Racing For Recon

 

 

When the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation was created we realized that there needed to be a division within the Foundation for athletic events.  Too often we had seen Reconnaissance Marines, many of them world class athletes, competing in grueling physical challenges while fund raising for other organizations that did not directly support the Marine Reconnaissance community.  Marine Reconnaissance is a profession that begins with over 158 hours spent in the water conducting physical training and nearly double that on land before even allowing a Marine to be assigned to their initial unit.  Naturally, this line of work draws the most athletically adept candidates and turns fit men into amphibious athletes of the highest caliber.  Many of these Reconnaissance Marines continue to uphold high physical standards well into their careers and beyond retirement, continuing to push their bodies to new physical limits.  Knowing that the Marine reconnaissance community has such athletes in its ranks led us to establishing the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation Team.

The team serves not only as an athletic fund raising conduit for the Foundation but also provides our non-military (family, civilians, friends) supporters the opportunity to push their bodies and minds past their own limits while experiencing some physical pain and mental anguish (two things that are very familiar to every Reconnaissance Marine throughout their career) while supporting a community that they admire. Often times the Foundation team also enables these supporters the chance to compete on teams with active duty and prior active duty Reconnaissance Marines, further increasing the bonds between our supporters and the Reconnaissance Marines they support.

The Marine Reconnaissance Foundation Team also exists to provide support to Reconnaissance Marines and Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsmen (SARC) for rehabilitation through sport. Our rehabilitation through sport program exists to provide support to those recon Marines and SARCs that have faced catastrophic injuries which require them to have specialized equipment to compete in athletic events, and also extends a helping hand to those in the community suffering from less overt injuries to get back to competing in athletic events as a form of therapy.

By far, the number one question that the Foundation team gets asked pertains to our custom made jerseys and racing kit. The Marine Reconnaissance Foundation Team racing gear is not available for open purchase. Much like everything in the reconnaissance community, our team gear is earned by our community athletes through dedication to the Foundation’s cause and sweat equity. There are fund raising minimums that we have set for particular types of races and events, and when our community athletes meet these minimums we provide them with their race gear free of charge. Our community athletes are also privy to a slew of deals from great brands such as: Mio Global, Nuun Hydration, Rudy Project North America, and Newton Running among others.

As a COMMUNITY athlete team, we accept all levels of competitors, competing in any sport (shooting, running, walking, cycling, skydiving, swimming) that want to fund raise for the Foundation. The Foundation’s community athlete team is not an elite team, and it does not discriminate against any level of fitness or gender. Often our community athlete team is mistaken for being a ‘active duty reconnaissance team’, that is definitively NOT the case. Other times our team is mistaken for some sort of elite level team that has try outs, and although many of our athletes are very fit and our relay teams have performed very well in foot races, our community team is OPEN TO ANYONE that is willing to: subject themselves to physical suffering, mental challenges, making a commitment to the reconnaissance community and fund raising for our cause! This last piece bears repeating, our community athlete team is OPEN TO ANYONE (young, old, slow, fast, woman, man) that wants to support the Foundation. However, the Foundation does have an elite level athlete program called the “Ambassador Athlete Program” and more information on that can be found on our website.

As we anticipated from its genesis, The Marine Reconnaissance Foundation Team has been the back bone of our fund raising efforts and that is a testament to our amazing community athletes. As our Foundation grows we hope to grow the team of community athletes that support us throughout the United States and the world. I invite you to join our team for your next competitive event, and see what a difference it can make when you dedicate your training and competition to a cause that’s greater than yourself.

Learn more about the team on our website here, or on Facebook

Train hard, train smart, and keep the rubber side down.

Emre
Director of Operations & Organized Team Events

 

 

mrf-team-logoDirector-of-Events