“We should do the Goggins Challenge, I think it would be fun.” What started as an off-the-cuff idea over beers turned into a crazy journey for three guys from Saint John, one of whom had never even
own running shoes.
The David Goggins Challenge has inspired thousands of people around the World to push themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally to their limits. It sounds pretty simple at first glance: Run 4 miles (6.43km), every 4 hours, for 48 hours.
David Goggins is not exactly known for doing simple things – check out his story at https://davidgoggins.com – so when a challenge baring his name is created, you can expect hardship, with many unsuccessful attempts made, the guys from Fundy CrossFit decided it was worth the effort. Last year the guys set out to complete the DGC and raise some money for Make-A-Wish Foundation. An ambitious goal of $5000 was set and the fools even added additional challenges along the way to entice donations. Well, two things happened that were completely amazing:
1) They made it, even with all the crazy challenge.
2) Our community blew the goal so far out of the water that we lost all
sense of reason and committed to doing it all again this year!
After raising $11,500 in 2021, we are committed to the challenge again (additional challenges and all). With a renewed commitment we are looking for your help to surpass last years marker and help Make- A-Wish as much as we can! Please help us reach out fundraising goal as we complete this amazing challenge.
The 2021 Challenges Recap
Our initial goal was $5000 but we may have underestimated our community just a bit! To keep the momentum rolling and to entice the donations to keep coming in, we started adding stretch financial goals with additional challenges for the guys with each. Read on to see how it all shook out.
Our first stretch goal may have been our smartest since it didn’t actually involve any more work for us! At the $6000 mark our wives joined in on the action. Gillian, Ashlee, and Lindsey were obliged to run with us during Segment #6, the Irving Nature Park run, sponsored by Kent Building Supplies. We hit this goal two days before the road work began! On this run we were joined by a huge crew from Fundy CrossFit, a fun one to do with the group.
Obviously not recognizing the steam that this train was building, we set our next stretch goal at the $6500 mark. If we hit that number, we committed to running a segment of the challenge wearing a 20lbs weight vest. We had that one in the books long before we tied up our laces! Segment #5 “Union Dues” sponsored by Unifor Local 30 got a little heavier!
Stretch goal three seemed like it had a lot of upside to it. When we hit $7000, a “beer mile” would be added to our last segment, changing the Harbour Hustle into a harbour shuffle. Four, 1 mile loops stopping at segment sponsor The Cask & Kettle Gastropub for a beer after each one. We hit that on July 9th , day one of the actual event. Upward and onward we went!
The next target was reaching $7500 (again, probably could have dangled that carrot a little longer). We were destined to get wet since this goal incorporated what was already an annual tradition for us. Segment #7, ironically sponsored by Ash Glen Electric, became a run/swim/run event, wedging a 500m swim between two, 2-mile runs on each end. We did this one at Brundage Point in Grand Bay-Westfield after reaching the milestone as the pre-run weigh-ins were taking place. That’s right, we were $2500 over our target and four stretch goals hit, and we hadn’t even started the running yet! Shout out to Maureen Hanlon for being our unofficial lifeguard on this one and who, rightfully so, was concerned for our well-being at this point! This one was again well attended by supporting runners and a big cheering squad.
Well at this point we were running low on ideas and Drew was getting a little (a lot) concerned about all the CrossFit add-ons! We were crushing stretch goals but running low on the ability to add more. Christian and Drew had shot down Rob’s idea of a naked mile several times, but we were getting worried that mental exhaustion might play a factor in our ability to continue to push-back. To shut it down permanently, we agreed to the most CrossFitt-y WOD of them all, “Murph”. Much like the run/swim/run, this stretch goal would mean that we were going to sandwich Murph (run one mile, 100 pull-ups,
200 push ups, 300 pullups, run one mile) into our already upscaled “Union Dues” route. We put the goal for this at $8000 and hit it just in the nick of time after running segment this one and dragged Drew and his cramped-up calves across the line!
Well at this point we knew we couldn’t keep it up. Fatigue, the need for rest, food, and to not have to focus so much on the fundraising was apparent. We had completed Murph but still had half of the segments to complete, including the run/swim/run! After some debate, we agreed to one last stretch goal. We honestly thought it would be too much, but we agreed, hit $10,000 and we will do this again next year. Well if you look at our Instagram feed from last year, you can see by the amount of memes Christian posted, that you stepped up and push us over the top just as we were getting ready for our final run. By the time the final contributions came in we raised $11,500. We ran our victory laps with some friends, drank a few beer. And put the challenge to bed…until 2022.
Stay Tuned to see what this years stretch goals will be!