Bug Out Drill 2009

Our family took a short trip this weekend so Jared could participate in a "Bug Out Drill." It was basically a 15 mile hike with different obstacles along the way, with the intention of replicating having to move through 15 miles of potentially hostile territory... or something like that. Obstacles aren't explained to you beforehand, and the idea is that you have no concept what you are going to encounter and so you have to be your best boy scout and be prepared, for anything. Obviously, the amount of time it took you to complete the course counted, and the person with the best time won. However, depending on how well you completed the obstacles (or if you completed them at all), you would either have time added or subtracted to your score. For never having done it before, I'd say Jared did pretty darn well, and came in 3rd place out of 25 guys or so.

Here's a pre-course photo, nice and early in the morn.
And here are a bunch of guys starting off. They were all pretty chipper at this point... they were not very chipper a few hours later. The rope on the tower in the background was used as one of the obstacles later on.

They started off the day by shooting at a stationary and then moving target from 200 yards, and then participants had to drag a 190-pound dummy for 50 feet.

The start of the third (and final) lap began with climbing across this rope, without touching the ground. (Notice the gap in photos between the beginning and end of the drill-- Leah and I headed back to the hotel so she could take a nap for a few hours... so we missed lots of photo ops.)

Here's a video of Jared showing off his skilz.

Leah and I spent most of the time playing outside, and we watched whatever parts we could. My main goal was to not let her be a distraction to anyone, so I didn't want to get too close to any action. We played with the local shop kitty (who ended up giving her a good smackdown) and another spectator's puppy (who Leah kept referring to as Heidi... she doesn't really understand that not all dogs are called Heidi). And naturally, we played with some rocks.

Check out this sweet rock I found. You want to see it? No?

Ok, well, I'll just eat it.

Here's Jared at the end of his event. Still smiling, but not quite as eagerly as the pre-race picture.

And just so I could prove I was there, I took this sweet "Yay! You're finished!" photo.

Overall, it was a good time. A bit trying for Leah, as she was running on minimal sleep (no nap Friday afternoon [i.e. she was awake for the ENTIRE 3.5 hour car ride out] and only 8 hours of sleep on Friday night), but she was a complete champ. It always amazes us how well she does in "trying" situations, and though we feel bad for testing her as frequently as we do, I honestly think that's why she's so flexible. Jared, naturally, is already talking about how he can improve his time for next year, and he is trying to talk me into doing it with him. We'll see. It would be tough, no doubt, but it would be a great motivator for working off the residual post-baby fat.