Preface: Legion 9/11 Memorial Run and Gun is run by Matt Stennett. I cannot overstate how much work this guy puts into this event. In my mind, it is one of the most involved RnG’s in the entire country and is dedicated to the support of the 5th Special Forces Group and their families. If you are a Run and Gunner, you owe it to yourself to travel to this event at least once, no matter where you are from. The event is not a cheap one, but sells out in seconds. People are not going to like that I am saying this but, Matt, raise the prices. It’s worth it, you are worth it, the 5th Special Forces are worth it, and maybe it will allow some of those guys to get in who aren’t so fast on a computer during registration day. There, I said it. Shoot me.

Also, a small disclaimer: All these pictures here are courtesy of Lisa Stennett unless otherwise noted. She does an outstanding job of shooting these events. The photos are her property and only to be used with her permission. Additionally, if you find your photo here and want it removed, let me know and I will remove it. On the flip side, if you want “competitor” replaced with your real name, let me know that as well.

For a more involved look in how the stages for these events mirror actual 5th Special Forces Group scenarios, feel free to check out my blog from the 2020 event here: https://www.twobluescrews.com/blog/2020-legion-911-memorial-run-amp-gun

Now, having missed the 9/11 Legion Memorial in 2021 due to contracting COVID-19, I was really excited to get back out for this event. Due to my typical work scheduling conflicts, I was only able to run three other Run and Guns this year. Since I had not really been spending any time at all on the range, my personal goals for 2022 RnG’s were adjusted to basically include one mission: have fun. Miraculously, however, 2022 had turned out to be my best year yet in RnG’s with a 4th place finish at 17 South, 3rd at Heartbreak, and 2nd at Riverbend.

It might seem strange that my best finishes were coming after a long time off and virtually no shooting, but there is an explanation. After a couple of years of these things now, my confidence has grown substantially. I used to go into each event doing everything in my power NOT to fail a stage. It was my #1 goal in every RnG and for more than 2 years I was able to keep that streak alive. However, I finally had a stage failure at the Backroad 288 RnG in Alabama in October of 2021, and from that point on, well, a monkey was off my back.

Additionally, I have really worked on slowing my running down and digesting the stage briefings. This just came with experience. I was always running in the top 5% and I realized that running any faster really wasn’t going to improve my overall scores. I needed to shoot better and be more efficient. Slowing my running down a notch meant my brain was no longer scrambled when arriving on stage. I am shooting stages much cleaner and am more aware of my surroundings.

Finally, after more than a couple of handfuls of these under my belt, my gear is pretty dialed and refined. Not much changes anymore in my gear setup because it is optimized for how I like to run. Sure I make a few tweaks here and there from time to time, but it's just small improvements over what I already consider a fairly optimal setup.

When I had pressure on myself not to fail a stage, I was always shooting slower and much more methodical, but there was never that “flow” that I was able to achieve during practice. Prior to that single stage failure, I had one mode and that was “careful.” Now it seems that my approach is still accuracy oriented but I am really applying the gas in areas where I feel I have the ability to shoot faster. Technically, my shooting has not really improved much at all in 18 months, if any, but my ability to shoot closer to the edge of those abilities has improved.

With a 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place out of the way for 2022, of course you know I REALLY wanted to complete that sequence at Legion, but I am also a realist. Legion has some of the best competition you can find in RnG’s and completing that number sequence with 5th place was orders of magnitudes more likely than doing it with a win. However, at least the first puzzle piece to pulling off the impossible had fallen into place…Sean Murphy would not be attending this event.

I drove up to Spencer TN prior to the event, just like I did in 2020. Though this time I actually arrived on the correct day. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again thinking the 10k event was on Saturday and have to stay an extra night in the wonderful gas station/hotel, The Way Inn.

I made a pretty significant change in my gear at my last Run and Gun, 17 South, in Savannah Ga. I finally moved on from the second focal plane Kahles K18i LPVO and into a first focal plane EOTECH Vudu 1-10. I have been running Kahles optics since I started RnGs and the reason for that was two-fold, glass and eyebox. However, since adding a piggybacked red-dot to my LPVO, the way I approached and shot stages began to change and my use case and needs adjusted as well.

The eyebox on my LPVO became less important as my piggybacked red dot was seeing 95% of all action inside 100 yards, and was both quicker and brighter than any magnified optic stood to be. Additionally, when I moved from the 1-6x K16i to the 1-8x K18i, the downsides of SFP began to rear it’s ugly head. When running a SFP 1-6x, the scope was essentially binary for me, 1 or 6 power. Every now and then I would go to 2.5 or 3 power, but never at distances where I needed to use holds. When I moved to the 1-8x K18i, I continued to put myself into a dilemma when stages had target arrays and multiple distances. If I wanted to use my holdovers, I had to go to 8 power, and if I wanted to see as many targets as possible at one time, I had to back down to 5 or 6 power.

As you can see, this was slow and inefficient. After a couple of events with the K18i, I knew I had to either go back to the K16i, or go first focal plane. Since, I had already nearly failed at least two stages in RnG’s because of not being exactly at max magnification with a second focal plane scope, I decided to just go ahead and move to FFP. The new Vudu 1-10 had a reticle that I really loved, a low-profile locking exposed elevation turret and didn’t weigh a ton. For me it was a perfect fit. I was shocked to see that as a package with the chosen Spuhr mount, it actually came in lighter than my K18i setup. To be honest, I couldn’t care less about the extra magnification, but I was very excited about having to do less “thinking” while exhausted. It would keep things simple and it proved to be a smart decision.

Vudu 1-10 with EFLX and Spuhr Noveske Team Mount

Kahles K18i with Delta Point Pro and Geissele National Match Hyper Extended Mount

The only other change to my equipment is I replaced my Delta Point Pro with the new EOTECH EFLX, which, like the DPP has nice clear, clean, tint and distortion-free glass. When it comes to mini red dots, I do prioritize them by their optics and so far through two events, the EFLX has provided what I am looking for.

Finally, due to the very high round count of this event, and having to carry a radio and a compass, and extra mags, I did break trend from “everything on the belt” and added a small chest rig. Lucas at T.Rex Arms sent me one out one of his “Ready Rigs” to try and honestly, it was perfect. I like to run light and slick, and this is about as light and slick as you can get while still holding 5 or more extra mags. For this event, as with last time, I decided to run in the “Lightfighter” division which means I wasn’t required to carry a certain amount of extra weight. As long as I have a rifle and a pistol and am willing to carry everything that I believe I will need for the duration of the event, I am good to go.

As usual, I woke up the morning of the event and did a 1 mile, slow-paced, “shakeout run.” This just gets my legs moving a bit and the circulation going and prevents me from having a slow start. I started this a while back and it absolutely works. It also shakes out a few nerves and gets me calm and ready to compete.

Prior to launch time, I just felt calm and relaxed. I am finally beginning to really enjoy these things for what they are, and there is a lot less anxiety nowadays over my eventual performance. I remember thinking “I really enjoy these moments, I feel good, and I am ready to mash the pedal down where needed.” I was in a “whatever happens, happens” kind of mood with a bit of confidence inspiring “let’s go kill it” attitude sprinkled in. Thinking back on it, perhaps this is the best state of mind for this type of activity.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…..I started running down the gravel road headed for the first stage.

STAGE 1

Stage 1 started inside the front passenger seat of a 4-door Jeep Cherokee. Upon the buzzer, you were to roll into the back seat, draw and engage multiple targets from the back passenger window with your pistol. Once engaged you were to exit the vehicle and move to the first floor of a multi-level platform. There you were to engage with weak and strong hands while moving up toward the top of the tower where you would deploy your rifle and use the top handrail to engage multiple targets at distances between 100 and 250 yards. I shot the pistol part of this stage fairly smoothly, especially considering it included my kryptonite with the weak hand/strong hand portion. I took a bit more time than I would have liked to engage the far rifle targets. They were fairly small and I fired more rounds than usual before I could find my very slight holdover. Despite my issues on the rifle, I was 7th of 45 on this stage. This stage was an absolute blast and I would love to see more like these implemented in future Run and Guns.

STAGE 2

After a short run of just less than 1 mile, I arrived at stage 2. The stage started off with you inside of a culvert pipe located in the center of what can only be described as the world's smallest pond or the world's largest mud hole. In front of you was “Randy” and upon the buzzer he needed to be rescued out of the water and moved onto the bank. Well, I do not know how much Randy weighed, but for someone with my 135 lb stature, he felt really freaking heavy. Combined with the slippery mud and the fact that he was soaking wet, I must have spent a full 60 seconds trying to get that guy to the bank. I struggled, my heart rate was through the roof and I fell back into the water/mud multiple times trying to get him up the bank. Once I finally got him to the bank, I knew I was quickly running out of time. I needed to engage an array of paper targets with a rifle while still on the bank before moving to cover and engaging more targets from the prone-ish position, shooting sideways underneath a log. I finally finished the stage but it would prove to be my worst, 27th out of 45. My shooting on the stage was smooth and fairly quick, but my struggle with Randy was costly.

As I headed out toward stage 3, you were to proceed straight uphill. This early in a 10k run, I would typically be so fresh and so ready to run that a small hill would be no issue. This time my legs were burning so much from trying to get Randy out of the water that I already had to stop and walk. I felt like if I didn’t walk for a bit, I may ruin my entire event so I took a bit of time to gather my composure before beginning to run again once I got to the top of the hill. I will get to it later on, but little did I know, the effects of “Randy” would be hanging around much longer, although in a much different form…

The run from stage 2 to stage 3 was a lengthy one, including a few barbwire crawls and some large field crossings. Eventually, you arrived at a sign in the woods that gave you a choice. You could either continue on the trail or you could choose to “navigate” a shorter route using the heading and direction given. Now, I knew this was a possibility so I had brought along a compass I purchased just for this event. Admittedly, and embarrassingly, I couldn’t find my local grocery store without Google maps, so when I heard there might be a navigation portion I was both terrified and excited to add another skill. The compass arrived from Amazon maybe a week before the event and I rushed to learn how to use it. I still wasn’t confident I had it down, but I wanted to give it a shot, so I chose to navigate the next portion of the course using my compass.

It’s still hard to say whether this helped or hurt, and there is a large portion of people that believe skipping the navigation and running the longer course may have been quicker. I ended up getting a bit lost before finally wandering near a trail where I found others that had also lost their way. I heard people talking and discussing directions so I moved toward the sound until I picked them up along a trail. I asked what stage they were headed to and they said “three.” I was so relieved that I wasn’t lost anymore and was on my way in the right direction. Analysis of my maps later on showed I wandered upon a shorter route than was planned for the navigation portion, but I don’t know how much time was eaten up while I was lost. Its hard to say whether or not choosing to navigate would have been faster or slower for me but regardless, it's clear, I have a LOT of work to do with a compass.

I can feel the struggle from here. Competitor on Stage 2

STAGE 3

Stage 3 started with pistol, where you were to engage multiple targets from two positions across the other side of the river. This is where “Randy” from stage 2 would come back to haunt me. Upon drawing and firing my pistol I began to have malfunction after malfunction. I have been running a Shadow Systems MR920L in these events since the Legion Memorial two years ago in 2020. Despite being wet, muddy, and abused, this was the first time I ever had a single failure with this pistol, period. The malfunctions essentially turned my gun into a single-shot pistol and for this stage I was “tap, rack, banging” through the entire pistol portion. I had probably 10 malfunctions on this stage. When I finally engaged all the pistol targets I was relieved to finally hop down into the river and move along the river bank with my rifle. Here I engaged multiple 2” and 3” green flipper targets while moving through the water. This was designed to see if you knew your height-over-bore, using very small targets at close distance. I did really well on the rifle portion, really pushing the pace, hoping to make up for all my issues with the pistol. When the stage was over I ended up in 18th out of 45.

STAGE 4

I made my way to stage 4 with all my malfunctions still stuck in my mind but not really sure what I should do about it. I guess I hoped they would magically disappear on the next stage or maybe I had convinced myself I had a major malfunction issue that would NOT be fixed during this event. The very first part of stage 4 involved shooting a pistol while prone over the top of a log, laying on the ground. Right away the malfunctions started and once again, I was “tap, rack, banging” myself through the entire stage, one shot at a time. The malfunctions continued as I moved my way through the woods engaging each target before finally getting to the part of the stage where you launched the mock mortars. After launching the mortars (and experiencing all the cool pyrotechnics that they had in store for us) I was able to deploy my rifle and finish off the final set of targets before calling in an airstrike. Despite issues again with my pistol, I came away in 9th out of 45 on this stage.

The rule in Run and Guns is that you cannot remove your gun from your holster at any point other than while on stage under the direction of an RO. As I started to run away from stage 4, I had a thought in my mind that maybe I just had a ton of mud in my pistol from all my falls with Randy in the mud pit. I turned around and ran back to stage 4, grabbed an RO and asked if it was OK for me to unholster my pistol and show clear. He agreed, so standing in front of a bank with the RO (and run-time slipping away every second), I unholstered my pistol, cleared it, pulled out my silicone water bottle from my general purpose pouch and squeezed it, squirting a hard stream of water all inside my pistol and magwell. I worked the action a few times and cleared all the mud and gunk from the chamber. I then reloaded my pistol and holstered it, praying that would do the trick. After that, I ran on to stage 5.

STAGE 5

Stage 5 started off lying prone in front of a .50 caliber rifle. You were to use the .50 caliber to hit a single target in the woods with 1 shot. From there you grab your rifle and engage multiple close-distance paper targets before moving to engage targets further in the woods. Next, you grab another “Randy” and drag him to a location where you would cover him with sandbags and then engage a 40 yard pistol target multiple times. It's amazing how quickly muscle memory develops. On my first shot at the 40 yard target, I immediately went into “tap, rack, bang” mode, but it wasn’t necessary. The next round went into battery and the pistol continued to fire. With each hit I kept waiting, expecting a failure, but it never came. I had successfully solved the issue with my pistol, so it was time to tackle the last two stages with a little more confidence. For stage 5, I was 15th out of 45.

STAGE 6

After a run of just over 1/2 mile, I arrived at stage 6. You started in the back of a pickup truck with three paper targets on the ground below you. You were to engage each target 5 times. Strangely enough, I don’t know that I have ever drawn at targets beneath me. This slight change meant it took me a second to pick up the dot on my pistol as the presentation was just different. At that distance, I should have been instinctively shooting anyways but alas, there was a bit of hesitation before I found the dot. I proceeded to run through those targets quickly, exit the truck and then engage multiple targets in the woods with my rifle from various positions (standing, prone, kneeling) and locations, including around a modified VTAC barricade.

We were told we could run with a radio that would pick up HAM frequencies, and I borrowed one from my buddy Travis to do just that. The advantage is that you may hear “intel” from enemy forces that would help you along the route. I never heard anything on my radio, likely because I shut it off while at stage 3 because so many of us were standing around with radios squelching for being too close to one another. Apparently, those that did hear the “intel” were informed that there was a special red target hidden in the woods on this stage. Engaging that target was worth 30 seconds off of your stage time. Since I didn’t know about the target, I didn’t shoot it. My overall stage placement was 13th out of 45. Had I heard the intel and successfully engaged the red target, my stage placement with the 30-second deduction would have been 3rd place. Argh!!!

STAGE 7

With 6 stages down, I knew a few things. One, only one stage is remaining. Two, I had plenty of ammo left. Three, I had yet to fail a stage and finally, four, this was a long-range stage. I consider these “long-range” stages in Run and Guns a strength of mine. They aren’t long-range in the truest sense of the word, but these middle distances of around 600-800 yards are where I seem to do my best when equipped with just a .223/5.56 carbine and I was excited for it.

It seemed like a forever run to stage 7 (about 2 miles), but as I saw the stage in sight I immediately began to slow way down on my run. I approached the bottom of the ramp to the stage and began walking while conscientiously breathing in such a manner to get my heart rate down as low as possible. I made sure I had the magazine to my long-range ammo (73 grain ELD-M) in the proper place and ready to go.

On this stage you climbed/crawled to top of a sniper's hide, laying prone underneath cover, and proceeded to engage targets from front to back and then back to front from distances of 100 to 600 yards. I decided to just shoot off the magazine for this stage rather than take the time to deploy a bipod. I worked quickly all the way out to 600 and then back in using both my scope and my piggybacked red dot in tandem. When the final round was fired I was over 24 seconds faster than the next closest competitor and finished stage 7 in 1st place. Those that know me, know how much confidence I have in this little 13.7" carbine. The gun is just a laser and once again, it didn't disappoint.

RO watching for hits on the long-range stage

After shooting the long-range stage, I gave it my all and ran toward the finish line as hard as possible. I had in my head a bit of disappointment from the multiple pistol malfunctions and the resulting poor scores on those stages but also a really strong sense of achievement that I stuck with it, worked through it and finished strong. In my mind, I endured challenges I had not yet seen. This is what Run and Guns are all about. Challenging you and your equipment and giving you the confidence to problem-solve on the fly in a high-stress environment. In my mind, I had passed the test and I was happy and content with whatever result was coming.

What I didn’t expect, was the actual result. When all was said and done, despite my malfunctions, despite missing out on bonuses, I shot well enough for 8th in shooting and ran well enough for 2nd in run-time, resulting in an overall combined score of 2nd place. It certainly helped that only 7 participants were able to clear all 7 stages, and it always helps that I consistently have been running at the top of the pack.

After an event like this, there is always a tendency to second guess yourself…to “what if” yourself to death. Let’s be clear, lack of malfunctions and hitting bonus targets weren’t going to get me 1st place. Bryan Ray absolutely dominated the shooting, with FIVE total stage wins and a 2nd place finish out of 7 total stages. I am simply not that good.

Dan from Two Vets Tripods out supporting the event. Great guy, great product…I have three of them now.

I ended the season with a total of four Run and Gun events and a 4th, 3rd and two 2nd place finishes. Second place at Legion is definitely the pinnacle of my RnG career and will be extraordinarily difficult for me to replicate without putting some serious time into my shooting. I am pleased with how far I have come, and if anything, I have proven there are more than a few ways to “skin a cat.” I am not the best shooter out there and I am not the fastest runner, but I have managed to stay consistent and better myself at the technical and mental side of the game and for that I am proud.

Run and Guns are a place for me to test myself, test my equipment, and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life, if only for a few hours. I believe they are incredibly important to my fitness, my ability to protect and defend as well as my mental well-being. “Peace from chaos” is the best way I can describe it and I am equally grateful for the educational stress it provides as I am for the pure joy of being able to have a singular focus for that specific moment in time.

I am looking forward to whatever moments the 2023 Run and Gun season has in store. Whatever happens, happens.

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Dec 25 2022 Legion Memorial 9/11 Run and Gun

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