Thursday, December 23, 2021|The Sandlot |Halleck Park, Papillion, NE | 34 degrees,68% humidity, 7.8 mi/h wind from SW
“Be Open”
5 Pax: Swiper, Firewalker, KOA, Swiper, Zorro
QIC: Swiper
5:00 am Pre Run: Swiper, Firewalker, Skidz, KOA, Trench
5:30 am Swiper welcomed the Pax to F3 – Fitness, Fellowship and Faith – reminding them of the mission to Plant, Serve and Grow small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. We are growing, new sites in Omaha, new FNGs everyday, and we are an International Organization now.
Truck Stop then covered the 5 core principles of F3. 1) Open to ALL men. 2. Always Free. 3) Always held outdoors, 4) Lead in a rotating fashion and 5) Ends with a Circle of Trust (COT).
We had no FNGs.
Credo: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you found him.
Swiper reminded the PAX that I am not a professional. Modify as necessary. Workouts are all a suggestion. From this point forward there is a real risk of injury. Swiper informed the group we would mosey.
5:31 am Warm-a-rama
We started running. The first mile was a little slower. 🙂
5:39 am Pre-Thang
We ran down the trail East, then over the creek, and then back down the creek on the North side towards the parking lot and baseball fields. Then we ran to the Papillion Police Department. Then we got into groups of 3 and did Monkey Rolls. Given we only had 5, the two guys not doing Monkey Rolls, did Monkey Humpers.
After that we ran to the Tri-City Food Pantry. Swiper explained this is where we donated all of the canned foods we collected last week to help those in need. There we did max Merkins with one or two Pax planking with their legs on that Pax back while they did as many Merkins as they could. One guy would have two sets of Pax’s legs on his back, which would make Merkins very tough. 7-8 was about the max for that group.
5:47 am The Thang
We ran around the corner to American Parkway (Dunkin Hill) and Swiper explained we would do 25 Maverick Merkins each at the top and/or the bottom in groups of three. Swiper’s brain still being asleep was trying to figure out how he and Farva would do it with only two guys, when KOA said, “Why don’t we do it all in a line?” To which Swiper said, “Oh ya, like I did last time…..duh”. So we started with Zorro and KOA doing them. Swiper tried to line up the guys 2-3x, and then Zorro started making fun of Swiper, saying “It doesn’t matter which direction you are facing Swiper, you are just holding the guy up!” Swiper thought, if you can’t laugh at yourself, you will have a long life! Swiper smiled and Zorro laugh, we did the Maverick Merkins and headed to the top. Then we all ran and Swiper and Farva did the Maverick Merkins at the top. Afterwards Firewalker said, “Hey Swiper, you and Farva may be the same height, but you certainly don’t weigh the same!” It was a full on Swiper Assault. Then Swiper mentioned how he was at Paradise Island last week and explained how Black Lung told Swiper, “Hey, you run pretty good for a guy with that much Mass.”. 🤨.
We ran back down to the bottom and Firewalker did his Maverick Merkins and Farva got a double dose. We then started our Mosey back.
Swiper and Farva were out front and Swiper had them stop on East 1st St. And hop on the Curb for some Flutter Kicks. We then ran over to the structure art the trail head and did Balls to the Wall for a 3 count IC per Pax. We fumbled out way through the cadence and headed back to the shovel flags.
6:13am The Name-a-rama was completed – see above for list of those who posted.
Announcements:
- Santa Saunter on the 26th, sign up for items to bring
Prayer Requests:
- Firewalker prayed for some folks with COVID
COT The meaning of Christmas and Being Open
Swiper started by talking about how each of us is a husband and a father. And then he talked about our family’s faith would be formed and created by us men. So he asked the men how they could introduce Christ into our homes. Then Swiper mentioned how the movie Charlie Brown’s Christmas is one of his favorite movies as it talks about the commercialization of Christmas and the true meaning of Christmas.
Then he grabbed a Christmas ornament from the ground and said this is one way we show Christ in our family. It was Linus reciting the Bible passage from Luke 2:8-14. As Swiper pressed the button, it was frozen and didn’t work. The big build up, was a let down. But then he recited the passage from memory and a few other members did as well. He talked about how we can get caught up in presents, and parties and food and drinks and forget why and what we are celebrating….it is up to us men to remind our families.
Then Swiper asked the Pax to think of a prayer that was important to them and spend a couple seconds praying for that prayer. After 5-10 seconds he ask the Pax to open their arms. He challenged the men to try and pray with their arms opened up towards Heaven. We took another 10 seconds to pray for the same thing, but this time with our arms open. He asked them if it felt any different this time? Then he challenged them men moving forward, to be open when pray, both mentally and physically.
Swiper led the group out in prayer.
AYE! Swiper
