Greetings!

Things were a touch crazy at the Nye household which resulted in my being a few minutes late this morning. As I turned onto the street I saw a group of men running off in the other direction. Fortunately this is a small AO, so it only took me four guesses to find them…

However, being the wonderful HIMs that they are I had a loyal servant take charge of the COP and initial mosey, meaning that these men were ready for a paired board of pain by the time I caught them.

The Thang: Grab a partner and let’s go to work. One man will complete these exercises while the other makes a quick mosey. Switch off each lap. 500 cumulative moves for the team.

1. 100 Burpees
2. 100 LBCs
3. 100 Rosealita
4. 50 Diamond Mercans
5. 100 Calf raises
6. 50 Wide Arm Mercans

After we completed this we had a little mosey up the nearby amphitheater. Each level we rotated between shuffle right, shuffle left, sprint. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Mosey to the AO.

I don’t think anyone had any problems keeping their heart rate up today. Hard work by all. Good work by all. Minimal mumble chatter. Was it the lack of Apache or were we working that hard?

Always a pleasure to lead such a respectable group of men. A special shout out to the many that are having their respect affirmed during name-o-roma. It is super impressive to have these guys out here working this hard to get better. I think we need a shirt with the picture Dark Helmet posted on twitter the other day.

• Pistol- When did you turn into such a beast? Knocking out those diamond mercans faster than anyone else and running stronger each day. I cannot keep up with you any more man!
• Water Boy- Good to see you still pushing the rock. Went back and watched a few old name-o-romas the other day, do you realize how far you have come?!?!
• Captain Kangaroo- Nice work today, you have put in a lot of work and it shows.
• Mr. Big Stuff- Great work. You seemed like you were struggling with the burpees, but then caught your second wind and started pounding them out in convincing fashion. Good to see you getting better!
• Sapper- You are a tough man. I thought that I had broken you because you were in the “reverse plank”, but a very quick ten count later you were back smiling and working. I appreciate what you bring to the F3 nation brother.
• Roxanne- Great work today. Can you see how far you have come since you joined? It looked like you were barely breathing hard by the time we got to the COT.
• Yoda- Your strongest performance to date. “Try not, do or do not. There is no try” was embodied by your actions today- You did not try anything today. Instead, you did everything I could throw at you and kept looking around for more.
• Mayhem- Appreciate the push and support today. You were in front of me all morning- it makes me realize that I need to step up my game.
• Money Bags- We talked for 30 seconds after old town yesterday, you might not even remember it but it really stuck with me. “I really needed this”. It’s nice to see you have the same epiphany that I did. The intertwining of the 3 Fs is powerful.
• JAG- A freaking workhorse. Nearly twice my age and nearly twice as fast. You are an inspiration.
• Bazinga- Great work, you earn every bit of the respect we call out after your name. Keep up the hard work!
• Reborn- The fastest dude I know. I really appreciate your inspiration and support. However, you better keep an eye on Pistol, that guy is creeping up on you!
• Anchor Bar- Always a pleasure. Keep grinding and remember: it doesn’t get any easier, you just get better. I tell you that because there were several times today where you just made it look simple; that’s just evidence of you getting better.

Announcements:

• Jay’s Loop
• Star Command
• F3 Picnic
• Read your emails

Prayer/Praise

• Injured PAX
• Our nation
• Troops
• Families
• Several specific instances of illness.
• Acceptance

Bill Nye Out!

Work in progress

Alot happen will put to words this evening.

Awesome group of guys and humbled by the leadership from the pax in boomsville USA

Aye Apache

17 Pax showed up ready to conquer Old Town this Monday 7/11/2016

Began with a Pledge of Allegiance

Good Stretch

Ran to Parking Garage (lower entrance)

Set the clock for 1 Minute – During that time we did 10 merkins / 10 LBC’s / Sprint to the wall and back and when you were done you just waited (however fast you finished you had that much cool down time) until the next minute.

1 Minute – We did 10 squats / 10 Hello Dolly’s / Sprint to the wall and back

1 Minute – We did 10 calf raises / 10 burpees / Sprint to the wall and back

Wash & Repeat

Lunge walk to the 2nd level

Did an Indian Run up the garage and down the garage

Took the guys to Fountain Park for 200 count AB/Core exercises broken up with 4 exercises w/ 25 reps each. LBC’s, Toe Touches, American Hammer, Reverse Crunch, Freddie Mercury, etc.

Then ran to the Old Town Amphitheater

Set the clock for 1 Minute – During that time you did a single merkin at the bottom of the stage – ran to the top did a single merkin – ran to the bottom did a single merkin – ran to the top did a single merkin – ran to the bottom did a single merkin. When you were done you just waited (however fast you finished you had that much cool down time) until the next minute. We did 3 rounds.

Same concept, but we ran around the Amphitheater in two parallel lines and once we competed one loop you did 5 merkins and waited for the next minute.

Proud of these guys. We all stayed together and pushed each other.

Prayers for many people including several PAX headed to Boston for a Men’s Mission Trip.

Pax,
As of 7/10/17, we have 45 pax HC’s (paid) for the Fort Custom Goruck Challenge 2017! We wanted to touch base and provide a brief update.

The date is set for 5/5/17, mark your calendars!

Goruck has setup a Facebook event page, we can use this for communication, training, general shenanigans:
Facebook Event Page

Here is the running list of HC’d pax: (HC’d and paid!)
List of HCs

Note our goal is to be at 56+ pax, please keep promoting at COTs and EHing guys. Other regions are welcome to join in on the fun too.

To HC, we need your email address (for communications) and send $50 to WWL via PayPal, justin.laroche@yahoo.com, its free, send to friend. note you have not HC’d until you’ve paid. There will be two more payments, $50 in late fall and the final payment in March 2017, final price will not be higher than $143/person, if we have more than 56 pax, the price per person will be less (Goruck has a fixed fee for custom events, more pax, lower price per person).

Training
We’ve already been asked about training, here’s the deal, we will organize and promote training to prepare for this CSAUP event. We will promote rucking options at various AOs throughout the region, we will use the Spearhead training program, referred to as “Pathfinder OG”, which is a 12 weeks training program to help pax get prepared for a Goruck event, the program is self performed but we will be promoting that anyone HC’d for this Challenge signup for this training program. To complete the program you will do 30 ruck workouts, 100 miles (cumulative) and 5 challenges. Don’t worry too much just yet, the program is operated in classes and starts quarterly, so we’ll do the Jan 2017 class and send out plenty of info.

Check our Spearhead’s website for further info:
Spearhead – Pathfinder Training

In the meantime, you are welcome to start rucking whenever you want, ruck a normal AO, or keep an eye on twitter for planned rucking options.

Start thinking about your ruck, Goruck is promoting their X-mas in July sales, right now Ruck plates are on sale and every Monday this month something different will go on sale, check out www.goruck.com.

There are plenty of ruck sac options on ebay and amazon as well, just talk to any pax with a ruck.

We can’t wait come Feb 2017 when you post to a normal AO and there will be more ruckers than bootcamp goers and you’ll be asking yourself, why am I not doing the Goruck Challenge!

As always, reach out to WWL or Cobra Kai with questions.

More to come soon.

Aye,
WWL/Cobra Kai

4 PAX braved the first Brother Ship Black Diamond MaryLou VQ pain with a smile to total about 2 miles, 300 arm, and 320 leg exercises.

The Thang (short and sweet… well the text below is)

Warm up lap around the outer base of the first floor

Five levels / 10 pain stations (with a quick mosey between each station):

1. One arm plank twist (15 each side)

2. Single leg squats (20 each leg)

3. Balls to the wall (20)

4. Squat jumps (30)

5. One arm push-ups (10 each arm)

6. Stationary lunge (20 each leg)

7. Punch merkins  (30)

8. Squat kicks (30)

9. Diamond Carolina dry docks (30)

10. Burpees (20 oyo)

Mosey down the stairs to the first floor to climb up 5 stories in the middle of the deck using the cable railings.

From the top – REPEAT all exercises/mosey in reverse order. 

10 minutes of abs lead by Bolt… supposed to not let the feet touch… MaryLou gave into the pain and let’m touch a few times.

Two laps around the base of the deck with a Kid Rock lead sprint on the last straight.

Little less running/speed than YHC would have liked to accomplish with an achilles injury, but it was plenty of pain for me in the end. Next time we’ll work in a sprint to the top.

The morning started off right because the alarm clock worked this time, but I don’t think it was the alarm clock. It was just the operator setting it for the right time. I went by Slow Pitch’s house to pick him up, but I was 15 minutes earlier than normal, so he came at normal time. I just think I was over energized. Well the workout set me straight on the energized part. I like to thank the 14 HIM’S that showed their support for my VQ.

Disclaimer was given at 0515

No FNG today

Warm Up

SSH X 25 (IC)&(+Tempo)

Chair Pickers X 20 (IC)

Seal Jackets X 25 (IC)&(+Tempo)

Mosey to the Good Year to do some OYO workout on the Hill of Doom. That’s name I gave it on my first trip to The Tavern. Posh was on Q that day, and it was my second day with F3. The next day I was sore. Wait that was a understatement. I looked like I was in a full body cast. I couldn’t move, but I pushed through with my F3 Brothers at Petra.

The Thang:

Workout @ the Goodyear

21 – ( 7 Diamond, 7 Normal, 7 Wide Merkins) Then run around the building up the Hill of Doom and do 7 prison cell Merkins. Then keep going around the building back to the starting point for a rinse and repeat. Two trips around.

Mosey over to building for people chair and balls to the wall.

We sat in the people chair for a few and then each person bear crawled to the end of the line and got back in the people chair position. Then we did balls to the wall for a 15 count.

Warm Up is now complete.lol

We mosey to the parking lot and did suicides. A complaint was given by Bogey because he ate a big dinner last night.  At the start line we did 7 Merkins and the cross lines we did 7 LBC and ran back to the start line for 7 Merkins. We did a total of 10 lines. We did 70 Merkins and 70 LBC in all. After that we mosey back to The Tavern. We got to The Tavern and we had 8 mins left to workout. The guys still had some chatter left in them. I heard some Talladega Nights quotes. So we had time for some 4 corners.

Corner one 15 slow squats OYO

Corner two 15 HBW OYO

Corner three 15 Calf raises OYO

Corner four 15 Carolina Dry Docks OYO

Rinse and repeat

We had 3 minutes left to circle up for some LBC and some Lance Armstrong.

30 LBC (IC)

30 Lance Armstrong (IC)

30 LBC (IC)

super man – with the pack singing and then pull the cord. Then flip to the banana hammock.

Bogey said wait we have to birthdays today. So we did 35 Merkins, we spilt the deference.

By the end we should have completed about 213 Merkins, 250 crunches and we ran 2.03 miles. Good work guys.

CoT

Count off

Name-a-Rama

Announcements – Read the news letter

Prayer and Praise

Pray for the young man that Tinker Toy is helping out.

Pray for people on the water this summer. A lot of drowning has happen already this summer. Please be careful and be smart.

As The Fort region continues to grow, our new expansion area will be Lancaster, SC. We have pegged two site Qs (Outlaw and Watson) and have selected a site AO (Lancaster High School). Our soft launch recon will take place 8/20 at 0630.

Start EHing your Lancaster friends and share this soft launch date. Follow and share Lancaster’s Twitter account (@Lancaster_F3). We are excited about the launch of F3 Lancaster and bringing the principles and values to the men of Lancaster.

• Who: Men of the Fort Region
• What: Recon Soft Launch F3 Lancaster
• When:8/20 @0630
• Where: Lancaster High School 617 Normandy Rd, Lancaster, SC 29720

It was Friday, May 6^th and we just finished a beat down at the Foundry.  During the CoT, I asked the Pax to say a prayer for my daughter, Christina, to feel better and to bless her for her Holy Communion which should have been that Saturday.  Sadly, those prayers were not answered.  12 hours later, our precious daughter, our Angel, was now in Heaven.  She died the day before her Holy Communion and two days before Mother’s Day.  Why? Why?!  My wife, son and I were in complete shock; filled with questions, sorrow and anger. We could not imagine how this could happen to her…to us.  To this day, we still feel that way.  We are devastated.  My M and I have endured many losses in our lives, but nothing, NOTHING compares to losing your child.  We question how we can live each day without her.  We question our faith.  Why would God take her when she had so many things to accomplish on this Earth with her family?  None of this makes sense to us…and probably never will.  I did not think we would ever survive a day.  However, as of today, it has been exactly two months.  Two months of Hell on Earth but we are still here, fighting, surviving and trying to live another day.  One of reasons we are here…is all of you.  The Pax of F3 and FiA Nation.

Your support has been nothing short of amazing.  We have appreciated all the prayers, meals, donations and visits we have received.  But the real support has been through the 2^nd F, the fellowship.  216 men inspired me to get out of the fart sack for a supportive convergence the Monday after her passing, many from different AO’s.  53 women helped Jager post to her first ever 5:30am work out to show their support.  Again, numerous AO’s represented.  Numerous Pax were sporting their colors and their shovel flags at my daughter’s wake and funeral in NC.  Mooch traveling from New Hampshire to NY just to show me support and to deliver a shovel flag in her honor.  Jimmy Olsen flew to NY to be there for the wake and funeral. Raffles.  Memory bricks and so on and so forth. And I can sit here and go on and on about each individual’s contribution to my healing or surviving rather but then my message would not get read.  All I can say is that I am truly humbled, and thankful that I/we have F3 and FiA Nation behind us because without you all, we may not be standing.

Often times, on those rare occasions I make it into the gloom lately I get asked “what else can I do to help other than prayers?” My usual response is there is really nothing anyone can do…well; I am calling an audible today.  And I am calling on the Pax of F3 and FiA Nation countrywide to help us heal, and create a mission to honor our sweet daughter.  The M and I know we need some sort of motivation to continue to “live” but more importantly, have a positive impact in the lives of others.  In other words, take actions of Christ and of a #HIM.  Many of you don’t know our daughter or us for that matter.  But Christina (Sweet Tooth) was an amazing little girl.  Through all the outcries from friends, family, students, teachers, religious educators and strangers, one common theme that was always mentioned was that she had a big heart which is quite ironic since it was her heart that failed her two months ago.  She was the girl that when a new student came into the class, Christina would befriend her.  If a student was sad, she would act her goofy self and cheer them up.  She was everybody’s friend, seemed like everybody’s BFF from all the cards we received from her class mates…and enemies with no one.  She also loved animals, especially cats and often I was influenced to adopt another in need of a good home.  She was bright, sassy and had a smile that could light up a room.  She loved Minecraft, loved playing Star Wars with her Dad, getting mani/pedis with her Mom.  She also loved Spartan racing and F3.  She wore her jersey proudly many times when we would hit the trails.  She enjoyed F3 Kids workouts even though it interfered with her sleep.  She had so much fun at F3 Dads Camp and was so excited to go again this year.  I don’t know if we could ever do her enough justice but we are certainly going to try.

To keep her memory living for years to come, we are creating an initiative called Operation Sweet Tooth.  Although there will be much bigger and more impactful things to come.  However, to begin this mission, I am calling, asking all the Pax throughout all the regions of F3 to have a toy drive in her honor during their respective Christmas parties.  I want to help support those children that are sick and scared lying in hospital beds not knowing their fate.  I want to provide some sort of peace and or comfort to children, who reside in orphanages without anyone to call Mom or Dad.  I want these children to know that a stranger cares about them and that they know there is an Angel looking down over them.  But I cannot do this alone…I need High Impact Men and Women to help…so I am asking all of you for that help.

I would need a Q from each region/AO to identify an orphanage, children’s hospital etc that would benefit from our collection and to help coordinate delivery of the items and just share the message of F3, Sweet Tooth and how her parents just want to provide peace or comfort, even if just for a brief moment in time. Below is a link from our local children’s hospital here in Charlotte.  There is usually a donating list of items, toys, blankets, stuffed animals that are accepted.  You can get a sense of what is needed or wanted by looking at the “Donating to Levine’s Childrens Hopsital” Toys and Gifts.

http://www.carolinashealthcare.org/medical-services/childrens-services/levine-childrens-hospital/give-back

I have had custom designed shirts available through Mudgear.  The links are below.  I was informed that the board has decided to share the proceeds with the sales to help fund this initiative…again, truly humbled and honored.  I will be working on printed boxes for the collections and hopefully prayer cards to be distributed as well.

http://f3.mudgear.com/products/f3-operation-sweet-tooth-shirt-pre-order

http://fia.mudgear.com/products/fia-operation-sweet-tooth-shirt-pre-order

This is just one small step, small part my family and I can do to honor our daughter.  Larger plans down the road include creating a non-profit organization, continued toy drives, hospital visits, animal rescue events, scholarships etc.  That will all be in the works sometime in the future, but we still need time to mourn our baby and don’t want to take too much on all at one time.

“So what can you do to help me and my family other than pray?”  Help us help others is now what I will say.

Humbly Yours,

Olive, Jager and Happy Meal

Aye!

This morning, 5 PAX explored our newest AO (launching soon), Boom Town Central. This AO has tons of potential as a run/boot with lit trails, bridges, benches, fields, and steps…all the elements for a sure beatdown. Stay tuned for launch details.

The Thang

We ran 3.25 miles and mixed in the following at various locations throughout the Rock Hill Technical Park:

• SSH
• Low Slow Squats
• Merkins
• Incline Merkins
• Diamond Merkins
• Wide Arm Merkins
• Bear Crawls
• Crab Walks
• Dips
• Nur
• Karaoke
• Side Shuffles

NMM

Apache found a gem centrally located in Rock Hill. I’m not sure how we haven’t tapped into the potential at this site until now. This AO has HUGE potential. It was a blessing to share the gloom with my brothers even though its 1.5 hours after the workout and I’m still sweating. Great leadership Apache. Proud to see Pistol pushing the PAX this morning. Awesome job this morning Popeye. Way to push through the pain Blackhawk. Little bit of advice when you post out here the first time – bring a headlamp or flashlight. Some of the trails are a bit dark at 0515.

We spent some time around the Civitas statues at the entrance of Gateway Blvd and Dave Lyle. The Gateway intersection where the 4 Civitas statues stand is circular to symbolize unity, teamwork and togetherness.

Quick history lesson. The 22 foot tall Civitas statues were designed as a female version of Michelangelo’s “David.” The thought behind the design relates to the similarities between the cities of Rock Hill and Florence, Italy. At the time of the commission of “David,” Florence was a city of 45,000 people whose vibrant textile industry was slowly fading and the growth of their much larger neighbor Rome was affecting Florence’s growth. Rock Hill’s size and textile history paralleled Rome’s during the creation of the statues. The Civitas reflects the spirit of Rock Hill’s textile heritage in the clothing and hair, which suggest billowing ribbons of material. That material transforms into wings representing the fact that Rock Hill’s textile history provided the texture and foundation that gave the city wings to move forward.

Each Civitas holds a different circular emblems to signify four key themes of Rock Hill.

• Gears of Industry
• Flame of Knowledge
• Stars of Inspiration
• Lightning Bolt of Energy

Remember that as we continue to grow F3 in our region, we are to be men of inspiration and energy. We are the gears that make this thing work. We are to fuel the flame inside the Sadclowns in our churches, workplaces, and neighborhoods. We are to share the knowledge of our Creator. And, we are going to do it together, as a team. Keep up the good work men. I’m proud to share the gloom with you.