GORUCK Tribe is series of monthly challenges that GORUCK is putting on through their website. You register for GORUCK Tribe, complete the monthly challenges, and receive a patch sometime in the future. There wasn’t much information about GORUCK Tribe leading up to the January 1st, 2021 launch which has lead to a number of people registering after the start date. I’ve received numerous emails and have read posts asking how late is too late to register for GORUCK Tribe. The follow-up to that question is usually what do I need to do if I register late? Here’s the answer to those questions.
How Late is Too Late to Register?
As long as GORUCK is selling the GORUCK Tribe patch it’s never too late to register. What about if it’s the last day of the month? Could I still register then knowing I won’t be able to get the WOD or book completed? From GORUCK’s website…
You are expected to earn every patch you receive. If you don’t, and the month has passed, the Buy Back Program is pretty simple: complete it now to earn the patch, in addition to the current month’s challenge. If you have questions about this, our team is trained to inspire you to do double the work, per question asked. Do what YOU think is right.
GORUCK Website
It’s not too late to register… you’ll just need to complete the month you missed in addition to the current month. It might be a bit of work but if GORUCK Tribe is something you’re interested in then it’s the only way to guarantee that you get a patch.
In limited circumstances or if we have additional patches, we will offer previous month’s challenges up for you to BUY BACK if you started the year late.
GORUCK Website
There’s no guarantee the last month’s patch will be available to purchase so if you have the option to start late you might want to take it. That is obviously if you’re interested in GORUCK Tribe. If you’re not then buy a patch or don’t it doesn’t really matter.
I’m Starting Late Now What?
So you’ve just learned about GORUCK Tribe and you’re going to be starting late. Awesome… now what? Is there anything you need to do to “make up” the days you missed? Do you start from today going forward? The answer, if you look on GORUCK’s website, is not clear. GORUCK sent out an email on January 5th, 2021 titled “Behind the Meaning of Tribe.” Within that email is a section called “STARTING LATE” which gives the answer.
If you found us late this month, it’s kind of like showing up after the first day of school. Catch up how you need to (you pick), then get to work. There’s no official penalty if you start in the middle of the month. If you’re lazy, once you’ve signed up, and skip your 1 Mile, that’s where the 5 Mile penalty comes in for the next day. Bottom line: Ruck a mile a day once you’re signed up and complete the MILLER HERO WOD to earn the patch.
GORUCK Email
So if you’re starting late basically get to choose what you do. In my mind there’s three options here that kind of align with GORUCK’s Challenges.
- Light: Start from today with 0 makeup miles.
- Tough: Start from today and complete 1 mile per day that you missed. This would be the equivalent of signing up on the first day of the month and not missing a day.
- Heavy: Start from today and complete 5 miles per day that you missed. This would be the equivalent of signing up on the first day of the month and doing nothing until today.
It doesn’t really matter (to me or to GORUCK) which option you go with. Do the one that works for you. Personally I’d go with the middle level and ruck 1 mile per day that I missed especially if I didn’t know about GORUCK Tribe until today. That seems fair to me however I’m sure there are people going with the Heavy approach and doing a ton of makeup miles.
Final Thoughts
I registered for GORUCK Tribe when it was announced and have been getting my miles in. Not everyone knew about GORUCK Tribe from the start and, if that’s you, hopefully this helps you out. I’ve spent some time working on a GORUCK Tribe Tracker for logging everything I’ve completed during GORUCK Tribe. It’s available for anyone who has a free All Day Ruckoff account so check it out if you’re interested.
If this helped you (or one of your friends) out I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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