Weather: T-Shirt only….ok, shorts too, but you get the drift. No rain, so we had that going for us.
Thang:
Warmups. Nothing fancy.
Mosey to the hidden intersection & hang a Louie. Down to the bottom of that long, slow hill. That hill is also dark in spots and is ridden with a few rather large pot/sink holes. Which made running it in the dark interesting.
Once we got to the bottom, CE explained the rules of what was a quiz for the Pax. Because there’s always one dude in the group that would know every single answer (Goldberg), it was decided that each dude has to take a turn at a question in a rotating fashion. Get it right? 10 reps of the called exercise. Get it wrong? 20 reps of the exercise.
There was an exercise to Question Difficulty ratio that took CE quite a while to figure out. It went something like this: if CE thought it was an easy question that you (better) know the answer to, the exercise was a bit harder. Harder questions got a slightly easier exercise with it.
Example: What do the 3 F’s stand for? was worthy of Burpees. I mean really folks, if you don’t know that by now we need to talk.
The exercises ranged from Burpees to Hand Release Merkins, Squats, Bear Crawl, Lunge Walks, and Sprints.
Another example of a question: Name the 5 Core Principles of F3. That was also worth burpees and you really should know the answer to that as well folks.
So you get the point. I may try this again at another AO to test a man’s F3 Knowledge. If you feel like you need to study, you could read Freed to Lead by Dredd and/or his other book, Q Source. But you’d be wise to also know a bit of regional knowledge. Regional Sample Question: Who was our first Nantan? Hint: He’s a Redwood Original. Which was another question.
No more hints, I really do need to save these for later.
But the main point that I wanted to drive home is this: There’s no doubt that you and your dudes that post regularly are doing good things for your community. But if you’re not aware of all of the other good stuff that’s going on within both our Foothills region and on a national scale, you should be. I simply wanted to show the studs of G Falls that they are part of something that’s waaaaay bigger than anyone ever conceived when F3 started. And that’s something that they (and all of us for that matter) should be proud of. Dudes are doing amazing stuff in the name of F3 all over this country. They’re turning men into leaders and it does my heart good to see and hear about this.
Notes:
- still amazed at the traffic in front of this AO at 5:30. It feels and sounds like we’re standing on the side of I-40
- CE started w/ the disclaimer on the same sidewalk level that the rest of the pax were standing on. Twig immediately told me to get down at the bottom of the parking spaces where I belonged.
- I showed him by milling around on the top shelf for an extra 15 seconds or so. Take that Twiggy.
- Cremesicle had on the sweet orange hoodie that he apparently was wearing as an FNG that earned his nickname. It was like a piece of walking history
- Didn’t know that there was a Matlock up there in GF. We had one in Hickory for a while….then my boy disappeared after about a month. Too many dudes like that in this town and it really drives me crazy. I mean, who wouldn’t like getting up at the butt crack of dawn, getting dirty, running until they may puke, and repeating for the next 7 years? Answer: Lightweights
- Let that sink in for a minute: 7 years. on 4/5/21, we turn 7. That’s a pretty cool thing. We’re not the oldest region by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re still fairly old as far as F3 goes. Two thoughts on that from me: Be proud of what has happened in that time span. But also, don’t be content with what has happened in that time span. There are still TONS of dudes in this community that we need to EH.
- Speaking of which, anyone know when our convergence is? Asking for a guy.
- Sidenote. Here’s a microblast of each Convergence:
- Ram (2015): long run across town. merkins in the creek. creek tasted like b holes. someone made a killer breakfast at New Hope.
- Deliverance (2016): Cropduster in a blonde wig. No idea why. Carried a canoe for 6 or so miles. Veggie Tales ate Mexican the night before and caught a case of Montezuma’s revenge. Lap of Old ER in the middle. Cold, windy.
- The Kong (2017): back out to CVCC, pre-ran with Abe. Dude made it about 50 steps and says “I think I’m going to pull my hamstring” Another 4 steps and POP. Note: if you think you’re going to pull your hammy, just stop running for at least a second.
- Angry Preacher (2018): Lenoir. Trail running with a boom box. Supposed to do burpees in the woods to an AC/DC song. Mass confusion. But lots of fun.
- Name? (2019): Hosted by the Redwood Originals. 5 big pain stations that we rotated. Crop tried to get dudes to crawl across other dude’s backs. I Red X’d that junk. Flex Seal hooked us up with some awesome gumbo afterwards. Ok, it was just eggs & bacon, but it was delicious.
- Virtual (2020): Powder hosted it via Zoom from St Lukes. Just weird, thanks Covid. Then we had one at River Bend Soccer Park. Then the Station hosted one. All were good and fun…but also just weird.
Finally, and definitely not last: today was not a good day for 3 pax. As you have probably already heard, Fuzzy Balls (who relocated to Manhattan KS) lost his wife in a tragic car accident. I only knew her briefly, but can attest to the fact that she was a sweetheart of a gal. Pray for FB.
The Station’s Pony had to make an impossible decision to take his father off of a respirator. I can’t imagine having the weight of that decision on me. Prayers for you my man.
And Stiffy. Stiffy is a Friday only guy at Ram, but always brings a smile when he’s there. His father had a stroke today and the news does not appear to be good at all. Praying for some sort of consolation for you my brother.
Out,
CE