Pax: Redacted, Tassels, Flying V, Duckling, Chin Strap, I-mac, Toad Stool, Beta Max, Hannibal (FNG), Reba, Black Lung, Robber, The Clever, Black Jack, Cyclone, Joe Buck, Buns of Steel, Gipper
Q: Gunner
Weather – Tad brisk but awesome
Well, a week later and I am finally tending to my leadership responsibility of completing the Back Blast for this workout. I realize the back blast is not the most favorite part of Qing, however it is a great tool to reflect and document a daily 45 minute period of time with a group of great men. So, to start, on this gorgeous Saturday morning, Joe Buck and myself were concluding a great 3 mile pre-run as all the other Pax came filing in at the 8th St. virtual shovel flag location. I welcomed all. I cited the Mission Statement and the Five Core Principles. I did however fail to ask if there were any FNGs and I totally missed on welcoming Jake, who I-mac brought to The Canyon. I am apologizing to both of them in this back blast which I am sure will only be read by two other pax members.
We moseyed up to the Mid American lake overlook for our first session of warmarama movements. This location was to get the blood moving a bit faster but to really take in the gift of a new day. A new beautiful Saturday morning. The sky was cloudless and a great mix of orange glow blended well with the growing blue sky and this location. Little did anyone know they were overlooking The Thang course that we would get to later.
We continued to a spot more central in the middle of the Riverfront Park for a second session of warmarama. Great mumble chatter was transpiring, but I interrupted the camaraderie with a little Tobata style warm up.
After this we head to the underside of the Spine Pier for a Pre-Thang. The Pre-Thang was a short 100-feet, three-man grinder. A station at the block stone overlook and a station under the pier. Since this was just a grinder, we did this for only a 10-minute block of the one-hour beatdown session.
After the Pre-Thang, we strolled over to the top of Mid American Lake and divided into two groups for The Thang. The Thang was a 10 Station scavenger hunt beatdown that was set up next to the lake. The two groups were to go either in ascending order of the station or the descending order of the station for their beatdown. For example, group 1 was to go from station 1, 2,3… and group 2 was to work out from station 10, 9, 8… The catch was the cones were not in order and set up randomly around the lake. If you stopped at a station that was not the in the next sequence of the beatdown, the group had to perform five burpees then proceed to finding the correct station.
Since I knew where I set up all the station I bounced between each group to observe how they worked out together. It was fascinating to see a group of leaders select which direction to go in order to find the next station. I also had to bounce between the two groups because I forgot to mention that there were no stations in the Con Agra part of the lake. I was a little concerned how long it would take to complete the beatdown but it was roughly 38 minutes for one group to get through all 10 and the other group got through 9 before I called for Omaha.
I was cutting it close on time, so we rushed announcements and prayers for Sputnik and Tea Party.
The COT was based on the beat down theme. I stated that we can learn a lot from observing and watching what other people do. The groups could watch the other group to see which way to go for each station. I was pleased of the complements they had about the beatdown and enjoyed leading this group for their first main hour of this amazing weekend.