Rucking the Alexi Pappas 10K at the San Francisco Marathon

Instead of running one of the races during the San Francisco Marathon weekend, I decided on rucking the Alexi Pappas 10K this year. As you may know, rucking is walking, hiking, or running slowly with a weighted backpack. This would be my first rucking race.

Written by Scott Benbow
Edited by Pavlína Marek

Training

Gearing up for the 10K, I practiced on a relatively flat course with rucks between 4 and 8 miles. At any particular distance, it’s easy to increase the intensity of a rucking workout. One can increase pace, weight, or both.

For my workouts, I typically carried between 20 and 50 pounds in my GORUCK Rucker backpack. My goal was to move at 15 minutes per mile. That was easy for me with a 20-pound pack and impossible with anything over 40 pounds.

The Race

For the 10K, which I walked with my wife, I decided to carry 32 pounds. Initially, our goal was 15 min/mile, but my wife suffered a sore knee so we slowed our pace to about 17 min/mile. At this easy pace, we could talk the entire time and say hello to some friends along the way.

I wasn’t sure anyone knew I was carrying a weighted backpack until another participant initiated a fist bump with me and yelled “GORUCK… Respect!” He appeared to be running the 10K and was out of breath because, presumably, he had entered the race quite a while after the waves of runners had started. At his pace, he quickly passed us and was making up for lost time.

Next year, I hope to be running one of the distances again. However, because of its many benefits, I am planning to incorporate rucking into my cross-fitness training regimen.

Why Should You Try Rucking?

If you’re injured or just getting back into running, you might want to include one or two rucks per week in your training. My 10K was an excellent workout, even at a slow pace, and yet I sustained none of the impact-related issues in my hips that I sometimes do when running long distances or fast paces.

I used shoes designed for rucking, GORUCK’s Rough Runner, which provides more stability and support than most conventional running shoes. (Whether you plan on trucking a marathon or trying the exercise for the first time, check out this podcast hosted by Peter Attia to learn more about rucking.)