First Person View of the MAMMOTH SNIPER CHALLENGE DAY 1

I started this journey at 283 lbs and currently weigh 261lbs. I remember my very first ruck in preparation for this. I had 55lbs on my back, total step off weight was nearing 340lbs at that time and I barely made a 17 min/mile pace. (The goal being 14min/mile) Fast forward to the week before we left, I was 264lbs and cranking out a mile in full kit at 13 minutes or better. This challenge has been awesome for my health. I feel a lot better, I have more energy throughout the day👊. The week before I left for this I was at the jump park with my sons doing flips on the trampolines! I haven’t done those in years! Maranda Lycette can attest to that! 🤣😂 I’m sure that was a sight but I was having fun haha So day 1 we rucked 12 miles with a total elevation gain near/around 800 ft. The first 2 miles of the day was up hill and when it did break flat it was just rolling hills untill the end. We shot 4 stages in heavy rain for most of the morning. We made a lot of mental errors, and after the first stage was done we immediately abandoned our original plan. We shifted our focus to individual tasks instead of our initial approach which was to jointly tackle finding and engaging individual targets. However we quickly found that the work we needed to do as individuals required both of us to accurately and independently find, range and engage targets without the assistance of the other person. This would best be done with 2 weapon mounted laser range finders. Having only one was a deep hindrance. So we shifted our focus to points that were easily attainable. Targets that were 500 yards and in. Mind you, since this is a blind course you are only ever given target descriptions, not their ranges or their location and with a 5 minute par time per stage for both of us to shoot pistols and setup rifle positions you realize that searching for targets becomes awfully time consuming. Most of the targets we shot at were 500 yards and in. We simply just didn’t find many past that distance. 1 stage we used 4 minutes just searching for targets….. when I say Mammoth is hard it’s freaking hard. They get you everywhere. The early wake ups, the untamed environment, the long and heavy ruck marches, the stage pressure, the targets, the ranges, the pistols, the managing literally everything from your own food consumption, hydration, personal hygiene, health, mental awareness, sleeping system, keeping everything dry if it rains, staying warm if it’s cold, keeping cool if it’s hot. They literally get you EVERYWHERE. After day 1 was over we all were sore. We got some rest and prepared for the morning of day 2.