It was week 3 of our newly established AO the “Poopdeck” in Lake Wylie, and I volunteered the week before to pick up this Q. The whole week as I drove past I was excited about what I had in store for the PAX. We had a few cars in the parking lot by the time we hit 5:15am. I was really happy to see Old MacDonald back from his FNG post the week before. In total we had 5 PAX, said the disclaimer and we were off.

Mosey around the full parking lot with some Dynamic warmup exercises.. you know, the regular stuff.
High Knees – Butt Kickers – Side Shuffle – Toy Soldiers

Circle up by the YMCA for COP
25 SSHs 25 MNCs 15 IWs 10 Merkins 20 MNCs a little yoga to stretch

Then came my big surprise, we were going off the reservation and running to the new Copper Premium Pub up over the Lake Wylie hill. All week I’d been driving this road seeing this massive hill. I clocked the distance in my car, and it was exactly 1 mile from our AO to the Copper Pub parking lot. I warned everyone the night before to bring a headlamp. After a few grumblings, we headed off. The PAX did great, and it was really encouraging that we could show Old MacDonald what F3 was really about. Being his 2nd week in the group, he warned me he was not much for running. About a quarter mile in, he said, ‘just leave me and go ahead…I don’t want to slow you down.” How many times have we heard this brothers? And how do we respond? We’re not here to set personal records, our to beat the guy next to us (most of the time) but to encourage others to become the best they can be. Here was just the most recent chance to share that message to a new member of our F3 brotherhood. And so I did. Old Macdonald and I brought up the 6, but still with a respectable 9:15 mile to the parking lot. The hill wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it’s still something I like to tell the wife I ran that thing in the pitch black cold of a Thursday morning!

But wait there’s MORE!

Once we arrived, now we could work. So here was our Ladder of exercises for the next 10-12 minutes.

50 LBCs
40 Side Straddle Hops
30 Ranger Merkins
20 V-Up Twists
10 Burpees
10 Count
20 Jump Squats
30 Merkins
40 Squats
50 Mountain Climbers

With that complete, we needed to head back. Only one way to go so we started running.

1 mile back, a little more downhill than last time. And happy to say Old MacDonald ran the whole time back! Witch Hunt kept running back, he probably put in 1.5 miles to our 1… but he’s always great about sharing words of encouragement and keeping the guys together.

Finished up just a few minutes early…we earned it.

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5 PAX = 5 great prayers during COT, I can’t do them justice here… but will work at keeping better notes on these.

Always an honor to lead.

Royale