April 2, 2021 • 36 mins
For links, transcripts, and to connect, visit UnderTheLog.com.
In this episode of Under The Log we talk with Grace Burns about winning the 2021 GORUCK Star Course 12-Miler in Richmond VA. Grace is only 14-years-old and was a lot of fun to talk to. Though, I'm a bit biased... she's also my daughter.
If you're feeling inspired to do a GORUCK event, you can find upcoming events right here. In particular, here's a link to the GORUCK Star Course.
As I mentioned halfway through the show, if you'd like some inspiration for your daily workouts, check out the Ruck WOD website at ruckwod.com
The Under The Log Podcast is part of The Rucking Collective, a collection of websites devoted to the sport of rucking.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ryan Burns (00:11):
Hey gang, you're listening to Under The Log the
podcast where we talk to men andwomen who recently completed go
ruck events. In today's episode,we're talking to grace burns,
who recently completed the gorock star course 12 miler up in
Richmond, Virginia. And not onlythat, but well. She's my
daughter. I think she's prettyawesome.
(00:39):
Before we get into this episode,I just wanted to say thanks.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast. And thanks for
supporting all our projects atthe rockin collective. I mean,
you guys and gals are out there,you're doing the rocking
challenges from lookingchallenges calm you. Check out
our ruck dot training website.
Yeah, read the articles at ruckdot beer. And, you know, I got a
lot of websites. So I justwanted to say thanks. Thanks for
(01:05):
being a part of this community.
And thanks for giving mesomething to do with my free
time. With that, let's get on toour interview with grace burns
in the star course. 12 months.
Oh grace, Thanks a ton forcoming on the episode today.
(01:27):
We're gonna be talking aboutyour go rock star course 12
miler up in Richmond, Virginia.
Before we get started, if youtake a minute, just introduce
yourself to everyone you know,let them know all kind of the
basic stuff name age, what youdo for a living that sort of
thing.
Grace Burns (01:45):
Sure. My name is Grace burns. I am 14 and am a
student. I'm a freshman in highschool. Nice. Nice and
Ryan Burns (01:57):
like What's what?
What's the name of the highschool? Where do you go to where
do you go school?
Grace Burns (02:01):
I am homeschooled.
Actually,
Ryan Burns (02:03):
wow. What kind of crazy people homeschool.
Awesome. So I guess the thecrazy people that homeschool is
actually your mother. BecauseSurprise, surprise, you're my
daughter. You already knew that.
But yeah, everybody on the onthe show here might not have
(02:24):
known that. So yeah, so Grace ismy daughter. And this last
weekend, her and I went out andcrush the go rock star course 12
miler here in Richmond,Virginia. So thanks for coming
on the show today, sweetheart.
Grace Burns (02:40):
Thank you for having me.
Ryan Burns (02:42):
Yeah. So for those folks that are listening, that
might not know what the GORUCKstar course is, it's a little
bit different than than whatpeople typically think of with
GORUCK events. A lot of timespeople think of the GORUCK
challenges, things like that. Sograce, could you take a moment
(03:03):
and explain to everybody likewhat, what is the go rock star
course?
Grace Burns (03:08):
Sure. Um, so a star course is there. It's a big
it's a rock. Basically, there'sno PT or anything. You at the
start get your destinations, andyou have to go around the city
or wherever you are. And take apicture at each location.
(03:32):
It's generally a given distance.
So ours was a 12 mile. ruck, andYeah, awesome.
Ryan Burns (03:39):
So no, like, there's no like Cadre yelling at you or
anything?
Grace Burns (03:43):
No. Which is nice.
Ryan Burns (03:45):
Yeah. Does your does your partner ever yell at you?
Grace Burns (03:49):
You did not. But I don't know.
Ryan Burns (03:52):
Only only if they get you really last? Yeah, yeah.
So um, yeah. So Star Wars issuper fun. So this was your very
first go ruck event, right?
Grace Burns (04:07):
Yes, sir. It was.
Ryan Burns (04:09):
Yeah. So what made you want to sign up for this?
Grace Burns (04:14):
Well, it was actually kind of funny, because
just a couple weeks before, I'dbeen thinking about how I
actually I really wanted to, Iwanted to do a GORUCK kind of
since you got into them, becausethey sounded really fun.
But I was thinking that Iprobably had to wait till I'm
like 16 because that was the ageon the website. And then you
(04:36):
came up and was asked if Iwanted to do a star course. And
it's like, that sounds prettyfun.
Ryan Burns (04:44):
And that was it.
You're like, Yes, amen.
Grace Burns (04:47):
Yeah. But a week before,
Ryan Burns (04:49):
so. So it sounds to me like you've been reading the
go ruck website. Is thatcorrect?
Grace Burns (04:55):
Yes. I yeah, it was for a couple months. Actually.
Ryan Burns (05:00):
And so were you thinking about, like, trying to
do a light or something likethat?
Grace Burns (05:05):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But, uh, I don't
know. It seemed like there'd betoo much. Yeah, like,
Ryan Burns (05:12):
there's, there's usually a fair amount of yellow.
Which is, which is what is funabout the GORUCK star courses.
This is actually the second onethat I've done. And just the
environments really cool. Lotsof people that are out there
just to have a good time, getout see the city. And so it's
(05:33):
it's, it's fun, the Cadre arechill. We had Cadre, Cadre Matt
was out there with us. And itwas a lot of fun. So you know,
first event, I came up and Isaid, Hey, you know, this is
gonna be in Richmond, I hadthought about inviting other
(05:55):
people within our family, butkind of everybody had stuff
going on, you know, your youngerbrother had a soccer game. The
other one was doing Model UN.
And so I was like, man be greatif just me and you could do it.
And so I was excited when yousaid that you were into it. Now,
for the folks at home. Let themknow, kind of like what your
training look like before youwent to this? Because I mean, 12
(06:18):
miles is not. Not that much. OrI mean, it is. I mean, it's not
it's not nothing, right? It's,yeah, yeah. So what what did
your training look like for theevent?
Grace Burns (06:34):
Um, I think I went on two rocks that were about two
miles each. I'd been running inthe mornings. And so I just for
the two days leading up to it. Iswitched it over to racking
instead, which ended up givingme a pretty bad neck cramp. So
that was alarming the daybefore. Okay, so,
Ryan Burns (06:54):
like, what kind of what kind of mileage were you
running before that?
Grace Burns (06:57):
about two miles each morning?
Ryan Burns (07:00):
Okay. And how long had you been doing that?
Grace Burns (07:03):
maybe a month.
Ryan Burns (07:04):
Okay. So you're First off, you didn't even know
that you were doing a go rockstar course. You're out there
running. And then I'm prettysure I asked you like the Monday
before it. So yeah, so you hadlike five days to get ready. So
you, you grab your rock. And yougo out for two rocks?
(07:30):
accumulated a total of fourmiles of distance. Yeah. Any
idea how much weight you weretraining with?
Grace Burns (07:37):
A my science book and math book. So however much
that is?
Unknown (07:43):
Are they are they big books?
Ryan Burns (07:45):
Well, I mean,
Grace Burns (07:46):
yes. But like, probably no more than 15 pounds.
Ryan Burns (07:50):
Okay. All right. So you tossed a couple books in
there. You went for a couplemiles. And then you sprained
your neck or something like whatwas
Grace Burns (08:00):
the day before I woke up, and it was fine. And
then about around breakfast, Icouldn't look to the left and
spent the whole day. Likebasically like that. And then I
woke up the next day, and it wasfine. So that was pretty weird.
And definitely alarming. Butyeah,
Ryan Burns (08:18):
yeah. So yeah, your mom or I can't remember if it
was you or your mom text me. Andit was like grace. Grace can't
move her neck to the left. Whichis weird, because it's totally
like that's an injury that I'vehad before where I've sprained
my neck, like leading up to anevent. And I don't know if it's
from rocking or just somethingweird happening. But hopefully
(08:39):
this isn't like a genetic thing.
Next brains before events, butyeah, so you woke up that next
day, and everything was fine. Ichecked in with you. And you're
like, yep, was let's, let's go,let's do this. So, the morning
of rolls around, like, you wakeup that day, like how you how
(09:00):
you feel? And like, Are younervous about it? Or what?
Grace Burns (09:04):
So I was thinking about that, and honestly, I
don't think I was nervous atall. Like, I I feel like I would
be more nervous to do another.
To then to then that was thatfirst time because I just
honest, I like 12 miles was likeout No, no, I've never walked
more than seven miles before. SoI didn't really have a good
(09:24):
gauge of how much that was gonnabe. So I wasn't really nervous
at all.
Ryan Burns (09:30):
Okay, so so we roll up to the event, and, like, did
you have anything in your mindof like, what it was gonna be
like when we got there? Andlike, how did that compare to
what it was in reality?
Grace Burns (09:45):
Yeah, I was kind of intimidated, I guess because,
you know, I figured I wasprobably going to be the
youngest person there. And youknow, everyone else who is
there, like, you know, I sawlike different patches and stuff
with like the different ruck gowork that they've done before.
And so it was kind of it was Iwas a little bit intimidated
just because there were so manypeople who knew what they were
(10:07):
doing. But I was really excited,I think. Yes, Lee? Yeah.
Ryan Burns (10:14):
So we're out there.
And we're getting ready. Youknow, as I was talking to some
of my buddies and connectingwith them, and Cadre calls us
over, and like you explainedearlier to folks, you know,
basically, the Cadre gives us asheet with a bunch of waypoints
on it, just a bunch of sites toaround town. And they either
(10:36):
have coordinates or they have anaddress. And the idea of the
star course is that you get out,you put in some miles, you have
a good time, and you get to seedifferent parts of your city. So
he gives us our waypoints. Andso what did we do once we got
those,
Grace Burns (10:56):
so we got them, and you started putting them into an
app you gotten before, but itwasn't working, because the
start and end point were thesame place. And the app wanted
it to not be the same place. Andso it kept making it all weird.
So we couldn't get a good agood, like, order to go in. So
(11:17):
eventually, just we're like, youknow, a little ways away,
because we just started walking,and you're like, no, it let's
it's a big circle, let's just goin a circle, which ended up
being a really good plan, whichwas nice.
Ryan Burns (11:28):
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I totally felt like a, like a
tool. Because, like, you know,I've got all these websites I
write about go rock, and I, youknow, I pay way too much
attention to it. And so simplethings like what app to use for
a star course and how to, like,I would I would write an article
(11:52):
and tell people, you know, usethese apps. And, and, like, the
number one rule is like, alwaystest your gear, right. So I
should have tested this app. ButI literally looked at it for
like four seconds the daybefore. Like, oh, yeah, you just
put the addresses in, it'll befine. It will be fine. So I
(12:12):
started to freak out when itwasn't working. Because I'm
like, everybody's gonna beleaving. And we're just gonna
stand in here. And so like yousaid, I kind of winged it showed
Cadre and we just startedwalking. And it was probably
half a mile before I was like,You know what, forget it. It's
Yeah. It just looks like a bigcircle. So. So we kind of set
(12:35):
off like, how did you feel as westarted going, like, I guess, to
two things like how did you feelabout me? Not having a clue how
to use the app? Like, how didyou feel about that? And then
like once we started going,like, what was like What was
going through your head?
Grace Burns (12:52):
So about the app honest, I wasn't too worried
because like, you know, it'sRichmond. How bad can it get?
But I, I think what stood out tome the most was that basically,
the moment we started walking,my heel started hurting, and it
didn't really stop hurting untilit went numb. So that was
(13:13):
unfortunate, because I was justwearing my sneakers because I
don't have any other shoes.
Which is definitely something ifI were to do it. Again. I would
like to have not my sneakers.
Yes, they aren't supercomfortable.
Ryan Burns (13:27):
Yeah, I remember you at one point. I can't remember
where it was, you know, I thinkit might have been after the
coffee bar slash juice bar. Thatwe were walking and I was just
kind of checking in with you.
And you said, you know, my heelwas hurting, but now it's known.
Grace Burns (13:43):
Yeah, that was around the third stop. I think
the market building. Okay. Yeah,it was like, well, that's kind
of nice. Because it doesn't hurtat least. Like sure it won't be
nice later. But
Ryan Burns (13:55):
yeah, so so I guess it turns out whenever we got to
the end point, you were finallyable to take off your shoes like
you
Grace Burns (14:02):
Yeah, nasty blister.
Ryan Burns (14:04):
Yeah, pretty huge.
Like, is it all like fall skinall fallen off yet?
Grace Burns (14:11):
It's mostly gone.
It's like a scab. No. Okay. Sothat's nice.
Ryan Burns (14:15):
Yeah, it was it was pretty gross. Yeah. So so like
your your heels hurting. So whatdo you do? You're just I mean,
Grace Burns (14:26):
keep walking cuz my heel actually hurts, like, a
lot. Different types of hurting.
But I just like I don't I mean,not gonna stop, like 10 minutes
in so just kind of kept walking.
Ryan Burns (14:42):
So your heel hurts all the time. Basically. Just
keep walking. Yeah, I guessthat's that's a pretty good life
lesson. Again, hope you'reenjoying our conversation with
grace burns. I know I sure had alot of fun. out there rockin
with her. You know what else isfun? Checking out the
(15:04):
workouts@ruckwod.com. I mean,you want to talk about a good
time. There's a good time postedthere every single day. ruck
based workouts for you, yourfriends, your mom, anybody? Go
check it out@ruckwod.com. Withthat. Let's get back to talking
(15:25):
to grace.
Unknown (15:33):
All right, so
Ryan Burns (15:37):
we're going, we're going from point A to point, you
know, I think, excuse me, we hada man, I hope I remember to edit
out those coughs. We're goingfrom point to point. So was it
for you like, was it just likeone long, boring locker or what
(15:58):
like how to definitely
Grace Burns (15:59):
not It was really fun, because a lot of it was,
you know, I recognize the placeswe are going. And so it was
really interesting seeing that,like, Whoa, I can walk all the
way to Willow lawn, like, that'spretty cool. I never, because we
always go on the highway to getthere. So I'm like, I didn't
know you could walk to Willowlawn, but you can. So that was
(16:20):
really interesting. And it wasfun to like, see all the
different places. And I reallyliked seeing the different
people out to like, you know,running into other records and
stuff. In passing them. That wasfun to
Ryan Burns (16:35):
see you like.
Grace Burns (16:37):
Yeah, that was that was satisfying.
Ryan Burns (16:39):
Yeah. So I think, you know, I think we got a
little bit of a late startbecause of my inability to work
the app, right. And so it wasprobably about three miles in,
we were going to our thirdcheckpoint, and we kind of came
over a hill, a little bit of ahill by the baseball stadium.
And I looked and I saw thepeople ahead of us. And I was
(17:00):
like, Oh, I was like, I feellike we're, we're gaining on
them. And you know, it probablytook a mile or so for us to
catch up to them. But it was itwas pretty fun. Because like,
I'm out there. I'm having a goodtime and all that stuff. But you
know, I'm competitive too. Yeah,it feels good to pass. People
(17:22):
done it. Like Yeah,
Grace Burns (17:23):
it's like, I'm not doing bad.
Ryan Burns (17:27):
Yeah. So so we passed a couple people, we got
to that way point. And then, youknow, we passed, we passed a few
more. So we were we wereactually moving pretty quick.
Like, do you? I'm sure I sharedit with you. But like, do you
(17:47):
remember what our pace was?
Grace Burns (17:48):
I think it was like, hovering around the 15
minute mile. Pull. Yeah,
Ryan Burns (17:54):
yeah, I think at the end, like our cumulative pace,
including the like once dot oneand a half stops that we made
was was like 1520, which is likethat's, that's a real? That's a
real good pace. Yeah. Like, foryou, you know, I'm your dad. I'm
six one you're like, not six?
Grace Burns (18:16):
Not Definitely not.
Ryan Burns (18:18):
Do you even know how tall you are? How tall?
Grace Burns (18:20):
However tall mom is? I'm like, a couple
centimeters.
Ryan Burns (18:24):
I think she's five, nine and three quarters or
something like that. Yeah. Okay,so we obviously have a different
stride. Like, how hard was itfor you to keep that pace? Like
for me, that's, it's like it's abrisk walk. I mean, I got long
legs. So how did that feel foryou?
Grace Burns (18:42):
So for about the first half, I basically had to
take a step and a half foryours. So like every, like six
or seven steps, I'd do like adouble step and catch up and it
was fine. And then we had onemore checkpoint to go and it was
really far out. It was like twoor three miles out, and it was
definitely the most boringstretch. But that that that got
(19:08):
a little, a lot harder. A def hewould kind of add just kind of
walk rather slowly and thenyou'd get ahead and I'd have to
jog to catch up and just keptgoing like that. Yeah,
Ryan Burns (19:20):
yeah, there were a few points where I kind of felt
bad because you would, it'd belike, step step, shuffle step.
And, and then there was therewas definitely one point where I
was. I just kind of knew that Iwas walking in front of you,
like, yeah, she's not walkingbeside me anymore, but I'm gonna
keep going and see if she'llkeep up. Yeah. But, uh, like,
(19:42):
did you ever feel like oh mygosh, this is too fast. There's
no way that I can do this.
Grace Burns (19:47):
I didn't ever feel like it was too fast. Because, I
mean, it was just walking. Andby the, by the time that I was
getting really hard, we hadlike, maybe two miles left, and
I really, really Didn't want tostop because about a mile back
I'd kind of stopped and like satback on my heels. And I don't
really regret doing it. But itwas very it took a good half
(20:10):
mile to like be like, okay,walking. Yeah, again. So
Ryan Burns (20:14):
yeah, I find like when you do long rocks like
that, like whenever you stop,it's everything just kind of
locks up and it's like, likewalking here feel good after
that.
Grace Burns (20:24):
Yeah, so I guess mostly I was just like, I really
just don't want you to be like,let's stop. Please. No. So.
Ryan Burns (20:31):
So, um, so you said it was probably on, like the
last two miles were hard. So upuntil then, like you felt pretty
good for the first like, nine910 miles.
Grace Burns (20:45):
Yeah, it was kind of like at the first mile,
things started hurting, but itnever really hurt any worse than
that until the last one or twomiles. So it was it was just
kind of like, Oh, I guess I canjust keep going.
Ryan Burns (21:00):
And so once it started hurting, like, was it
was it just more I don't want tostop to because I don't want to
feel the pain? Or like, what wasdriving you to keep going? And
like, you never once were like,Hey, Dad, let's slow down. So so
like, What? How? How are youable to just keep pushing it.
Grace Burns (21:21):
I don't like slowing down. I don't like being
the one who's like, we have togo slower. And I really like
those, I really like longdistance events and stuff for
swimming. Because there's justthe grind and you just kind of
think about don't really thinkabout it. And it's just, you
just kind of keep going. Andit's really fun to see how long
(21:44):
you can keep going. And I'vealways enjoyed the like, trying
to push more and not be the oneto stop.
Ryan Burns (21:55):
Nice. So I like that. Yeah, that's kind of how I
am too.
Grace Burns (22:01):
He's always like, he's probably never gonna stop.
It's gonna keep going darn. WhenI fixed such a good part.
Ryan Burns (22:08):
Well, I mean, it was funny, we got to that first
checkpoint at the Art Museum.
And I was like, Alright, well,let's just stop at each thing.
We'll take off our rocks, we'llget some water. And then we'll
get going. And then like, we gotto we got to the second point,
there was just tons of people.
They're
Grace Burns (22:25):
all just kind of stop. And I was like, I
Ryan Burns (22:28):
was like, in my head. I don't think I said it to
you. I was like, if we keepgoing, we're gonna pass like,
five or six groups. Like, let'sgo.
Grace Burns (22:35):
I think I mentioned something once we were about a
block was like he's past like,20 people. Yeah, that was
exaggeration. Not trying.
Ryan Burns (22:44):
It felt good. Yeah.
Yeah. And after that, I waslike, Well, I mean, let's just
take our picture and keep going.
And I was like, I really had noidea how you would do like you
said, I mean, I knew that youhad never gone 12 miles before.
I know that I walked fast. Andso I was, I was just kind of
(23:06):
going and I'd check in with youevery now and then be like you
Okay, and you'd be like, yep,I'm good. And, and I was looking
at the pictures from all ourcheckpoints. And it's funny
because like, you know, thefirst two or three, like, you've
got a big smile on the fourthone. It's like you kind of
you're like, Okay, we're here.
And like at the last checkpointis just like, take the picture.
(23:26):
Let's go.
Grace Burns (23:28):
Yeah, like, and I'm sure it's like, sometimes
someone's gonna be like, oh,let's go to the gardens for your
field trip. I'm like, nope.
Never want to go there again.
Ryan Burns (23:38):
Only if we drive.
Unknown (23:39):
Yeah.
Ryan Burns (23:41):
Awesome. So did you have any idea like how well we
were doing while we were outthere?
Grace Burns (23:50):
No. I mean, there was one. There was one point
where I was like, when we werewe were almost to the last
checkpoint, I think. And it feltlike we're almost there. But we
weren't. And there was thisgroup that we passed, and I
don't remember quite what theysaid. But it's something like do
you have Do you have three orfour checkpoints left? We're
like, one, they're like, what?
That was like, Wait a second.
(24:14):
they've they've only gottenlike, one or two checkpoints?
Ryan Burns (24:17):
Yeah. I think they had to. They had the potato
building. And I think the thejuice bar. Yeah. So yeah, that
was definitely one where I waslike, mentally trying to do the
math like, okay, where, whereare they? How much? How many
miles is that? Um, so I mean,that that kind of leads us to
(24:39):
the finish where we crossed theline. And like, like, how did
that feel? I mean, I know Iguess we could tell people like
towards the end maybe the lasthalf mile you know, you were
doing so well. I kind of wantedto push you a little bit so we
well, what was kind of thatstrategy for like that last half
(24:59):
mile?
Grace Burns (24:59):
Yeah. for about about the last half mile we
would do like we just pick atree and just shuffle to that
and then walk to the next one inthe new shuffle so it was a mix
of shuffle walk for a littlewhile
Ryan Burns (25:11):
yeah so just a great little way to shave off some
seconds i think at that pointlike i was trying to drop our
average pace a little bit yeah ireally wanted us to be under the
1530 or so we
Grace Burns (25:22):
were like 1529
Ryan Burns (25:25):
like let's go let's go yeah um so then then we get
to like the last you know couple100 yards or whatever and i was
like alright once we get to thepath let's just let's just go
for it and oh my god like hetook off like i was trying to
like film it or whatever and iwas like oh she's like running
real
Grace Burns (25:44):
yeah i really like that final sprint and honestly
i'm a little annoyed i didn't gofaster because i was tired so i
kind of misjudged how long therewas so i was like i don't know i
like sprinting but not like forthe only event yeah but so just
yeah just finished really reallystrong
Unknown (26:03):
yeah like going
Grace Burns (26:04):
up i saw a couple people i was like okay so but
like there weren't a lot ofpeople there so like oh it must
have done pretty good
Ryan Burns (26:10):
so so we crossed the line and Cadre match there and
he he gives us the patch and hetells us something like like how
did how did that feel like talkme through that experience
Grace Burns (26:22):
yeah so we get we get there and kind of i just
throw my rock off because myshoulders are really bad and he
gives us a fashion like ohthat's so cool and he's like
congrats you won and i was likethanks like you know yeah we
finished yeah and you were likewhoa what i was like wait oh we
won and it definitely took acouple seconds to sink in but
(26:46):
like we'd gotten first place thepeople who were there had done
the 26 milers so yeah we gotfirst for the 12 mile
Ryan Burns (26:55):
yeah that was that was pretty cool that was really
really cool like i knew that wewere moving on i knew that a 15
minute mile you know in thatrange would be good but like if
you know i knew that definitelythere could be people going
faster than that so i you know iwas like it's it's gonna be a
(27:15):
really good time but when hesaid that we were first like i
couldn't believe it
Grace Burns (27:20):
yeah i just kept kind of like a couple hours
we're just sitting there i justget like it's kind of cracking
up cuz i'm like i cannot believethat i like i'd see these people
come in i'm like i beat you yeahhow did how did i beat you
thanks sense so those groupswith like you know like really
fancy gear and like her and it'slike how did yeah it took a
(27:46):
while to like be like reallynice oh wow i actually did
Ryan Burns (27:50):
yeah and and i mean you earned it like you know it's
you went out there you didn'tstop i mean outside of that one
vmfa quick stop like you knowyou threw your ruck off at the
end because like you said youhadn't taken it off and whatever
it was like 10 miles orsomething like that so that was
(28:13):
really cool and i enjoyedsitting around and chatting with
people and you know hearingstories from from folks that
have done the 26 miler and allthat stuff
Grace Burns (28:24):
eating possibly the best orange i've ever had
Ryan Burns (28:28):
orange every everything tastes a little bit
better at the end of an eventdoesn't it so let's see when
when you look back at the eventas a whole like what was what
was probably like the hardestpart for you and how did you
deal with it
Grace Burns (28:48):
it was probably we were coming up on the aircraft
gardens and there was a hill andi hate hills which is why i like
richmond because there's not alot of them and so i kind of was
we were walking and i noticedand i was like we're on a hill
and like we'd been looking backwe'd been on the hill for a
(29:10):
while but i just noticed it thenand that was i was just can we
just pause for a minute but iguess kinda like what i was
saying before like i don't likeasking to stop and so and i knew
that we were like about half amile away from the checkpoint
(29:31):
and i was like no that we can iwas like all right at the
checkpoint or kind of sit downand if i need to we'll stop but
uh i kind of sat down i was likei'm not stopping but but yeah
that was definitely that thatpoint was pretty hard
Ryan Burns (29:47):
yeah so overall do you like it
Grace Burns (29:52):
yes i really liked it it was super fun
Ryan Burns (29:56):
so was it was it kind of all you thought it would
be or was it better Yeah,
Grace Burns (30:00):
it was definitely more of a, of a go ruck than I
was anticipating which was nice.
Like I was saying, like, youknow, like, yeah, to your claim,
like, it really did feel like itwas a GORUCK. Like, which was,
which was nice because now I canit doesn't feel like I saw an ad
one. It's like, No, I did one.
Ryan Burns (30:19):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a real event. Like, I've
talked to some people, andthey're like, you know, the star
course doesn't really makesense. It's like, you know, it's
just going out. But like,especially, you know, depending
on where you are in your fitnesslevel, like, I was kind of in
that camp, and went out. Andwhen I did the 50 miler in DC,
(30:41):
it was like, Oh, no, this isreally hard. Because I probably
trained for that, like youtrained for this.
Unknown (30:50):
Yeah.
Ryan Burns (30:51):
So awesome. And so any future GORUCK events for
you?
Grace Burns (30:58):
Well, there is one in DC in three months. So if
you're interested, I'd love todo that.
Ryan Burns (31:04):
Yeah, I have. So couple things. First off, check
my calendar second off I, the DCthe, there's just such a high
likelihood that they're going tomake us go on the C and o canal.
Which is just the worst thing onthe planet. But I would be
(31:29):
willing to go on the CNO canalto do it with you. So as long as
long as the calendars open, Iguess we'll go up to DC for for
your first 26 miler. That'sthat's like a marathon.
Grace Burns (31:43):
But But you weren't running. See that's that's the
difference. rucking is so muchbetter than running.
Ryan Burns (31:48):
Yeah. I think a lot of people that listen to this
podcast are gonna agree with youright there. Yeah. So you know,
any any advice for like the momsand dads out there that are
listening? And they're like,Man, you know, my kid would
never do this. Like, any advicefor them to get their kids
(32:08):
involved in rucking Ah,
Grace Burns (32:11):
tell them how much cooler it is to get a patch over
a metal because it's a lotcooler.
Ryan Burns (32:17):
It's true. Grace and I When did we talk about this?
Grace Burns (32:22):
Right up Willow lawn when it was it was a going
right past me. Yeah.
Ryan Burns (32:27):
So we were we were out on the on the course. And
Grace was like, patches are somuch better. Because like, what
do you do? You can't like walkaround wearing your metal? Like,
you know, so I was like, youjust get our medals and like,
walk around with them. But Butyeah, like patches are way
cooler, because you can put themon your backpacks and wear them
around all the time and bereminded of what you did. Which
(32:50):
is pretty awesome. Well, Grace,I've got to say just how
incredibly proud of you I am.
You know, look, I know that I'msix foot one. You know, whenever
I go and ruck with people,inevitably people complain about
you know how long my stride is.
(33:11):
But you know, you you dug deepyou never once complained. Like
even though you couldn't feelyour Hill, you had a giant
blister you you push through thewhole event. And you know, you
you earn your patch, and youearn the respect of all the men
and women that were out there.
And you should you should feelreally good about that.
Grace Burns (33:33):
Thank you.
Ryan Burns (33:36):
So, with that, thanks for coming out on the
show. I look forward to doing anevent with you again in the
future. That that dc 26 miler.
Maybe sometime in the nearfuture, we can look at getting a
go ruck basic. It's not calledby it anymore. Yeah. So Well,
we'll see about what it mighttake to get you and one of those
(34:00):
and maybe someday we can beUnder The Log together.
Grace Burns (34:07):
Yes, sir. Looking forward to it.
Ryan Burns (34:09):
Oh, and I love you.
Unknown (34:11):
Love YouTube dad.
Ryan Burns (34:19):
say that I'm a proud Papa would be, it'd be a bit of
an understatement. I mean,getting to do the go rock star
course with my daughter was anamazing experience for me. To
see her and all that she did.
Just it warms my heart. But thetruth is, it's just a drop in
the bucket of how amazing sheis. As a young woman. I'm so
(34:40):
proud of her. And I can't waitto do more events with her. And
more than that. I just can'twait to see her grow up. Be all
that God has created her to be.
She's pretty amazing. And youknow what? You're amazing too. I
mean, not like something Mydaughter, but you're pretty
(35:01):
cool. And I hope that youenjoyed this podcast if you did,
I'd love it if you took anopportunity to share it with
some of your friends, maybe yourruck clubs folks that you know
that are out here doing GORUCKevents. If you're interested in
show notes, links to things thatgrace and I talked about today,
or just want to check out someother episodes, visit us at
Under The log.com. And I guessthat's it. We'll see you next
(35:27):
time Under The Log.
Hey gang, you're listening to Under The Log the
podcast where we talk to men andwomen who recently completed go
ruck events. In today's episode,we're talking to grace burns,
who recently completed the gorock star course 12 miler up in
Richmond, Virginia. And not onlythat, but well. She's my
daughter. I think she's prettyawesome.
(00:39):
Before we get into this episode,I just wanted to say thanks.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast. And thanks for
supporting all our projects atthe rockin collective. I mean,
you guys and gals are out there,you're doing the rocking
challenges from lookingchallenges calm you. Check out
our ruck dot training website.
Yeah, read the articles at ruckdot beer. And, you know, I got a
lot of websites. So I justwanted to say thanks. Thanks for
(01:05):
being a part of this community.
And thanks for giving mesomething to do with my free
time. With that, let's get on toour interview with grace burns
in the star course. 12 months.
Oh grace, Thanks a ton forcoming on the episode today.
(01:27):
We're gonna be talking aboutyour go rock star course 12
miler up in Richmond, Virginia.
Before we get started, if youtake a minute, just introduce
yourself to everyone you know,let them know all kind of the
basic stuff name age, what youdo for a living that sort of
thing.
Grace Burns (01:45):
Sure. My name is Grace burns. I am 14 and am a
student. I'm a freshman in highschool. Nice. Nice and
Ryan Burns (01:57):
like What's what?
What's the name of the highschool? Where do you go to where
do you go school?
Grace Burns (02:01):
I am homeschooled.
Actually,
Ryan Burns (02:03):
wow. What kind of crazy people homeschool.
Awesome. So I guess the thecrazy people that homeschool is
actually your mother. BecauseSurprise, surprise, you're my
daughter. You already knew that.
But yeah, everybody on the onthe show here might not have
(02:24):
known that. So yeah, so Grace ismy daughter. And this last
weekend, her and I went out andcrush the go rock star course 12
miler here in Richmond,Virginia. So thanks for coming
on the show today, sweetheart.
Grace Burns (02:40):
Thank you for having me.
Ryan Burns (02:42):
Yeah. So for those folks that are listening, that
might not know what the GORUCKstar course is, it's a little
bit different than than whatpeople typically think of with
GORUCK events. A lot of timespeople think of the GORUCK
challenges, things like that. Sograce, could you take a moment
(03:03):
and explain to everybody likewhat, what is the go rock star
course?
Grace Burns (03:08):
Sure. Um, so a star course is there. It's a big
it's a rock. Basically, there'sno PT or anything. You at the
start get your destinations, andyou have to go around the city
or wherever you are. And take apicture at each location.
(03:32):
It's generally a given distance.
So ours was a 12 mile. ruck, andYeah, awesome.
Ryan Burns (03:39):
So no, like, there's no like Cadre yelling at you or
anything?
Grace Burns (03:43):
No. Which is nice.
Ryan Burns (03:45):
Yeah. Does your does your partner ever yell at you?
Grace Burns (03:49):
You did not. But I don't know.
Ryan Burns (03:52):
Only only if they get you really last? Yeah, yeah.
So um, yeah. So Star Wars issuper fun. So this was your very
first go ruck event, right?
Grace Burns (04:07):
Yes, sir. It was.
Ryan Burns (04:09):
Yeah. So what made you want to sign up for this?
Grace Burns (04:14):
Well, it was actually kind of funny, because
just a couple weeks before, I'dbeen thinking about how I
actually I really wanted to, Iwanted to do a GORUCK kind of
since you got into them, becausethey sounded really fun.
But I was thinking that Iprobably had to wait till I'm
like 16 because that was the ageon the website. And then you
(04:36):
came up and was asked if Iwanted to do a star course. And
it's like, that sounds prettyfun.
Ryan Burns (04:44):
And that was it.
You're like, Yes, amen.
Grace Burns (04:47):
Yeah. But a week before,
Ryan Burns (04:49):
so. So it sounds to me like you've been reading the
go ruck website. Is thatcorrect?
Grace Burns (04:55):
Yes. I yeah, it was for a couple months. Actually.
Ryan Burns (05:00):
And so were you thinking about, like, trying to
do a light or something likethat?
Grace Burns (05:05):
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But, uh, I don't
know. It seemed like there'd betoo much. Yeah, like,
Ryan Burns (05:12):
there's, there's usually a fair amount of yellow.
Which is, which is what is funabout the GORUCK star courses.
This is actually the second onethat I've done. And just the
environments really cool. Lotsof people that are out there
just to have a good time, getout see the city. And so it's
(05:33):
it's, it's fun, the Cadre arechill. We had Cadre, Cadre Matt
was out there with us. And itwas a lot of fun. So you know,
first event, I came up and Isaid, Hey, you know, this is
gonna be in Richmond, I hadthought about inviting other
(05:55):
people within our family, butkind of everybody had stuff
going on, you know, your youngerbrother had a soccer game. The
other one was doing Model UN.
And so I was like, man be greatif just me and you could do it.
And so I was excited when yousaid that you were into it. Now,
for the folks at home. Let themknow, kind of like what your
training look like before youwent to this? Because I mean, 12
(06:18):
miles is not. Not that much. OrI mean, it is. I mean, it's not
it's not nothing, right? It's,yeah, yeah. So what what did
your training look like for theevent?
Grace Burns (06:34):
Um, I think I went on two rocks that were about two
miles each. I'd been running inthe mornings. And so I just for
the two days leading up to it. Iswitched it over to racking
instead, which ended up givingme a pretty bad neck cramp. So
that was alarming the daybefore. Okay, so,
Ryan Burns (06:54):
like, what kind of what kind of mileage were you
running before that?
Grace Burns (06:57):
about two miles each morning?
Ryan Burns (07:00):
Okay. And how long had you been doing that?
Grace Burns (07:03):
maybe a month.
Ryan Burns (07:04):
Okay. So you're First off, you didn't even know
that you were doing a go rockstar course. You're out there
running. And then I'm prettysure I asked you like the Monday
before it. So yeah, so you hadlike five days to get ready. So
you, you grab your rock. And yougo out for two rocks?
(07:30):
accumulated a total of fourmiles of distance. Yeah. Any
idea how much weight you weretraining with?
Grace Burns (07:37):
A my science book and math book. So however much
that is?
Unknown (07:43):
Are they are they big books?
Ryan Burns (07:45):
Well, I mean,
Grace Burns (07:46):
yes. But like, probably no more than 15 pounds.
Ryan Burns (07:50):
Okay. All right. So you tossed a couple books in
there. You went for a couplemiles. And then you sprained
your neck or something like whatwas
Grace Burns (08:00):
the day before I woke up, and it was fine. And
then about around breakfast, Icouldn't look to the left and
spent the whole day. Likebasically like that. And then I
woke up the next day, and it wasfine. So that was pretty weird.
And definitely alarming. Butyeah,
Ryan Burns (08:18):
yeah. So yeah, your mom or I can't remember if it
was you or your mom text me. Andit was like grace. Grace can't
move her neck to the left. Whichis weird, because it's totally
like that's an injury that I'vehad before where I've sprained
my neck, like leading up to anevent. And I don't know if it's
from rocking or just somethingweird happening. But hopefully
(08:39):
this isn't like a genetic thing.
Next brains before events, butyeah, so you woke up that next
day, and everything was fine. Ichecked in with you. And you're
like, yep, was let's, let's go,let's do this. So, the morning
of rolls around, like, you wakeup that day, like how you how
(09:00):
you feel? And like, Are younervous about it? Or what?
Grace Burns (09:04):
So I was thinking about that, and honestly, I
don't think I was nervous atall. Like, I I feel like I would
be more nervous to do another.
To then to then that was thatfirst time because I just
honest, I like 12 miles was likeout No, no, I've never walked
more than seven miles before. SoI didn't really have a good
(09:24):
gauge of how much that was gonnabe. So I wasn't really nervous
at all.
Ryan Burns (09:30):
Okay, so so we roll up to the event, and, like, did
you have anything in your mindof like, what it was gonna be
like when we got there? Andlike, how did that compare to
what it was in reality?
Grace Burns (09:45):
Yeah, I was kind of intimidated, I guess because,
you know, I figured I wasprobably going to be the
youngest person there. And youknow, everyone else who is
there, like, you know, I sawlike different patches and stuff
with like the different ruck gowork that they've done before.
And so it was kind of it was Iwas a little bit intimidated
just because there were so manypeople who knew what they were
(10:07):
doing. But I was really excited,I think. Yes, Lee? Yeah.
Ryan Burns (10:14):
So we're out there.
And we're getting ready. Youknow, as I was talking to some
of my buddies and connectingwith them, and Cadre calls us
over, and like you explainedearlier to folks, you know,
basically, the Cadre gives us asheet with a bunch of waypoints
on it, just a bunch of sites toaround town. And they either
(10:36):
have coordinates or they have anaddress. And the idea of the
star course is that you get out,you put in some miles, you have
a good time, and you get to seedifferent parts of your city. So
he gives us our waypoints. Andso what did we do once we got
those,
Grace Burns (10:56):
so we got them, and you started putting them into an
app you gotten before, but itwasn't working, because the
start and end point were thesame place. And the app wanted
it to not be the same place. Andso it kept making it all weird.
So we couldn't get a good agood, like, order to go in. So
(11:17):
eventually, just we're like, youknow, a little ways away,
because we just started walking,and you're like, no, it let's
it's a big circle, let's just goin a circle, which ended up
being a really good plan, whichwas nice.
Ryan Burns (11:28):
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I totally felt like a, like a
tool. Because, like, you know,I've got all these websites I
write about go rock, and I, youknow, I pay way too much
attention to it. And so simplethings like what app to use for
a star course and how to, like,I would I would write an article
(11:52):
and tell people, you know, usethese apps. And, and, like, the
number one rule is like, alwaystest your gear, right. So I
should have tested this app. ButI literally looked at it for
like four seconds the daybefore. Like, oh, yeah, you just
put the addresses in, it'll befine. It will be fine. So I
(12:12):
started to freak out when itwasn't working. Because I'm
like, everybody's gonna beleaving. And we're just gonna
stand in here. And so like yousaid, I kind of winged it showed
Cadre and we just startedwalking. And it was probably
half a mile before I was like,You know what, forget it. It's
Yeah. It just looks like a bigcircle. So. So we kind of set
(12:35):
off like, how did you feel as westarted going, like, I guess, to
two things like how did you feelabout me? Not having a clue how
to use the app? Like, how didyou feel about that? And then
like once we started going,like, what was like What was
going through your head?
Grace Burns (12:52):
So about the app honest, I wasn't too worried
because like, you know, it'sRichmond. How bad can it get?
But I, I think what stood out tome the most was that basically,
the moment we started walking,my heel started hurting, and it
didn't really stop hurting untilit went numb. So that was
(13:13):
unfortunate, because I was justwearing my sneakers because I
don't have any other shoes.
Which is definitely something ifI were to do it. Again. I would
like to have not my sneakers.
Yes, they aren't supercomfortable.
Ryan Burns (13:27):
Yeah, I remember you at one point. I can't remember
where it was, you know, I thinkit might have been after the
coffee bar slash juice bar. Thatwe were walking and I was just
kind of checking in with you.
And you said, you know, my heelwas hurting, but now it's known.
Grace Burns (13:43):
Yeah, that was around the third stop. I think
the market building. Okay. Yeah,it was like, well, that's kind
of nice. Because it doesn't hurtat least. Like sure it won't be
nice later. But
Ryan Burns (13:55):
yeah, so so I guess it turns out whenever we got to
the end point, you were finallyable to take off your shoes like
you
Grace Burns (14:02):
Yeah, nasty blister.
Ryan Burns (14:04):
Yeah, pretty huge.
Like, is it all like fall skinall fallen off yet?
Grace Burns (14:11):
It's mostly gone.
It's like a scab. No. Okay. Sothat's nice.
Ryan Burns (14:15):
Yeah, it was it was pretty gross. Yeah. So so like
your your heels hurting. So whatdo you do? You're just I mean,
Grace Burns (14:26):
keep walking cuz my heel actually hurts, like, a
lot. Different types of hurting.
But I just like I don't I mean,not gonna stop, like 10 minutes
in so just kind of kept walking.
Ryan Burns (14:42):
So your heel hurts all the time. Basically. Just
keep walking. Yeah, I guessthat's that's a pretty good life
lesson. Again, hope you'reenjoying our conversation with
grace burns. I know I sure had alot of fun. out there rockin
with her. You know what else isfun? Checking out the
(15:04):
workouts@ruckwod.com. I mean,you want to talk about a good
time. There's a good time postedthere every single day. ruck
based workouts for you, yourfriends, your mom, anybody? Go
check it out@ruckwod.com. Withthat. Let's get back to talking
(15:25):
to grace.
Unknown (15:33):
All right, so
Ryan Burns (15:37):
we're going, we're going from point A to point, you
know, I think, excuse me, we hada man, I hope I remember to edit
out those coughs. We're goingfrom point to point. So was it
for you like, was it just likeone long, boring locker or what
(15:58):
like how to definitely
Grace Burns (15:59):
not It was really fun, because a lot of it was,
you know, I recognize the placeswe are going. And so it was
really interesting seeing that,like, Whoa, I can walk all the
way to Willow lawn, like, that'spretty cool. I never, because we
always go on the highway to getthere. So I'm like, I didn't
know you could walk to Willowlawn, but you can. So that was
(16:20):
really interesting. And it wasfun to like, see all the
different places. And I reallyliked seeing the different
people out to like, you know,running into other records and
stuff. In passing them. That wasfun to
Ryan Burns (16:35):
see you like.
Grace Burns (16:37):
Yeah, that was that was satisfying.
Ryan Burns (16:39):
Yeah. So I think, you know, I think we got a
little bit of a late startbecause of my inability to work
the app, right. And so it wasprobably about three miles in,
we were going to our thirdcheckpoint, and we kind of came
over a hill, a little bit of ahill by the baseball stadium.
And I looked and I saw thepeople ahead of us. And I was
(17:00):
like, Oh, I was like, I feellike we're, we're gaining on
them. And you know, it probablytook a mile or so for us to
catch up to them. But it was itwas pretty fun. Because like,
I'm out there. I'm having a goodtime and all that stuff. But you
know, I'm competitive too. Yeah,it feels good to pass. People
(17:22):
done it. Like Yeah,
Grace Burns (17:23):
it's like, I'm not doing bad.
Ryan Burns (17:27):
Yeah. So so we passed a couple people, we got
to that way point. And then, youknow, we passed, we passed a few
more. So we were we wereactually moving pretty quick.
Like, do you? I'm sure I sharedit with you. But like, do you
(17:47):
remember what our pace was?
Grace Burns (17:48):
I think it was like, hovering around the 15
minute mile. Pull. Yeah,
Ryan Burns (17:54):
yeah, I think at the end, like our cumulative pace,
including the like once dot oneand a half stops that we made
was was like 1520, which is likethat's, that's a real? That's a
real good pace. Yeah. Like, foryou, you know, I'm your dad. I'm
six one you're like, not six?
Grace Burns (18:16):
Not Definitely not.
Ryan Burns (18:18):
Do you even know how tall you are? How tall?
Grace Burns (18:20):
However tall mom is? I'm like, a couple
centimeters.
Ryan Burns (18:24):
I think she's five, nine and three quarters or
something like that. Yeah. Okay,so we obviously have a different
stride. Like, how hard was itfor you to keep that pace? Like
for me, that's, it's like it's abrisk walk. I mean, I got long
legs. So how did that feel foryou?
Grace Burns (18:42):
So for about the first half, I basically had to
take a step and a half foryours. So like every, like six
or seven steps, I'd do like adouble step and catch up and it
was fine. And then we had onemore checkpoint to go and it was
really far out. It was like twoor three miles out, and it was
definitely the most boringstretch. But that that that got
(19:08):
a little, a lot harder. A def hewould kind of add just kind of
walk rather slowly and thenyou'd get ahead and I'd have to
jog to catch up and just keptgoing like that. Yeah,
Ryan Burns (19:20):
yeah, there were a few points where I kind of felt
bad because you would, it'd belike, step step, shuffle step.
And, and then there was therewas definitely one point where I
was. I just kind of knew that Iwas walking in front of you,
like, yeah, she's not walkingbeside me anymore, but I'm gonna
keep going and see if she'llkeep up. Yeah. But, uh, like,
(19:42):
did you ever feel like oh mygosh, this is too fast. There's
no way that I can do this.
Grace Burns (19:47):
I didn't ever feel like it was too fast. Because, I
mean, it was just walking. Andby the, by the time that I was
getting really hard, we hadlike, maybe two miles left, and
I really, really Didn't want tostop because about a mile back
I'd kind of stopped and like satback on my heels. And I don't
really regret doing it. But itwas very it took a good half
(20:10):
mile to like be like, okay,walking. Yeah, again. So
Ryan Burns (20:14):
yeah, I find like when you do long rocks like
that, like whenever you stop,it's everything just kind of
locks up and it's like, likewalking here feel good after
that.
Grace Burns (20:24):
Yeah, so I guess mostly I was just like, I really
just don't want you to be like,let's stop. Please. No. So.
Ryan Burns (20:31):
So, um, so you said it was probably on, like the
last two miles were hard. So upuntil then, like you felt pretty
good for the first like, nine910 miles.
Grace Burns (20:45):
Yeah, it was kind of like at the first mile,
things started hurting, but itnever really hurt any worse than
that until the last one or twomiles. So it was it was just
kind of like, Oh, I guess I canjust keep going.
Ryan Burns (21:00):
And so once it started hurting, like, was it
was it just more I don't want tostop to because I don't want to
feel the pain? Or like, what wasdriving you to keep going? And
like, you never once were like,Hey, Dad, let's slow down. So so
like, What? How? How are youable to just keep pushing it.
Grace Burns (21:21):
I don't like slowing down. I don't like being
the one who's like, we have togo slower. And I really like
those, I really like longdistance events and stuff for
swimming. Because there's justthe grind and you just kind of
think about don't really thinkabout it. And it's just, you
just kind of keep going. Andit's really fun to see how long
(21:44):
you can keep going. And I'vealways enjoyed the like, trying
to push more and not be the oneto stop.
Ryan Burns (21:55):
Nice. So I like that. Yeah, that's kind of how I
am too.
Grace Burns (22:01):
He's always like, he's probably never gonna stop.
It's gonna keep going darn. WhenI fixed such a good part.
Ryan Burns (22:08):
Well, I mean, it was funny, we got to that first
checkpoint at the Art Museum.
And I was like, Alright, well,let's just stop at each thing.
We'll take off our rocks, we'llget some water. And then we'll
get going. And then like, we gotto we got to the second point,
there was just tons of people.
They're
Grace Burns (22:25):
all just kind of stop. And I was like, I
Ryan Burns (22:28):
was like, in my head. I don't think I said it to
you. I was like, if we keepgoing, we're gonna pass like,
five or six groups. Like, let'sgo.
Grace Burns (22:35):
I think I mentioned something once we were about a
block was like he's past like,20 people. Yeah, that was
exaggeration. Not trying.
Ryan Burns (22:44):
It felt good. Yeah.
Yeah. And after that, I waslike, Well, I mean, let's just
take our picture and keep going.
And I was like, I really had noidea how you would do like you
said, I mean, I knew that youhad never gone 12 miles before.
I know that I walked fast. Andso I was, I was just kind of
(23:06):
going and I'd check in with youevery now and then be like you
Okay, and you'd be like, yep,I'm good. And, and I was looking
at the pictures from all ourcheckpoints. And it's funny
because like, you know, thefirst two or three, like, you've
got a big smile on the fourthone. It's like you kind of
you're like, Okay, we're here.
And like at the last checkpointis just like, take the picture.
(23:26):
Let's go.
Grace Burns (23:28):
Yeah, like, and I'm sure it's like, sometimes
someone's gonna be like, oh,let's go to the gardens for your
field trip. I'm like, nope.
Never want to go there again.
Ryan Burns (23:38):
Only if we drive.
Unknown (23:39):
Yeah.
Ryan Burns (23:41):
Awesome. So did you have any idea like how well we
were doing while we were outthere?
Grace Burns (23:50):
No. I mean, there was one. There was one point
where I was like, when we werewe were almost to the last
checkpoint, I think. And it feltlike we're almost there. But we
weren't. And there was thisgroup that we passed, and I
don't remember quite what theysaid. But it's something like do
you have Do you have three orfour checkpoints left? We're
like, one, they're like, what?
That was like, Wait a second.
(24:14):
they've they've only gottenlike, one or two checkpoints?
Ryan Burns (24:17):
Yeah. I think they had to. They had the potato
building. And I think the thejuice bar. Yeah. So yeah, that
was definitely one where I waslike, mentally trying to do the
math like, okay, where, whereare they? How much? How many
miles is that? Um, so I mean,that that kind of leads us to
(24:39):
the finish where we crossed theline. And like, like, how did
that feel? I mean, I know Iguess we could tell people like
towards the end maybe the lasthalf mile you know, you were
doing so well. I kind of wantedto push you a little bit so we
well, what was kind of thatstrategy for like that last half
(24:59):
mile?
Grace Burns (24:59):
Yeah. for about about the last half mile we
would do like we just pick atree and just shuffle to that
and then walk to the next one inthe new shuffle so it was a mix
of shuffle walk for a littlewhile
Ryan Burns (25:11):
yeah so just a great little way to shave off some
seconds i think at that pointlike i was trying to drop our
average pace a little bit yeah ireally wanted us to be under the
1530 or so we
Grace Burns (25:22):
were like 1529
Ryan Burns (25:25):
like let's go let's go yeah um so then then we get
to like the last you know couple100 yards or whatever and i was
like alright once we get to thepath let's just let's just go
for it and oh my god like hetook off like i was trying to
like film it or whatever and iwas like oh she's like running
real
Grace Burns (25:44):
yeah i really like that final sprint and honestly
i'm a little annoyed i didn't gofaster because i was tired so i
kind of misjudged how long therewas so i was like i don't know i
like sprinting but not like forthe only event yeah but so just
yeah just finished really reallystrong
Unknown (26:03):
yeah like going
Grace Burns (26:04):
up i saw a couple people i was like okay so but
like there weren't a lot ofpeople there so like oh it must
have done pretty good
Ryan Burns (26:10):
so so we crossed the line and Cadre match there and
he he gives us the patch and hetells us something like like how
did how did that feel like talkme through that experience
Grace Burns (26:22):
yeah so we get we get there and kind of i just
throw my rock off because myshoulders are really bad and he
gives us a fashion like ohthat's so cool and he's like
congrats you won and i was likethanks like you know yeah we
finished yeah and you were likewhoa what i was like wait oh we
won and it definitely took acouple seconds to sink in but
(26:46):
like we'd gotten first place thepeople who were there had done
the 26 milers so yeah we gotfirst for the 12 mile
Ryan Burns (26:55):
yeah that was that was pretty cool that was really
really cool like i knew that wewere moving on i knew that a 15
minute mile you know in thatrange would be good but like if
you know i knew that definitelythere could be people going
faster than that so i you know iwas like it's it's gonna be a
(27:15):
really good time but when hesaid that we were first like i
couldn't believe it
Grace Burns (27:20):
yeah i just kept kind of like a couple hours
we're just sitting there i justget like it's kind of cracking
up cuz i'm like i cannot believethat i like i'd see these people
come in i'm like i beat you yeahhow did how did i beat you
thanks sense so those groupswith like you know like really
fancy gear and like her and it'slike how did yeah it took a
(27:46):
while to like be like reallynice oh wow i actually did
Ryan Burns (27:50):
yeah and and i mean you earned it like you know it's
you went out there you didn'tstop i mean outside of that one
vmfa quick stop like you knowyou threw your ruck off at the
end because like you said youhadn't taken it off and whatever
it was like 10 miles orsomething like that so that was
(28:13):
really cool and i enjoyedsitting around and chatting with
people and you know hearingstories from from folks that
have done the 26 miler and allthat stuff
Grace Burns (28:24):
eating possibly the best orange i've ever had
Ryan Burns (28:28):
orange every everything tastes a little bit
better at the end of an eventdoesn't it so let's see when
when you look back at the eventas a whole like what was what
was probably like the hardestpart for you and how did you
deal with it
Grace Burns (28:48):
it was probably we were coming up on the aircraft
gardens and there was a hill andi hate hills which is why i like
richmond because there's not alot of them and so i kind of was
we were walking and i noticedand i was like we're on a hill
and like we'd been looking backwe'd been on the hill for a
(29:10):
while but i just noticed it thenand that was i was just can we
just pause for a minute but iguess kinda like what i was
saying before like i don't likeasking to stop and so and i knew
that we were like about half amile away from the checkpoint
(29:31):
and i was like no that we can iwas like all right at the
checkpoint or kind of sit downand if i need to we'll stop but
uh i kind of sat down i was likei'm not stopping but but yeah
that was definitely that thatpoint was pretty hard
Ryan Burns (29:47):
yeah so overall do you like it
Grace Burns (29:52):
yes i really liked it it was super fun
Ryan Burns (29:56):
so was it was it kind of all you thought it would
be or was it better Yeah,
Grace Burns (30:00):
it was definitely more of a, of a go ruck than I
was anticipating which was nice.
Like I was saying, like, youknow, like, yeah, to your claim,
like, it really did feel like itwas a GORUCK. Like, which was,
which was nice because now I canit doesn't feel like I saw an ad
one. It's like, No, I did one.
Ryan Burns (30:19):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a real event. Like, I've
talked to some people, andthey're like, you know, the star
course doesn't really makesense. It's like, you know, it's
just going out. But like,especially, you know, depending
on where you are in your fitnesslevel, like, I was kind of in
that camp, and went out. Andwhen I did the 50 miler in DC,
(30:41):
it was like, Oh, no, this isreally hard. Because I probably
trained for that, like youtrained for this.
Unknown (30:50):
Yeah.
Ryan Burns (30:51):
So awesome. And so any future GORUCK events for
you?
Grace Burns (30:58):
Well, there is one in DC in three months. So if
you're interested, I'd love todo that.
Ryan Burns (31:04):
Yeah, I have. So couple things. First off, check
my calendar second off I, the DCthe, there's just such a high
likelihood that they're going tomake us go on the C and o canal.
Which is just the worst thing onthe planet. But I would be
(31:29):
willing to go on the CNO canalto do it with you. So as long as
long as the calendars open, Iguess we'll go up to DC for for
your first 26 miler. That'sthat's like a marathon.
Grace Burns (31:43):
But But you weren't running. See that's that's the
difference. rucking is so muchbetter than running.
Ryan Burns (31:48):
Yeah. I think a lot of people that listen to this
podcast are gonna agree with youright there. Yeah. So you know,
any any advice for like the momsand dads out there that are
listening? And they're like,Man, you know, my kid would
never do this. Like, any advicefor them to get their kids
(32:08):
involved in rucking Ah,
Grace Burns (32:11):
tell them how much cooler it is to get a patch over
a metal because it's a lotcooler.
Ryan Burns (32:17):
It's true. Grace and I When did we talk about this?
Grace Burns (32:22):
Right up Willow lawn when it was it was a going
right past me. Yeah.
Ryan Burns (32:27):
So we were we were out on the on the course. And
Grace was like, patches are somuch better. Because like, what
do you do? You can't like walkaround wearing your metal? Like,
you know, so I was like, youjust get our medals and like,
walk around with them. But Butyeah, like patches are way
cooler, because you can put themon your backpacks and wear them
around all the time and bereminded of what you did. Which
(32:50):
is pretty awesome. Well, Grace,I've got to say just how
incredibly proud of you I am.
You know, look, I know that I'msix foot one. You know, whenever
I go and ruck with people,inevitably people complain about
you know how long my stride is.
(33:11):
But you know, you you dug deepyou never once complained. Like
even though you couldn't feelyour Hill, you had a giant
blister you you push through thewhole event. And you know, you
you earn your patch, and youearn the respect of all the men
and women that were out there.
And you should you should feelreally good about that.
Grace Burns (33:33):
Thank you.
Ryan Burns (33:36):
So, with that, thanks for coming out on the
show. I look forward to doing anevent with you again in the
future. That that dc 26 miler.
Maybe sometime in the nearfuture, we can look at getting a
go ruck basic. It's not calledby it anymore. Yeah. So Well,
we'll see about what it mighttake to get you and one of those
(34:00):
and maybe someday we can beUnder The Log together.
Grace Burns (34:07):
Yes, sir. Looking forward to it.
Ryan Burns (34:09):
Oh, and I love you.
Unknown (34:11):
Love YouTube dad.
Ryan Burns (34:19):
say that I'm a proud Papa would be, it'd be a bit of
an understatement. I mean,getting to do the go rock star
course with my daughter was anamazing experience for me. To
see her and all that she did.
Just it warms my heart. But thetruth is, it's just a drop in
the bucket of how amazing sheis. As a young woman. I'm so
(34:40):
proud of her. And I can't waitto do more events with her. And
more than that. I just can'twait to see her grow up. Be all
that God has created her to be.
She's pretty amazing. And youknow what? You're amazing too. I
mean, not like something Mydaughter, but you're pretty
(35:01):
cool. And I hope that youenjoyed this podcast if you did,
I'd love it if you took anopportunity to share it with
some of your friends, maybe yourruck clubs folks that you know
that are out here doing GORUCKevents. If you're interested in
show notes, links to things thatgrace and I talked about today,
or just want to check out someother episodes, visit us at
Under The log.com. And I guessthat's it. We'll see you next
(35:27):
time Under The Log.
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