be rough. I need to emphasize this point. It is much much harder than expected.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Stenciling Evolution

The very first thing we did was stencil our names on our t-shirts with sharpie markers. We had to do the front and back on eight shirts, and we had exactly one stencil and one hour to complete the task. The class started with 17 people. As you can imagine, with one stencil, it took forever to get all 136 shirts done. Who’s got the R? I need an O! It was a ridiculous exercise but it set the tone for the entire camp. Use teamwork or die. While we were stenciling, we had to get our gear squared away, get dressed, apply anti-chafe, hydrate, and prepare to muster on the grinder for initial inspection.

Every single minute of Kokoro is thought out and designed to maximize the experience. You don’t own any time and you’re at the mercy of the instructors. Even the meals had time hacks. This is part of what makes it completely different from a regular athletic event.

There’s also no warm-up time for anything. If you’re the kind of guy who needs to warmup or stretch before a PFT test, you’re in for a nasty surprise. You have to beast your way through everything with zero prep time.

The Muscle Beach Evolution

One of my favorites, this was basically a 3-4 hour CrossFit team WOD. We started off with Coach Moser and Coach Miller drafting all of the athletes onto two teams, then we divvied up all of the weight and gear in the gym. From there both teams blasted through a buy-in of ground-to-overheads, pushups, and pullups. Immediately after the buy-in, each team had to run every single piece of equipment up a hill and back. The rule was that you could only carry one piece at a time, so even if it was a 10 lbs plate, you only carried one. That put more emphasis on speed and covering distance. I estimated the run was around 500M and I probably covered close to 5 miles.

Temps were mid-80′s and staying hydrated and cool was a major issue. At several points I was sprayed with a hose or climbed into an ice bath, which felt awesome. One more twist: Muscle Beach happened during lunch, so we ate sandwiches on the run. I literally jogged up a hill with a dumbbell in one hand and roast beef sub in the other.

This was the funniest evolution. The coaches were shit talking each other and trying to distract the other team with dumbass tasks. At one point I had an opposing coach ask me to do a dumbbell snatch demo in order to slow me down while the other coach barked at me to forget the snatch and go run a med ball up the hill. I got a kick out of it. The coaches were highly competitive with each other.

Muscle Beach was my best performance. I got into a zone and started lapping people and generally just felt great.

It should be pointed out that Kokoro evolutions are extremely long in comparison to normal CrossFit WODs, with a heavy emphasis on running. If you’re thinking about doing Kokoro, you need to be comfortable working out for 3-4 hours at a shot and running 3-5 miles per evolution. Just doing regular CrossFit will not get you prepared. You want to be more of a runner and less of a lifter for this. If you hate running, this ain’t the camp for you.

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The Palomar Mountain Hike Evolution

I’ve been on a lot of kickass hikes with gorgeous scenary. This was not one of them. Palomar is essentially a dirt road that switchbacks up a mountain, with no flats or descents for 10 miles. It is unrelenting. To compound the suffering, we did the bulk of the hike at night, in pitch black dark, with packs and sandbags and faux-weapons and glow sticks for lighting. If you include the van rides were we couldn’t sleep, the ordeal took over 10 hours, with 5.5 hours of ascending. Dinner was an MRE (I had the McRib).

FML there was nothing good or holy about Palomar. Everyone was a walking zombie. I saw shit and fell asleep while walking a few times. I was at my nadir physically and mentally and kept falling out. It would be accurate to say I crossed the threshold of deciding to quit…I was waiting for the right moment and I was wording my quitter announcement in my head. I was absolutely shattered and had no resources for getting back in the game.

Here’s how I made it. One of the instructors caught me falling out and said the perfect line that pissed me off enough to sack up and finish the ascent. Once there, I did the recon and lead the team down the mountain. I felt completely renewed and even carried extra weight for several miles when one of my teammates got into some trouble. I had my lowest point and perhaps my highest point of the entire camp on that mountain. It was a once in a lifetime experience and really made me see the power of the mind in a dark moment.

Back in the vans, we were slapping each other in the face to stay awake. It was hilarious.

Various Beatdowns

There were a zillion more evolutions I’m not detailing. We did log PT, giant tire PT, sandbag PT, grinder PT, and tons of surf torture. We did a lot of races on the beach with several variations: buddy carries, buddy drags, wheelbarrows, skipping, log team races, individual races, etc, all of which was strenuous and also kind of fun. I loved jumping in the ocean and getting wet and sandy even though it was a little chilly. I loved becoming a sand cookie. I got covered completely in seaweed and bitten by sand fleas. All of that stuff feels like playing on the beach to me.

There was a crazy element where the instructors waited for the class to fall asleep (there were two of those opportunities) and then they bum rushed us with megaphones and sirens and water hoses and PT’ed the crap out of us while we were disoriented and confused. This was an excellent exercise in mental control during a high stress and high chaos environment and it’s something most athletes don’t deal with. I’m glad we got to experience it even though it sucked while it was happening. It must have been hilarious for the coaches to watch us running around like idiots.

One of my favorite elements was a team building exercise with a log, where we stood a log up vertically and each person in the boat crew had to climb to the top and sit on the log. You can see an example of this in one of my pics above. Totally awesome.

Injury and Nutritional Concerns

Muscle failure, especially on pushups, is a major issue because we’re doing hundreds and hundreds of reps. We sat in the lean and “rest” position for what felt like hours. I got severe muscle cramps in both calves, both biceps, and my abdominals. My right calf cramped so bad it ended up a muscle pull and hobbled me for much of the camp. Two guys had shoulder issues and they basically couldn’t hold stuff over head at some point.

Staying hydrated and consuming electrolytes was a major concern…there simply wasn’t enough time to get everything in and recover between evolutions. I have some suggestions for solving this problem and I’ll review that in my Gear post.

At one point on Friday evening I felt my kidneys getting sore and I thought I was screwed, maybe headed towards rhabdo. I pulled out of it by consuming tons of chia seeds mixed with water and I think that saved my ass. Consider using chia seeds as an electrolyte replacement if you’re an endurance athlete. They’re cheap and work better than typical sports drinks.

Three people dropped out and one guy was basically a medical drop because of knee issues. One guy on my boat crew got rhabdo early Saturday morning and went to the hospital for a three day stay. Injury is a very real risk at Kokoro and you need to know what you’re getting into. There were a number of issues that could have knocked me out and I feel lucky I made it all the way through.

Last but not least, everyone got severely chaffed. I had pulsating rashes on both inner thighs and chaffed spots on both shoulders. I saw guys with annihilated feet and toes, raw knees, lower backs, shoulders, and even their butt cracks. Sand and seawater just destroys you. I was lucky with my boot and sock configuration and had only minor blisters on my feet. I do have this really weird tingling sensation in several toes that hasn’t gone away nearly two weeks after the camp. I think it may be nerve damage.

Bottom Line

The difficulty level of Kokoro is off the charts. It will drastically reset your standards for what you consider is a challenge. Doing any one evolution is manageable, even easy, but stacking them all together for 50 hours straight with no sleep, no recovery, and lousy nutrition is a donkey kick to the face. It is beyond brutal. This is not a regular event you can take lightly.

Coach Divine is a guru of mental toughness and he might be one of the only instructors in the country that can offer a true holistic experience that challenges you on physical, mental, and emotional levels. There were a couple of moments where I teared up because the experience was so intense and I felt like I really saw who I was. Further, there are many teaching moments during Kokoro, instances where you learn something about yourself and about being a courageous, honorable creature. These moments of insight are what separate Kokoro from any other event on the market. It’s a game changer.

Bottom line: Kokoro was fucking awesome. Just a few days later I was raving about how awesome it was and how much I got out of it. It truly is an opportunity to prove that you can do 20 times more than you think you can and find a piece of your Warrior Spirit. That in itself makes it a priceless experience.

Lastly, Coach Divine told us the story of how he became a Navy Seal, where he experienced a clarity of purpose–what he called Knowingness– and how that clarity carried him through BUD/S. To me, Knowingness feels like the concept of Grace and there was an instance where I felt Grace on Saturday morning and it was at that point I knew why I was there and that I’d finish. It was a powerful moment.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to give thanks to Danny and Raquel Padua, the owners of CrossFit Firebase, who gave us the flexibility and space to train. Big props to Andrew “Jr” Hand for kicking ass and getting me to go and finishing Kokoro like a total boss. Props to John and Cory for being great training partners. Thanks to David Rhoden at 5.11 Tactical for getting us geared up and hosting us the night before. Thanks to Bill, Iassen, Christian, and the GRT’s who gave us great advice on things like foot care and keeping our heads straight. Finally, props to Team Bravo for putting out like hardass mf’ers! HOOYAH!!!

From the SealFit website:

As the world’s premier training camp for forging mental toughness, an Unbeatable Mind and a warrior’s spirit, the camp is an intense crucible experience modeled off of the famous Navy SEAL Hell Week. The difference is that Kokoro is built to teach through experience, rather than try to make you into a quitter.

Some of the activities include:

• Hours of PT with little break
• Heavy ruck runs (40 lbs)
• Messing around in the Pacific Ocean
• CrossFit WODs sprinkled throughout the 50 hours
• A 20 mile ruck in the mountains with a challenging time hack
• Getting chased by AT-ATs
• No sleep

Where I Am At Mentally

I’ve had some pretty good pre-event anxiety for the last few days. I used to get a lot of anxiety before a crew race or CrossFit competition, where all I’d do for hours is visualize the event and get mental about it. This isn’t the same anxiety. This anxiety is like when the Empire was invading Hoth and the Rebels could see the AT-ATs on the horizon and they knew the shit was about to hit the fan. It’s a sense of creeping apprehension. It is definitely not pleasant.

The good news is Junior and I have put in a good batch of training for the last six months and I feel as ready as I can be physically. There is likely no perfect physical readiness, because Kokoro breaks you down no matter how strong you are (that’s the point, after all), but I’m ready to put forth a badass effort.

I think having done the GoRuck Challenge thricely will give me a mental edge…I feel like I can take a huge volume of physical and mental abuse from having survived those events.

Stuff I’m Worried About

Running in boots is my chief concern and how much that is going to tear up my feet. Much of the problem is running around with wet boots, which causes mad blisters and lots of irritation. I got a bunch of advice from my military buddies and that includes: using Liquid Band Aids, using Moleskin pads, using duct tape, individually taping toes, wearing double socks, and changing socks every chance I get.

Swimming in the Pacific at night is going to suck because of the temps, but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s just going to suck.

Training

We would do one SealFit workout early Saturday morning and then do the regular gym WOD immediately afterwards, which was usually a longer workout. We did that for months. I did CrossFit 4-5 times per week otherwise and I also added in running 2-3 times per week, where one of the runs was a stairs workout at a football stadium. I had a shitty achilles issue that cleared up about three months ago, so I’ve only been running regularly for that long. I’m not fast right now but I’ve got reasonable stamina. I can ruck with 40 pounds but I won’t be blowing the doors off anyone.

Alright, time to make this happen. Here’s a morale video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I use my Rush 24 six days per week primarily as a gear bag when I go to the CrossFit gym, but it’s also my go-to bag for overnighters and weekend trips. It has a generous 2000 cubic inches of space in the main compartment and plenty of pockets and pouches for smaller items. Dimensions are  20″H x 12.5″L x 8″D. See their product description page for a full list of features. There are WAY too many pockets to tour all of them in this space, so I’ll let the pics below do the talking. I will say my favorite pocket is the sunglasses pocket…I use this little fleece lined fella virtually every time I step into the gym and it’s an ingenius addition.

If you’re a regular CrossFitter like me (3 years and counting!!) you’ll understand when I say that I’ve accumulated a disturbing amount of gear and I bring all of it to the gym, every day. Here is a partial list, all of which fits into the Rush 24 no problem:

• Running shoes
• Olympic lifting shoes
• Paleo kits
• x3 jump ropes
• Sunglasses
• Logbook
• Sunblock
• Various wrist wraps
• Lacrosse ball
• Cellphone
• Water bottle
• Other fluids, like protein shake and/or coconut water

There are days where I pack barbell clips, stretchy bands, more food, a full change of clothes, and even my laptop. The hydration compartment is voluminous enough that my MacBook Pro easily fits in there.

Get the picture? The Rush 24 gets it handled. There are so many zippered pockets and pouches that everything stays nicely organized. Having everything exist in a snarled mess in a duffel bag is a thing of the past.

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What I like

The storage capacity is awesome. It is almost but not quite overkill for a gym bag. It’s perfect for a weekender bag, which I’ve used it for at least a dozen times. It’s extremely rugged, constructed with 1050 denier nylon, and I have no qualms about throwing it around on pavement or gyms floors. This thing is tough as hell and well crafted. I would expect to own this bag in good condition for decades, if not for life.

I find it completely comfortable to wear even when fully loaded. The strap system doesn’t put any weird pressure on my shoulders or back. It feels balanced. I haven’t tried rucking with heavy loads using this bag, although I’m considering using it for a GoRuck Challenge in the future. 5.11 is releasing a Brokos belt product soon that can attach to the lower buckles on the Rush 24, adding a nice waist strap option.

The Rush 24 has rugged good looks and is definitely a head turner. I get asked about it all the time and one dude at my gym purchased his own after checking mine out. It has a clear military / tactical look and feel, so you have to be into that.

Last but not least, you can’t beat the price. Cost is $139.99 with four color choices and they have a kickass multicam version for $179.99. You’ll be hard pressed to find a bag of similar quality and design for less money.

What I Didn’t Like

There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about the Rush 24. The only knock that some gearheads might have is that it’s not made in America (it’s manufactored in Vietnam), but the craftsmanship and materials are so good that it didn’t bother me. That’s been my experience with all 5.11 products. Plus, I’m a baller on a budget, so getting stuff that is quality and affordable is a big deal.

There was one zipper endcap that somehow disappeared (see my picture above). Not sure what happened there but it’s worth noting.

Bottom Line

Great bag. I use it every day and plan on using it every day into the foreseeable future. I’d like to do some heavy rucking to really put it through its paces, so when that happens I’ll report back.

Also, cats love 5.11 backpacks. I’m not sure why, although perhaps it’s the profusion of Molle webbing. My cat has been sitting on the Rush 24 literally all day. This is either a pro or a con depending on if you like cats.