One word. Bacon! That’s all it took to get 60 plus Pax and their friends and family (100+ combined) out to the Fast 5 – The World’s Fastest 5K this past weekend. In all honesty it was probably the CSAUP aspect that dovetailed nicely with an opportunity at 2nd F with brothers and family. This is the glue of F3 and is a large part of why people show up and make things like this event successful. But to truly understand how bacon became involved and really get to the origin of this event, we need to go back to “Flight Plan” a month prior to the Blue Ridge Relay.

After an extremely crowded Flight Plan, several Pax were expressing their enthusiasm for the upcoming BRR. As #mumblechatter happens, the conversation went down many rabbit trails. One of those trails were some grumblings that there needed to be a relay race for #Clydesdales. Something shorter, less hilly and more manageable. The suggestion of a 5 man relay team running a 5K brought all sorts of laughter. But YHC, Anchorman and a few others saw potential and began to plan.

Through this planning process, we enlisted an Eastern European designer for the logo. Somehow “baton” became “bacon” and the rest is history. Bacon will be a part of this event forever, because bacon rules! Fast forward to event day! Lots of talk about 1K tapering, twitter traffic and a mystery team from @F3Area51, race day was upon us. A quick check in of teams at FMHS track (Thanks Skinner) and then…

The Thang:
Short Warmup led by Anchorman consisted of SSH, Windmills, Mountain Climbers, some stretching and 5 burpees just because.

BOM led by Anchorman

With some last minute additions to complete Bolt’s team, the race began. Each team consisted of 5 men (at least 1 needed to be Clydesdale or Respect! Status). Each man runs as hard as he can for 2.5 laps (approximately 1 K) and hands off the baton (rhythm stick or pound of bacon) to next team member. Continue until the team has completed the 5K. Clandestine SoBs killed it with a winning time of 16:27, or 5:08 minute miles, and took home the sweet hardware donated by Italian Job. Strong showing by all Pax. Teams and Times below:

Finish with BOM led by Anchorman

We followed the 5K up with a half lap fun run for the 2.0s. Kind of a spur of the moment thing but we’ll incorporate it into next year’s event. Everyone depart for Beef ‘o Bradys for Fun and Fellowship!

NMM
YHC and Anchorman had a great time putting this event together, but the true success of it lies with the Pax. A lot of Pax came through in helping us pull this off. Additionally, thanks to all the Pax who showed up and brought their families. The 2nd F is truly the glue of this organization!

So, what seemed like a fairly simple run turned into something a little more challenging. A lot of #mumblechatter about “that was harder than I expected” and “my lungs are burning” could be heard. And that’s awesome! A little mystery and a little pain to a CSAUP is always good. As with all CSAUP’s, when they’re done, the Pax are overcome with an emotion that could be considered “the blues”, as they have nothing to train or look forward to. But not to worry, “The Yeti” is coming! And with it comes the cold…and the pain…stay tuned!

Aye!
Zima and Anchorman

Click HERE to view pictures from the event!