Thursday, Nov. 16 | The Berm | Stone Creek Park | 47 degrees
PAX (19): Truly, Bernie, House Party, Cataracts, Mayday, Skipper, Pantyhose, Sandworm, Cupid, Vespa (Respect), Schnitzel, Chucky, Janikowski, Nailed It, Red Dirt, Billboard, LPC, Toto, Sparty
Pre-Runners: Several, but I didn’t see who. My bad
QIC: Sparty
What a great start to Thursday. This is the morning that has been my archnemesis for posting in the mornings as I tend to struggle to get up on the 4th morning of the work week. Being on the Q forced me to get over that hump, and I was excited to be back on the Q at such a familiar place. I arrived around 5am to set up and knew it wouldn’t take long and it was a great opportunity to get in 10 minutes of walking. In my pre-blast, I encouraged men to show up early to stretch. So I led by example in getting in 5 minutes before 5:15am arrived. On queue, I welcomed the PAX: “It is 5:15, welcome to The Berm. This is F3 and I am Sparty, happy to lead you today. F3 stands for Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith. Our Mission is to plant, grow, and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration, or reinvigoration of male community leadership. We operate on 5 core principles: we are free, we are open to all men, we are always outside (ALWAYS OUTSIDE), we are led in a rotating fashion, and we will always end in a circle of trust. I am not a professional, so please modify as necessary. Today will be FUN and we have a lot of work to do, so let’s go!”
We started on a mosey east along the road before we circled up in the small parking lot on the east end of the park for Warm-a-rama:
Warm-a-rama:
- SSH – 3IC
And we were don with the warm up. In my pre-blast, I had mentioned that I would “deliver an old school Sparty Beatdown!” In the past, I would minimize the WAR as much as possible so for the veterans, this was a familiar experience and they knew what was ahead. We ran north and then northwest as we made our way to the top of the field at the park where the men circled up and I asked them to find a partner right away. I then explained that there was no Pre-Thang and that we are just getting right into the workout today. I pointed to 4 cones that stood in the dark along the sidewalk “track” around the field and explained what task was meant to be performed at each:
Station 1: Run down the hill, Bernie Sanders back up
Station 2: Bear crawl down the hill, Crawl Bear back up
Station 3: Merkins
Station 4: Burpees
I then walked them through how this would work. 1 partner would run a lap counterclockwise while the other partner would perform the task AMRAP style until their partner returned from their lap. When they arrived, you would switch. When the 2nd partner completed their lap, both partners would then run a lap together passing the station they were just at and going to the next station. They would then repeat the same process for each station until we were done. I then assigned each pair to a station and we got right to work. We had an odd number and the groups all dispersed so quickly that I immediately realized that I didn’t have a partner. So, I tried to simulate the workout as if I had one and timed my exercise length with the other guys at each station. This resulted in me getting to spend time with Truly on a few runs. It worked out exactly how I had planned. The beatdown stations were quiet, and there was mumblechatter on the partner runs. The only thing that was off was guys were Crawl Bearing down the hill and Bear Crawling up, which was the opposite of the instructions. I thought maybe it was their modification, so I tried to leave it be. After completing the cycle 1 ½ times (over 3 miles), it was 5:53am and I called “OMAHA!” As I mentioned last week in my Backblast, I want to get back to 6 MoM. So there was no time to rest when we returned to the flags.
6MoM:
- Gas Pumpers – 15IC
- Frozen Freddies – 10IC, planned on 15 but Chucky shit himself and the PAX melted down like teenage boys giggling at his ginormous fart.
- Alternating Heel Touches – 15IC
- American Hammers (Rancid Style) – 19IC
Name-o-rama: Truly chugged his drink, then Bernie destroyed the can on his forehead. Whistles were out for PH, and Toto got all the pups barking.
Announcements: Turkey Trot next Thursday at multiple locations. Turkey Hunt is going down at The Berm – bring your weapon of choice! F3 Retreat Jan. 4-6. F3 Omaha Foundation Celebration is back on the calendar for Feb. 15. All proceeds go to our Scholarship.
Prayers: LPC’s MIL! Cataracts’ friend Ryan who is recovering from Heart Surgery. Both of Chucky’s Aunt Mary(s). And Angie from Schnitzel’s kids’ school.
Nugent Flag Pass: Billboard passed it on to Toto. Billboard had a lot of nice things to say about Toto.
COT: Something I like to do is challenge the way people think, or help them look at something in a different way. Today I wanted to tackle a word that gets thrown around a lot nowadays, even at F3 that I think we need to understand the true meaning of the word, and get away from using it as it’s being used incorrectly – Vulnerable. By definition, it means in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect. It does not mean sharing form the heart or opening up about something that is troubling you. I had struggled with this for awhile and was even guilty of using it as well. Then Dredd came out on X (formerly known as Twitter) in which he challenged this same sentiment. What I really think we need to approach this with is being open and honest, and talking freely with our spouse and/or friends. Our society has dawned this word to be a point of strength and something men need. The word is being used far too often, it is completely misused, and I believe that this push over recent years has also made men soft. As our great man, Armando, once shared with us, “Don’t be a pussy,” or “DBAP” as we like to call it in the gloom, I believe this challenges this notion that we need to be strong. I also think we look at this from the wrong angle. Being vulnerable is being pushed on us men as being a positive way of living. I want you to flip that and realize the result of not being open and honest (or vulnerable if you buy-in to what society tells you). By holding things in and not facing your issues head on, each time you do this you are placing a brick around you. Over time, those bricks build walls and eventually you end up creating a room that isolates you from others. You create your own prison. I encourage you men, be open and honest. Speak freely with other men. Go on pre-runs. Grab a cup of coffee. Go to lunch. Talk with your M. See a therapist if you feel you need to. Do what you need to in order to ensure you don’t build walls around yourself and create a situation that consumes you. Be open, and be honest. And stop using the word vulnerable.
YHC took the men out in prayer.
Sparty,
Aye!