'Be ready to hurt'

Jun. 1—While many people used Monday as an extra day to relax, others across the country and in Moscow gutted out the grueling "Murph" workout, named after a Navy SEAL who sacrificed his life 16 years ago in Afghanistan.

About 17 people battled through the exercise session Monday morning at the Boneyard Gym in Moscow. The workout consisted of a 1-mile run, followed by 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and then another one-mile run to finish.

The athletes, some of whom wore weighted vests, broke up the pullup, pushup and squat repetitions how they saw fit so they could complete the workout.

"This workout is not comfortable, especially for those of you strapped up in vests, right?" Tommy Windisch, who owns the Boneyard Gym, exhorted those gathered for the event. "Even without vests, be ready to hurt. It's going to be bad."

Lt. Michael Murphy, for whom the workout is named, led a four-man SEAL team during a 2005 mission in Afghanistan. The men engaged in a fierce gun battle with a much larger Taliban force.

In an effort to make contact with headquarters, Murphy moved away from the protective mountain rocks and into an open area, gaining a better position to transmit a call to get help for his men while also exposing himself to enemy gunfire.

At one point, Murphy was shot in the back, causing him to drop his transmitter. He picked it back up, completed the call and returned to his cover position with his men.

Three of the four SEALs died that day, including Murphy. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest decoration a service member can receive.

Prior to the Murph workout Monday, Windisch showed a short inspirational video of Marcus Luttrell — the lone survivor of the SEALs during the mission — speaking to a football team. Luttrell, who nearly died that day from his injuries, spoke about the firefight and the importance of not giving up.

After the video, Windisch told the athletes that the shin splints, ripped up hands from pullups or any other adversity they might experience during the workout does not compare to the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Fernando Cofre was the first person to finish the workout Monday, completing it in about 49 minutes.

"My legs were toast," Cofre said of the second mile run. "They were like bricks getting up that hill. Took everything I had."

He said he wanted to give up at least half a dozen times during the workout but he knew he could not. Cofre said the Luttrell video inspired him to keep moving.

Wyatt Bowles, who sported a 20-pound vest, said the workout "sucked" the whole time but was fun.

"You definitely have to dig deep," he said.

He said it helped to think about Murphy during the second mile. Bowles finished in about 52 minutes.

Bowles said the pushups were especially difficult with a vest on and the second mile was extremely hard after completing 300 squats. He said the final mile was like trying to learn how to run again.

Karlie Smith, who finished just after Cofre, said she thought of her husband, an active-duty Marine, during the workout.

"If he can get up and do his job every day, I can do some pullups and I can run," Smith said. "So that's what I try to keep in mind. ... Because of people like my husband, I have the opportunity to do stuff like this that's really not that bad."

She said it's important to keep in mind the sacrifices that servicemen and women made.

"It's a good workout to kind of keep everything in your life in perspective, embrace the suck for an hour because you have the opportunity to," Smith said.

Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.