Under The Log - A Podcast about GORUCK Events and People.

Ep. 05 - Larry and Larry - 2021 GORUCK Bragg Heavy

March 12, 2021 Ryan Burns, Larry Shaffer Jr., Larry Shaffer III Episode 5
Under The Log - A Podcast about GORUCK Events and People.
Ep. 05 - Larry and Larry - 2021 GORUCK Bragg Heavy
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Larry Shaffer Jr. and Larry Shaffer III, aka "The Larrys" join us on this episode of Under the Log to talk about the 2021 GORUCK Bragg Heavy. Yes, this event had the option for a Double Heavy and, yes, if you know the Larrys you would think they'd be all about that. Well, towards the end of the interview they tip their hand a little bit about why they only signed up for the one heavy. They also let me know that both of them have recently purchased a GR2.

Among other things, Larry and Larry discuss how they got into GORUCK events and what it is like to do them as a father and son.

As we mentioned in the show, a great way to support this podcast is to visit RuckingChallenges.com and register for this month's event. 

If you're feeling  inspired to do a GORUCK event, you can find upcoming events right here.

Finally, we didn't talk about it in this episode, but if you'd like help training for a GORUCK event, check out these GORUCK Training Guides and our Ruck WOD website.

The Under The Log Podcast is part of The Rucking Collective, a collection of websites devoted to the sport of rucking.

Ryan Burns:

Hey, gang. Welcome to another episode of under the law, the podcast full of interviews with folks who recently participated in goruck events. In today's episode, we talked to Larry, and another guy named Larry. That's right. We're talking to two guys named Larry. We're going to talk to them about their recent goruck brag heavy. In addition, we'll talk to them about what it's like to be a father and son doing events together. And they've done a few, like somewhere near 50. It's pretty awesome. Before we get started, if you appreciate the podcast and want to support us, this is our sister website, ruckingchallenges.com and sign up for this month's challenge. Better yet, grab a monthly subscription, you signing up at ruckingchallenges.com helps to eep this podcast alive. Alright, enough of that. Let's get on to the interview. All right, so Larry, and, Larry, I've done a few events with you guys. And I have to say that like one of my, one of my favorite parts is is during roll call. So cadre is there. And he's calling off the names and all of a sudden he'll he'll say, you know, Larry Shaffer, which is pretty much always followed with both of you saying out loud, which one? And the CADRE will usually say Jr, at which point, Larry, the dad in this situation will be like, Oh, that's me. And it never ceases to amaze me. The cadre just kind of stares at you stares at the stares at your son. And is just like, I don't know what to do with this information. Is Is that pretty much what happens at every event that you guys do?

Larry Jr.:

You I think it is nowadays that we've done enough of these things. Most of the CADRE know us now but occasionally no doubt. They say Larry Larry and they get totally confused.

Ryan Burns:

In all seriousness, like how am I supposed to do this interview with you guys? like should I should I address you is like Larry Jr. and Larry, the third old Larry young Larry, like, like, how's this gonna work?

Larry III:

Anything works for me. I've been called trip tray three. Anything works. Okay, I know f f three causes old Larry and young Larry which, you know, make some sense to. Okay.

Ryan Burns:

Well, I'll just say, Larry, and just see which one of you takes it. Let you fight it out. So we're gonna talk today, obviously, about the 2021 GORUCK Fort Bragg heavy event hat you guys both completed ecently. But I think I think I've just got to begin at the beginning with you guys. I mean, a father and son doing goruck events together. It's an it's pretty cool thing. And as you mentioned, like I've done a ton of events like, like, How many? How many events? Have you guys done now?

Larry Jr.:

We calculated the other day, we've done over 40 events together? Holy cow, and they've done some separately? Yes. You know, Casey, we won't travel for a tough flight. But we'll travel for the bigger ones we've done. I think we've done well. I know we've done five hdls together. And then he's got 12 heavies under his belt. I only have 10.

Ryan Burns:

Just 10. That's a

Larry III:

double heavy, the double heavy together as well.

Ryan Burns:

So yeah, that was that was that last year or the year before?

Larry Jr.:

That was last year?

Larry III:

Yep. Okay, this is gonna happen. The whole podcast.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, this this is my first time interviewing two people at the same time. So it'll be fun. So So you've done you've done a ton of events together.And separately, but I guess I guess I'll start with, with older Larry, like how to tell tell us the origin story for you guys. Like what is the Larry and Larry gorakh origin story? How did y'all even get into this?

Larry Jr.:

Well, you know, we started doing adventure races way back when they were popular. And then we evolved into OCR races. We were doing those together when he was still living at home. And he and little area actually did the first goruck event. He did a tough, a tough and then a tough flight. Then he calls me up says Hey, Dad, there's this thing called go rock. You know, we got to give it a try. Come on up to Virginia Beach and we'll do it. So I packed up an old rock and six bricks. And, you know, I did a tough Light and enjoyed it. And, you know, the second event we did was an HTML. So at that point in time, it was either very as my wife says, you know, you guys are just stupid crazy. But it is something that we've enjoyed, you know, doing it together, you know, go rock forges, you know, camaraderie among people, they don't even know each other. So when you put a father and son together, it's been it's been a lot of fun. It's it's been a great experience. And I'm just fortunate enough at my age and still be in good enough shape, be able to do it. And I work hard at it. But you know, it's,

Ryan Burns:

yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, I'm still a little struck by the fact that your second event was an HTML like, I don't I don't think I knew that. So letting that set in is that's eye opening. I mean, that's no joke. I wonder you You said that Larry had done a tough light.

Larry III:

Larry, was that the one that we did together? I believe so. That was Richmond. Yes. So that was my, I did one tough in Virginia Beach. And then I did the Richmond one with you. And it was a tough flight. And then I called my dad, like he said, and we did the Virginia Beach again, the following year. Man, that's really cool. I didn't know that. That was my that tough flight was my first tough flight. And that was actually my second event. I think so. I mean, I think that was like, gosh, four or five years ago now. almost five. Yeah.

Ryan Burns:

That's, that's wild. So with this with doing so many events, you know, some together some some separate? Like, what's, what's the driver for deciding events for you guys? Is it just like, hey, there's one, you know, nearby? Let's go like, at 50 events? I mean, you've got to just be cranking them out left and right.

Larry Jr.:

Well, usually we won't travel unless it is a, you know, a significant one, whether you know, whether that be we went to we went to to France for the 75th anniversary of Normandy, which was phenomenal. And then we'll do the HTL as always together. And then if there's a tough light that's driving distance in between, they will just hook up there. So it really is just a matter of, you know, can we get there? And of course, the big events are the ones that we sometimes we have to fly to. But, you know, that's just money we spend.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah. So So what was the what was the drive to do? Or the decision for doing the Bragg heavy? Like, what? What? Why did y'all decide to do this one?

Larry III:

Alright, so we did, we started Bragg back when drone passed away. So that was that was going to be our first brag heavy. And since we didn't get that check in the block. This one was supposed to be special. We heard from cadre Dan, that it might possibly be his last brag, but obviously he's local. Now he thought he was going to get overseas orders. But I was basically told my dad, it's now or possibly who knows when so just so happened that we decided to do it. So

Larry Jr.:

nice. I will tell you going into it, though Ryan is is both of us to say we're only going to do the first one. Because we had other things coming up in the future. We didn't want to over overshoot herself. So it was kind of interesting that everybody's like, Oh, I can't believe the Larry's aren't going to do both. I can't believe the Larry's aren't gonna do both. The good news is I only signed up for one. So I do not feel bad leaving. And I'm like, Can you maybe ask I can tell you what the hardest event is and the most miserable. And anybody who was at Bragg this year, I would tell you that they will tell you it was by far the most miserable event ever. I mean, it was not It was hard as all its heavies are, but it was misery. It was cold and it was raining the entire time. It's horrible.

Ryan Burns:

Larry, you can confirm. miserable and one of the hardest.

Larry III:

Definitely most miserable. The first Cleveland heavy. The double heavy was our hardest. We both agreed on that one too. But as far as misery goes, Yeah, it was this year's Bragg heavy for us.

Ryan Burns:

Okay. Wow. I mean, that's saying something because you you've got some context to put that in.

Larry Jr.:

And then like, like Larry said, the most difficult of all the events was the first 24 hours of the double heavy in Cleveland in August of last year. And it wasn't the coupons, although there were plenty. It was it was Cowdray Dan and Qadri bill. And as Qadri Dan said at one point time and his vernacular, I'll keep it clean was I didn't believe I never knew Cleveland had so many hills. And we start we started out on a ski slope. And we spent the entire 24 hours on those, you know, as Dan calls in those expletive hills, it was a bear. It was it was a tough one.

Ryan Burns:

Yes, if you're starting on ski slopes, it's not going to be a good time. Hey gang. This is the part of the podcast where I shamelessly plug rucking challenges.com. You love rocking. You love a challenge. It's a match made in heaven. Every month we have a new rucking challenge that you can do on your own. Or if you're in one of them fancy rock clubs, you can do it with them. And here's the real deal, since this podcast doesn't make me any money. In fact, the nickels and dimes I've spent are starting to add up. You signing up on rockin challenges.com convinces my wife that this podcast isn't a complete waste of time. So do your part to help keep under the log alive by signing up at rucking challenges.com today. Alright, enough of that. Let's get back to our chat with Larry and Larry. So I was just wondering like with you guys, I mean, with so many events, I mean, I know like for my first heavy, like, I trained my butt off. And, and, you know, I feel like I don't train with nearly as much intensity to do events. So like when you've got a big event coming up like the Bragg heavy. Like, like, do you ramp up your training? or What does the training look like for you guys these days?

Larry III:

Yeah, we've, like my dad said, we've been doing endurance events for years. So we've kind of had a leg up when we even started to go wreck events, as far as training, but we focus a lot on sandbags focus a lot on just heavy miles, at least I do. I do more heavy miles and actual miles. I think for the Bragg heavy. For the couple months leading up to it, I may be rocked a total of 15 miles. But I always had like 65 pounds in my ruck and a 50 or 80 pound sandbag on me. And then just throwing sandbags, lifting them over your head, and basically just getting ideas from previous events and just going from there.

Ryan Burns:

What about what about you, Papa Larry?

Larry Jr.:

Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of that most of it is, you know, in the old days, you know, I played football in college is all about lifting heavy, but now it's more functional strength. So it's sandbags. It's kettlebells. It's a lot of push ups, a lot of pull ups. And then, you know, as Larry said, you know, you got to throw that heavy bag on your shoulder every once in a while and go out and just crank out the miles.

Ryan Burns:

So when I go back for this interview, and do some of the editing, I think at this point, I'll try and cue up like some emotional music. Because I want to talk about Charles relationship. And Larry Jr, you you kind of hinted at this earlier. Like, there's something that happens when you do a goruck event with with people, people that you've never met. Like, you know, that Richmond event that Larry and I did together all those years ago. I mean, I remember grabbing breakfast with him between events. And then I think we took a nap in the car between events. Yeah. And, and then, you know, like, we've done a few other events together. But it's like, I totally feel like, you know, if you were ever in town, or I was ever in your town, like we totally hang out, grab a beer and just connect. And I feel I feel that way with a lot of people that I've done events with. And so I just think about, man, what, what a it builds these special relationships, what has that been like, as a father and as a son, and Larry, younger Larry, I'll let you lead off and then your dad can follow him.

Larry III:

Okay. It's incredible. I never thought that we would be doing this together. We've spent much more time together over the past few years, obviously, since I'm in Norfolk, and he's in Georgia. So we get to spend time together and do these events and struggle under logs and figure out kind of what our breaking points are and his strengths and my strengths and weaknesses on either end. But yeah, just spending 24 plus hours under a log with your dad, it'll it'll get you get you know him a lot better now. I guess. That was cool.

Ryan Burns:

Papa Larry.

Larry Jr.:

Yeah, you know, like Larry said, it is very it's a unique situation. Occasionally there'll be somebody at one of the events saying oh, I hope I can you know, do this with my son one of these days you know, the Larry's that's so cool. And it is it's it's a nice testament for us to be able to do it together. There are times You know, where he I recall back in Philadelphia doing an HTML when his feet were just shredded. And then the father part comes out and he's like, Oh, I'm worried about him. I'm worried about I'm not gonna just say Hey, he's a big boy. We're doing these together. He was a sufferer. You know, he's got to go but there are times when as a dad you think, damn, his feet look like crap. You know. And you and your I just never Philadelphia he was limping like he'd been shot. But he got it out, we finished but but other than that it is it's it's a unique situation to be able to suffer together, we have a couple rituals. The night before an event, we always will get a hamburger, french fries and a beer. So it's like your perfect rough beer. And it's in every event. It's a hamburger, french fries and beer. And we do it every time. That's pretty cool. Man.

Ryan Burns:

It's fun ny that you brought up the the affiliate event with with the feet because that that was another event that I did with you guys. And I remember at one point we were on. We had this movement where we had to be completely silent. And we get into this parking lot and and I was just waiting for cadre to like try and trick us by like asking us a question or something to get us to talk. And and Larry, you were standing by me and he he whispered something to cadre whispered something to us, and you started to answer. And he just totally just smashed on your foot and says, look, you just looked at me like Dude,

Larry Jr.:

what the hell did you just do?

Ryan Burns:

And man, it dawned on me that I was just like, Oh, what a What a jerk. I couldn't believe I did that.

Larry III:

I completely forgot about that.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, that was that was a great event. I love that. Um, so speaking of events, man, let's let's talk a little bit about that brag heavy in that misery. You know, kind of kind of talk me through some of the things that made it so miserable. I mean, just generally, I know the the weather was was bad and cold. But like, Talk Talk me through some of the misery that you went through?

Larry Jr.:

Well, it started raining about an hour into it. And it didn't stop for a full I would say 10 to 12 hours. And there were times when it rained really hard. right at the beginning there was this little I call it a creek it's more like a runoff. And I don't know if you saw the videos, but you know, we were all leaning over that doing push ups. And you know, and flutter kicks and we were getting wet enough and then one of the CADRE had a bright idea to low crawl or to do the tunnel of tunnel love through the water through the water and it was cold. But the difference the difficulty was you were wet the entire time. We had one period of time where we were we were fortunate we came in real early among everybody else and and Jason said priorities of work you would normally you sit down you take a load off the grass or the ground was so muddy and wet. We just stood there with our other two partners for like 25 minutes waiting for everybody to show up just in the pouring rain because you couldn't move you did not want to sit down and in the middle well we had there were five casualties you know, cold casualties that he was that Qadri Dan was concerned about. But so he got real cold in the middle of the night.

Ryan Burns:

And any idea what the temperatures were

Larry Jr.:

will drop right around I think you were saying just around 3032 degrees so just around freezing goodness. But I've never seen anybody get you know that cold where they kind of lose their whole mind. There was this there was this lady near Larry and I and she kind of just stood up and she couldn't remember her name. She couldn't put a sentence together. So we rushed her into the situation and the CADRE took good care of and they had ovens hooked up and they had no blankets ready to go but we lost five people within a within an hour that's how cold it gotten

Ryan Burns:

so so cold wet going through the mud you know typically in those those heavies you know, the sun comes up in the morning, you get a little burst of energy. Like was there ever any time where like, your your spirits got lifted? Or was it was it just kind of low spirits the whole time? Yeah, it

Larry III:

was pretty low spirits. As far as the misery goes. It did eventually come up, but it was within the last couple hours. Not like the morning. So yeah, it was cold, dark, wet.

Larry Jr.:

It was so miserable. It was comical. There were times we were sitting there laughing because it was just so miserable.

Ryan Burns:

Yeah, I mean, I guess that's a great question like how, you know, in this event, obviously there's misery but in the misery and pain like I guess kind of question for both of you like, how do you how do you deal with with that adversity? Like, I know that I tend to turn into like, I like to just kind of like smartass jokes or whatever, which is probably irritating for everybody around me. But it's just how I feel like I start to cope. Like, what? What are your responses to to like that pain and that misery and that drudgery of just grinding on hour after hour?

Larry Jr.:

From my perspective is usually just I think to myself, like, God, what the hell am I doing this for? This is the dumbest damn thing I've ever done in my life. And I keep signing up for it. You know, and sometimes a cadre will say something to me, I say, you know what, you're half my age, just shut up. You know, but so there are occasions where I just kind of chuckle and I'm just like, what the hell is this all about?

Ryan Burns:

What about you, Larry?

Larry III:

Yeah, there's a lot of that. It's a lot of just kind of looking over at somebody else being like, you're suffering too. So I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut and keep on truckin and see what we can do and see if we can get through this together.

Ryan Burns:

Was Was there any, like one movement of the Bragg heavy that stands out in your mind is like, Oh, yeah, that was that was the hardest part.

Larry Jr.:

We had, they had to, we had two teams to carry the logs. Each log Pavlik. I mean, they were big. They were like telephone pole logs. And we had a very dysfunctional team, unfortunately. And there was like, 20 people per team, maybe 15. And we had to do this one mile lap. And if you lost obviously, there was hell to pay. And we could not win the save our lives. And we were just functional. I don't know what it was. But there were 15, there was one or two people there who, you know, we're not having fun at all. And they let it be known. And I think, you know, Ken just brought down our team. So although I don't know if it was the most difficult physically, it was certainly the most difficult mentally because we just we got our asses kicked every time around that mile loop.

Larry III:

Every time was make individual logs, if you saw that, too, that got interesting. Just going to pick up a cut log. And that was the CADRE like, that's yours now. So now you can't suffer as a team, you're suffering as an individual.

Ryan Burns:

So they made the whole team each have an individual log.

Larry III:

Yes. Yep, there was a big pile of like chainsaw trees. And they're like, just go pick one up. Okay.

Ryan Burns:

I'm actually encouraged to hear that y'all. Y'all had logs out there, you know, the name this this podcast under the log, you know, hearkening back to all those logs that I've been under with people and how you get to know each other. But, you know, I think ever since, you know, COVID and everything, like, they don't do logs you don't do partner carries and stuff like that. So I'm like, you know, does the title of this podcast even make sense anymore? But, uh, so it's good to it's good to hear that people are still getting under the log together. That's, that's nice.

Larry Jr.:

Yeah, I think that's that's a prime movement within go rock that does a lot of good team building. We also had log PT at the double heavy in Cleveland as well. So that

Ryan Burns:

Okay, nice. Um, well, you know, I think that's about it for this episode. But at the rate that you guys do events, I'm sure that we'll have you back on under the log before the year is through. But before I close, you know, this, this is probably the question that I have the most intrigue in. Will there be a Larry and Larry team assessment coming up?

Larry Jr.:

We knew that question was coming. We knew Yeah. So it is under hot when I when I told Larry without saying yes, it is under serious consideration. How about that? That's awesome. How about I bought a gr two.

Ryan Burns:

Okay, okay.

Larry Jr.:

We recently purchased gr twos because we found that a gr one might not be big enough for some events.

Ryan Burns:

Okay, so just in case there is an event that you need a bigger rock to pack a little bit more stuff into. Man. Have you have you actually filled that rock full of gear and dumped it on your floor yet? That that'd be a good question.

Larry Jr.:

That's when I decided that gr one was way too small.

Ryan Burns:

Well, that's that's really cool, man. I look forward to to hopefully, you know, maybe Who knows, seeing Larry and Larry out there a team assessment. But thanks a lot for coming out on the show, guys. And like I said, I'm sure we'll have you back out to talk about more events in the future.

Larry Jr.:

All right. Thank you, Ryan.

Larry III:

Thank you, Ryan.

Ryan Burns:

Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of under the log. If you'd like to see shownotes links to stuff that we talked about or a transcript of the episode, visit us at under the law.com. While you're there, you can find links to all our social media profiles, and we'd love to connect with you. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, you're digging the content, it'd be really cool if you'd leave us a positive rating. And finally, if you've recently completed a goruck event and want to chat, drop me a line at Ryan and under the law comm or hit me a message on social media. And we'll get you on the calendar for one of the next episodes on Moodle. Ah, well, that's it for me. We'll see you next time on Google.

Intro and Welcome.
Wait, you're both named Larry?
The Larrys' GORUCK Origin Story.
How The Larrys decide on events and what inspired them to do the Bragg Heavy.
This was the most miserable event ever.
Let's talk about training.
What's it like to do events as a father and son.
Sorry about the foot, Larry.
The Misery of the GORUCK Bragg Heavy.
How Larry and Larry deal with low points in events.
Yes! Finally, let's talk about logs!
I finally ask the question we're all wondering.
Outro.