Matt in TN

I had many people wanting to see how they did against people their own age, so I collected VOLUNTARY age data during registration and tried to think of a way to present it that would make sense. There are two problems with this data: 18 out of the 81 people that ran did not give me their age so I left them out, and Combat Class is thrown together with Race Class in this data. But knowing all that - here's what I came up with. Knowing your own age and times/scores you should be able to figure out where you fell in this range. Here's the 5k data summary. 10k is in the works.

Hard to say - none that I KNOW of, but we didn't take names or anything.

Pictures are up! Feel free to use these however you wish, but please give a photo credit to my wife, Lisa Stennett, as the photographer when you do. ESPECIALLY if you use them for commercial reasons. More to come - https://www.flickr.com/photos/lisastennett/albums

Here's one of the coolest match videos I've seen yet:

Enough bad news. Here are the 15k results. My ROs are highlighted in yellow because they deserve special recognition. They had to run the 10k and then only had 15 minutes to reload and regear before running the 5k. Everyone else got a couple meals, a shower, and a full night's rest before doing it again. The people highlighted in green ran Combat Class, but in the 15k challenge there was no class provision so they had to go head to head against the Race Class folks but with 25%+ of their bodyweight on their backs. But every single one of you are badasses to the extreme.

Everyone: I am physically ill over this and I cannot express to you how sorry I am, but I found a fairly major error in the scores this afternoon. The short explanation is that my spreadsheet that calculates net run time did not take into account the wait times on Stage 6 and 7. This was 100% my error and the lovely ladies helping me do the scoring were not at fault at all. While I was correcting this error I also improved the accuracy of the net run time calculations to include partial minutes instead of rounding off to the nearest whole minute. Some of the scores were close enough that this mattered. Unfortunately, this changes three of the trophies I handed out yesterday. Logan Dudley was the true 1st Place Race Class winner and Greg Reynolds should have been 2nd Place Race Class. Trevor Saunders was the true 1st Place Combat Class. Logan, Greg, and Trevor - I'll have new trophy glasses made and ship them to you if you'll email me your addresses. Bryan Ray, Logan, and Greg - please keep the trophy glasses I already gave in error with my sincere apologies for the mistake. Top Grunt and Top Amazon results did not change. 5k Results did not change. Again, I can't express how sorry I am for this mistake and will do my best to be sure it (and the faulty scale SNAFU) never happens again. Please do look over your scores and don't hesitate to let me know if anything else doesn't look right. "Stage 8" in Practiscore is your net run time in minutes (NOT "seconds" like it says). The other stages should be fairly self-explanatory. 5k Results are here: https://practiscore.com/results/new/52965 10k Results are here: https://practiscore.com/results/new/53116

Last one (I think!). Last night waiting on my front porch was a package from Nosler for the prize table: Two 500 packs of their .223 70gr Ultra-High BC RDF Match Bullets, and two 250 packs of new .223 brass. Thanks Nosler! https://www.nosler.com/

Today Vortex Optics (http://www.vortexoptics.com/) delivered me FIVE Impact 850 rangefinders for the prize table. These can range a reflective target out to 850 yards, and correct for a true horizontal distance if you're ranging up or down at an angle. This puts us at a mind-blowing grand total of over $25,000 in value up for grabs this weekend. There will be give-aways for everyone during registration, and four out of every ten people will take home a bigger prize. I know we are all here to run and the match itself truly is the real prize. But I'm blown away by the generosity and support of not only the vendors but our fellow competitors as well!

Yesterday out of the blue I had a 5th Special Forces Group Chaplain donate EIGHT certificates for a 4-day training course for Defensive Handgun, Shotgun, or Rifle from Front Sight Firearms Training for the prize table. These retail for $2,000 each, so that's SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of training that's up for grabs. What a great surprise! https://www.frontsight.com/

OK - I just sent an email to all competitors with the final details and reminders. If you did NOT get an email but think you are registered and paid, check your spam folder. If you still can't find it message me and we'll see what happened.

Today's prizes come from Samson Manufacturing - who donated two of their new SXS-LW handguards. I bought one of these for my daughter's little M4-gery last year and it went from a 1.5 MOA rifle to a sub-MOA rifle, all while getting lighter and cooler-looking to boot! Thanks Samson! https://www.samson-mfg.com/

Yesterday's prize package delivery was from TRU-SPEC. They sent six different prize certificates so you can choose the size and/or color you really want on these great products: 24-7 Series Grid Fleece Pullover Circadian Backpack Trek Sling Pack 24-7 Ascent Shorts & Drirelease T-Shirt 24-7 Series Tactical, Ascent, Delta, Vector or boot-Cut Pant (x2) Thanks TRU-SPEC! https://www.truspec.com/

More reminders for newbies: You will need EYE and EAR PROTECTION for this match. Yes, running with glasses on sucks. Either deal with it, or take the extra time to take your glasses off when you run and put them on before you shoot. We just have too many opportunities for ricochets and plenty of loud noises to let this go. If you show up to a shooting stage without eye and ear protection you will not be allowed to shoot and receive a zero score for the stage. You will also need a STOPWATCH of some sort. There's a good chance when you run up to a stage there will be someone shooting there already (and quite possibly a line of people waiting to shoot). At that point, the RO will tell you to start your wait time. Start your stopwatch, and let it run until it's your turn to move forward. During your wait time you are NOT allowed to sit, take off your gear, eat, drink, or do anything but just stand there exactly as you ran up - it's like a "timeout" and it should not give you any advantage over those who didn't have a wait time. Photo credit: Lisa Stennett

Prize table surprise: a competitor reached out to me yesterday who does BEAUTIFUL leatherwork and pledged an AR mag pouch with a certificate for a holster and a pistol mag pouch to fit your choice of weapon. It looks like George Johnson (https://www.facebook.com/george.johnsoniv.5) is your man if you want to have some leatherwork done - thanks George!

Prize details are rolling in! Yesterday's was from ASE Precision. They are providing certificates for their holsters so you can get exactly the model you need to fit your gear. We'll have 6 competition holster certificates and 3 EDC holster certificates for a total value of $807.00. In addition to that, Dustin Downard will have a full competition set (competition holster, 2 pistol mag carriers, and one rifle mag carrier) that will be randomly drawn for from all those that actually hit the target on his obstacle. Did I mention Dustin was awarded the 2016 "Holster Making Champion" award from Knifekits.com? This dude is an artist with kydex - https://www.knifekits.com/vcom/popups/hmoty_2016.htm ASE Precision has a website that is about to launch. Enter your email address at http://aseprecision.com/ to be notified when it's live.

More nerd stuff - here's a little more about our participants we have registered as of Friday. To give you an idea of scale we'll have 85 total competitors running the 5k, 78 total running the 10k, and 22 gluttons for punishment doing both in the 15k Challenge. I'm amazed at how many we have going Combat Class, and surprised that more in the 10k are doing this than the 5k! And from my personal experience at other matches (I don't have data from ALL Run N Guns), this is by far the most women I've ever seen at one of these. This is gonna kick ass!

Thanks for getting these posted so quickly - another great match! If only I could learn to shoot long rifle quickly...

Reminder: Match shirt orders must be in by March 5th to get one. You have one more week to get your order in, and shirts will NOT be available for sale at the match. The only way to get one is to order through Shredder Industries: https://www.shredderlife.com/shop/rockcastle-5k-and-10k-run-n-gun-official-match-shirt/

And the final obstacle - just before Stage 5 (5k) or Stage 7 (10k). You can thank the evil genius of Dustin Downard of ASE Precision for this one: ASE Precision Rifle Crawl: Crawl under barbed wire up to a firing point, dragging a provided rifle drag bag with a provided Bushmaster ACR and magazine loaded with ONE ROUND of ammo behind you. Staying under the obstacle, pull the bag up to you, remove and load the rifle, and make one shot on target through the available port. Unload the rifle, replace it in the drag bag, and crawl back out the way you came in. All of this will be done on the run clock, completely separate from the shooting stage. Anyone who makes the single shot will be entered into a drawing for ASE Precision gear. https://www.facebook.com/ASEPrecision/

Cancellation reminder: You have one more week to withdraw and get a half-refund (full refunds are no longer available this close to the match). Any withdrawl from the match after Saturday March 3rd will get zero refund. No exceptions.

Reminder: you will need a light of some kind to navigate and shoot in the cave (Stage 3). If you show up without a light you will not be allowed to shoot and will be given a zero for the stage. Weaponlights are fine to shoot with, but you'll also need a separate light to navigate parts of the cave before the shooting starts. I don't care if you carry a giant spotlight with a 12V truck battery, but you must carry it for the entire course! If you've never been to the cave before, here's a preview video from last year (the names are different, but the basics are the same this year) that will give you a better idea what to expect:

I built the "over" obstacles for Stage 2 today, and while testing them decided to play with some different camera angles and demonstrate various ways to cross these for anyone who hasn't done them before. I've been dying for an excuse to try out the A-Team camera angle!!!

I had several competitors upset last year because I only made t-shirts available to the staff - so this year I'm opening t-shirt sales up to the public. The ONLY way to get a t-shirt is to order it through Shredder Industries - they will NOT be available for sale through the match. Shredder Industries is run by a competitive shooter, and $1 from each shirt sale goes to support Generation III Gun, Inc. (which supports junior shooters in 3-gun). In full disclosure, I get a cut of the profits from the shirt sales as well to help offset my costs. This is a win-win-win (-win?) situation for everyone involved. Please click the link and order a t-shirt! https://www.shredderlife.com/shop/rockcastle-5k-and-10k-run-n-gun-official-match-shirt/

The obstacle for the 10k Stage 6 (which is the same as the 5k Stage 4) is simple and familiar (if you've run this before): Simply haul both you and all your gear over the top of two consecutive A-frames.

I thought we were done with sponsors, but one more came in yesterday afternoon - I am thrilled to announce TRU-SPEC has just joined on as an obstacle sponsor! They will be providing $500 in certificates for their clothing for the prize table so you can be sure to get a size that fits you. They have a great product line that I think will do very well at Run N Gun events. Check them out at: https://www.truspec.com/