TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, Dec 3:
Flew out to Iowa... early dinner, then a workout in the hotel gym...
18A "Lower Body Prep" in 21:41, "Lower Push BW" in 40:40
Busy working the rest of the week, on my feet a ton. Replenish calories when I can, though.
Thursday, Dec 7:
Yoga to Slow Your Roll & Vin Yin Relax and Flow Yoga with Adriene. It felt good after being on my feet so much this week.
OPERATION SHOOTER
Friday was a busy day, where I started the morning at about 3am in Iowa, and then I drove an hour and a half to Omaha, NE, and then I flew to CLT, and then I drove to The Sawmill Training Complex in South Carolina... 4 states!
I made it and settled in to my dorm room. I purchased a bunk for the weekend, since the event page hinted at some overnight activities where it would be best to stay onsite to make logistics easier. It would also be nice to have a place to refit between evolutions, and even change clothes and stuff. There were supposed to be 3 other women in my room, but I was the only one out of the four who came, so I had it all to myself, which was pretty sweet. There's a lot of gear involved, and especially with the weather, changing clothes often was really nice.
This was their second or third year hosting the event, the only firearms-based one for the company so far at the time, but it was growing and improving each year. This was their biggest yet, by far. Because of all of that, though, I had little idea of what to expect, going in. That took some pressure off, I guess, because there's nothing to ruminate over, no preconceptions... you go in with an open mind and take it as it comes. While my room was pretty empty, we had a surprisingly awesome number of women show up... 5. Quite often, I'm the only one, or one of a very few. This would be some fun competition! We also had a solid group of volunteers come, a number of whom I knew. They were dedicated GBF supporters, and great people, so it was wonderful getting to spend the weekend with them, too.
This was my first GBF event, period. I haven't ventured out to try one of their mountain ruck racing events yet, or any of their other ones. Maybe one day. This would be a fun first taste of the company, though.
I could've driven in the morning of the event, but a 7am morning brief would've meant leaving home at 5am and waking up at 3 or 3:30, and not necessarily having a place to settle in with my gear in the morning. Going the day before was definitely a good move. It would be an intense weekend as it was, without extra sleep deprivation.
At the brief, we learned that this event would be paced more like how it might be on a deployment, where you go hard on missions, and then you have a bit of downtime in between, before it's time to go on another mission. Repeat for the whole weekend. It worked out really well, and I liked the balance.
Mission 1: The Endurance
The big item on the packing list was a 25# ruck. The weight could include your dry gear. On top of that, you had your rifle and belt, but no ammo, which was left on the range. I did expect a ruck of some sort at this event, and here it was. We left in groups of 5 to spread everyone out. We were released at 5-10 min intervals, with the first group heading out at 8am. I left in the second group, but I was caught pretty quickly by a girl from the wave after me, which is kind of insane.
We had one little water crossing about a mile in. Then, there was about a mile where we followed a stream, inside the stream. That was fun, until near the end, when I was going up a mini waterfall... maybe I could've gone around it, but it didn't feel like in the spirit of the event... I tried to climb up the slippery large rock, and my feet slipped, and I faceplanted, with extra force added by the ruck on my back. My forehead hit the rock, followed by my teeth. I didn't lose consciousness, but it was quite jarring and took me a moment. My head was bleeding, but stopping wasn't going to help, so I kept going.
There was an out-and-back portion of the ruck, so everyone got to see it. There was also one part of the route where there was an arrow that pointed left and down, making me think we had to take a trail cut into the forest, so I went down that for a little. I didn't find more arrows once in there. It turned out that the arrow wanted us to go on the left fork on that main road... very strange for it to be pointing downwards, if we were meant to continue forwards, though. I definitely lost some time there.
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
I finished, though, and then went on to the shooting portion.
We had 1 min max, to shoot 10 rounds standing, mag change, 10 rounds kneeling, mag change, 10 rounds prone, from about 40yds away at a 1x2" spot on a paper target, to mimic a guy at 300yd. I was glad that I was zeroed at 36yd, but it was still a very small target.
I knew that I needed to get to the prone portion, since that might be my only chance of actually higtting the target. I should've taken more time, though, because I finished in about 42s. I ended up not making any of my shots, including the prone ones. I had used a red dot on my LMT, since that was my "beater rifle" good for rucks.
Right afterwards, I got the wound cleaned up. I sent pictures to SB to get her thoughts on what I should do for it. She recommended going to urgent care, for a cost-effective way to address it quickly enough to minimize scarring. I might only have a few hours before stitches wouldn't be viable. I was sad to have to leave the competition, but she said that it was my face on the line, and that I should go. Fortunately, she's a voice of reason for me, so I go.
I decided to drive towards Greenville, even though it was slightly farther away from an urgent care place in the opposite direction. I figured that if one fell through for whatever reason, I'd have more options in a bigger city. It turned out to be a decent choice, because the first place I went to had a 3-hour wait!!! I went to a nearby second place, and they had a similar wait, but when I told the receptionist that I couldn't afford to wait 3 hours, and she saw the blood dripping down my face, she squeezed me in, thankfully.
The doc recommended glue over stitches. I asked whether she'd go with that option if it was her face, and she said yes, so I went with it. I also got steristrips, since I planned to continue the event, and didn't want the glue to come apart with anything else I'd be doing that weekend. I asked the doc if I could do more physical activity, even with the glue... rather than try to explain Operation Shooter, I just said that I'd be doing a marathon. The glue would be fine, although she didn't recommend anything requiring so much exertion.
My teeth had shifted inwards, too, from the impact. I'd have to go to a dentist the following week to get that checked out, though.
I drove back to Sawmill, and was happy to find that the second evolution was just wrapping up, with the final shooter going at the time. Just as they were about to leave, I walked up at 12:30pm, and they said that I could still go if I wanted, and didn't rush me as I got my gear ready.
Mission 2: The Obstacle
On to the shooting portion...
Untimed, 10 rounds standing, 10 rounds kneeling, 10 rounds prone, with a VTAC that we could brace from if we wanted. Somehow, I did better standing than I did prone, than I did kneeling, even though all the targets were at 100yd and I held bottom of the plate and got 10/10 standing. It should've been easy points, but I only got 18/30.
Next, there was a timed pistol shoot... 5 rounds at 25yd, mag change, 5 rounds at 15yd, mag change, 5 rounds at 10yd, going for a 1.5x2.5" oval on paper, all within 30s... that is flying. Because of the crazy time cap, I rushed, to ensure I could make it to the closer shooting position. I must've rushed too much, though, since I only got one point. Unrushed, I can do better than that at 10yd. According to the RO, I at least looked good with my mag changes and movements.
Mission 3: The Rope
Since I had gotten squeezed in, I didn't have a ton of downtime before the next mission.
For this, we only needed a 10# ruck, plus rifle and pistol.
We'd start with the shoot this time... a 5 plate rack at 25yd (I missed every other shot) as a buy-in, and then you shoot a paper target with 3 heads and one chest, with 3 shots per head and 5 for the chest, hit or miss... and you had to hit the little red bullseye for the hit to count. I got zero, I think. The shooting portions at this competition were quite challenging!
We had 90s to finish it all.
Next, we went to the connex structure, where we had to do a 1-story rope climb with ruck and weapons (including 3 full rifle mags). That wasn't bad, since it wasn't a long climb. You got 10 points for completing the climb.
Next, you moved on to the rifle shoot. First, you got kitted up with a climbing harness, because immediately after the shoot, you had the opportunity to rappel down from the 4th story, for 10 more points. This shoot wasn't bad, either... 2 hits on each of 3 targets at about 100 and 150yd. They were pretty big targets and you had unlimited ammo (or whatever you carried). I was perfect on the first two but had 4 misses on the second shot of the last target for some reason, even though it was the largest target. I supposedly kept hitting over the right shoulder.
On the rappel, I was cautious and didn't do large bounds down... it would be funner that way. Maybe I'll be brave enough to do that more next year.
Bonus Stage
The event description on the website had said that some stages would be scored, and others wouldn't, and you wouldn't know which was which (although you can kind of tell during the stage, based on whether they are tracking it.
There was a bonus stage after the rappel, where we shot a full mag from a barrel as quickly as we could while maintaining enough accuracy to hit. I used bursts of about 5, increasingly fast. I could only do that many at a time because I'd need to adjust my grip from the recoil. The target was about 100yd away.
Next, we low crawled up to the next barrel about 15yd away and repeated on a different target with a new mag.
We then low crawled to another barrel and repeated with our last mag at the smallest target... I might've missed some on this one, but it was hard to tell, with as much banging as there was.
It was fun to mag dump for speed with accuracy. Lots of ammo used up very quickly, but no regrets!
We wore a 25# ruck for this. I put my pistol in the ruck berforehand, to protect it from getting really dirty from the low crawl. The ground was wet.
After doing the bonus stage, I went back to the connex to watch others take their turn. I had been among the first to go, so there was still plenty to watch. I also got to chat with the volunteers and enjoy the awesome view of the foggy mountains in the distance.
Mission 4: The Ambush
We went out as a group for a mile ruck, sharing 2x70#SBs. We then split into three teams to race back, each team with a volunteer. We were second, maybe. I should've pushed harder on having a single person carry it on their shoulders, vs splitting a farmer's carry. So much less efficient, and what matters is getting the team + the SB across the finish line as quickly as possible. We eventually got to doing it single-carrying, but only after about halfway through.
We then made one final trip back out, without sandbags. We were encouraged to help each other out, carrying rifles or rucks as needed to make the team time hack... put your ego aside to make sure that the mission gets done. If we met the time hack, Gregg said that our next morning would be easier (it turns out that we saved ourselves from an extra mile of litter carrying!).
We then went out to our linear ambush site at the top of the hill, overlooking the 300yd targets. We were told that we'd be waiting anywhere between 1-6 hours, in the prone. I thought that we had to keep our rucks on, but we were actually encouraged to take them off, since they make prone a much more stressful position. We had to stay at the ready the whole time. If we wanted to get anything out of our rucks, we had to low crawl about 10yd back to do it far back enough that the enemy couldn't hear us... in real life, it would be much more than 10yd, but we only had to do 10yd. I put on more clothes when it started to get a bit chilly lying there on the ground. At least the spot that I warmed up helped. Thankfully, it didn't rain while we were out there.
It did feel like holding a quarter plank. I got more sore from this evolution than from anything else that weekend!
After about an hour, flares appeared in the air, then tracer rounds from flanking fire. We then mag dumped for about 30s (it felt way longer). There were two cars, plus targets out there, but I could only see the cars, so guess what got shot...
Once we were told to cease fire, a team of 4 (including me) got to go out and search the cars for intel. I found a note about a plane being shot down, which would be the theme of our next mission. That was it for now, although the one guy who wasn't staying onsite was told something special, so we could tell that the night wasn't really over. We were told that we'd be woken up no earlier than 10pm, so we'd at least have 2 hours of rest.
For now, though, it was time to rest, although I chose to clean my rifle since it had been raining earlier, and I wanted to protect it from rust, including the bolt. This is the way, right? Refit gear for the mission as the first priority.
Mission 5: Downed Pilot
We had to go back out to the lake and retrieve downed pilots (fortunately, two volunteers, instead of a large sim man). We were only allowed to farmer's carry. I was an ATL for this with another guy, supporting Steve.
This is where meeting our time hack from the ambush evolution helped us, because we only had to carry for like half a mile, instead of 1.5 miles.
When we got back to the lodge, we were quizzed on world capitals. On real missions, you have to be able to think, not just do really physical stuff.
After this, we got to go back to sleep for real! Although it was hard with adrenaline still coursing through my body, and I hadn't bothered to take another shower.
Mission 6: The Run
As the name implied, we ran! Only a mile, though... and only with pistol and mags, at 7:30am.
I did 0.8 miles in 6:58, a 8:20 pace... not bad, I guess, given what we had done so far, and with pistol and mags. The crazy fast rucker girl was not surprisingly a good runner, too. She came in first, and I came in a distant second. It was pretty awesome that women took the top two spots in the run, from the entire field for fairly fit people.
For the shooting portion, one shooting station had us shoot steel plates at about 25yd for time. We could bring 3 mags in case we needed it. There was a 2 min time cap.
The other shooting station had a Texas star at 25yd. There was a 2 min time cap, but after 1 min if you were still having trouble, you could move forward to 10yd. My first two shots were good, but then I started struggling. I must've been flinching. I did move forward after 1 min and had a better time at it after that.
Interesting name, and very different from the other mission names!
For this one, it was getting quite rainy. Wearing a 25# ruck plus rifle and mags (we could leave our pistols behind because this was going to get quite messy in the mud), we had 5 min to drag a tire about 7yd to the firing line, then load and start shooting.
First, we had to shoot two real eggs that were hanging on strings (I figured out afterwards what those might've represented), as a buy-in for the scored portion, which was again 3 shots on each of the three head targets, then 5 on the body, where you had to hit the red bullseyes to score again. Plus, you had to shimmy to the side after engaging each target, to be tactical.
It was a mud pit out there, so we hosed off before going back into the lodge.
Mission 8: The Carry
We had to buddy carry a similarly sized buddy for about 150yd. The next closest competitor weighed 30% more than me, but there was a volunteer who was only 15% heavier, who very kindly offered to be my buddy. We'd carry our buddy, while wearing our 25# ruck, our rifle, pistol, and ammo. At least the buddy would be slick... for this year's event. We'd switch after that.
I've carried buddies before, but normally not with a ruck on myself, plus rifle and pistol. I wasn't 100% sure how it would go, but I was delighted to discover that my buddy felt very light! I think the expression on my face says it all.
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
For the final scored shoot, we had to hit 3 steel (2 big and one small) from prone at about 100yd, 3 hits each. Run forward to the first pistol bosx and shoot at a silhouette steel with 3 hits. Run further forward and shoot at a giant square steel from a second pistol box with 3 hits.
There was a 3 min PAR time. Steve, who went ahead of me, was challenged to finish it in 30s, which seemed ridiculous, but it turned out to be no joke, because he did it in 35s! I had to follow that and managed 54s, which was better than everyone except for Steve. We knew this was it, and that a long weekend was finally coming to an end.
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
Bonus Head-to-Head
As a final surprise though, the top 2 shooters went head-to-head for fun. We first shot standing with rifle on a 16" diameter circle at 100yd with 10 hits. Then, we moved forward to 30yd and hit the same target with pistol.
I didn't shoot it cleanly, but at least I didn't perform embarrassingly poorly. Not surprisingly, Steve beat me. I was glad to have a chance to do my best, though.
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
Results:
I was even more excited about placing 5th out of 19 overall, against some tough competition.
The shooting was challenging at this competition, with small targets that you needed to hit fast. Gregg did adjust the evolutions a bit as the competition went along, since we were having a tough time. Knowing holds at 40yd and 100y0d is big, especially with "hit or miss" courses of fire and high round counts.
I liked my gear management and was glad to have a room to myself. I am glad that I take priorities of work with cleaning guns seriously.
Although I didn't shoot super well vs the course of fire, I had good mechanics and leveraged competition experience pretty well.
This was so much fun, especially the ambush portion. I've never done anything like that before! The rest of the event, I've done something similar, either at shooting competitions or at GORUCK. This event was a fun mixture of the two.
It was a neat experience that I got to go through with my fellow competitors. Even though we were competing against each other, it also felt like we were a single team trying to help each other survive a challenging weekend. We went through tough conditions, physical tests, and sleep deprivation and fatigue together.
I am psyched to go back next year, hopefully better at shooting and a little bit fitter! Lots of tough competition to keep up with.
(Photo credit: Jay Knickerbocker)
Here's an awesome recap video that pumps me up:
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