12.2.23 GTE Prep Event AAR

(After Action Review)

With the upcoming GTE (GrowRuck Training Event) in Knoxville April 26 – 28, 2024, the GTE Prep Event was created to provide an introductory experience of what the larger event might look, sound, and feel like next year. Crispr + Steam decided to serve as the co-Cadre for this event, and over the course of five hours on Saturday morning, led an impressive group of Ruckers from F3 Knoxville and F3 Smokies through team challenges under a ruck. This training event was designed to be informational and educational as participants completed various evolutions together, to simulate what the GTE event will be like in April.

You’ll see the evolutions the team went through and completed below, and without adding in extra color or over-exaggerating – they absolutely dominated it. Crispr and I actually had to fire off the hip towards the end because the team was ahead of schedule and crushing it. There were only two participants that had been through a GORUCK or GTE event before, so for the team to perform at the high level they did throughout the entire event was incredibly impressive. Enjoy the pics and recap below, and be on the lookout for more events and training opportunities like this in the new year! Our Regional Ruck Q, Blindside, has some exceptional things planned for us with something called F3KnoxRucks.

TCLAPS to all the men that completed this event – well done brother. You earned every part of that event patch. Onward and upward!

-Steam

Pre-Kickoff Workout Welcome Party

The event timeline was the following:

7am – 8am: Welcome Party (bootcamp style workout)
8:30am: Ruck event kicks off
12pm: Ruck event ends

Crispr led the ruck team (and a few others who showed up for the bootcamp style workout) in a character-building workout called “99 Problems” before the ruck-centric portion of the event started at 8:30am. This 1st part of the event was a rucks-off workout, which served as the initial Welcome Party. In a GORUCK or GTE event, “The Welcome Party” is typically the first session of PT done before the team steps off to move towards their first location. This hour-long Welcome Party workout didn’t disappoint.

Kickoff + The (Ruck) Welcome Party

The ruck-centric portion of the event kicked off at 8:30am, and Crispr and Steam walked the participants through the initial introduction, safety-brief, roll-call, gear check, formation discipline, and another Welcome Party, but this time all with a ruck on.

Movement 1

The first movement was led by Crispr. The team was given a timeline of 30-minutes to ruck (with sandbags as well) from the start point to the base of Everest. A few standards were called out before this movement began:

Sandbags cannot be dropped – any sandbag that is dropped will result in the team executing 5 man-makers
The team must stay together – not getting too far apart. If there is a significant gap in the line, the team will execute merkins

Throughout the event, the Cadre also put a TL, or Team Leader, in charge for a period of time. This did a few different things throughout the event:

It reinforced the mission of F3 – by invigorating male community leadership
It allowed different men, whether a seasoned Rucker or not, an opportunity to lead a team through a specific challenge, ruck route, or obstacle. This was modeled after the way TL switches work in a GORUCK or GTE event – and every TL did an exceptional job.

Challenge 1

Once the team arrived at the base of Everest, Crispr initiated the 1st team challenge: Connect all of the sandbags together with carabiners and carry them to the top of the Summit in 15 minutes.

After the TL did a great job at communicating vision for how this needed to be done, the sandbags were linked, lifted up, and successfully carried to the very top of the Summit – all under 15 minutes.

Challenge 2

After the team brought up all of the sandbags to the top of the Summit successfully, they got back in their three column formation and had a few minutes to grab water and nourishment before the next challenge. While the team was taking a brief rest, the Cadre chucked all the sandbags down the Summit hill (as far as they could throw them).

The next challenge was the following:

Part 1 – Retrieve the sandbags from the Summit Hill. You must bear crawl the sandbags back up. However, no man may take the same sandbag up the entire time. When they all come back to the top, align them correctly with the patches facing up.
Part 2 – (sandbags were once again chucked down the hill by Cadre) go to the very bottom of the hill and complete 10 man-makers as a team. Bear crawl up the Summit hill and on your way up, drag the sandbags scattered around back up with you.

The TL did a great job at aligning the team to the gameplan and executing effectively.

Movement 2

The 2nd movement was from the top of the Summit to the base of a field right below the Coliseum, which is where another challenge would await the team.

Challenge 3

The 3rd challenge was the following: In 5 minutes or less, the team must throw all of the sandbags across this field, the width of the soccer field below, and end up at the tree facing the Chapel.

At this point in the event, the rain was starting to become a little more steady as well – adding in an extra layer of character-building suck.

Movement 3

Movement 3 was a walk in the park – literally. After the team completed the previous challenge with about 30 seconds to spare, they took a leisurely stroll across the street to the big soccer fields, where a set of larger challenges awaited them.

The Soccer Field Challenges

The soccer field challenges were probably the longest and most difficult of the entire event. (1) Because the event was more than halfway through and (2) The rain came down continuously heavy.

The team made multiple perimeter laps around the soccer fields during this evolution, and completed the following over the course of 35 minutes.

10 merkins at each corner
American Indian shuffles around the field
Casualty plan – 1-2 men taking off their rucks and the team figuring out how to carry the extra weight
Completing 3 laps around the fields in under 10 minutes (it’s a huge set of fields)

To which they performed excellently.

To wrap up the Soccer Field Challenges, part 2 of “99 Problems” was also completed by the team, in which battle buddy teams executed a DORA workout – 1 buddy knocking our ruck reps while the other rucked to and from a soccer goal across the field.

There was another opportunity for the team to grab nourishment before we started to make our semi-final approach back to the flags to end the event.

Movement 4

Movement 4 consisted of the team moving from the soccer fields and up to the top of Pickett’s Charge – all the way to the doors of the admin building of the Asylum (Lakeshore Park). There was a final workout completed by the team, before taking the final movement (The Long Walk) to the Pavilion for the Endex and patch ceremony.

Movement 5 – The Long Walk

The final movement back to the starting point in any GORUCK or GTE event is typically referred to as “The Long Walk.” Why? Because at this point, especially in the now pouring rain, and after completed numerous challenges and movements as a team together – this walk seemed pretty long.

Endex

Once the team made it back to the starting parking lot – gear was dropped off at cars (all now soaking wet) and they converged under the Big Pavilion to close out the event together. At the end of every GORUCK or GTE event, there is a patching ceremony – where the Cadre will share some of the takeaways they witnessed from the participants, and share final encouraging words – all before the event patches are bestowed.

Every single participant earned their patch on Saturday – embracing the suck to come together as a team and crush it for 5 hours. Well done men!

There were 10 Ruckers that completed this 5-hour event together, and if this is any indication of the type of grit, determination, and physical, emotional, and mental toughness the GTE ’24 team will have in April, we’re in for an absolutely incredible event.

Iron Sharpens Iron!

-Steam