In the iconic movie Forrest Gump, the main character started running one day “for no particular reason” and ended up crisscrossing the United States multiple times. He covered over 15,000 miles in three years. 

Inspired by this amazing feat, Robert Pope became the first person to retrace Forrest’s famous run in real life. He covered over 15,700 miles over 422 days and crossed our country over four times. 

On January 1, 2021, for no particular reason whatsoever, a KMD student Tim Thomas decided to take on a challenge presented by Goruck called the Tribe. The idea was fairly simple: read one book a month, do a special workout once and month and ruck certain distance or number of days and get a special patch. Tim was all in and even convinced a few of his buddies to join with him. The first rucking challenge was to cover at least one mile every day of January. No matter the weather, get outside and ruck at least one mile. And so they did. Then came February with its own rucking challenge which they also did but that wasn’t enough for Tim. He continued to ruck at least one mile every day. The months kept rolling bringing new physical challenges and challenging weather but Tim remained relentless and kept rucking every day no matter what. Then came an injury so of course I thought that was it for Tim. He did give this his full effort after all. But I was wrong. He kept doing physical therapy and still would ruck. Ever so slowly but he got it done. If you ask him he might tell you that rucking actually helped him recover quicker and made him stronger. 

Then he decided to take on the additional challenge of rucking 1,000 miles in a year. I tried that too and failed miserably. But not Tim. He crushed it!

As you are reading this, Tim has already rucked over 1,000 miles this year and shows no signs of slowing down. All this while having a full time job, caring for his family, helping anybody who needs help and crushing most advanced Krav Maga test on his way to earning the Black Belt. His daily rucking has transformed his body, improved his health and forged the mental fortitude that got him through everything life has thrown at him so far. It’s truly remarkable!

Forrest and Robert covered more distance (as of today) but then they stopped. Tim has not. Tim has not missed a single day of rucking in 1,452 days!!! I don’t know anyone with this kind of determination and consistency. Do you? 

And the best part is that he is real! Not a superhero or some social media influencer. He is an awesome guy just doing his thing every day. And he is also a great friend. 

I salute you Tim Thomas for yet another 1,000 mile year and yet another day of conquering the challenges and crushing the demons. You set a standard we all should aspire to meet.

Keep going buddy, you’re an inspiration to all.  #goruck #rucking #training #weforgewarriors