AO: Harrisburg
Q: Zin ,
PAX: Constitution, Zin, SS Minnow, Bunyan, Ace, 0
FNGs: 1 0
COUNT: 5
5 men met at the high school under a full moon to move around the parking lot, chat and do some exercises. I pulled out one of my traditional exercise routines that allows for some good chatter. Among other topics, we discussed why the moon seems larger the closer to the horizon it is, and the new ABS strike zone challenge system in Major League Baseball. Here’s how it went:

WARMUP: Mosey to the ticket office. Disclaimer. SSH, Penny Pickers, IST’s.

THE THANG: Mosey to the corner by the entrance to the softball/baseball fields. Perform my typical set of three exercises x10: Merkins, Squats, LBC’s. Move to the corner by the front entrance. Repeat exercises, increasing to 20 reps. Move over to the dark corner by the driver’s ed cars and increase to 30 reps. Back to the corner near the entrance x40. Ticket booth x50. Back to corner x40 and so on.

MARY: Ended back at the ticket booth for a very quick Mary consisting of Freddie Mercuries, Squirm and Crunchy Frogs.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: runsignup.com/Race/NC/Concord/ConcordBunnyRun in downtown Concord this coming Saturday. runsignup.com/Race/NC/Harrisburg/Harrisburg5K Saturday 4/25.

PRAYERS: Friends, family and classmates of Liam Holloway (more below), continued prayers requests for local PAX and for the current situation in Iran and the Middle East.

COT: For those who don’t know, Liam Holloway, an HRHS student, passed away in a single-vehicle car accident early Saturday morning. My understanding is that he was driving home from work at Cook Out (although this is not 100% confirmed, so I apologize if this is inaccurate information). From everything I have seen posted about him on social media, Liam was a very upstanding young person. I’ve seen him described as a hard worker, student athlete, friend to all, nice, always smiling.

Since I learned of his passing Sunday morning, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. No one in my family, including my son Emmett who attends HRHS, knew Liam or his family, but it still hits very close to home. I know several people, including some in F3, who personally knew him or at least knew of him.

In these times, I find myself asking why? Why a kid like Liam? This should never happen to any young person good or bad, but when we find out what a good kid he was, it just makes the pain even worse. As Wexler told me in a text message yesterday, “Kids shouldn’t die.”

Unfortunately I will never know why. None of us will. For many, faith tells us that things like this happen for a reason, but for the life of me I cannot see what that reason is or ever could be. All we can do is just move forward, offer love and support to those around us, and, in this case, hope that our community can collectively grieve and honor this young man’s memory.

Hug your loved ones today.

-Zin