beatdown summary

Warm Hugs For Everyone…….that survives

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In celebration of the cooler weather that was exactly one weekend later than requested for a perfect Ragner Carolinas Trail race YHC got the nod to do my thing this past Monday morning at the most proper bootcamp workout west of I77 in Fort Mill. Warmup was handled by my main partner in crime ChaChing so you know by the time YHC took over the upper body was already smoked.
Choose the harder option I’ve been told so we performed some Circle of (insert painfull exercise here).
Circle of Merkins, hold plank and critique all possible things that can be critiqued and even some that cant is expected by the PAX while observing the victim complete 10 merkins. Pass the pain to the right and let the critiques rip. One round was good so we went straight into the Circle of Hump. Same theory just more inappropriate comments from the PAX while each participant performs his best monkey humper. Two rounds of hump were performed because a true HIM never wants to deny her an encore if requested. Next on the docket was the Ring of Fire. That finally ended after two rounds or approximately not a second before everyone had red indicating fluid leaking from some area of skin directly covering a pointy joint. Sorry guys but just chalk it up as mental toughness. Could always be worse, think fire ant infested grass outside of Winthrop basketball gym. Thanks Packman for the memories and mental toughness.
Mosey to the wall beside BestBuy for some BTW, shoulder tap BTW, and some burpees before heading to the Home Depot parking lot.
Get your crawl on ladies. Each PAX perform one loop around the greenspace before running to the Lawn and Garden entrance and back. Methods of transportation around the loop were as follows: Bear crawls, crab walks, crawl bears, inchworm, then one last loop of bear crawls. Mosey back towards Pets Mart and perform some team staggered sprints from crosswalk to crosswalk. Great job guys pushing each other and encouraging until the end. Finally make it back to COT for a quick round of Cha-Cha Merkins since all snowmen love to dance before the Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, P&P, Anouncements and closing prayers by YHC. Thanks for the opportunity Jedi and to the PAX for hummoring YHC with my requests. Warm Hugs for Everyone

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Charter Band-aids for Little Warriors – PreBlast

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As most of the PAX in the Fort and Rock regions knows my 5 year old daughter (Emma) is a leukemia survivor. We still make a trip every 4 weeks to get blood drawn to check her counts at Levine Children’s Hospital. We also stepped up and raised money last year (Christmas time) for a fellow brother bout-time out of Area 51 son Jennings who has leukemia also.

It has come to my attention that the budgets have been cut in some of the pediatric departments and the first thing to go is usually the character band aids. You say how important is to have these band-aids? Well as far as the cancer kids go every time the have their PORT’s (Port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein) which for some kids is traumatic they get a band-aid over it. For others that are done with treatment such as my daughter Emma has to go back for the next 21 years to get checked (mainly blood counts). This not always easy for instance this past Wednesday she was poked 3 times. Well at the end the band aid can put a smile on a child’s face. This also goes for those kiddos that have to constantly get blood work done not just cancer kids.

So what I am challenging you to do is every week you go grocery shopping buy at least one box or more of character band-aids girls or boys. Also Spread the word in every COT. I will tweet out what AO’s I will be at and if anyone wants to step up and help me collect that would be awesome.

I also challenge others in different regions to pull together and do the same thing. My goal is to gather as much as possible and split it between Levine Children’s Hospital and Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital (St. Jude Affiliate Clinic) before Christmas.

Let a simple act of kindness put a smile on a little fighters face.

AYE. Lets do this.

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Double Booked? Nope, Double Beatdown.

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Through no fault of anyone that I’m aware, the original Q for the Hive was double booked. Since I know that guy, the PAX probably got off easy with me filling in. Or maybe not.

Disclaimer was disclaimed (didn’t notice that Punch List had brought an FNG, so I guess my extra extended disclaimers are good for something. Also gave the disclaimer that since this is a gear workout, there would not be much running.

Warm-up
SSH
Merkins
Burpees
Some other things that have slipped my mind…

The Thang
Slow mosey to the bleachers by the tennis courts with KBs in hand. Everything today was in groups of 3 exercises repeated 3 times normally increasing each round separated by 10 KB swings and 10 Prone presses

10 KB swings, 10 Prone presses
Single-Leg DL each side 8-12-16
Curls each side 6-8-10 IC
Back extensions (heels on the bleachers, justifier to the sky) 8-12-16 IC
10 KB swings, 10 Prone presses
Tri-extensions 8-10-9-ish IC
Plank row each side 8-12-16
Squats 8-12-16
10 KB swings, 10 Prone presses
Derkins x 10 IC
American Hammers x 10 IC
Derkins x 10 IC
Flutter Press x 20 IC
10 KB swings, 10 Prone presses

Extra slow mosey 70 feet back.

COT

NMM
I may have gotten some of the listed exercises or a few of the counts wrong when I was writing this down finally, but it’s basically all correct. I’m pretty sure if you were to go through this routine, it would be a pretty good beat down even if I missed a few things.

So here’s my thoughts lately about doing gear workouts. If it’s a gear workout, I’m pretty much going to stick with that and not too much running around. I’m pretty simple like that. Find a thing that works and stick with it. My basic KB workouts will be variants of what we did in this one. I figured out this little routine and it works for me. It seems to be a pretty good workout for everyone else too, usually.

F3 is like that for me. When I found out what this thing was all about and started posting, it was something that really just worked for me. I’m not trying to make it into something complicated, I’m just looking for that physical and mental push before the sun even comes up. Every day that I’m out there in the gloom with a bunch of like minded guys focused on accomplishing a single thing at a time, I get energized. If I’m the guy leading, good, but if not, that’s good too.

I see that carried out into our community, getting a bunch of like minded guys focused on accomplishing a single thing at a time. Sometimes that’s reading to kids after school. Sometimes it’s handing out turkeys. Sometimes it’s just running all day and night with a bunch of smelly guys. Sometimes it’s surrounding someone who is suffering physically or emotionally. For me that all starts in the gloom, many days of the week, surrounded by my Brothers…

Geronimo!

 

 

 

 

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Lazy Dora

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12 Pax posted to Fire Ant tossed on their rucks and got a little stronger today.

With Fire Ant moving to a new location in two weeks I took the opportunity to move us 2 by 2 around the back of Harris Teeter to enjoy the wonderful aroma emitting from the dumpsters.

Rucks off for the usual warmup – SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Mountain Climbers.

The Thang

Partner Up for Lazy Dora.  Each team of two will do 100 merkins, 200 Flutters and 300 Squats.

For the merkins, partner 1 will do 10 merkins, while partner 2 planks.  Switch at 10 and Partner 2 will do 10 merkins while partner 1 planks.  Continue alternating until you reach 100.

For the flutters, partner 1 will 20 flutters (double count) while partner two will hold six inches.  Switch at 20 and partner 2 will do flutters while partner 1 holds six inches.  Continue alternating until you reach 200.

For the squats, partner 1 will do 25 squats while partner 2 does an Al Gore. Switch at 25 and partner 2 will do 25 squats while partner 1 does Al Gore.  Continue alternating until you reach 300.

Once all are complete move 2 by 2 to the parking lot in front of Bubbles and Bows and line up on the island for 7s.  Complete 6 ruck swings and bear crawl across the parking lot to other island.  Do 1 man-maker.  Lunge walk back to other island for 5 ruck swings.  Bear crawl back for 2 man-makers.  Continue this until you have gotten to 1 ruck swing and 6 man-makers.

Ended just in time for COT with Golden Corral.

Announcements

Fast 5k and F3 soccer – 10/27

Christmas Party – 12/1

Check WWL’s pre-blast for the custom ruck event coming to The Fort 5/4/2019.  Options for a Heavy, Tough, and Light.  Get signed up.

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Laces In / Out : Garbage IN Garbage OUT! and The Class of……

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13 men showed up at FMHS for some get better positive habits.

4 runners hit the track with Sir Double D doing some mile repeats…..ouch!!

9 others followed YHC off campus to the local Catholic Church for some ladder climbing

The Thang:

Mosey out of FMHS lot up hill to St Phillip Neri lot and COP

  • Plank
  • SSH
  • Merkins
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • Sumo Squats
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Toy Soldiers
  • Shuffle left
  • Shuffle right
  • Mosey to back of church building
  • Dips
  • Calf Raises

9 Stations building on each

1 – 5 burpees, run
2 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, bearcrawl
3 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, run
4 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, bearcrawl
5 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, 25 squats, run
6 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, 25 squats, 1 minute plank, bearcrawl
7 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, 25 squats, 1 minute plank, 30 American Hammers, run
8 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, 25 squats, 1 minute plank, 30 American Hammers, 35 shoulder presses in peoples chair, run
9 – 5 burpees, 10 ‘merkins, 15 LBCs, , 20 dry docks, 25 squats, 1 minute plank, 30 American Hammers, 35 shoulder presses in peoples chair, 40 side straddle hops, run to COT

 

COT:

Circle up with runners and hit up the announcements

  • 10/27 – Fastest 5k & F3 Soccer
  • 12/1 – Fort Christmas Party

Prayers for Jwow travel and Double D nephew/family.

Spoke about all the hours in the day and if we are filling our heads with trash, trash will come out. It is in the form of negative outlook, pessimism, depression. Instead fill yourself with encouraging positive productive things and don’t feed off of the culture…..it only lies to us which leads to disappointment. Connect with Sky Q often and find out his plan for you and how to navigate this crazy life!!

Thanks Lil E for the Q!! Humbled and Honored!

Cake Boss out

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Ash to Ash at Tomahawk

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9 PAX gathered in the only slightly cool October gloom striving to be better. After a disclaimer, we were off on a Mosey around the parking lot.

Warm Up:
SSH x25 (everybody’s favorite F3 classic first exercise)
Mountain Climber x20
Hold Plank
– Honeymooner
– Down Dog
– 6 inches
– Honeymooner
– Down Dog
Mountain Climber x20 (got some mumble chatter spiking after this)
Imperial Walker x20
Hillbilly Walker x20
Good Mornings w/ bells x5
Al Gore Good Mornings x5

Seated forward bends to stretch out the Quadratus Lumborum. (Look it up)

Lined up at the bottom of the parking lot facing the school.

Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Squat x10
Lunge walk w/ pass through up to the islands nearest the school
Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Planked up: Honeymooner/Down Dog
Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)

Moseyed to a parking lot island with grass, touched the grass, and returned to our bells.

Swing x10
Snatch x10 (each arm)
Squat x10
Solo Test x3 (each arm)
Overhead Squat x10 (each arm)
Swing x10

Moved towards COT, dropped bells.

Found some wall at the school entrance.

BTTW w/ Shoulder Taps x10
People’s Chair – brief lecture on nihilism
BTTW w/ Merkins x10

Back to COT:

Sit and Press x10 (big boy sit up and overhead press)
Flutter w/ press x10
Skull Crusher x10
Time

Naked Man Moleskin:

YHC has been pondering this poem lately.

Ozymandias: by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The things of the earth for which we labor will inevitably fade away. (Which lead to some mumble chatter about “why did I show up then?” hence the Nihilism discussion.) But our identity is not found in earthly things, and on this we can be thankful. For our labors in for our 3rd F identity will not fade away. What’s the difference between Ash Wednesday “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” and the ethos of Nihilism:  skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence? Only faith.

Announcements:
Christmas Party – 12/1: Sign up Now
Fast 5 – 10/27

Prayers:
Many – we never know what others are carrying with them. May we all be mindful of that in our interactions.

Band Camp dismissed

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Nihil Gastrocnemius

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TL:DR version

Have to stay off my left calf. I may miss some things or get the order wrong, since I had to modify my plan heavily.  We destroyed some quadriceps…

We took a stroll to the empty side of the AO parking lot and circled up for some

  1. Low Slow Squats
  2. overhead claps
  3. merkins
  4. “under the fence” merkins x 7 (can’t find in the exercises, but I know it’s common, accidentally fired my left calf and almost ate pavement, I had to stop and had everyone get up)
    1. Start in down dog
    2. bend arms like a Carolina dry dock
    3. keep them bent and push up into Honeymooner
    4. Reverse to down dog
  5. Stretching from sumo position, drop the six and extend each leg with the toe up

Next we partnered up for some modified Dora.  Each mover would go one way and start the stationary exercise when they got to the end, while the partner did the moving exercise.  The length was from one center line to another (about 19.5m)

  1. Toy soldiers – Squats x100
  2. Leg Sweeps – LBC x200
    1. Recommended modification for the sweeps was to squat with the six just above ground, extend the left leg and shift with the six almost dragging, bring the feet together, turn 180, extend the right, and continue)
    2. Deacon has SOLID sweeps
  3. A bit of talking about encouragement, and how we as men, (especially YHC) can easily tear down someone without thinking about it
  4. Open Tee Stance  walk – high knees across the body x300
    1. Open Tee Stance – walking with toes at 45’s away from center, the back knee is just above the pavement, and the front foot lands directly in front, come up and step in front of the back knee.  This kills the quads
    2. High knees across the body not  unlike the imperial walker, but higher and combat oriented
  5. 10 count to breath
  6. 10 burpees
  7. 10 count again
  8. Squat walking, with ducking and double punch – flutter
    1. At this point we changed it up to just two lengths, no counting, just flutter

Circle up and get some more leg stretching like in the warmup.  But that was just the interlude.  Some more circle exercises were on their way

  1. Forward split circular fingertip pushups
    1. Legs out with toes up, on your fingertips, sway back going down, and forward over the hands going up
  2. Horse Stance (Al gore, if you want) and 100 2-count punches
  3. Horse Stance and 25 2-count upper cuts
  4. 15 Imperial Walkers
  5. 15 Hillbilly Walkers

Finished with some forearm stretching and back to COT where we did Name O Rama (and my phone decided not to continue recording after 2seconds), and welcomed FNG “Shazam” to F3!! Announcements and prayer and break for the day.

Background on the modification

I’ve got a massive backlog of exercises that don’t involve running, carrying people, and the normal, exhausting, certain-death at other AOs.  Most of these revolve around my shaolin background, and I had built a fun tour of the DT Fort Mill around them…  But fate or my body had other plans…

Early AM yesterday YHC was leaving my son’s school conferences and hopped off the curb onto my left foot and the same muscle pull I experienced at the Hive two weeks ago reared its ugly head. I once again got the chance to hobble around town like someone had given my calf the Tonya Harding treatment.  I thought my number was  up.  I sent messages looking for a backup Q and began praying that when I woke up in the morning I’d be healed.

That didn’t happen.  But the spasm or whatever it is calmed down enough that at 0400 this morning I could put weight on the left without too much pain.  So I geared up and drove down to Footloose in the delightful weather we’re having, and selected exercises that didn’t require anyone to fire their calves.

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the BLIMPS Casino

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13 PAX and ideal weather conditions on hand.

Mosey run to front of middle school
Warm up:
SSH (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Windmill (IC 12x)
Moroccan Nightclub (IC 12x)
LSS (IC 12x)
Merkin (IC 12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Run to back side of elementary school
For a portion of this run: Railroad Ties routine: PAX low plank and person at back of line runs/jumps over them. Cycle through like an indian run.

At back of the middle school:
Thang 1: Blackjacks
start w/ 1 Merkin
run to other side do 20 LBC’s
Run back and do 2 Merkins
run to other side do 19 LBC’s
procced until 20 merkins and 1 LBC
The casino closed this blackjack table a bit early (at ten mins) to accommodate other events. Most Pax got to 15 merkins. Recommend doing Elevens (not 21’s) next time.

Run to next pain station (short distance)
Thang 2: BLIMPS (Cones spaced 15-20 yds apart)
Start at cone 1- B for burpee, do 5 of them
Run to cone 1 – L for lunge, do 10 each leg
Run to cone 2 – I for Imperial Walkers, do 15
Run to cone 3 – M for Merkins, do 20
Run to cone 4 – P for Peter Parkers do 25 (modification)
Run to cone 5 – S for Squats, do 30
rinse and repeat until time is called
Run to COT area

Thang 3: plank routine
Sally gets up/down (Moby song)
Start with low plank
High plank on the “up”
Low plank on the “down”
Thiry-one changes during the 3:22 duration of the song.

COT

Announcements: Fast 5k on 10/27; CAH charity event this Saturday 10/20.
Prayers for healing of loved ones and guidance to the healers in charge of their care.

Great words of encouragement shared amongst all PAX. Don’t forget these timely favorites:
“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success”
“Fall seven times, stand up eight”

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The Green Monster @ Crow’s Nest

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Monday morning came quickly…always a great day to get started the right way!  It was going to be dark (like most F3 mornings).  I was happy to see the Nantan Cakeboss and our OG for the Fort Double D roll in for their first experience at Crow’s Nest.  9 started to mosey with me after the disclaimer.

Dynamic Warmup as we headed back to the rear of the school.

-High Knees – Butt Kickers – Side shuffles – Toy Soldiers

COP

This is where #10 found us, respectable Olaf joined in.  We started to give him grief until he told us he RAN from his house to the AO.  That was more than the other 9 of us so we gave him the credit due!

-SSHs – Ab Vagotas – MNCs – LS Squats – Merkins – Peter Parkers – Parker Peters – some broga here and there…

Evolution 1

6 Pack #1

We headed over to the playground to find some pull-up bars

6 pull-ups then 6 CDDs count your way down 6-5-4-3-2-1 in reps

6 pack #2

Merkins and American Hammers 6-5-4-3-2-1 reps

Evolution 2

The Green Monster – I’ve been to Crows Nest more Mondays than not, but for some reason I have always missed the Big Green Monster workouts.  No better time than now to give it a try.  I had arrived early to check out the condition on the hill.  It was VERY dark back here, so I set up 3 lantern lights to give us just enough light.  I have to say, this was one of those “I love being here” moments that was etched into my memory from the dim lighting, guys running up and down this long hill, and feeling great putting in the work!

We did 11s

10 Merkins at the Top

1 CDDs at the Bottom

we switched each time up the hill until 10 CDDs & 1 Merkin

It was long, we broke a huge sweat, but that’s why we get out of bed a Zero-Dark-30 for F3 mornings!

Evolution 3

Moseyed back to a lighted area in the wet grass.  Sat down and did a crowd favorite – Captain Thors!

Ab workout like Jack Webb but 1 big boy sit-up to 4 American Hammers

Work your way up from 1:4 to 10:40, it always sucks…

Moseyed back towards the front of the school, we still had 7 minutes left, so we did Lt Dans from one long light post to the next.

Made it back to COT with 1 minute to spare so we finished with 10 more Merkins in cadence.

Moleskin

I’ll keep it short here, but throughout the workout I shared about the King, the Queen and the Jester.  The King can’t outrun the Queen and the Jester lies to you to get you to stay with him!  Talked a little about intermittent fasting for the Queen and the CSPAN-Bones podcast.  Lots of ideas and ways for the men of F3 to get better everyday!

COT

Announcements and sharing from Cakeboss about the weekend’s Bourbon Chase.

Thanksgiving Convergence – Christmas Party – Read your newsletter

Praises & Prayers

for marriages, praise for the safety and return of the Bourbon Chase men.

An Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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Puketoberfest…Wk 2

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Bonsai and his terrible ideas brought together round 2 of The Fort’s Puketoberfest as 7 men joined Jedi & YHC (welcome FNG Hit n’ Run) this past Saturday. The bar was set, the chatter was chatted and as the sun rose this beautiful morning, Jedi stood in the middle of the PAX for a moment to disclaim the disclaimer.

So…we mosey’d down the path with some knees-to-chest, heels-to-butt and toy soldiers. One more short mosey then forward moving hillbilly squat walkers (these are straight-up awkward) to the red-light sign.

Quick shoulder warm-up with Moroccan Night Clubs and some other stuff.

Enough of that, let’s get this going:

5 cones spaced 10yds apart. PAX do 5 burpees or some variation thereof, crawl/move to the next cone, 5 more of those burpees, crawl/move, etc to the end. After the burpees at the 5th cone, immediately do an about face and run the full 5-tier suicide using the cones that just marked your burpees. Finish with a Mary exercise while waiting on the 6. Us slow folks (Maximus writing) thankfully only got through 3 of the planned 6 rounds.

The variations were:

  1. Normal burpees, bear crawl, flutter kicks.
  2. Walmart burpees (Maximus fav), duck walks (Geronimo fav), dying cockroaches (nobody’s fav)
  3. Jackass burpees, 2 CCD & 2 Crab Cakes, LBCs

Hand off to Maximus:

Circle up in Ft. Mill’s best grass…

Jack Webb’s consisting of the typical offenders: 1 Merkin : 4 Overhead Claps up to 10:40

8ct Burpees for a few

Partner up at the playground:

P1: Pull ups while P2 runs to the path near the base of the hill.

Flapjack and repeat

P1: Tuck Jumps while P2 runs to the base of the hill.

Flapjack and repeat

Lt Dans consisting of the typical offenders: 1 Squat : 4 Jumping Lunges up to 6:24.

A few more 8ct burpees.

Line up in 1 line, arms width apart and drop to your 6, facing West for a full 51 (in a 4ct cadence so that is 102 total) American Hammers (Personal favorite)

Mosey to the base of the hill to run the to the top and jog back down…4 times.

Take a breather for a quick chat then 1 more time up for good measure.

COT

Announcements: Paradise reading center opportunity, F3 Christmas Party

Prayers: Marriages, FNGs.

No man left behind and leave no man where you found him.

Jedi & Maximus

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