Machete Recon XII was held at Golden Gardens/Shilshole Beach in Seattle, WA on February 18-19 from 8pm to 8am. The Machete team drove all the way from Southern California to put on this event. Some of the members of the local “Beasts OCR” team assisted as well.
Going into this was exciting, but made me nervous at the same time. I’ve completed shorter endurance events, and knew what to expect for the most part, but never one that lasted 12 hours, let alone overnight. Here it was…..Go Time! There were so many thoughts running through my head. Can I last that long? Will I get too cold (it was 40 degrees and predicted to go to 35 overnight)? Am I packing enough or too much? Will I be able to stay awake? I was about to find out!
We met in a parking lot and proceeded down a dark forested trail to the beach. We brought headlamps but only used the red lights when there were stairs or other obstacles. We were given a sand bag and instructed to write our names on it and NOT lose it no matter what. A 5 gallon bucket with no handle was on our gear list. These two items would be used throughout the night for our black ops style missions.
We were divided into two teams. One of our first missions was to run down the beach and find one of the leaders. The sand was loose and half ways down the beach it got very rocky. I’m not sure which was harder to run in. We reached the leader and did some PT and then filled our sandbags. Half way for women and full for men. Then we raced back with our sandbags to the start.
The Puget Sound waters are about 45 degrees year around. Hypothermia can set in in as little as 12 minutes. I’m mentioning this because we had various options and missions to complete in order to stay out of the water; however, there were a couple of times we did go in. Once was carrying a very heavy log into the water about knee deep. As a team, we pressed it overhead until we had hardly anything left to give.
The other water mission was challenging as well. We took our buckets and dug a trench about 2.5 feet wide, a foot and a half deep, and 30 feet long. We were all sent to the water to fill our 5 gallon buckets completely full and transfer it to the trench. Bucket after bucket came and the trench filled with very cold water. Team 1 army crawled through it, then team 2. We then laid diagonally in the trench and the other team ran back and forth with more icy buckets of water and proceeded to pour them on us. After both teams enjoyed this refreshing adventure, we ended up burying team 2 as a penalty from earlier. Some of the buriers got creative with the buryees.
There were several team challenges including a two mile run over rocks and pavement and a two-mile sandbag run. The team who came in last had to complete a “penalty lap”. The lap included a rock staircase going uphill through the forest until you met a trail (still uphill) and came down some cobblestone style rock staircases. It was a good distance, about 200 feet of elevation gain, and tiring. We would end up completing this many times before the night was over.
Several hours into recon, we were heading down the beach again. We were requested to pick up firewood along the way in the pits the locals make beach fires in. We reached one of the pits, when the leader said we had 5 minutes to make a sustainable fire or we were going in the water! We saw an ember in the pit and worked fast and furious to build it up. Some of the team went to look for twigs to use as kindling, one pulled out a piece of paper we could use, and I did 10 burpees to earn some kleenex for tinder. With just a little time to spare our teamwork paid off and we got it going and it turned into a beautiful blazing fire! We all took a little break at this point and circled around the fire and told our story. One by one we learned about each other’s struggles, dreams, and goals. A group of individuals became a team of brothers and sisters.
There were so many challenges and PT opportunities that I can’t put them all down, but we ended with a big one. With about an hour left, we ceremoniously cut our sandbags and emptied them back onto the beach. I felt like yelling and cheering as loud as I could, but figured that might put the team “in the water”…noooooo! We disposed of the empty bags and were instructed to tape our buckets to our backs. The sun was beginning to rise which seemed to give everyone a boost.
We went to the start of the “penalty lap” and bear crawled our way up. Once we were past the rocks, where the trail started, we received new orders which included walking lunges and inch worms with a pushup. That made for a long long long trail, especially because we could see our cars in the parking lot. We were so close, yet so far. Once we reached the top we still had 30 minutes to go. We finished with tabata style PT. Burpees, pushups, jumping jacks, high knees, it felt like it would never end.
Then, we were told to stop. We had successfully completed our mission and we did it with all of our team members in tact. Every single one of us persevered, gritted it out, and achieved something together that we will never forget. Our names were called one by one and we received a shirt, patch, and wrist band. Items that have so much meaning behind them. We gathered for one final photo, our group picture.
MACHETE RECON XII….WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!!!!
I wore my shirt the next day and felt such a sense of accomplishment. It’s not just a shirt, but a symbol of what we earned and the amazing memories we will all have of Recon XII. I will wear it with pride every time I put it on! Thank you to the Machete team for making the trip to Seattle, the Beasts OCR members who assisted, and all of the others who helped to make this event a huge success. Aroo! Aroo! Aroo!
Photo credit: Machete Madness, Dustin Garrett, Adam Birgenheier, Kim Collings
Kim Collings
Latest posts by Kim Collings (see all)
- SoCal Spartan: Surprises for 2019 - March 14, 2019
- Spartan Race Mountain Series: Montana Beast and Sprint - May 17, 2018
- 2018 Spartan US Championship Series Kicks Off in San Jose - April 6, 2018
