September 13th, 2014 By Exit54

34 PAX from MECA and beyond converged on Concord to celebrate our 1-year anniversary.

What do you call the opposite of a fair-weather friend?  Don’t know the word but we had dozens of them this morning.  As many of you know, we had rain and thunder passing directly over Concord from about 5:30 to 6:30.  No worries, though, as PAX from Harrisburg, Highlands, Tradition and Sandhills showed up undeterred.

We kicked things off with the Package Run, led by our own Total Package.  The plan was for this to be an easy 9 minute mile pace, but we didn’t account for Bull and Riptide running with us fresh off the Blue Ridge Relay.  Every time TTP tried to ease off the pace one of the Ridge Runners would push it back up.  Not an easy four miles for us mortals who didn’t spend last weekend running up and down a bunch of mountains.

WARM-UP (led by Deertick):

• Lap around ASEC parking lot
• SSH x 20
• Cotton pickers x 15
• Mountain climbers x 20

Count off into four groups, with each group splitting off to a different location.  We had four locations total, and tried to rotate them every 10 minutes.

THE THANG:

Four Qs (KGB, Total Package, Exit 54, Cupid) were necessary this morning.

Location 1: ASEC Lower Parking Lot

Seven mini-stations:

1. Tire flips
2. Tire step-ups
3. Gravel bag curls
4. Gravel bag overhead press
5. Gravel bag reverse skullcrushers
6. Gravel bag kettlebell swings
7. Don’t have a name for this one other than ‘beat the tire with a sledgehammer’

Location 2: Belk Parking Lot

Reverse Indian Run: form a train that goes around three light poles (roughly 100 meters).  Lead man sprints ahead and continues until lapped around and caught up with the train.  We had just enough time for everyone in group 3 to get a rep as the sprinter.  Major props to Diesel and Tumbler who had to go last and really emptied their tanks on the sprint.

Location 3: Hospital Parking Deck

Using the stairwell, run to the top level and partner up.  While one partner takes a lap around the top level, other partner does an exercise.  Then switch:

1. Merkens
2. Air squats
3. LBCs
4. Burpees
5. Plank

Location 4: Hill 218

Starting at the bottom of the hill:

• Run up, 10 burpees
• Run down, 2 air squats
• Bear crawl up, 8 burpees
• Bear crawl down, 4 air squats
• Run up, 6; Run down 6
• Crawl up, 4; Crawl down 8
• Run up, 2; Run down 10

MARY:

KGB led a bunch of stuff, my group was late getting back so I don’t know exactly what they did.  I forced everyone to do a minute of scissor kicks before we called it quits.

MOLESKIN:

I can only speak for group 3’s experience, but my hope is many of you will add your two cents in the comments.

That said, this WOD was a killer.  We wanted you guys to experience all our favorite pain theaters, and that meant absolutely no time to rest between locations.  Can’t say enough about the effort my guys showed in getting thru it.  A few quick thoughts:

• Qs were in agreement that Hill 218 received the most whining / complaining from the PAX.  Next year I’m thinking rotating hill sprints and fireman’s carries for this location.
• Per Escalade, we covered 3.25 miles doing the circuit.  That’s over 7 miles for those of us who banged out the Package Run beforehand.  Excellent Mud Run prep.
• A few PAX made it all the way from Pinehurst.  Really cool meeting you guys.
• It was great catching up with everyone during F2.  I learned that Old School and I work on the same floor of the same building but had never met before.  Also really enjoyed hearing from the BRR guys about their experience.
• I hope I got all your names right.  Harrisburg had the best representation with 14 PAX.
• Many thanks to KGB, Cupid, Total Package, Deertick and Holy Cow for their efforts in organizing / executing this thing.  My one regret is we didn’t have someone take some photos to document the experience, definitely something that we’ll work on for next year.

Until 2015, aye!

/Exit 54

Concord

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