January 1st, 2021 By Dutch Boy

A decade ago, in a middle school parking lot not far from here, 30+ men gathered to workout together. What began so simply has grown to so much, and today (1/1/21), 18 men of MeCa gathered at the AO formerly known as White Lightning to celebrate 10 years of F3.

As pax arrived and YHC stepped out of his truck, the wind picked up and a chill not identified during the departure from home arose. But we were here and it was time, so a disclaimer was given and YHC explained that we’d be working off the original backblast released just this week by co-founder @OBT.

Now, to even @OBT’s own admission, the original workout was a little light; most of it was basically an extended warmarama showing different exercises. So we used that. We did a short mosey away from the bathrooms towards the portable bathrooms at the bottom of the lot, where we circled up for…

Warmarama (all IC)

• Merkins x10
• Wide Merkins x10
• Run a lap around the bathrooms (roughly 1/4 mile)
• Reverse Crunch (x10)
• LBC (x10)
• Run a lap
• Side Straddle Hops (x10)
• Mountain Climbers (x10)
• Run a lap but instead of returning to the bottom, head over the base of one of the exit ramps to kick off…

The Thang

Run all the way to the top of the ramp, do a burpee at the top, and run back. Increase number of burpees by one each time until you’ve done five. Pick-up the six.

Mosey over to the ramp leading into the speedway for some People’s Chair. While we chaired, we called out all five core princliples of F3 (Free; Open to All Men; Held outdoors in rain/shine; peer led; End in a COT), as well as our credo “Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you found him.”

This ended the scripted portion of the Q (as this ended the original workout). As @OBT had predicted, it took about 20 minutes. We moseyed toward Morehead and toward a hill near Turn 1, stopping for some in-cadence merkins (x10) and squats (x10). At the base of the hill, YHC gave more instructions.

At the bottom of the hill do five reps, followed by 10 at the top of the hill, and 15 at the other side. Come back doing the same rep counts. We did merkins and then LBCs.

After a brief dialog about whether it was supposed to be a 45- or 60-minute workout, we headed down the hill toward the Morehead underpass. We partnered up for some classic Dora 1-2-3, with one partner running while the other did exercises, until the team completed:

• 100 Merkins
• 200 Squats
• 300 LBCs

At that point, we all seemed pretty collectively smoked and it was time to make our return, so we moseyed back to the start for…

COT

COM

Moleskin

• Prayers for @amway as he recovers from shoulder surgery, and @double-a as he battles some stomach pain.
• 2021 Post Challenge is live. Set a goal and go chase it down! Preblast link: https://f3-meca.com/2020/12/31/preblast-2021-post-challenge/
• About the title: these were things we discovered on our more than 4 miles of ground covered today. The dead black cat beneath the overpass was particularly ominous, if we’re being honest.
• It was an honor to be able to lead this group today. We embodied all the core principles today, and we didn’t let the cold or wet deter us from getting after it. As I approach my 2nd F3 Anniversary, I remain is awe of what this group can me to each of us. It’s something very special, and I’m very thankful that @OBT and @Dredd and the 30 or so other men decided to gather 10 years ago at Alexander Graham Middle School to workout. I’m thankful enough men found it useful that it has grown to what it is today. I have posted to F3 workouts in many different states and it’s always the same: I’m never a stranger, just a brother from another region looking for a beatdown.
• Here’s to 10+ more years of brotherhood. SYITG.

Convergence, White Lightning

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