THAT GORUCK WHISKEY EVENT

I'm not a "writer", but I like to document memories. This is extremely long. I won't take up more space with cute words and flowery phrases. This is just "cut and dry" my experience planning and participating in the GORUCK Whiskey Rebellion Custom BBS. Enjoy!

(Any professional-looking picture is courtesy of Eric Perry @steel.city.shadow. If I stole your picture and you want credit, contact me)

I submitted an inquiry for a custom event on July 9, 2019. The theme: Whiskey Rebellion. The events: Heavy merging with a Tough class, followed by a Scavenger. I had a brief couple of emails back and forth with HQ, but they never got back to me with a quote.

We were then asked as club leaders to request events for our club for 2020. Fellow club leader, Kristi Devenyi, sent an email requesting a stand-alone Whiskey Rebellion-themed Heavy and Shanksville. We got Shanksville and an unthemed stand-alone Heavy, so I let go of the idea of the Whiskey Rebellion custom.

Fast forward to March 2021, when I submitted for a Whiskey Rebellion Triple Basic. I guess I got soft in my old age and abandoned the Heavy idea. I got some forward momentum after 4 months of communication challenges. I decided to switch the event to a Double Basic and a Scavenger after I found out there was a Harry Potter BBB in NC in May 2022. Gotta keep things fresh, ya know?

Mid-July 2021, I received the quote, paid the deposit with my own cash, and started taking deposits. Cadre Dan, a Pittsburgh native, caught wind of my event and requested to lead it. I recently met him at Bragg and knew he'd be a perfect fit, specifically because he has an amazing Pittsburgh accent. I asked Cleve to be the 2nd cadre, who initially accepted, but then decided a family vacation was more important than my event. The nerve....

I asked for a $75 deposit that was refundable until 4/1/22 and another non-refundable, but transferable, $125 to secure the spot after 4/1/22. I set the price fairly high, as I wanted to ensure I got my money back. If I had excess, I'd spend it towards fun stuff for the event....and fun stuff we had.

33 deposits were received in less than a week. 

GORUCK registration links were provided on 7/21/21 and we started to fill up the event so fast that I quickly went from 2 cadre to 3. I already knew who I'd ask....Whiskey Mike, who told me even if I didn't get the numbers to have him there as a cadre, he'd be there as a participant. He was the perfect choice, I mean, it's in his name. 

After Cleve informed me of his vacation, I had to find a replacement for him. Steel City Ruck Club spent a lot of hours with Cadre JC during the 9/11 NYC HTB. He told me he needed to make it up to Pittsburgh for an event. This was his ticket. He immediately and enthusiastically accepted. 

Planning was underway. 

The reason I chose Whiskey Rebellion as the theme was because the location of key events of the Rebellion occurred in this area. My mom is the president of The Oliver Miller Homestead Association, which is a completely volunteer ran historical site where the first shots of the Rebellion were fired. I reached out to her, and of course, she was on board to help me. 

We discussed start points. One would be OMH and the other would be by the Bower Hill historical marker, where the rebels burned down the tax collectors house after a firefight. 

Since the start points were a decent way from each other, I had Basic 1 start at 1800, Basic 2 start at 0600, and the Scav start at 1400, in the historical Strip District of Pittsburgh.

The main details were set. Now time for the fun stuff! As spots filled and money rolled in, I created a budget for the "extras". Photographer, Cadre gifts, after-party, raffles, Scavenger prizes, special coupons, etc.

Barrels. We need to carry whiskey barrels. Devin Shellhammer mentioned reaching out to Liberty Pole Spirits. Liberty Pole Spirits is a distillery in a neighboring county. A county that also played a huge role in the rebellion. Their distillery is themed entirely around Liberty Poles, which were posted as a sign that you were against the whiskey tax. I sent them an email and I set up a time to pick up 3 barrels. Two large and one small. Only one problem with that. I scheduled to pick them up right after I had a finger surgery. I recruited Eric Perry to help me, but he wasn't allowed to lift either, due to a recent labrum repair. We showed up at the distillery, explained our situation, and the employee said, "no problem" and loaded all 3 barrels himself into the back of Eric's truck. We then tested some of the drinks, hung out with the employees, and went home with a Liberty Pole to borrow for the event. 

The two biggest chunks of change were the loft rental at a local distillery and enough Mad Mex to feed 100 people. It took some time to find a place to fit 100+ people, but Kingfly seemed like the place to go, being that it was a distillery and all. Only problem was that they gave us a $3k spend minimum, which we later found out doesn't include purchasing bottles to take home. At this time, I was expecting a near full crew of 105 participants, cadre, shadows, family members, and some club members that weren't doing the event. We should still be able to hit that....

The cadre gifts were my favorite to organize. They expanded from just a bottle of Liberty Pole Spirits Bourbon, to also include a custom military branch growler, and an SCRC goodwerks Boogie Bag. 

I reached out to Country Hammer Moonshine, another local distillery. I asked for 220 mini shots of an assortment of their flavored moonshine. When I went to pick them up, they gave me a free slushie, a free shirt, and a ton of 50% off tokens. VIP treatment.

Over the months, I spitballed ideas, mostly to Eric Perry on our weekly coupon rucks, about things we could do or add to the event. I knew he'd be on board for resurrecting one of the infamous Zombie concrete curbs. It would be a special surprise present for the participants. Eric coordinated an "Overnight Shakedown" event for our club. He played cadre and had us ruck, do PT, and retrieve a curb from the side of the hillside we threw it down 2 years prior. Why? He "needed it for his driveway.....😈"

Being the nice guy he is, Eric put some straps on it and wrapped it up to make it less abrasive. His wife, and participant, found out the intentions for the curb when he asked her to help him load it into the truck the day before the event. We buried it under the barrels and other coupons. I know everyone was thrilled when they finally saw it.

Our club also got together the week before the event to do some barrel rigging/carrying. Mark Brush thought of using furniture moving straps and, once secured, they worked out very well. 7 of us carried one small and one large barrel about a mile to test them out.  

I reached out the the cadre to see if they needed me to supply any other coupons. The answer was no. Dan was taking care of them. How is one person going to drive up with enough coupons for 100 people????

Speaking of 100 people, in the weeks leading up to the events, I can't even count how many emails, DMs, etc I got of people dropping. I tried to facilitate as many transfers as I could. Some even gave their spots away for free. I definitely understand why GORUCK doesn't allow drops within a certain timeframe. I was just happy I already had their money, because I already spent it....

Back to the event planning....

I did some recon in both South Park and Scott Township Park. I knew I wanted to go up Buffalo Hill and hit the Fairgrounds, as those are the two locations of our weekly club coupon rucks. As far as Scott Township goes, there was no safe walkable path to get from the park to the historical marker. I relayed this info to the cadre. They suggested just holding the entire event in the park. I'm cool with that.

I met with Cadre Dan the day before to go over some stuff. He's excited to be here. He's sore from biking on hills. The south has made him soft.

He tells me after this he is going to Scott Township Park to do some RECON. I get a text later saying the park sucks and he wants to change the location of the 2nd Basic to the 1st location. The historical significance isn't there, but I'd much rather have a solid event than to "relive" the timeline of the original events. He makes the final call right before start of the 1st Basic. Fine with me. I just want good events....and good events we had. 

I arrived around 1500. My mom was already there dressed in her colonial garb. A couple other GRTs are there as well. I start to organize some stuff. Eric arrives with the special curb coupon. We try to discreetly wheel it down to the field where we will start. I don't think anyone notices. We cover it with the barrels and "bags of rye" aka 60# construction bags full of Quikcrete that my husband wanted out of our garage. 

It is hidden. 

I head back up and continue to get stuff ready. We are having a whiskey exchange at 1715. If you wanted to participate, you brought a bottle of unique, local whiskey priced $40-60 in a bag. We then took turns each picking out a different bag. I saw some pretty nice bottles, so I hope everyone took home something nice! 

It's about 1745 and Cadre JC tells me that everyone has to be on the field at 1755 in height order. I start passing the word along and people start filtering down. Thank you to Mark DD for taking lead on that one! I talk to the cadre a bit more and Cadre Dan hands me a beer. I hope this isn't sabotage for the Welcome Party...

We have a couple stragglers, but to be fair, we started head count before 1800. Of course James Stiffey is the last person to come down the hill, as we are all yelling at him and making fun of him. 

It's ok, this is going to be a fun event, right? 

We do a mini ruck dump. When they call out for quitters cash, Kristi, Tim, and I quickly walk around with tickets to exchange for their $20. The ticket is for a beautiful goodwerks Boogie Bag with matching pouches. I took some pre-sales as well and knew I was already over $1k. Everyone hands over their $20. As Dan does introductions, I start counting the money. We raised $2,320 for the Oliver Miller Homestead. 

Originally my mom asked if we could all donate $2/person, as that is their normal request when they give tours on Sundays. I told my mom no. I said if you ask for that little, you will sell yourself short. I told her I'd handle the donations and with a ton of help from goodwerks, who donated the bags, we raised the largest donation they have received in their 40 years of existence. 

Intros are over. We split into 3 groups based on height. The tiny smurfs in the 4th rank count off and scatter to the other 3 ranks. Some mixed in with the giants, some with the schmediums, some with the other smurfs. Before we go to our stations, Cadre Dan picks the winner of the raffle. Pete Peterson won. A very well deserving winner. He is a teacher and a ruck club leader. His ruck club members consist of his students. My mom threw in a couple other trinkets, including a shot glass, a fan, a magnet, and my favorite, a Jacob's Ladder. 

We break off with our groups into 3 different stations: Welcome Party, Whiskey Rebellion history, and Oliver Miller Homestead/tour. Each is 30 minutes long. My group was with Cadre Dan. The smurfs. We have Welcome Party first. We have a simple task. Fill up the Jerry cans, then carry all of the coupons around the field, while two of our teammates are hanging on rings that he hung in the trees (because I love to hang on my rings under my deck at home). Bryan Smith realizes what is hiding under the other coupons. An expletive leaves his mouth. I smile. Cullen sees the curb soon after....

Cadre Dan introduces the other coupons: barrels, flags, litters, a bike rack, bags of "rye", SCRC team weight, his Pittsburgh team weight from class 228, a concrete curb, Jerry cans, a sandbag full of filler bags, a yoke, shovels, a cooler full of beer to be strapped to a litter, "the Ark of the Covenant", and another sandbag shell with a handle. The instructions for that bag were simple. You carry it by the handle only. The contents are a secret, but they rhyme with shmainshmaw. Giggles commence and a legend is born.

The coupons take a little getting used to, but we get it done. I stayed on the curb the majority of the time. It is 1000x better with the "condom" on.

We hear the bell ringing as we finish our loop. Time to go the barn to hear the history of the Whiskey Rebellion. Two reenactors give a detailed account of the overall events of the nation at the time, and also the specific events that occurred on that property. I hear in the distance, "I'm up. He sees me, I'm down". The schmediums are doing their Welcome Party. 

The bell rings again and we move to our last station. My mom is at this one. She gives us a history of the house, the Miller family, the volunteers that run the property, etc. I hand her over the envelope with the cash. She is shocked. She tells us that is the largest donation they have ever received. Our smurf crew is free to wander around the house and property where there are more volunteers to give us details about life in the colonial days. We watch a blacksmith make nails and a woodworker make rings for people.

Back when I was a child, my mom would dress me up and take me there. Being back brought back so many memories of my time as a little colonial girl 😂 I was going to say so many things look the same, but I guess that's the point of conserving a historical site.

Once all 3 groups were done at each station, we got together with the volunteers and took a group picture. 

We then got back in ranks and split up into Steel City Ruck Club members and out-of-towners. We ended up with 38 people that claimed SCRC, which left 40ish back with the coupons. SCRC went on a brisk walk up a hill with Cadre Dan, through single track trails, and then went off trail, up another hill, into an opening. Before he left, he made sure someone was carrying his shmainshmaw (also, I like that my phone knows this is a word already).

We stopped. We reached a destination, but what was it? The two people sitting in lawn chairs at the nearby grove? Were they in on this? Were we carrying them back to meet the other group?? Were we going to shmainshmaw them? We look to the left. There is a HUGE freshly fallen tree. Cadre Dan asks for his special coupon maker and gets to work.

We stand there watching him make the first cuts. He then walks down the length of the tree. Surely he's going to stop and make the 2nd cut soon. He heads into some bushes....he keeps going. 27' later he makes the 2nd cut. We look around at each other. Nervous? Excited? Dumbfounded? I don't know. All I remember thinking is, "yes. This is what I wanted".

Not this specific tree, but this experience. The event that people will talk about and remember forever. It's why the curb came back. 2 years after Zombie Tough and people still reminisce about that hell-fest. This was good. 

The cuts are made. We roll it to unwedge it and then we do something hilarious. We all start kicking the rough bark, pretending that will make this less painful...

Cadre Dan let's us go for a minute or two, likely laughing to himself, but then he tells us to get it up.

We line up according to height, which mostly works, but there were definitely curves in the log that made it difficult to always have the highest efficiency, especially after switches were needed. 

We start moving down a hill, and sideways nonetheless. This was not a good first test run of carrying this thing. We are all off balance. We need to put it down. 

Cadre Dan gives us permission to roll it down the grassy hill and then pick it back up on the trail.

It's getting dark. 

We take turns rolling it. Due to the curve, we can only get one full rotation until it stops. 

We finally get it down to the bottom of the hill. It's time to pick it back up again. It's much easier to carry on a paved flatter surface, but there is still a learning curve with how to maneuver it down this winding path. The few people that aren't on the log are giving both the front and the back directions on how to move. At this point it is pitch black on a wooded trail. Headlamps are on, but most people are looking either straight down at the ground or at the back of someone's ruck. 

We don't know our end destination. We just know we're meeting up with the other group somewhere. Cadre Dan consults with me and we decide we are going to get it out of the woods at the bottom of the path where it meets the main road. From there we will ruck to meet the other group, which just got done carrying all the coupons up my favorite hill, Buffalo Hill.

We walk about a half mile and we see them sitting at the bottom of the hill. They probably didn't even do any work. As they looked at us coupon-less, they likely thought the same. We told them we are going to take them back so they can meet our surprise coupon.

We pack up the rest of our stuff and we are off. Once we reach the log, I mean tree, the out-of-towners get to take their turn. Once they put it down, we start to switch out and have everyone jump in on everything. There is no more SCRC, out-of-towner segregation. I did appreciate that Cadre Dan knew that I wanted the out-of-town people to experience Buffalo Hill, so that is why he broke us off and had us go get the tree. We've been there, done that in regards to that hill, but those flat earthers needed a taste of Pittsburgh elevation.

We head a little bit further down the trail and cross the street. I would have loved to know what the cars were thinking when we crossed in front of them carrying that monster. We reached the South Park Fairgrounds and laid the log to rest on the outskirts of a track. We then broke off into our three groups and each went with a cadre.

My group headed towards the stairs with Cadre Dan. He told us to head up and down the stairs. We did this two or three times and then he had us stop to give us a little blurb from a book he read about the Whiskey Rebellion. This continued for a while, stairs then learning more, then stairs, then learning more. Once our turn with Dan was over we rotated over to Cadre JC. We already knew what we were in for because we saw the other group doing fireman carries around the half-mile track. Everyone paired up and off we went. I lucked out and paired up with Katie Hill,  who is a real-life firefighter. I would say she carried me about 3/4 of the way while I only did 1/4. I am used to being a casualty, so I'm totally cool with that. I'm just glad I didn't pee on her shoulder.

Once everyone was finished we rotated over to Cadre Kurth. He had the PT station. We did various exercises in the baseball infield, getting nice and dirty as we went. 

It was getting late. Sometime after 2300. It was time to head back to the start point. We didn't have the tree, so we should be moving much faster. 

I started out without anything to carry. No one wanted to give anything up at this point. Tim Galloway found Randall and I and said, "let's go up and get that curb". He's always full of the best ideas. We went up and saw people struggling, they were mismatched heights and it just wasn't working efficiently. We established two crews of four people. There was the Smurf crew and the Shmedium crew. At this time, JC announced that we were being too loud and from now on we had to be silent. I must say, it's hard to switch out a 230# coupon without speaking to the people you're carrying with or going to switch out with. I whispered to everyone, "when I cough, we switch".

We kept the carries a decent length, but never overdoing it because no one knew how their teammates were feeling. The cough technique worked very smoothly and no one got COVID, so that's a bonus. The curb crew was born and we brought that baby home. 

We reached the parking lot for ENDEX at 0015 and the cadre asked if anyone wasn't attending the 2nd event. It was very important to know that because they weren't going to patch us here. Also, they made the announcement that the start point for Basic 2 is at the same location as 1. A couple people only planned on doing the first Basic, so they received their patches. We secure the coupons and scatter. 

Basic 1 complete. 

I hung out for a little bit. Some people were car camping. I ate some bacon and an adult lunchable, then I headed home. I only live 15 min from the start, so that was convenient, especially because we were starting there again in the morning. I got home, my husband was still up playing video games. I said hi, showered, then went to sleep cuddling my puppies. It was the best between-events rest I've ever had. 

I woke up at 0430, got ready, and headed back to the start. People were already up and about. We we were told to be formed up and ready to go at 0555. We were. 

Day was breaking as roll call was being taken. We thought we had a straggler, but it was only our shadow from GORUCK, Doug Stryker. 

Admin was quick. There was no gear check. Good thing I left my plate at home. JUST KIDDING. 

We broke up into our 3 groups again. Cullen decided he didn't want to be a Smurf anymore and ditched us for the Schmediums. 

We, again, started with Cadre Dan. The coupons were split somewhat equally, except the Schmediums got the curb. There is no equal splitting of the curb. 

My group had a large barrel, a litter, a bag of rye, the bike rack, Jerry cans, shovels, and then magically 2 new logs appeared once we started rucking. These ones were actual logs though, not a giant tree...3-4 person carries. We went through a single track path in the woods. There was fear of ticks and poison ivy, but as far as I know, we all survived unscathed. The barrel was placed on the litter to conserve hands, especially once the logs arrived. Some of the negotiation was tricky, but it was all doable. 

We circled back around and before we knew it, we were back at the start point, and so were the other groups. 

We switch up. We are now with Cadre Kurth. We have our same coupons except the logs. We travel up a hill and take a break. We have a good discussion on the Whiskey Rebellion. Was the tax fair? Why did people rebel? Why did people rebel in this area specifically?

I'm not going to go into details that answer our questions. There are plenty of books and articles on the Whiskey Rebellion if you would like to learn more about it, but the general consensus was that a tax to pay off Revolutionary War debts was necessary, but the way in which they taxed their citizens was very unfair.

We head back, this time we have Cadre JC. We get to leave most of our coupons back at the start point. When we were out with Cadre Dan we saw JC's group building a shelter.

We assumed we were going to do something similar. JC explained that we had the high ground and the enemy was coming down from below. We had to set up defense posts. Some were better than others, but I think we would have been able to put up a decent fight.

Once again, we head back to the start point. Could it be over? I only see one other group. We head back down to the field where we did our Welcome Party. JC has us and the other team lineup facing each other like a big game of Red Rover. The instructions are to run to the center, drop your ruck, and then run back...relay race style. 

Wait a second! I said one of my stipulations as the custom planner was no running! No running, no jogging, no trotting, no galloping, and surely no sprinting! JC is in big trouble. 

Jk jk. I gimped my way back and forth, as fast as ever. Then to my delight, the 3rd and final group returns from their mission of moving the giant tree to a more inconspicuous place, and we get to race again! 

This time we had to run to get a ruck, put it completely on, and then run back. People can't follow instructions. So many people one-]strapped it, didn't strap it, etc etc. There was supposed to be a burpee penalty for each infraction, but the cadre couldn't count that high, so at the end, as a whole team, we knocked out 25 burpees.

It was one of of participants birthdays, Teeaira, she was turning 24. So she led us in her birthday burpees +1 to grow on. 

We knew it was almost over. 

The rest is kind of a blur. I believe we circled up and Cadre Dan and Whiskey Mike gave a little speech. We grabbed a cold 'ahrn (Iron City Beer) and had a toast. I knew we were nearing the patching, so I took 2 other people and snuck back to my vehicle to grab the cadre gifts. I see Cadre JC sitting by some water....

When I returned, Cadre Dan called me into the middle of the circle. He gave a very nice "thank you" to me and to our club. Being back in Pittsburgh obviously meant a lot to him. He reintroduced his team weight from class 228. It was made for him by an OG Pittsburgh GRT. It has been with him to every drivable event for 10+ years. I remember seeing it at Bragg and thinking how cool it was that he kept it with him for so long. 

He then said he was giving it to me, so our club can continue to carry it. The only stipulation was that if Steel City comes to any of his driveable events, it has to come with us.

Deal.

I was close to having tears in my eyes. Sure, it's just a beat up steel plate, but it meant something to Cadre Dan and he was giving it to me. 

I'm not really sure how I got to this point in the rucking world. I felt like the newbie for so long because I wasn't doing GORUCK "back when it was hard". I started in 2017. That wasn't back when they went uphill both ways with no water, etc etc. All I know is that I finally found an athletic activity that I'm decent at. My whole life, I tried to play sports, but because of my dislocating knee, I was never good at any of them. It was very discouraging, because I believe I have the mind of a competitive athlete, but I could just never compete. Most sports involve a level of agility and speed that I just never had and could never achieve no matter how hard I worked. 

While there are still some aspects of GORUCK events that I straight suck at (relay races), I excel at the grind of just walking with a heavy load for an extended period in a state of complete discomfort. Never in my life did I think that is what I would be good at. 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

I find value in planning events where others can enjoy themselves. I always have. My entire life, I was the friend who made the plans and invited everyone else. Planning my wedding was a complete joy....and I'm not being sarcastic. This was basically my 2nd wedding. I got to see everyone get together and have a great time and I'll remember it forever. 

I've gone off on a tangent. My point is that I'm in shock that I received this thoughtful gift.

The 2nd Basic isn't even over. We have 0 patches at this point. Cadre Dan tells us to go up to the "Cascades", a water feature added to the park that was recently restored. JC is up there and tells us that our 1st Basic patches are in the water. Everyone dives in to find a patch. Once you find a patch you can get your 2nd Basic patch. I wade in the water and help some others retrieve their patches. Cullen just goes around splashing everyone.

Bet you've never see a patching ceremony like that before....

Me neither.

We head back to the field for the full ENDEX. I present the cadre gifts. I accidentally enlisted JC in the Army and Kurth in the Marines (I mixed up his and Kurth's growler, because the Boogie Bag was covering them up). It was quickly remedied, however. I think they were happy with their gifts.

Then the last surprise....all the participants got to take home 3 Country Hammer Moonshine shots.

We snap some pictures, including an SCRC picture and a #boogiebagbunch photo. 

I ask people to sign one of the barrels so I can take it home and make a little bar table out of it. The other two barrels are donated to the Oliver Miller Homestead.

The rest of the coupons are loaded up. Some of us make plans to go to the nearest Country Hammer Moonshine location to get a moonshine slushie before the Scavenger.

I get a call from my mom. Someone left their ruck there. It was me. Whoops. She gives it to someone to give to me at the Scavenger. Too much on my mind. 

I fortunately got to check into my hotel room early. I had Quikcrete all over me, so I was more than happy to shower. I quickly rinse off and get ready, and then Tim and I walk to the nearest 7-11 to get slurpees for our #boogiebagbunch team. We walk back with about 20 min for me to get some odds and ends together. 

More people sign the barrel. I hand out to-go containers for the surplus of Mad Mex we will have at the after party. Cadre Dan reads the Scavenger rules, shares the waypoints, and we are off! 

My team can't win since I made the Scavenger waypoints. That made it really easy to hit all the spots in order though. Once we got to Cinderlands, a brewery next to our distillery after-party location, we decided to stop for a beer. We saw the cadre walking down the road and invited them to join us. We ended up chilling there with the cadre watching people check in on IG.

 We see fish faces, ice cream, Primanti's sammiches, cold 'ahrns, Wigle Whiskey, lots of murals, Mike Lange impersonations, and Black & Yellow music videos. We saw lots of teams truck it up Rialto for those 10 bonus points. We convinced Cadre Dan to continually deduct points from Ken Crosby's team, so that was extra fun. 

It was 1630, almost time to start our tab at Kingfly. We head over there. They aren't ready. We save our livers for 1700. Teams start to filter in and before we know it, everyone is back, the line for the bar is 20 people long, and people are shoving Mad Mex into their mouths. We wait about an hour for the cadre to tally up all the scores. They are ready to announce the winner!

They have the patches and the prizes laid out nice and neat. JC buys pitchers of beer to toast with. A nice toast is made and we cheers. 

The Scavenger winner is then announced. Team Total Package Ladies, which consists of 2 ladies and 3 men.

I know you want to know the story, so here it is: Kristi Devenyi has used this as her Star Course IG account since her 50 miler, just changing the name depending on the event. Team Total Package Ladies was born after our Cleveland Scavenger in 2019, where we came in first place. Kristi, Amber, and I decided on the way home that we are the total package because we are good at math and words...make more sense? No? I didn't think so, but there you have it. 

They are thrilled to win their Blaze Orange Boogie Bags though. You'd think they just won the lottery. The enthusiasm is appreciated by all and the party continues until our rental time is expired. 

People hang out and sip their fancy cocktails until around 2000. I try to go around and visit every table. This is my 2nd wedding after all. 

Time for the after-after party. We head to Helltown Brewery for some beers. There's still a very good showing of people out. Drunkenness has occurred, but as far as I'm aware, it was a safe and fun night for all. 

I head back to the hotel and try to absorb what just happened. 

That was incredible and exactly what I had hoped. 

I wake up, dehydrated and a little hungover, but overall, I'm great.

I gather my stuff and head home. I cuddle my dogs and then head back to the place we laid the tree down to rest.

I take a picture of my new plate, the patches, and my whiskey.

I then took a short ruck by myself and reflect on the weekend. 

Was there anything I'd change? I don't think so, maybe wear some shoulder pads? Otherwise, it was perfect. 

I wanted a hard, but doable event. Events that people would be challenged at and take pride in completing, but not a 100% beatdown. I know people will talk about that tree for a long, long time. It's a crazy event when a concrete curb and 3 barrels are not the worst coupons. The fun that balanced out the pain was exactly what I wanted. You know..... #workhardplayhard. Everyone got along. No one got sloppy. It was perfect. 

We later found out that despite our strongest efforts, we did not meet the minimum spend at Kingfly. I posted in our FB group. Tim Galloway said he'd make another Boogie Bag to raffle and I very quickly had almost 2k in my account to cover the damage. We raffled the bag off and donated the excess to The Oliver Miller Homestead, making our total donation $3,000!!! Congrats to Todd Boulden for snagging the bag! 

So the events are over. Social media is buzzing with tags and pictures. It's fun to relive, but sad it's over. It went by so fast. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. The millions of messages with questions I already answered, the hundreds of PayPal and Venmo transactions, communication challenges.... Those things don't compare to the joy I had planning and participating in the events. 

HUGE thanks go out to the cadre who accepted my invitation to run these events, to Eric Perry, who not only photographed the event amazingly, but was also the person I bounced all my surprise ideas off of (and helped me deliver the curb), to Tim Galloway, who donated the charity raffle Boogie Bag and made the Scavenger bags and cadre gifts, to Shea, who designed the amazing patches, to Kristi Devenyi, Carrie Sofko, and Devin Shellhammer, who were in my private planning group, to my mom and the volunteers at The Oliver Miller Homestead, who gave us an amazing tour, and finally, to everyone who participated! 

I will end with tips for planning a custom and tips for attending a custom.

Planning: 

1. Give yourself a $ cushion to spend on fun stuff for the event. Don't plan it with the goal of simply breaking even on what you owe GORUCK.

2. Allow refunds, but only until a certain period. Everyone's life changes. Things come up. If you want to secure money for a deposit early, people are more likely to give you money if they know there is a chance they can get it back if something comes up. That being said, if you plan on spending the surplus on fun things, you can't give refunds after a certain date. I would have easily been in a HUGE hole with the 30 no shows/drops I had, because that money was already spent on things like cadre gifts, photography, scav prizes, after-party, catering, moonshine, barrels, etc. Allow transfers where the participants pay each other privately. 

3. Be ready to answer a LOT of questions. 

4. Start planning early. I planned for about a year. I never felt rushed. Everything was done casually at my leisure. Obviously you don't need a full year, but this definitely allowed for me to take my time and enjoy it more. I would say 3+ months minimum to generate interest, collect money, and be able to plan some extra stuff for the participants. A lot of people's calendars fill up fast, so it's good to give them notice. 

5. Delegate, especially if you're in a time crunch. I'm bad at this. When I have an idea in my head I find it easier to just do it all myself. Plenty of people offered to help me, but I usually turned them down. If I didn't have such a long time to plan I'm sure that I would have taken them up on the offer.

Attending:

1. Join the FB group/event. Most customs have a Facebook group to relay important info. Yes, you should get emails with pertinent information, but I was definitely not going to email everyone for every little thing I thought of or wanted feedback on. Don't have FB? Make a fake account specifically for this. That way you are in-the-know for all the little things. Keep notifications on or check consistently for updates. 

2. Read the FB notifications/emails. Planners don't send out pointless information (I hope). I can't tell you how often I answered DMs of questions that were answered in posts/emails. Yes. I know it's annoying to sort through stuff and you think it's easier to just message the person who knows the answer, but there's a reason the planner makes the posts....it's to avoid having a bunch of people messaging them asking them the info that's in the post. 

3. Pay on time and keep track of your own payments/registrations. Don't make the planner track you down. Pay attention to deadlines. Make records of your own transactions. 

I think that's about it. Did I write enough? Are your legs numb from sitting on the toilet too long? I hope it was worth it. But if it wasn't, it was worth it to me. I'm sure there are plenty of spelling and grammar mistakes, but I don't have the time or energy to go back and read through all of that again. I'm glad I made the decision to document this weekend. I put it off because it seemed so overwhelming, but it's now complete! 

Stay on the lookout for The Office themed custom in 2023!