Friday, December 3 | The Farm | Sarpy County Fairgrounds | 38 degress with a million Stars
PAX (26): Chippendale, Truck Stop, Ferdinand, Baby Shark, Irish Carbomb, U-Haul, Trench, Farva, Borat, Schrute, Crab Cakes, Chernobyl, Diddy, Escobar, KOA, Knobs, Yogi, Swiper, Othello, HuHot (Respect), Nelly, High Life, Icy Hot, Mulch, Tony The Tiger, Sparty
Pre-Runners – A Plethora of men
I was incredibly excited to wake up at 4am to get my weekend started in the best way I know, and I was so looking forward to the opportunity to be leading at The Farm. As I pulled in on Main St, I was quickly greeted with some beautiful shovel flags. I took a few minutes to take in the AO as best as I could, and quickly learned that we were not going to be able to get inside the arena. So audible 1 took place. The west area is gravel. Another Audible and I walked over to the grass field where the flags stand. After setting up, I quickly became concerned about the terrain and darkness, knowing what the workout was going to be, this may put some guys in danger of getting injured. I took a walk and headed south and as I passed the Pre-Runners, I found a well lit area with nice flat ground. I the final audible was made to adjust for the PAX. As I returned to the shovel flags, I quickly recognized a beautiful voice of my man Othello. Big shout out to O and U-Haul for coming down to Sarpy to support me.
As the clock struck 5:15am, I started in with my greeting and welcomed everyone to The Farm. I quickly asked if there were any FNGs, which I really stink at remembering. I then shared our mission statement and 5 core principles. I gave a disclosure that I am not a professional and that the men should modify as they need to. It was time to get started and we took a nice little mosey and circled up in the west gravel lot for Warm-a-rama.
Warm-a-rama:
- SSH 20 IC
- Sun Gods 10 F/10 R
- Cherry Pickers 15 IC
- Tappy Taps 15 IC
- Big Ones 10 IC
- Small Ones 20 second count
- ATMs: AST 15 IC, Tempo Merkins 15 IC, Merkins 15 Count
As we wrapped up, the mumblechatter started to dwindle. I then asked the men to line up along the “fence” for the Pre-Thang.
Pre-Thang:
- Tabata: 20 seconds of work, 10 second rest for 6 minutes
- Derkins
- Squats
- Toe Taps
- LBCs
- Repeated these exercises until time ran out
As we completed the last exercise, you could tell that there was some anxious feelings about what awaited ahead. We took a nice mosey over to the well lit area down south of Main St.
The Thang
- Barrel Racing 2-man Grinder
- 50 Burpees
- 100 American Hammers IC
- 50 Burpee Jump Tucks
- 150 LBCs IC
- 50 Hand-release Burpees
- 200 Flutter Kicks IC
This was a fun workout as I wanted to create something fun and challenging, while connecting with the AO. I really think Grinders are great workouts if challenging exercises are performed, but the movement component is what makes the beatdown unique. If you are unfamiliar with Barrel Racing, there are 3 barrels standing upright and a cowgirl on her horse will race as fast as she can to the one on the left, circle all the way around it, sprint to the right barrel while completing a full circle, then going around the 3rd barrel which is in the middle and furthest away, then sprinting back to where they started. I knew immediately at 5:15am that with 20+ guys, this could turn into a cluster and I thought about adjustments that could be made, but ultimately, I decided to keep things as is because I knew after the first run, guys would naturally space themselves out. As far as I know, there weren’t any collisions, but there was some confusion with the guys following the exercises in order from the Wienke….
I was very proud of the effort the PAX were putting forth as this could have been a beatdown that you could dog it and get nothing out of it, but these men are not amatures! It was great to see some of the men partner together on the runs, but I was most impressed with our man Knobs who was very vocal in encouraging and supporting the PAX. As my watch struck 5:52am, I called out Omaha and then directed the men to mosey back to the flags.
6MoM:
- Gas Pumpers 15 IC
- Dying Cockroaches 15 IC
- Sarpy Slammers Rancid Style 25 IC
NOR: There was a lot of breathing from the cameraman, and the energy was high throughout the video. While there wasn’t 100% connection with the knuckle booms, the effort from the PAX was there.
Announcements: Can Drive going on for the next 10 days or so. Bring them to any of the Site-Qs. Diaper Drive going on until 12/10. Opportunity to volunteer at Abide on 12/9 & 12/11. Let Sparty know if you can make it. Blood Drives on 12/10 & 12/17. Operation Others is at Creighton Prep on 12/18. CSAUP will be at the end of January and the newer PAX are highly encouraged to give it a shot and to not be intimidated by what they may think it will be. If I missed one, I apologize! I should have been taking notes.
Nugent Shovel Flag: Our man High Life shared some nice words on his personal experience with carrying the flag for the previous 24 hours. He then shared some beautiful words about our favorite Tiger and passed the flag on to TTT.
COT: I want to share a little bit about what I find to be important and that I love about F3. We are not a fitness group. Yes, I know we show up every morning and workout, but we are called to come together to be better leaders. We are a leadership group that works out together. One of my favorite terms we talk about is the Sur-Ser spectrum. We are all on some part of this path and on one side you have the SURvivor, and the other is the SERvant. Some men are literally just trying to survive on a day-to-day basis with no direction at all. A lot of men are floating somewhere in the middle with no idea what they are doing and live with no purpose, we call them Sad Clowns. We want to be moving towards or living as close to being a Servant as we can. We call this living 3rd, and this requires you to put the needs of others before your own. Living your life in a way that you are consistently looking to Impact other people’s lives rather than focusing on yourself. We are all on different points on our path working towards the Servant, but the good things is that men in F3 are working in that direction.
I think I may have finally fully understood what this means, or what this feels like. Over the last 3 months, I’ve entered this new phase in my life (unconscientiously) that “I don’t give a damn.” That’s not to say I don’t care about anything, I just genuinely don’t get caught up in my own feelings anymore and think about myself, or why me, or why not me. I’ve realized that it’s just not about me, everything that is. Everything I do serves a bigger purpose to help influence or impact someone else. So if I’m not the one getting all the attention or in the lime-light, that is totally fine. And I can now truly support people in a way I never have before. F3 has helped create this growth within and helped me to see that I need to live 3rd.
What I would encourage you all to think about is what are you passionate about, and how can you make an Impact in other people’s lives by leading. First start with your home. How can you be a better leader at home. How can you make an impact and lead in a different way at work. And how can you go out in the community and Impact other people’s lives. We’re talking about leaving a legacy. Who will tell your story, and what will it be?
Sidenote: It was at this point, I proceeded to start babbling as I looked at the Nugent Flag and just started sharing thoughts and feelings I had in that moment regarding Gradoville and Legacy. Thank you for the opportunity to lead.
Sparty,
Aye!