Time to clean the mud off all my gear from Heartbreak '23 Presented By Coda Evolution. This is the 6th time I've competed in this run and gun, and either I'm getting older, or it was the hardest yet.  This year's run was 6.8 miles, had about 1000' of elevation gain, and my net run time was 3 hours 8 minutes, to include a 20 minute penalty for missing one of the cache items.

I competed in "Light Plus" division again- which means I didn't have to carry any extra weight, but I did have to do additional tasks. And only true iron sighted rifle and handguns were allowed in the Plus division. (I used an old surplus m16A1 upper on a lower with Vltor fixed stock and a Glock 34)  Before start time, the "Plus" competitor had to climb/leap/crawl over a round hay bale 40 times. Then it was a short 1/2 mile or so run to stage 1. On the way, we passed through a barn, crawling over more hay bales, and there was a black bucket hidden in the shadows. (It wasn't really that hidden, but makes for a better story.) Inside the bucket was our first cache item- a small ziplock bag with hearts on it.

At stage 1, the plus competitor was required to hold a concrete block over their head for 1 minute, before shooting the stage. 6 steel plates of various sizes, from 8 yards to 15 yards, and only one round could be fired at each plate, from far to near, before repeating that sequence 2 additional times. Total of 18 possible plates. I had 16. On to stage 2.

Another 1/2 mile or so through the woods, down an asphalt road for a bit, through some more woods, grab cache item 2, so I hear, and the runner comes out at the 300 yard rifle range. Had I mentioned it started raining? Stage 2 was 2 targets at 100 yards, 3 at 200 yards, and 2 at 300 yards, repeat from position 2. The shooter must neutralize all targets at each distance before moving on to the next further array. Target visibility was difficult with iron sights though. I did manage to clean the 7 targets from position 1, but only neutralized 1 of the 100 at position 2. After shooting, the plus competitor had to pick out a log among a stack of 4' logs, and do 40 air squats while holding the log.

Another 1/2ish mile to stage 3, but on the way, there's an obstacle course. The smart competitor only had to complete 1/2 of the course before going to stage 3, and then return to the other 1/2 of the course on their way to 4. The plus competitor had to complete the entire O-course before going to 3.

Stage 3 began with the shooter standing about 40 yards from a single steel plate, with shooting positions marked on the ground about 5' apart. 2 hits were required, but only one shot could be fired from a position before moving forward to the next. After the 2 hits, the magazine had to be dropped, and the round in the chamber fired for a "high value" target, which just carried the same penalty as all the others, but serves to verify the rifle is empty. Shooter advances to about 10 yards, draws handgun, fires one round, retreats 5', fires addition round in similar process as we did with the rifle to also score 2 hits. Move to the adjacent bay, low crawl under a table and from a small shooting area, engage 4 steel rifle targets from a very tight right and left (forcing support side) and then over the top of the barricade.
The plus competitor now has the pleasure of an ROs company to count while he or she does 20 "turkish get-ups" I don't know who came up with these, but they probably went to hell when they passed.
Back through the O-course for a 2nd trip, but this time we get to carry a concrete block with us for the entire path.

Signage says "Miracle Mile" to stage 4, and features another cache item. Stage 4 starts standing behind a mini v-tac, with 3 rifle targets at about 60 yards. One round on each from any port (they all require prone), move 10' left, 1 round on each from any port (also prone), move 25 yards left for two more rifle positions on 3 or 4 targets. Ground rifle, move uprange about 20 yards, and engage 6 or 8 pistol steel.
Plus competitors now get to carry a piece of concrete that looks like a 4 gallon bucket- about 80 pounds- pick it up, carry it about 25', set it down. Pick it up and bring it back. Total of 3 down and 3 back.

On to stage 5, down the "stairway to heaven" along the river, turn at a cache item, and back up what seemed even steeper than the down path. 1.5 miles I'm guessing? Stage 5 had 7 pistol targets at 12ish yards. Shoot 2 from right side of a barricade, 2 from under barricade, and 2 from left side. Drop mag, fire remaining round at 7th target, and holster. Move to top of muddy berm, under a barricade, down the other side, and from atop a small pile of tires, engage 2 or 3 "throoms" from 2 or 3 positions. My mind was getting foggy at this point and I don't remember the details as well.  Plus competitor now gets to flip a tractor tire 15 times before running off to stage 6.

We'll call it a 1/2 mile, another cache item, and returning to the pistol bays. Stage 6 began starting behind a V-tac, with a "throom" at about 25 yards. One hit per port, total of 9 hits, grab a sand bag, carry it through a drainage pipe, and 6 pistol plates support side only from left of barricade, 6 plates strong side only from right side.  Plus competitor now gets to do 25 burpees, but with the added benefit of instead of a jump, a concrete block overhead press. These guys must have gotten a real deal on concrete blocks.

Last leg of the run back to the clubhouse, but when the plus competitor gets there, there are two more physical challenges, neither of which were as difficult as what we'd already done. A hand-over-hand
rope pull and some kind of bunny hop thing with yet another concrete block.  

I fired 64 rounds of pistol and 78 rifle.  Run time was 3 hours 8 minutes to include a penalty for a missed cache item. (20 minutes)  6.8 miles, over 1,000' of elevation gain.  
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TLDR- 10/10 for Heartbreak. Glad it's only once a year.

I got tired reading at stage 2.

All that work but only 78 rifle rounds.  If I’m not cross leveling my six magazines on the way to the last stage I feel cheated.  

I’d prefer to leave the pistol at home.  

But truly. Run and Guns are a great time.  I’m going to try to and make it to Alabama and Legion.  

A photo courtesy of one of the ROs. Attached File

Looks awesome!  I've always wanted to run heartbreak.  Congrats on a great run.

This year felt harder than last.  It was still fun.  I liked going through the hay bails.  That should be an extended obstacle.

Looks like a cool event. I keep telling myself I am not going to do armored anymore for events. What happened when I show up to an event? I have armor on. Getting older does suck and slows you down a bit.

I was going to start a thread here, but I might as well just add to yours.

First time shooting Heartbreak, and it was an absolute blast!







I don't know how I missed it, but I failed to see the cache item after stage 4.  Ended up 97% and 4th overall in Race Division with the 20 minute penalty for missing the fucking sucker.

I'll be back next year, for sure.  It was a lot of fun.

Strong work, John!  

I feel like we got lucky with decent weather this year- next year may be the one to skip. :)

LOL.  When we all got there in the morning for the brief it was what--37* and raining?  I was thinking I chose poorly.  But by run-time the weather was actually pretty nice.

I left at 0900.  It was 40 and raining on me from start to stage 2.  I was wet, but only got cold on an extended wait time before, I believe it was either stage 4 or 5.

I'm terrible about getting pictures, so this AAR will only appeal to those who do not subscribe to the TLDR philosophy.  (scroll to bottom of post for TLDR summary)

Total course was about 6.3 miles.  I, in typical fashion, forgot to start my Garmin at the actual start line- but remembered a few hundred yards after I left stage 1.  But, I did record most of the elevation changes, which showed 879' of gain.  About 1/2 of this is climbing back up from the river bottom in a less than 1/4 mile distance.  STEEP!

Runners left the start/finish line in 7 minute increments.  Down a grass hill to an asphalt road, and it was about 1/2 mile or a little more to Stage 1.  At stage 1, from hay ring, engage 100 yard rifle steel, and then 300 yard rifle steel (in that order)for a total of 4 hits each, then move to tank trap, and repeat the process for a total of 8 100 yard targets and 8 300 yard targets.  For + competitors, we had to do 20 push ups in our gear at completion of stage.  

Off to stage 2, which was around 3/4 mile, mix of some asphalt, some gravel, woods path, and a little muddy field.  Stage 2- From box A, with rifle, engage 3 "throoms" (rubber reactive short range rifle target) over a table, move to box B, engage 3 throoms either standing or kneeling, back to box A and re-engage 3 throoms under table.  Ground rifle, pick up 2 concrete blocks, carry them across to opposing bay, and engage 6 pistol steel.  But, there were two boxes, and you could only fire one shot from a box before moving to the other.  So a miss would result in an additional movement across the bay.  + competitors had to do 10 "man makers" with a concrete block after shooting this stage.

Route to stage 3 drops about 400' elevation on a long path through the woods, over a couple of 200 year old stacked rock walls, down a broken up asphalt road, then a grass covered logging road in the river bottom, before finally turning up what has been affectionally called the "Stairway to Heaven" which is closer to climbing slick stairs back up the 400' rather than a trail run.  Total length of this loop is about 1.5 miles.  But it brings you to stage 3.  Start behind fault line, your choice of a pistol spinner or plate rack as first target.  I think this stages caused a lot of shooters to expend too many pistol rounds, as I heard quite a few stories of people getting to stage 6 without the 16 rounds required to shoot it.  + competitors had to flip a big tire 10 times after shooting.  

Back in the woods for the route to stage 4.  Again, guessing about 1/2 mile or a little more.  Stage 4 started with rifle loaded and staged about 25 yards from the pistol position.  On signal lift concrete block, engage 5 pistol targets at about 10 yards, drop magazine and engage "High value target".  Holster, and move with block to rifle position.  From under wall, under table, and over table, engage 4 rifle steel at each position.  Total of 12 hits.  Targets were 4" to 8" (guessing) at about 60 yards.  Then move, with concrete block, back to box A, and re-engage pistol steel while still holding block.  + Competitors had to through a piece of heavy wall 4" pipe, I'm guessing 30 pounds, over a wall about 5 1/2' tall a total of 10 times.

Next leg was a short run through the woods to the obstacle course.  I won't go into each obstacle, but my heart rate at completion was as high as climbing up the "stairway".  + competitors had to do the entire O course on their way to stage 5.  All others had to only complete 1/2 of it.  At stage 5, there was a rope about 1.5" diameter and 150' long that had to be pulled through a pully.  One shooter would pull it to the left, the next to the right, so there was always somewhere to pull the rope.  (what's your dirt doing in my hole, Luke?)  Stage 5- rifle staged at Mortar Pit.  Start in box A.  On signal, move to mortar pit (about 20 yards), drop 5 mortars (they made a cool dummy mortar for this event a few years ago), and engage 8 rifle steel out to about 70 yards.  Drop 5 more mortars, re-engage 8 rifle steel.  Drop 5 more mortars, and engage 6 pistol steel.  + competitors had to do 10 "turkish get-ups" after this one.

Back to the O course, + competitors had to again complete the entire course, where all other shooters had to only do the remaining 1/2 they didn't run earlier.  Another long-ish run through woods and fields, I guess close to a mile, to stage 6.  Stage 6 had 8 pistol steel of various sizes from 10 to 20 yards or so.  On signal, from standing engage each steel, drop to prone, and re-engage each steel.  + competitors had to do 10 burpees afterwards.   Head for the finish line!  About 1/2 mile mostly fields back to the club house.

Staff of the match from top to bottom was great.  The match is ran efficiently, I only had wait time on stage 2.  But I ran early in the morning and I know others had little wait time on 2 or 3 stages.  Lunch was provided by the match.  The clubhouse has a wood burning fireplace and provided a warm dry place to wait for those who hadn't ran yet, and those who finished early.  

TLDR- Great event!  There's a reason it fills in minutes when registration opens.  I believe this was the 7th year they've ran it, I've been fortunate to be there for each one.  I ran fast enough, and shot well.  Came home with the WIN in "light +" division.  The match had MOD 1 out of Lexington, KY, engrave their logo on G19s for the winners of each division.  This Glock will go on my trophy wall.  The steel target was the 1st place trophies from the match back in 2021.
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