The Killer B’s ended with a bang Saturday morning, with Grundy taking the Northshore lead by mere seconds. Sure, we could debate the fairness of doing it on the lakefront’s luxurious grass vs. the Marsh’s unyielding concrete, or the legality of the proctor himself taking home first place, but when it comes down to it, we must (begrudgingly) give Grundy due credit (and hate!) – it was a pretty inspirational effort. In fact, Tank was nipping at his heels the entire time and it seems the two were feeding off one another’s energy to push each other to their record times.
So t-claps to those two men for giving it their all and, while we’re t-clapping, we might as well toss another one out to Zoo and his miraculous self-healing leg, for taking the opportunity to hit the challenge for a second time and improve upon his score. Alright, the rundown:
Usual pre-thang 2 miler featured guest appearances by both Bushwacker and Garfield, and then we went right into the warmorama: Arm circles (forward/back), IW’s, copperhead squats, toe touches, hillbillies, SSHs, mountain climbers, all x20 IC.
Thang: Half the PAX followed Grundy to complete the IP challenge, while those that had already had their fill followed YHC.
First stop on our tour of the lakefront was an old favorite that can be difficult to use with a large pax: Rips. Instead of the traditional stair run/Rocky Balboa’s, though, we simply grabbed a handrail and did one legged negative calf raises, at a slow cadence: x15 per leg.
Then, eastward towards the baseball field, stopping for a quick COP of high knees and a burpee wave. About 6 rounds, and then onward…
To the pull-up bars behind the baseball field. Circled up on our six for flutter kicks, while 2 men got up to do 5x pull-ups. Around the circle again and again and again, until each man had 25 pull-ups. We maxed out on flutters and at some point switched to Freddie Mercs, which did not really help all that much.
Next up, flip over to a plank for plank jacks, while 2 men got up to do hanging knee tucks x10. Round the circle a few times, switching about halfway to shoulder taps, until each man had 30 tucks.
Mosey back towards the boat launch to split into two teams for a 100-yard sprint relay race. Losing team gets hit with 25 burpees, winning team gets 25 merkins. (YHC has learned that, in the realm of F3, the winning team never takes the easy way and sits out on the work so why even bother pretending there’s a reward.) With Bean pulling double duty for Team 2 to secure the win, they performed their merkins and then jumped in to help Team 1 finish up with their burpees. And then everyone took a page from Pik, who’s been keeping Old Mandeville clean for the better part of two years, and did a quick sweep of beer bottles before heading over to the playground for a quick partner routine.
P1 holds people’s chair while doing air presses, P2 bear crawls up the small hill to the swingset pad for 10 merkins and then bunny hops back down to flapjack with P1.
Just enough time to Indian Run back to Rips, get in one more set of calf raises (x10 each leg this time), and back at the flag for a round of boxcutters, x20 IC. The rest of the gang joined us at this point, looking thoroughly destroyed, and we circled up for COT. Zoo encouraged all to share the gift of F3 and bring out some new brothers, and Maverick took us out with a prayer, encouraging us to be men of strength. Then off to coffeeteria. Thank you men for the opportunity not only to lead, but to get stronger and sharper alongside you.
