Spring Season In Full Swing

We're deep into the second week of the fall 2024 season, and everything is coming together. We have several events planned, and have already attended two. 

The faces have changed, but the mission remains the same. The GIVE TEAM works to build a strong community, and to build a strong community, we need to be strong ourselves. This season's participation has been SOLID, and far younger than in the past. We've had to adjust workouts accordingly which is creating a possible need for a second weekly workout for the older guys. The objective all along has been to create a varsity-like experience, but it's impossible to turn away ANYONE who wants to get up for a workout early on Saturday mornings. Not many people make the intentional decision to wake up early on a weekend to do hard things, but that's what our guys are doing - and that needs to be rewarded with hard work. 

We're starting slow with a focus on CONSISTENCY, and then the effort will pick up progressively each week. WEEK 1 we focused on HOW you get strong, which is by doing uncomfortable things consistently. WEEK 2 is acknowledging it's natural to not WANT to do what it takes to get strong because it's painful. Nobody ever got strong by doing easy things. Every team member is expected to do something hard every day. It's supposed to be the same thing at the same time, so everyone can get the experience of what it takes to build a ritual. We'll check in every Saturday during our 7:30am workout to see how everyone did, and how they can do better.

The two events we've attended are local 5Ks, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Chasing the Dream 5K and the Orlando Magic 5K. We've been invited to run the Orlando City Soccer 5K this coming weekend, which we'll run because we need the attention and exposure. It'll be good for the guys to get seen, and to put in a little 3 mile intensity. 

Our cornerstone events start on February 23rd when Give Team qualifiers will participate in the GORUCK event being held in Orlando. That's a Friday night, and the following Saturday morning on February 24th, we'll be running the Spartan Super in Jacksonville. 

The next event is a self-created experience in the month of March. We'll get select Give Team members together to ruck 54 miles on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The 54 miles represents the distance between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama that activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis marched for voting rights in 1965. We'll target completion within 24 hours, understanding it took the marchers 5 days and 4 nights. 

Our next event will be the SANDLOT FITNESS FESTIVAL hosted by GORUCK in Jacksonville between April 21-23. We'll likely attend Friday and Saturday. We've attended the last two years, and that weekend is a great experience for everyone. We'll look for a way to stay up in Jacksonville so we don't have to drive back and forth.

Our final event of the season will be the Spartan Stadion race at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on May 18th. We've never run one of those, so that'll be fun. Something new.

We have a great crew this season, with three who are elementary or middle school-aged, four who are in high school, and then a few who are out of high school. We'll keep recruiting, but we've been getting solid attendance. And that's what makes this so incredibly rewarding. As a middle aged guy who does everything the team does, I rarely get excited when the alarm goes off on Saturday mornings at 4am. But seeing everyone on Saturday mornings is pretty awesome, and going through it together is powerful.