Meet R2
Meet Robert Price aka R2. He’s an Iraq combat veteran who served as an infantryman in 10th Mountain Division and has been at GORUCK since 2013. He heads up the Gear Ops team and is known for being good with numbers but bad at taking hints that no one likes his mustache. You can usually find him crooning to Britney and oldies at GRHQ. Oh and if you ask him he’ll tell you that he gets mistaken for Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers on a regular basis. Basically, R2 is someone you always want to have on your team – a positive force for good who works his tail off.
Hitting Close To Home
On November 18, R2 received a call at work that no one wants to get. His wife of 9 years, Jayme, who had just given birth to their fourth child months prior, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Once the shock subsided and more information was obtained, here is the message that R2 shared with our team:
“Good afternoon GR Family,
This Monday Jayme and I received the news that she has stage 2 breast cancer (Triple Negative Invasive Ductal Carcinoma). We have had a lot of appointments already this week and have several more over the next couple of weeks. I will be in and out of the office as we attend the appointments. She begins Chemotherapy on December 6th. Chemotherapy will last 4-5 months. Currently, I am typically always in the office from 8:30 to 5, however I may be less consistent with this during the time she is having chemo. I will still be available anytime, I may just have to work from home sometimes. Just wanted to let everyone know what was occurring since I have been out of the office a significant amount of time this week and will be out a portion of the next two weeks.”
Do Right by People
Our team immediately started brainstorming ways to support R2’s family. In addition to setting up a meal train and cleaning services, we decided that we would get a group to ruck the Donna Half Marathon aka the Breast Cancer Marathon on February 9, 2020 in support of Jayme. Just putting that goal out in the universe made us feel better and grow closer as a community. Soon R2 got his swagger back as he talked about winning the rucking division.
Ruck Cancer and #DFQ
On a perfect Sunday morning, a large group of Jayme’s Ruckers from GRHQ and GORUCK Club HQ met at the GORUCK tent to ruck the Donna Half Marathon and show our support for all breast cancer fighters and survivors. This is one of the best days and truly when we are most proud of our GORUCK and greater Jacksonville communities. Everyone is smiling, wearing pink, thinking of others as they embrace the suck of 13.1 or 26.2 miles and all the ups and downs that brought them to this race. People decorate their yards and they come out with drinks and snacks and music and good ol’ fashioned love thy neighbor vibes.
Lo and behold, R2 came in as 1st Male Rucker with a time of 2:39:39. The best news is that the treatments are working better than expected and Jayme’s prognosis is really good. She still has a long road ahead as she finishes up chemotherapy and prepares for a double mastectomy and potentially radiation. So please send healing vibes to her and others in your life who may need it. We are all in this together and that is the greatest gift of all.
If you’d like to follow Jayme’s Journey, you can find her on www.caringbridge.com under Jayme Price.