Friday, April 14, 2023|The Farm|Saryp County Fairgrounds, Springfield, NE | 60, 62% humidity, wind 14.6 m/h from S.
“Three Tall Trees”
26 Pax: Chernobyl, Farva, Sundance, Dozer, Echo, Busser, Black Tuesday, Levy, Raybans, Ditty, Nae Nae, Tater Tot, Animal House, Duracell, Slow Pitch, Khakis, Low Flow, Tenacious D, Invictus, Oscar, Double Dip, I, Ferdinand, Shrute, HuHot, Tony The Tiger
QIC: Swiper
4:45am Pre Run: I got there early today, as I didn’t want to Fartsack again like yesterday (Rayban’s VQ)….as I pulled in at 4:38 there were already 6 cars parked, I knew it was going to be a great morning. Everyone was wearing green. As we gathered to start the pre run I said, I was wanting to run the original pre run and then Farva commented, “Ya, we saw that on your pre blast, that’s why there isn’t that many guys here!” As I looked around we had: I, Farva, Double Dip, Black Tuesday, Animal House, Schrute, Busser, Ferdinand, Raybans, Low Flow, Razzle Dazzle, and Tony The Tiger. The Main Street hill always gets the heart rate accelerating beats per minute like Jet Fuel helps a rocket to take off. I could quickly tell Farva was in a mood and Double Dip, Tony The Tiger and quickly Black Tuesday, were all ready to move fast. I settled in with Black Tuesday. Yadda yadda yadda, I set a PR for the Farm Pre Run. 7:00/m for the 3.09m pre run route. Woof.
5:15am As we got back Pax we’re piling in, exciting. I welcomed the Pax to F3 – reminding them of the mission to Plant, Serve and Grow small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. He also mentioned that they were an International Organization now.
I 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).
There were no FNGs today.
I reminded the PAX that I am not a professional. Modify as necessary, especially today with the storms looming and what I had planned. From this point forward there is a real risk of injury.
Finally I said our Credo is that we leave no man behind, but we leave no man where we found him. I like to do a lot of String of Pearls type workouts and we would circle back for the six each time we mosey.
I instructed the Pax we would mosey up main street.
5:20am Warm-a-rama
- We mosey’d up the Main Street Hill to 9th Street and the back of the baseball field at Buffalo Park. We stopped at the bottom of the hill for a WAR.
- 10 Tater Taps IC
- 10 Windmills IC
- 10 Toy Soldiers IC
- MumbleChatter was HIGH. Really high. So high, I believe I was counting the Toy Soliders OYOBNA. Time to quiet them down.
5:28 Pre Thang 1 – 11s
- I then explained we would do 11s up the hill.
- 1 Dying Cockroach, Bernie Sanders up, 10 Derkins, Bear Crawl down. EXERCISE!
- We got about half way through before I called Omaha and we mosey’d into the park.
5:35 Thang 1 – Burpee Mins
- We stopped at the bench in the park by the baseball fields. We have been here before. I explained we stopped here for my first Q at the Farm a few years ago and I would repeat this exercise. Burpees Minutes. I would set an EMOM timer for 1 Minute for 10 minutes. We would do 10 Burpees per minute and then rest until the next minute and rinse and repeat until we have done in for 10 minutes and completed 100 Burpees. Then I If you are a Dip or Chernobyl you could do 11 Burpess per minute and if you are Animal House or Duracel go ahead and do 12 per minute. Exercise!
- The Pax were now silent. Mission accomplished.
- After we finished we walked over to the playground.
5:42 The Thang – Spider Monkey Burpees are born
- We got into Groups of 2 groups, one Pax would do AMRAP Pull ups or just hang on the playground while your partner ran down and back on the parking lot. Since we had twice as many guys as I anticipated, we overwhelmed the playground. Now it started to get weird. I found myself sword fighting with Chernobyl and he was Lansing up and down a bit quicker than me. Pax were all laughing a bit as we were in there tight. I then had the great idea that I would just wrap my legs around Chernobyl’s hips. That immediately slowed him down and he commented about much harder the pull ups got. I was not able to keep doing them with the assist. To quote the Joe Klatt, “I love it”……..Everyone started laughing and Chernobyl said, we just created a new workout! After some discussion, Spider Monkey Pull Ups were born (this was done on the MumbleChatter WhatsApp Thread later that morning). We did two rounds and I said Omaha – let’s Mosey back to the flag!



5:57 am 6 MOM
- 11 Sarpy Slammers, For Gabe (His Age I believed)
5:58 am NOR
- The Name-a-rama was completed – see above for list of those who posted.
Announcements:
- Anniversary on 4-22 at the Oracle
- Blood Drive on 4-21
- Events all week long, lunches and happy hours to celebrate the anniversary
- Danger Zone flag pass on Wednesday, 4-19. Animal House to Black Tuesday
- F3 Omaha would be honored today by Heatland Hope (Vandalay and Squeaky Clean, etc)
Prayer Requests:
- Huhot prayed for Chris
- Delilah, F3 Pax and Nephew of Swiper and Son of 74
- Gabe (KOA’s nephew)
- Nature Boy
COT
I opened his COT by reading from the book “Three Tall Trees”. It is one of my favorite books. Great read for kids and adults alike. It tells the story of three tall trees that had big dreams. The first wanted to be be a treasure chest, hold precious stones, gems and metals.
The second wanted to be part of a Huge ship that would carry very important people across the world.
The third did not want to be cut, it wanted to stay high on the hill and keep growing high towards heaven.
Men came and cut down the trees. The first was used to make a food box for animals. Pigs, horses, goats all came and ate of the box. One night a couple had no where to stay and they slept in the barn and gave birth to their child. They wrapped him swaddling clothes and he slept in that manager box.
The second tree was used to make a small fishing boat. It could not sail on the ocean or high seas and could not hold but a few men. One day is was out on the lake and the waves were crashing the small boat was a afraid it was going to capsize and sink. A man was sleeping through the entire event and his friends were in a panic. They woke him, he reached out his hands and calmed the storm. The little boat then knew that it was carrying the King of Kings.
The final tree was cut down and thrown into an old dirty lumber yard. It sad there for years. Finally the pillar was taken and given to a man to carry through the streets of the city as a cross. This is was Jesus of Nazareth and was the cross he was crucified high on a hill. After three days, the stone was removed from his tomb and he was gone. The entire world had it’s sin washed clean based on the willing blood shed by this man. The tree then knew that it had served its purpose.
This story is great for kids, but really is a great reminder for adults. God has put your life in motion, but you can’t see the bigger picture he has in store for you. Trust his hand and judgment for you, and know you are right where you are supposed to be.
I took us out in Prayer.
Aye! Swiper