NASA and Ruby Slippers tag-team Q. It was a wonderful dewy muggy morning! PERFECT for what was planned…..

WARMUP: Ruby led the warmup. First a run around the entrance road loop out front, approx half mile or so, then circle up in the parking lot for the following:
* 1 burpee OYO
* 7 windmills IC
* 2 burpees OYO
* 7 cherry pickers IC
* 3 burpees OYO
* 7 Moroccan night clubs IC
* 4 burpees OYO
* 25 (4ct) SSH IC
* 5 burpees OYO
Quite a nice warmup! Then on to….

THE THANG: PAINBALL
Divide the pax into 2 teams. Team NASA, and team Ruby. One team is on “Offense”, the other on “Defense”. The offense does their workout, tries to circle the bases, and cross home plate as much as possible until the defense finishes their workout. When the defense finishes their workout it ends the respective half of the inning. Teams then swap from offense to defense and vice versus. Continue/repeat until time to go to COT.

OFFENSE – BASE WORK:
Cones set up at all 4 bases on the baseball infield – home plate, 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base. Each cone has a set of exercises and a type of movement to the next base. Only one person is allowed on a basepath at any given time – you can have a runner going to each successive base but not going to the same base, just like baseball. No more than 2 runners on a base at any given time (tough to have only one – things clog up). Do SSHs while waiting to exercise or move. When a runner does all the bases and crosses home plate, that is a run for that team. Exercises and movements:
* Home – 1 burpee, 10 merkins, then long jump to first base
* 1st base – 1 burpee, 10 merkins, 20 CDDs, then Lt Dan to 2nd
* 2nd base – 1 burpee, 10 merkins, 20 CDDs, 30 BBSU or LBC, then crab walk to 3rd
* 3rd base – 1 burpee, 10 merkins, 20 CDDs. 30 BBSU/LBC, 40 flutters, then bear crawl to home
* Rinse and repeat until defense is done. A run does not count if the runner has not crossed home plate. No halfway there scores. All or nothing.
>> A suggestion was made for next time to have offense start the runners off where they left off at the previous inning.

DEFENSE – DORA
Two cones about 30yds apart is the run portion. One person does and exercise, while the other runs. Swap when runner returns, continuing the exercise count where the other left off. In the case of multiple people on defense – split the group and take the highest count of one person. Exercises:
* 50 burpees
* 100 sumo squats
* 200 flutters (2 ct)
Defense records the last out when the last flutter is done AND the runners are back in.

Pretty much nonstop movement for one hour! No breaks between innings. Just swap offense/defense and get after it.

We got 3 full innings in, and another 4th inning where reps were cut in half in order to complete before COT. Team NASA won by one run, but dangit if team Ruby came on strong and almost…….by a half base…….tied it in the end. Not sure what we would’ve done in a tie…….
WAGER: was going to be burpees but everyone was smoked. An IOU for that.

PAX really enjoyed this! A rematch was mentioned. This will reappear later this summer or early fall……

These guys were hammering it out, knocking out long balls, and flippin some bats all morning! AWESOME JOB FELLAS!! AND between rolling around in the dewy grass and infield sand, everyone got nice and sandy dirty – sugar cookies!!! Yes, that was intended. You are welcome!! HA HA HA!!!

Observations:
* Senator Tressel is a MACHINE! Dude just cranks it out.
* Tapout definitely benefits from his youth but put in A TON of work…..did every rep! So cool to watch him do his thing.
* Headspin can burpee with the best of them. Don’t tell Slapshot that though……
* Falcon Crest gets the work done, a silent killer, John Wick style. So great to see him back in the gloom accelerating.
* Ruby Slippers is really returning to form from his injury……watch out Fort. He’s coming for ya!!
* Uber kept the mumblechatter going and knows what levers to pull to keep guys motivated and pushing through the pain. MUCH appreciated!!
* I was just happy to be there with the fellas and complete it all without merlot. I wanted to push everyone including myself. Pain = growth.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
* Read The Fort Newsletter and get involved
* All AOs closed next Saturday 6/10 for Poppins’ Convergence for Kenya
* Fort Mill Care Center needs volunteers to help with lawn maintenance. Jiffy has been doing alot of mowing on his own. We can do better Fort!! Let’s help……see signup in the Newsletter

COT / P&P:
* Senator Tressel’s mom
* Vuvu’s son and family
* The serving at Bethel Men’s Shelter
* Marriages
* Health – including mental health
* Ruby in his mentorship of a gentleman at Bethel Men’s Shelter
* Many more……

GREAT way to start off the day, up 1-0 at sunrise!!

On behalf of Ruby Slippers, we thank you for the opportunity to lead. God bless.

– Ruby Slippers and NASA