Why the @#$% Would you GORUCK?

Well, I'm committed. Last week I signed up for the GORUCK Challenge here in Raleigh. What's a GORUCK Challenge, you ask? In brief, the GRC is a 10-12 hour team event covering 15-20 miles (on foot). Challenges happen all over the country, and are led by former or active-duty special operations guys from GORUCK, which is a company in Montana that makes high-quality backpacks. Details are vague (and that's the point), but over the course of the night we can expect to endure plenty of physical hardship, in the form of indian running, bear crawling, crab walking, buddy carrying, and transporting heavy "coupons" and most likely a large log. Did you catch that we're doing this at NIGHT? Also, we will all be carrying 30+ pound backpacks and are almost sure to get completely immersed in water at some point. That last one is a big deal, because the Raleigh challenge is happening at the end of February, when it could very well be below freezing.

So WHY would I volunteer (and even pay money) to put myself through this?