November 11th, 2018 By Chicken Strip

It’d been 3.5 years since YHC had posted at Mallard Creek Park. I’d heard of the changes to the park, but happily found all my favorite haunts still right where I left them. 14 other men decided to join YHC on the trip back to memory lane and see if he could remember his way around. And Big Tuna came to finish the passport challenge – congrats! After a quick introduction we were off, here’s how it went:

Mosey to far parking lot by hill

SSH x 25 IC
Cotton Pickers x 15 IC
Imperial Storm Troopers x 20 IC

Mosey to hill
7-1 Jacob’s Ladder: Squats and burpees
Plank when done
After a good suggestion from Drop Cloth the squats and burpees were arranged so that the squats were at the top of the wet/cold hill and burpees were on the dry/warm pavement. Good call there.

Mosey up the road to the split rail fence
Derkins (low rail) x 8 IC
LBCs x 15 IC
Derkins (mid rail) x 8 IC
LBCs x 15 IC
Derkins (top rail) x 5 IC
LBCs x 15 IC
Derkins (mid rail) x 8 IC
LBCs x 15 IC
Derkins (low rail) x 8 IC

Mosey to bottom of stairs beside the school (after a small detour as YHC got his bearings)
From the Philly region via Wegman’s: The Everest (up the stairs: Lunge (R), Lunge (L), 2 squats, repeato)
While waiting to start The Everest or waiting for the pax to finish The Everest hold Al Gore (tree hugger) position

Mosey up to school parking lot and partner up
Partner 1 runs a lap around track (1/8 mile) – Round 1 only, audible to the cone and back for Rounds 2 & 3, Partner 2 performs exercises and until pair completes designated reps of the following exercises:
Round 1: 200 Merkins
Round 2: 300 Squats
Round 3: 400 Freddie Mercurys (Single Count)

Mosey down the road and all the way back to the hill
5 to 1 Jacob’s Ladder: Squats and WWII Sit-ups

Mosey back to start to the upper lot for Mary:
Crunchy Frog x 15 IC
Mason Twist x 15 IC
Pretzel Crunch x 15 IC (each side)
In honor of Wake’s win Thurs over the Wolf Pack: W’s x 10 IC
Recover Recover

At COT, YHC discovered he was almost the only Hate and the WB by several years and that the Respects made up well over half the pax. Great work today, your age definitely didn’t show!

Prayers:
Continued prayers for Kool Aid

Moleskine: It was great to be back here. I signed up to Q as part of the passport challenge, which I’ve really enjoyed doing, both seeing new AO’s and vising old AO’s I haven’t been to in a while, this being one of the latter. I was actually in Hickory visiting my parents and made the drive to Highlands and back and am so glad I did. I was tired on the drive in and thinking to myself why did I sign up to Q on a weekend I knew I’d be out of town. Then I saw the familiar lots, hills and fences and some new and old faces and I knew why. Going to Q-Source afterward confirmed it. I might have signed up to Q because of a challenge (and more importantly patch!) but I lead because I’m grateful for the man that F3 encourages me to be and the type of men F3 attracts and builds up.

I had an awesome time going back to all the old parts of the Park I love to hate (hills and fences and stairs, this is really a great location), but what I enjoyed most was Q-Source. While I couldn’t contribute much to the conversation on the Queen (diet) as I often try to Out King my Queen (workout to make up for a poor diet), I really enjoyed seeing how the conversation always came around to how can we encourage and help each other eat/live/etc. better? I had only one thought afterward I wanted to share. Monthly there is an F3 lunch in Uptown Charlotte and those who are more disciplined with their diet (i.e. salads, small portions) always give those of us, including YHC a hard time about their selections. It’s the same “encouragement” we get for our exercise. It’s a subtle thing but it’s slowly changing my mind on what I eat. The 43 Feet podcast also has more greater wisdom than I could ever share.

Also Sully was asking me about my time away from F3. I was involved with F3 for about a year 4 years ago. I moved and life happened and life went downhill in a lot of ways. I finally came back at the beginning of this year after a 2.5 year hiatus. It sucked. I’d lost all my fitness and then some, gained a ton of weight, and had to embrace the Six again. What brought me back were two important people/events: The Farm texted me and asked me to lunch one day to catch up. We talked about F3 but mostly about life. He might have encouraged me to come back, but didn’t guilt me or even push me hard. He knew I already knew how important it could be in my life. The second was Steel Cannon. I’d met him at a few of the first Kannon workouts I did make it out to. Well I’d happened to move right next door to him. At that same lunch, The Farm messaged Steel Cannon and before I left to go back to work I had a ride to the workout the next morning. That dual accountability kept both of us going through the cold winter. It’s really nice to be back in F3 but it’s even better to have guys care about you. I kept a lot hidden during my hiatus so I’m grateful for those who reached out to me during it. Think of the pax, friends, coworkers, etc. you haven’t seen in a while. Reach out to them. Not just to get them back to F3 but to see how they’re doing. For more on what happened to me during my hiatus you can read this other long post. It’s part of a bigger story and plan God had for my life. https://f3-meca.com/2018/08/13/why-i-gave/

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