YHC arrived extra early at the Lion’s Den to perform a general site survey and determine the rough distance around the Civic Center, for no particular reason. Goose and Pope were the first to roll in, bearing the flag and bug spray. America’s Best arrived shortly thereafter. After Cardinal was initially mistaken for Enron, YHC knew it was going to be an interesting morning. As the rest of today’s PAX emerged from the gloom, a new figure was in their midst. Some might describe him as a silver surfer, but not today. This FNG would eventually be known as Captain D’s, in a cruelly orchestrated maneuver by AB. More on that later.
Warmarama
Hopefully sufficient disclaimer
Side straddle hops
Windmills
Willie Mays Hayes
Arm circles forward
Arm circles reverse
Cherry pickers
High knees
Butt kickers
Toy soldiers
Mosey around the Warren J Harang Municipal Center; carioca facing the center on the first side, nur on the second side, carioca facing the pond on the third side, run to the lion. The exercise is left to the reader whether or not we properly changed direction for the second carioca or unintentionally did the same direction both times.
Thang 1
Today’s theme is celebrations due to recent get togethers. E.g., Festivals, cook-offs, St Thomas Aquinas Family day this past Sunday, Gander going away party, AB pregame party. While some celebrations deal with more superficial ties we have with each other, many involve values, beliefs, communities, and people that are important down to our cores. As we thought about that, the PAX were to do three sets of 100 core exercises:
–100 LBC’s
–100 flutter kicks (2:1)
–{10 v-ups, 10 Freddy Mercuries (2:1)} x 5 sets
A run around the WJHMC would kick this off, as well as a lap between each set of 100. So 4 laps total. The difficulty of the core exercises took YHC a little by surprise (how soon Jurptober fitness wears off, as a wise PAX mused), and a few other PAX independently reached this conclusion as well.
At the beginning of this Thang, we were 11 PAX strong. As YHC was performing LBCs, a second new figure arrived. Thinking that this was an OG member that YHC had not met yet, or perhaps Tree Root, YHC simply said, “Do 100 LBCs”. During one of the laps, YHC asked the new figure if we had met before. That is when the new figure introduced himself as Squanto from outside of Houston, who was in town for business. What a great day, to have a FNG and a downranger at the beatdown. Squanto did not do the beatdown in shoes, but as he is not on the Group Me, how would he have otherwise known to bring shoes?
Thang 2
The second class of celebrations covered today was birthdays. YHC has gone back and forth in terms of downplaying (YHC’s own) birthdays and celebrating them. YHC’s current opinion is that they should be celebrated, as an expression of gratitude for another year with loved ones.
If this all sounds like a big circle burp, it was not. True, to an outside onlooker it appeared to be a big circle burp. The exercise was in a circle, but instead it was a burpday party. One at a time, a PAX says his birth month and whatever the numerical equivalent was, all the PAX do that many Kraken Burpees. It became quickly evident that Kraken Burpees were not the right exercise on this particular day, so after completing the Kraken Burpees for the first PAX, YHC changed them to be regular Burpees. In case any PAX thought that giving out his birth month was divulging precious personal identifiable information (PII), all that YHC really cared about is that they said a number between 1 and 12, inclusive. To date, YHC is aware of only one PAX faking their number. Some time in the future, this thang will be repeated with Social Security Number digits and will be known as the “Credit Freeze.”
The PAX ultimately made it through this circle, and YHC is breathing a sigh of relief that the number of burpees wasn’t the day of the month as originally planned.
Thang 3
The PAX handled everything thrown at them today so far, perhaps due to the bifecta of having an FNG and a downranger. We had time to discuss one more celebration, the celebration of our suffering as Goose eloquently covered during the last Tough Guy Thursday. Over the past week or so, the PAX has celebrated F3 during its manniversary, with stories, videos natively and effortlessly inserted into the GroupMe chat, and a lone instance of a link to a YouTube video. All these have covered funny events from the past and gratitude for where we all are in our Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith journeys. F3 also pushes us to look forward, to keep pushing for how much farther we could be in those areas. To achieve this, we help each other in two broad ways: push and pull. The push includes words of encouragement or picking up another PAX as he finishes. These are intentional things we do to help each other. The pull is simply how we handle situations, whether others are watching or not. But when they are watching, sometimes we will never know how we may have inspired someone based on our example. Looking to your left or right during a beatdown, knowing everyone is tired, but seeing the other PAX grind it out. Seeing how someone is handling a difficult situation with strength and grace, or someone who is really strong in his faith. These set the examples of where we ourselves could be.
So, instead of a commemorative plate or CMU about all this, the PAX partnered up for a commemorative Dora-like exercise. One partner is the push. He begins doing Bonnie Blairs. The other partner is the pull. He begins by running to the other side of the field and, when he gets there, doing Apollo Ohnos. As soon as the pull arrives to the other side, the push runs to the other side also and does Apollos. Then the pull immediately runs back and does Bonnies. And so on. This proved to be a nice, yet not comfortable, way to spend 8-10 minutes, and as YHC hoped it would add quite a bit of running to the beatdown, disguised as a Dora.
Name-o-rama
The FNG explained several things about himself, but his affiliation with Spahr’s had to be pried out. It was clear that AB had something up his sleeve. You could see it in his eyes. Apparently still raw about being named after a second-rate eye care center, AB was hungry to drag someone else down with him in an analogous way. Unfortunately for this FNG, names such as Long John Silver’s were mentioned. YHC ultimately agreed to Captain D’s. Looking forward to more beatdowns with Captain D’s.
Animal-o-rama
Hypotenuse bestowed the Animal to Safety Valve.
Announcements covered a few additional details regarding Saturday’s and Sunday’s events. AB will keep everyone posted in the chat on Saturday, as to contingencies in case it rains. Bring bug spray Sunday.
Intentions. As we brought the circle in, Squanto had some words of encouragement about the importance of F3.
Enron prayed us out.
Tclaps for everyone posting today, despite rumors of a runmageddon. We will hopefully be joined by Squanto again during his work travels.
SYITG,
Honeysuckle
