AO: Cornhusker Handicap
August 30th, 2022
65 degrees and gorgeous
PAX (12): Blackjack, Polaroid, Invictus, Twin Peaks, Othello, Doll Face, Stitches, Sandy Cheeks, Cyclone, U-Haul, E85, Hard Hat
Q: Hard Hat
In over 4 years, I had never Q’d at Cornhusker Handicap, and prior to today, I believe I’d only posted there 3 times. Thankfully Blackjack had reached out a while back and asked if I’d be interested in leading there. Sure thing, I rarely say no to Q requests. This place holds a special place in my heart (Aksarben area that is). I had decided that we’d do somewhat of a Paradise Island style string of pearls type of workout. I had two spots I really wanted to take the group, and figured I could come up with something for us to do at those spots and make some other stops along the way. We had a solid showing of prerunners and ruckers.
At 5:30 I gave the welcome and usual introductory items. To help ensure we didn’t lose any late comers, we stuck around the playground for a short warm-a-rama. This consisted of 10 Big One’s IC, 10 Imperial Walkers IC, and 20 SSH IC. Upon completion I decided any late comers would just have to try to find us. I shared with the group that they’d get a little bit of my backstory as we hit up some different spots in the neighborhood. In 2009 I graduated college, got married, had my honeymoon, moved to Omaha, and started a new job all in less than a months time. My first project in Omaha was the BlueCross headquarters. We moseyed over to the BlueCross parking garage. On our moseys throughout the workout, PAX had the option to do an exercise until the 6 is in, or go pick up the 6. The exercises were either monkey humpers or Al Gore.
At the parking garage, we lunge walked up the first ramp while I told a story about my first day on the job. I showed up to the office and picked up my computer and ran through a quick orientation. I was given this guy’s phone number, Jason, and told that if I had any issues finding parking or the project trailer to just call him. I arrived at the jobsite and could not get to the project trailer. There was a fence surrounding it and the only entrance in the fence to get to the trailer was blocked off by an excavator with a very large hole dug, which would not allow for any vehicles to pass. I called Jason to figure out where to go. He told me to just park next to the trailer. I explained that I wasn’t able to do that. He insisted that I could just park next to the trailer. We went back a forth, until I decided that he must be talking about a different trailer or there must be another route to get to it. I started driving around the site, and ended up on top of a very large pile of dirt. This pile of dirt is called a “Surcharge Pile”, but I had no idea what that was. I called Jason again. I told him that I drove around looking for a different route to the trailer and now was pretty sure I was in the wrong spot. He asked “Are you in the truck on top of my F*cking Surcharge!!!?” Well, yes, that is me. I drove down the pile and parked next to the trailer finally. As I was rounding up my stuff, a 6′-5″ 300lb man with shaved head and really angry face stormed out of the trailer to chew my ass. Jason always looks angry. The story wrapped up as we got to the top. Here we partnered up for a Dora style thang. I was kicking myself that day for almost getting fired on day one, so as a pair, we completed 50 Donkey Kicks, 100 Alabama Ass Kickers, and 150 Flutter Kicks. While one partner was doing the exercise, the other ran down the ramp then Bernie Sanders up.
After the surcharge story/thang, we moseyed over to Aksarben Drive in front of the BlueCross Centre. Here we stopped and I shared a brief story of a field engineer that got hazed on his birthday (I was not this field engineer). He was ducktaped to his desk chair in the middle of Aksarben Drive. In the process of a few guys dragging and carrying him out to the street, someone at Scott Tech Center saw the event and initially thought this guy was having a heart attack. Then they thought it was a street fight. Then they realized he was being hazed. They almost called the police, but upon realization, ended up calling our office and reporting the incident. Since they thought he was having a heart attack, we did 10 Alarm Clocks as a group. From this spot, we moseyed across the Mercy St. bridge and down toward the new ball fields.
We stopped at the 67th & 68th St intersection, regrouped and did 10 burpees together. I pointed out that the 67th St bridge took a long time to build due to a layer of sand 26 feet down that causes the grade to shift when its saturated. This caused one of the bridge piers to lean while the bridge was being constructed. We crossed the bridge and gathered up in the near parking lot. I shared that Baxter Arena is one of my favorite projects, and the one that ate up the largest chunk of time in my career, 3 years. In the parking lot with our partners, one partner would do 26 burpees while the other ran to the end of the lot, then Bernie Sanders back. After completing the 26 burpees the partners would switch. After burpees would be 26 Bonnie Blairs, and after that, 26 Big Boys. It became obvious during burpees, that this would take a while and we needed to get back, so Omaha was called when pretty much everyone had got through their burpees. We did Monkey Humpers on the corner of 67th and Center while awaiting the crosswalk signal.
We wrapped up with a Broga cooldown on the nice rubber playground mat. Sequence was: reach to the sky, fold over, down dog, right lunge/lizard, down dog, left lunge/lizard, left pigeon, right pigeon, seated position, happy baby. We finished off with Rancid style American Hammers.
Closing: We had announcements regarding QS lunch today, 1st Friday lunch this week, new site launches on the horizon, IPC started. Prayer requests for PAX and their families still mourning the loss of loved ones. COT: I lead a workout Saturday and had a small group for the COT and there I asked that group if any of them knew their purpose. I feel like there are guys out there that really know what their purpose is and can answer that question immediately. That wasn’t really the case when I asked it. Most of the guys felt they had a pretty good idea of their purpose, but didn’t have a specific, immediate answer. I definitely do not have an immediate answer to that question. A couple of guys said some things that really stuck with me though. I’m paraphrasing what was said, and may slightly butcher their words. Speed Square said that his parents had always told him to love and respect his neighbors and that if you can do that, that’s a pretty good purpose or can be part of your purpose. That reminded me of something I’d seen recently reading a book. Sun Tzu in the art of war said “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.” These thoughts resonated with me because if you can treat those close to you with love and respect, they will support you when you need them. Another comment that was made, Rowdy said, you’re where you need to be. This really stuck with me, because everything happens for a reason, and you might have moments where you question if you’re doing what you should be doing, and are you fulfilling your purpose, and you’ve got to have faith that you’re in a spot where you need to be and it might not make you feel on top of the world, but hopefully you can recognize that things worked out to put you where your at. I frequently wonder if I’ve made some of the right career decisions, and think about whether I need to make a change. A lot of this goes into purpose because I’d like my career to align with my purpose, whatever that is. I think it’s ok to not know your purpose as long as you take time to reflect on your values, passions, and priorities. If you can support those things, then you’ve got to be fulfilling your purpose, even if you can’t define what it is.
Aye!
Hard Hat