Beautiful weather this morning topping out at 60 degrees. Flags came in quickly as Shooter and JV arrived early and off we went with the mumblechatter.
Around 4 years ago, an offhand “You should join us” from Toto began my adventure with F3, so today I thought we’d honor those folks that have shaped our beatdowns and who continue to be positive role models for their friends, family, coworkers, and in their corner of the world. While certainly not the only ones, each of these men have had a favorable impact on my F3 experience and have helped me grow tremendously over he years, with plenty of room for more growth and learning to go. Despite objection, SmashMouth was NOT played.
Warmup (mostly IC)
– Sealjacks
– Arm circles
– Self love
– Imperial squat walkers
– Toe touches
All Star recognition 1: Zoolander – the HIM most likely to EH someone (and then we never see them again) – Goofballs and then 5 knuckle merkins
Thang
All star Speedy – the Crazy Ivan Ringer – mosey to the gazebo
All star recognition 3 and 4:
Hammer: pushed me as hard mentally as I’ve ever been pushed by F3 with 1,000 burpees, and Grundy, whose cakewalk is the hardest non-Iron Pax I’ve ever been pushed – cakewalk of 5 merkins
Mosey to the shaft for more All Star recognitions:
WaterPik- King of Form: 10 8 count bodybuilders IC
Moby: Leader of the chain gang – without his chain, we subbed with an Indian bear crawl
Turbo: the Godfather – mosey back to the flag, teams of 3, passing the tennis balls (NOT golf balls). If the ball hits the ground, team performs 3 merkins (in honor of All Star Akbar: Mr. Merkin Trap). Many T claps to Wicket and JV for being in sync all the way, and leading like they’ve been QBs and/or WRs all their lives.
On the wall, we honor All Star Bushwacker: King of the impromptu Q: 10 IC freak nastys and 10 durkins, rinse and repeat. We skipped the additional 15 rounds he made us do one week.
Move to All Star Barely Legal: Who knew his crab walk skills? Crab walk to the street and back to the wall. Bird, I hope your hands are ok.
Mosey around Noah’s Ark where we honored All Star Jose 10k: most Supportive, Mr. Will Do Anything Another Brother Asks, always one of the first to join in, NOT Mr. Grumble, who “won” White Elephant 2021, by doing cherry pickers while moseying.
At the block, we stopped to honor All Star Cowbell, Prince of Punctuality: 25 crunchy frogs (just enough for Jose to note “He’s waiting for everyone to just stop”)
Back at the sea wall, we honored (1) All Star Steve: Most likely to outwork you and smile the entire time: 5 Kraken burpees
and then (2) All Star Shooter: Most 6 pickups (at least when I was 6): 10 donkey kicks, where MVP was Bird and his handstand yoga walk
followed by (3) the Futures portion: the 2.0s
– Pickax
– Wicket
– FNG Wookie!
– Yoda
– Pixie stick
– Hazard
– Chainsaw
– Gilligan
– Minnow
– Bear
– Trakbar
– Grover (Welcome back!)
– Machete
In their honor we performed 26 Smurfjacks IC (13 x 2.0)
Moving over to Rip’s, we paused for the In Memorium portion of the festivities, up the steps and back down to honor those that we hope rejoin us one day, including but not limited to:
– Bypass
– Butt paste
– Mick
– Stock boy
– Coconuts
– Amnesia
– Bends
– Slider
– Toto
– Ocho
– Pelican
– Pea shooter
– Swoll patrol
Back at the sea wall, it was my pleasure to honor All Star Manny: Encouragement personified, the first to tell me “Just keep coming” – 10 LMCs IC
Quickly running out of time, we wrapped up with our final All Star: Maverick: the Music Man, who makes me hate Roxanne to this day. Performed to “She’s so Cold” by The Rolling Stones, high knees, with a squat every time you hear “hot” or “cold”.
Mosey back to the flag where COT, count, Name-o-Rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out.
Announcements about NOLA convergence next week, Bushwacker’s camping trip and wife’s birthday party, upcoming potential Halloween beatdown on Sunday 10/30, among others. Check Slack for more info.
Special welcome to Wookie, Chewy’s 2.0 and our newest HIM.
One final note: as each year passes, I remember less and less of that first October post back in 2018: pre-COVID, pre-Joe Burrow becoming Joe Burrow, pre- many of our newest brothers, 10 pounds lighter.
I remember I was late, Buttsplice had Q, we did some yoga. But I’ll never forget feeling sore for at least 3.5 days after, and loving it. Doing something different. Outside with no weights.
Not wanting to make that same mistake, lest I be judged, I was about 20 minutes early, either the next week or the week following that, and made the mistake of being TOO early, to where I joined the pre-Thang run and after about 40 yards, thought “This was a mistake”.
But then either Tank or Shooter picked me up as the 6 (details aren’t important, because both have done it repeatedly and offered encouragement). Having started off on the wrong foot, not one but twice, would have normally sent me packing and wishing the group the best in future endeavors. But the encouragement sparked me. That kept me coming back.
I said it last year, and the statement holds true: Because of what we do, and what our mission is, our reach extends beyond losing a few pounds, getting bigger arms for the gun shows, or finding our abdominal muscles again. If we’re doing it right, we’re improving confidence in those around us, encouraging each other to be impactful in our commmunity, and exemplifying Christ’s disciples in our words and actions. My prayer is that we keep doing that. Whatever “that” is, keep doing it. We’re doing something right.
That’s my goal, and even if I fall short, I know I’ll have another opportunity to do it soon enough.
Thank you for making that commitment and for all that you do. SYITG
