001[Music] hi and welcome to another edition of all politics is local I'm your host John featherson tonight I think we have a very exciting interview with Bob Sav you probably know Bob from Fitness Together uh gyms that he owns here in the Metro West area in Ashland in South Mar welcome Bob thank you very much Sean thanks for coming so we're going to talk a little bit about what you've got planned coming up for for the upcoming Marathon this year and one of the things we're going to talk about is tough Ruck tough Ruck nation is a group of military First Responders and civilians whose sole purpose is to Ruck in honor and memory of Fallen service members police firefighters and EMTs why raising funds to support our Warriors and families yes so I said
002a lot there Bob but uh you know for the audience out there you're going to Ruck yeah talk to us about what a Ruck is yeah so a Ruck is a little bit different than a run right people familiar with the Boston Marathon they're familiar with running a marathon um or you know any smaller distances 5K 10ks a rock is carrying what we call a rock sack so that's what we have here right uh it's typically a military bag has a certain amount of weight to it and you carry that Ruck and you can you can run tough Ruck um but you'll see most people out there walking and carrying that heavy load U throughout the entire event so let's talk about but your ruck right here I was going to call it a bag
003but it's actually a rck so you're going to walk 26.2 Mi or walk run 262 miles with a eight-year-old on your back pretty well yeah at least I mean that bag weighs right now 25 pounds there are different divisions in in tough Ruck you can enter um either as a civilian or as military and there's different dress codes for that uh but also in terms of a weight category so anything greater than 15 lb 15 lb is the minimum you can carry the lightweight division is 15 plus pound the heavyweight division is 35 Plus pounds so um I sort of fall in between there but you know always hard to know on on the day of the event what kind of things you're going to want to carry what kind of things you want to
004have with you how much water you want to have and there are stops along the way but I like to carry some things myself and uh for me there's there's some personal value to to to carrying at least 22 PBS as an owner of two gyms you know Fitness Together here in ashin and Southboro I mean you know kudos to you that you that you want to do I don't even like to drive 26.2 miles much less uh carry you know a 25 lb you know Ruck on my back so talk to me about how you got involved in the motivation for yeah you know it's funny I used to say the same thing when I first moved here I grew up in New York and and I went to school at Boston University and
005when I first moved up here I was really motivated and and driven to want to do the Boston Marathon um but I am not in any way shape or form or Runner I think I had done a couple of 5Ks under duress but I've I've never been a runner and I never really was able to train to do the Boston Marathon and and I had set my sights on the 100th Boston Marathon clearly never got there uh but then as time went on and as I got more involved with the military community and helping to volunteer at different organizations uh I met some people and they they suggested to me that I enter knowing what I do for a living they said hey you you know you should think about doing this tough Ruck with
006us um most of the events that I volunteer at I I'm not able necessarily to to hike along with them so this gave me an opportunity to be in that crowd of people to feel and experience uh the emotion of the day but also to fulfill one of my goals which was to do a marathon when I found out that tough Ruck is part of the Boston Marathon it sort of brought everything together for me and and the opportunity to earn a Boston Marathon medal was was you know really what sealed the deal for me to want to do this so this year will be your sixth year yes six consecutive years six consecutive years um you know unfortunately I got started in 2019 um had a great experience the first time out and then
007we entered into covid with two virtual uh years um and that sort of was what motivated me to keep going was that I wanted to have that experience again of being in the crowd seeing the people um and having that experience uh with everyone do 26.2 miles with a 25 pound Ruck on your back I just I'm always amazed like when you talk to marathon runners here you know because marathon's so big you know in Metro West uh how do you feel the next day you must be exhausted you know each Year's a different experience and I think that's what it's been is that my first year I didn't know what to expect and it's so different training for me for tough Ruck than it is to be a runner if you're a runner you
008go out you run every day you do a few miles and you build up that endurance and even at you know the the the longest run you might do might only be it might be 20 miles for an experienced marathon runner they're still going to finish that in in a few hours you know I went out this past weekend and did a training Rock we did 13 miles it took us about four hours you know and then we looked at that and said gez you know that's only halfway right and I don't have six eight hours a day you know on a weekend to train for this so you never know going in really what that's like if you if you don't train that mileage so yeah that was a that was a real hard
009thing for me to you know and from an experience standpoint is to be able to train and and mentally to be able to prepare for it so you know each Year's a little different and you ask how I feel is that first year I felt what I thought was pretty good going in and I was great and we even had a few clients from Fitness Together join us that day and as we were going up the last Hill I was cheering them on and and and we were excited about it and we could see the finish line and then all of a sudden I had this incredible pain in my calf and it was throbbing and I looked down and I saw almost like my calf had a heartbeat right and I'm looking at it
010and I stopped in my tracks and I'm holding on and um someone a big Marine came up behind me and I saw that not only did he have his rock on his back he had someone else's Ruck on his front he was helping someone else you know get to the finish line and he came to me and he says you know you okay can I help you and I said I looked at my calf and I was in agony and he says hop on I'll carry you oh and it was at that point that I knew that I had to figure out a way to get to the finish line and I did and I got there and it felt great but there were some things I don't remember about finishing um I was uncomfortable
011for a few days afterwards so like I said I just every year it's kind of inspired me to train more and I've had some good years and then a couple years ago I had a really bad year I got dehydrated and I think most Runners understand this too you know those that participate in the marathon every year is you can't account it's so hard in this area to train for weather right that was going to be one of my questions yeah what's an ideal day I you know I don't I don't know I mean I think like we were out on Saturday and it was overcast and 50° or less and that felt good um but there were morning you know we we sort of assemble at around I think it's 6:00 in the morning
012and it's generally in April pretty cold at 6:00 in the morning so you're there you got your pants on your sweatshirt on and you're trying to stay warm and and and go about the day and then I think a few years ago it warmed up to 60° and not that that was terrible but it was warm yeah you and I didn't account for it I didn't take off layers fast enough and by the time I hit about 9 or 10 miles I was dehydrated and I didn't realize it uh my wife saw it on me and and could tell that something was wrong and and my posture was wrong my back hurt um oddly enough I finished probably with my best time ever that year but I was laying on the ground for two hours
013afterwards really couldn't move you know um and then last year I think I got done and I said you know hey anybody want to go out and get a you know something to drink like I was like let's let's keep going so what what's the toughest part of the course I mean you you come out of hopkington into Ashlin and then you hit the kind of a flat track into Framingham and NAIC and then you know then you hit you know uh Heartbreak Hill I mean so where's the worst part of the route for you guys no so actually well so this is this is something that I guess we should have talked about is is different about tough rck unfortunately tough Ruck is not on the Marathon course oh okay um so years ago
014when tough Ruck started back in 2013 there was a there was a small group of of Ruckers who were participating in the Boston Marathon they were carrying their rucks they were you know people from back then probably remember them you know through the streets and this day now you still see some people in uniform but back then they had their rucks it was a small group um but as they were finishing in 2013 that's when the bombs went off right and when that happened they were just crossing the Finish Line they were some of the First Responders on site that day um so they they you know helped in any way they could but it was after that year that some of the rules changed uh and Ruckers were no longer allowed to carry backpacks
015um that next year and I don't know if that's changed I don't follow the Boston Marathon as as closely but that particular year um in 2014 they said you know we're sorry guys you know this is this is something we can't honor um you know this year but if you'd like you know we we appreciate what you do you know where you've been and we want to help you why don't we create this other event right so they they branched off from the Boston Marathon that's how tough Ruck was sort of created and expanded so they moved it to Minute Man National Park and conquered okay um and it's the day before the Boston Marathon so it's everything about the marathon sort of you know it's 26.2 miles it's sponsored by the baa we Ruck
016the you know the whole say when we get done we get the the Unicorn metal um but it's just has to be done the day before and they moved it off course so they can make their preparations for Boston day on Monday that makes sense so it is the Sunday before Marathon Monday it is and it starts in conquered it starts yeah so where uh in in conquer so it's you know it goes through conquer in Lexington starts at the Finn school um and you know and and weaves its way through conquer um you know along the some on the bike path there as well and what time of day is that uh early in the morning I forget exactly what time it goes off I think usually around around 8 maybe uh I know
017we assemble sometime I think it's at six um but it's uh yeah but you asked about like sort of the hardest part is you know the course has changed a little bit over the years um so there's been different types of things like I remember my first year we were back and forth in Minute Man National Park a few times so that was sort of challenging mentally to to be sort of retracing your steps and to see people kind of kind of coming and going you felt like you were just on a on a wheel and you weren't getting anywhere um the one that I had difficulty with a few years ago we were more in the woods than we had been in in years past so the terrain was a little uneven um whereas
018most of the time it's flat on pavement on on on uh tamped dirt so you know that usually works out well um but that's always the hardest part is I think for me I mean physical you can train for physical um it's harder to train for elements and for mental and that is I think and I and I used I mean as a personal trainer for years I've coached athletes and marathoners and and we talk a lot about that is that you know I can always prepare somebody physically mentally you have to be ready as well you know when you're participating in in a competition oh I I would think the mental is the bigest so what do you what do you wear on your feet running shoes boots I I wear I wear uh
019for me I wear Merill boots uh but people I've seen in all different kinds of Footwear if you enter in the military division you are not only wearing you know full dress but you're wearing uh your your issued boots as well uh so I and I've seen people wear full military dress you know and and military boots and run that thing in four hours 4 hours and I don't know with 35 lbs on their back so let's talk about let's talk about The Ruck we don't call it a backpack we call it a rook so why is that why is it called a rook that one I can't answer for you so I'm a civilian so I don't I don't have a good answer for that one um and I will tell you a funny
020story about The Ruck so when I when I got started uh doing this in my first year training you know I I was training with a a bunch of veterans and they suggested you know the backpack I was wearing wasn't going to cut it for 262 you know point2 miles so they suggested I go to the Army Navy Surplus and I and I pick out a Ruck so I walked in and and having no idea what I was looking for I just asked the poor man at the counter if he could help me and uh he pointed up and said those are rucks pick one and I looked and I my next question I was training with a lot of Marines and I said please please please um you have to give me a marine
021color backpack uh Ro and he corrected me right away and said Rock and because I said if I pick the wrong color I'm going to get picked on so uh so so I ended up with this rock and he got it all fitted for me and there's all kinds of straps and gadgets and places to hide things and again for me you know and for this event it's just about carrying the weight I can imagine it has all kinds of very specific purposes as to how these things are designed and I was taught one thing about it when the when the gentleman at the Army Navy uh was fitting me for it he told me there are two straps at the top that if you pull on them it'll disconnect the entire bag from your
022body so if you find yourself submerged in water it is a very quick way out and I had to remind him again that I was doing a marathon and if I found myself submerged in water I made a wrong turn so uh did he laugh I hope yeah he just looked at me and said please buy the bag and get out so cash or credit yeah that's right so talk to me about you know what you've got here yeah so there's a few patches on my bag from different events that I've done or different events I've participated in uh there's a couple of ribbons on the bag now and and those are what we consider Ruck tags or you know they're basic luggage tags but we had those made for a different organization that I
023volunteer with called the reverent Warriors okay um as far as tough Rock goes and I didn't bring them with me today but during the tough rck uh you'll see a lot of people most people during tough Rock are carrying ribbons on their bag longer uh ribbons of yellow uh white red to signify the different either branches or um you know EMT fire police uh that they want to honor somebody so most of my ribbons are yellow to honor Fallen service members uh that are unable like you said in the opening about unable to rock with us anymore so we carry those names for our entire Rock so what was your motivation to get involved with with this I mean did you have a friend a family coworker well just I mean some of it was
024was the motivation to do the event uh there was motivation to be with the people that I was meeting through a reverent Warriors and through that organization um and over time I've learned more and more about some of the people people that I knew people that friends knew that had passed um and it became sort of more important to honor them and to carry those names and and that's a big part I mean I said you talk about like mental motivation and when when you're walking that that distance and when you're feeling that pain to look ahead of you to see other people sort of forging on to look at the names on the on the bags not just the own the ones I'm carrying but to see the names on other people's packs to
025see pictures they're carrying um things that that they're holding dear that just drives you that much more to get done or you know eight hours it takes us you know anywhere from 6 to 8 hours if you're walking to finish this um there's a lot of people to talk to uh there's a thousand people that that join in on this event so as you're going You're not necessarily always with the same crowd of people and it's easy to strike up conversations with people and say hey tell me about the people on your pack good you know um and and so you get to learn a lot about the people that they're honoring um and that's that's I said that's the biggest motivation is to finish for them I mean in a six hour six to8
026hours to do it I mean you've got to go to the bathroom you've got to eat yes you've got to hydrate so talk to me you know that the mental piece of this to me is almost as fascinating as the physical piece I mean you know like I said I don't like to drive 26 miles much less you know carry you know that back but talk how do you prepare for the mental we talked about it a little bit in the beginning but I mean when when you're struggling what do you what do you tell yourself it it's just a lot of practice and and I mean for me and I think everybody handles it differently I a lot of the the the practice that I do is um Often by myself during the day
027you know as a as a personal trainer I'm busiest in the morning and in the evening so I have a lot of free time in the afternoons and I'll and I'll run down over to you know the rail trail and and hop on there and go as far as I can you know in whatever time I have and that's a lot of alone time so I I have my headphones on I can think about things I can I can analyze how I'm feeling uh I can pay attention to my stride so you know it's looking inward sometimes and and thinking about those things but as I said it's it it comes with practice so the more times I go out the more times I I know what things feel like and what they're supposed to
028feel like and and how to adjust when things don't feel well what I've always told myself again because of the time involved in this you know a lot of my hikes are 6 to8 miles on a regular basis so on always with the Rook always with the Rook um so yeah I'm sure there'll be plenty of people out there that saying I've seen that guy I'm on I'm on the trail a lot uh but I'll go out there and you know on on event day I will go out there and I know the first 8 to 10 miles simple I do it all the time it you so I don't even have to think about it you know if something feels wrong in those first eight to 10 miles like it did a couple years
029ago I know there a problem it's going to be a rough day it's going to be a rough day so those 8 to 10 miles no problem at all as I told you before is you know any Long training rucks that we do might only be 12 13 15 miles so that next8 to you know 10 you know eight miles or so the second third if you will of the of the marathon is when you start to feel things that's why I always tell people that are new to this I said you the first eight n miles you're going to feel great piece of cake no problem you're excited everybody's excited be pass out on the side of the road the next n miles you start to feel things right the bag gets a little
030heavy on your back your feet start to get a little tingly right your knees start to ache a little bit so you start to notice things if you haven't trained beyond that distance and most people don't often train beyond that distance that's when you have no idea you know and I've done you know five of them now so I I sort of know what to expect at that point but again it's always different so the last third of the marathon you're just hanging on and you just tell yourself that you know what it's not going to feel any worse whatever I'm feeling now is what I'm going to feel the rest of the way and that's what it is it's just yep my back hurts my knees hurt okay it can't hurt any more than
031this and we just do it so what do you eat and drink during during all um for me I try to keep my sodium levels up uh you know I'm drinking water Gatorade whatever people are handing out you know I try to keep as much fluid but uh yeah electrolytes that type of stuff so definitely you know working on on those for food you know again I've started to eat things that I never thought I would eat and and here comes the personal trainer side of me um but the people love this so I eat a lot of potato chips um because they go down easy salt yeah a lot of salt on them uh the carbohydrate level so it so it helps just and they're just they're easy to eat uh you're not you
032know we're not running so it makes a lot easier to eat things um I was never a big fan of beef jerky and I don't eat it on a normal basis ever um but my first tough Ruck somebody was handing some out and I said I'm hungry and I and I took it and it was fantastic uh same thing keeping the protein and the salt and uh so things like that things that go down easy I I don't like all the the gels and goo and Power Bars I like I don't like that stuff um so I just try to find other snacks and peanut butter uh things like that that I can that I can get down easy wow so you mentioned it a couple times tonight irreverent Warriors let's talk about that cuz
033we don't have a lot of time left but we definitely want to get that in so a reverent Warriors is another organization that um I volunteer with I'm actually the lead coordinator for reverent Warriors here in Massachusetts and their mission is to bring veterans together using humor and camaraderie to improve mental health and prevent veteran suicide um it's that simple there's no sort of barri it's not a it's not a marathon it's not it's something totally different but really our our mission is to just get veterans out of isolation we know and this gets back to of my Ruck and what I carry but 22 veterans a day and that number has been debated a bit but 22 veterans a day are are um commit suicide MH and you know we're looking to end that
034problem and we're looking to like I said bring them out of isolation bring people together so that they know that they've got a network of people that have been through what they've been through and are available to talk and and and work on the things they need to work on you know kudos to you because you've tou you've touched on a hot we didn't even know but you've touched on a hot button with me with this is that you look at the young soldiers now in their 20s and 30s that have served two three four tours yes in Afghanistan or you know or you know in the Middle East which is unheard of we've never asked soldiers to do that now they come back home and there's there's no mental health help for them there's
035no you know communities even like Ashlin has a part-time veterans agent now and most of the community in Metro West have part-time services so what you're doing here I think is huge work and if Elizabeth Warren or Ed Mary or cathine Clark is watching this you know this is the guy this is the model because there are so many young veterans that are struggling with the Mental Health crisis and then you throw a worldwide pandemic on top of all of that mental health is the biggest thing going so kudos to you I mean so how do people learn more about it yeah so reverent warriors.com is the website we have several events and that was the thing when we started this or I say we but you know when a reverend Warriors was was started
036it was a simple premise get veterans together go for a rock enjoy each other's company uh what we found over time was that to Simply do we have a a big event every year called the silkies hike where the veterans will come together they'll put on their real short shorts they call them you know silkies or Ranger panties or they they they were the PT shorts that they that they wore back in the day you know for training so it's humor and camaraderie right you can't take yourself too seriously when you're wearing tiny shorts and walking through the streets so but the idea is to come out and have a good time well when they we doing that to have that event once a year and say you know to say our mission is to
037prevent veteran suicide thanks we'll see you next year didn't really cut it so what they started to do was to say you know what as a lead coordinator hey we'd like you to have more events we'd like you to get people together more often so we started doing other things we have a fundraiser coming up on April 20th we have other we have a hike in Milford a silky hike and the silkies hikes are for veterans only uh veterans active duty uh reservice and guard uh civilians can volunteer and they can help out along the way but that hike itself um you know on May 25th is just for those categories and then we have another one in Worcester on October 5th but all of those events and and not just here in Massachusetts but
038anywhere in the country uh can be found on a reverend warriors.com um but there are there are there are hikes and events throughout the country now and and Beyond um there was a hike recently um they're doing them now in England there's one scheduled for Normandy uh there's um one in Italy so they they're all over Puerto Rico yeah so does the Reverend Warriors have social media yeah yeah and and those are private groups but you know uh if you're a veteran uh if you're active duty if you'd like to get involved you can go and find Reverend Warriors Milford or Reverend Warriors Worcester um on social media on Facebook on Instagram uh and keep up to date with some of the things going on or they can reach out to me directly and as
039I said you know we can we can make sure that they get in the right group and um and what's been great is that you know you talked about mental health and other events you know there are so many groups sort of expanding on that idea so even within a reverent Warriors we have a gaming group we have a fitness group we have a sobriety group we so there's different things that people are interested in and involved with to sort of fit that niche of where they want to be um and the great thing for me I mean I got involved with all of this because again I I didn't come from military background military family I I didn't understand that there was this network of people that I wanted to help and now that
040I'm involved I'm finding many many many more groups and people and networks uh to interface with there's all kinds of groups Beyond just a reverent Warriors that do things to help veterans if they're not getting the help they need publicly well God bless you Bob Savin from Fitness together I mean you talk about a you know an American hero that's what you are I mean that's you're making a difference in people's lives you're giving back to your communities you're giving back so what what have we missed what what more do we have to do talk about your ruck coming up on uh Sunday April 14th the day before the marathon what more do people need to learn about that well I think that you know to get involved with tough rck they are still looking
041for volunteers as well or if you just want to come out and and and see the event and support the you know the the hikers that day as I said it'll be in conquered you can go to tough rock.org um you know that's a great place to get more information to sign up as a volunteer um there's ways to donate to military friends Foundation as well um but those are all things with tough Ruck I mentioned about a reverent warriors uh give the website one more time yeah reverent warriors.com for their website there and I think you know the the last thing I could say about all of this is just you know get involved because for me starting out you know when I was asked the question back in the day as to do
042you support the military I thought I did because I donated some money once upon a time you know or I might have you know left a couple of dollars on the table somewhere but until I when I was challenged to get involved and really support the military in that way by donating my time my presence I find that that's the the best thing that you can do to support our military is to be involved and be present well what a great guy you are hey we can't let you get out of here without getting a shot of you having your ruck on your back so so we'll have you suit up here a little bit y there's 25 lbs in here now so we strap in you know and this keeps it pretty tight you
043there's a couple of different straps on here straps around the waist uh but all that keeps the bag pretty tight to my body and you know as I said when you're when you're moving it's got a good frame to it so it really you know becomes just part of your body that's Bob Savin from Fitness Together here in Ashland you've been watching all politics is local we'll talk again real soon [Music]