The 2018 Fort Clave Boss 5k & Christmas Convergence

0545 – Arrive at Palisades Elementary School AKA The Abyss where Bear Grylis is tailgating like its the Summer Concert tour and he’s at FORT-A_PALOOZA.

Ruckers and Runners were gathering and getting ready for a full morning of all 3 F’s. The Pre-Ruck led by Bonsai (as Worldwide Leader was MIA) got together and away they went.

YHC gathered all of the Clave Boss 5k runners and gave the instructions for the course. Signs were posted however it was still difficult for some to follow (Royale, Funhouse and some others) and they got 3.5mi surprise.

0605 – The 4th Annual Clave Boss 5k launched and 32 runners hit the hills of Palisades. This year we awarded Bundt Cakes to the first runner at various paces.

  1. MacGyver flew in at 20:47 6:60/mi and then went back to encourage other runners – True #HIM
  2. Sharkbait came in at 24:43 7.88/mi
  3. Islander rolled in at 27:10 8.74/mi
  4. Twister with a 31:25 10.08/mi
  5. Smuggler wrapped it up with a solid 34:11 11:00/mi

Appreciate all the participants. Next Year’s 5th Annual will be a special event for sure!!

0700 – Preruck has returned, Clave Boss has wrapped up and now more cars have entered the parking lot with PAX gathering all around. It was time to launch the convergence. YHC ask if there were FNGs, and we had 4 in attendance, gave the disclaimer. YHC then gave RUCK crew green light to jet with a 0750 COT. The remaining 75 or so PAX had YHC and Maximus for the next 50minutes

The Thang:

Mosey parking lot….20 SSHs, Go to other end of lot, Merkins, go to other end of lot for squats, back to other end of parking lot for LBCs

Line up in 6 lines, each line goes to a cone and each cone has exercise on it

  1. Merkins
    1. Bearcrawl
  2. Leg Lifts
    1. Lunge walk
  3. Wide Arm Merkins
    1. Run
  4. Donkey Kicks
    1. Bearcrawl
  5. Spider-man Merkins
    1. Lunge walk
  6. Sumo Squats
    1. Run

3 rounds of above, 5 reps, then 10 reps, then 15 reps

The mumble chatter was classic and the fellowship as always enjoyable

Handoff to Maximus

Mosey to back of School and line up in 6 lines for Pain Platoon

  1. Santini led squat routine that is always a crowd pleaser
    1. Burpees
  2. Pusher led Lunges
    1. Burpees
  3. Double D led Mc-tar-Ny ??
    1. Burpees
  4. Bubba Gump led SSHs
    1. Burpees
  5. 4 lines – turn to face one another – then Seal Team Sit ups–always a big crowd pleaser

Mosey to front of school for COT:

Plank while waiting on RUCK crew and 6 inches with Walker…..always fun!!

  • 93 was the count with 4 FNGs
    • Bo Knows
    • Ferris
    • Gaylord
    • Doubtfire

 

  • We Switzered to gather around and listing to Mr. Clean give a message and challenge to the PAX
    • I’m honored to speak with you today;
      Tomorrow (Christmas night) is the 1 year anniversary of me and the kids finding Cindy (my wife) unconscious. She was immediately put on life support
      Cindy died 3 days later from complications of MS and an addiction to alcohol
      I thought our life was on cruise control. I was being non -purposeful and non intentional. Being a single parent and grieving thru the tragic death of a spouse has been unreal.A few things I have learned from this that I would like to share.

      1. I have a much deeper awareness of emotional health. I have been humbled. Being humble creates avenue for change and growth. My question to you is…are you vulnerable and humble enough to let brothers in to help you?? Are you humble enough to ask for him if you are escaping reality w addictions? Alcohol, porn, etc
      2. I have a more real relationship w Christ.At a time when I doubted Christ care for me and my children and his desire to help our family Christ stepped in and answered a very exact prayer request. If you have doubts about Christ, speak to me please. I would love to share with you what He alone has done.
      3. I am thankful for the suffering. It has brought our family closer together. Even though I and the kids are miss Cindy everyday, we have so much to be thankful. I am thankful for the life that we had w Cindy. I am thankful that she is suffering no more. I am thankful that Cindy is made as new. Most importantly, am thankful for the birth of Christ. He gives us HOPE for a better day.
    • My Challenge to you is Love Deeper and Speak Sweeter. — too often people speak disrespectfully of their spouses and children and parents. Words matter and we all need to choose them wisely. We need to hold each other accountable and “get our heads out of our asses” as you never know when that person will be taken from you.

YHC can’t thank Mr Clean enough for this message and his friendship. over the last 2 years we have grown together to be better Christ followers, better husbands and fathers. He is such a great leader and I’m blessed to have him in my life.

If you need someone like this in your life, reach out to me and we’ll get you set up as there are a boatload of HIMs in the PAX

********ALERT***********ALERT**********ALERT*********ALERT***********ALERT****************

It was time for some major announcements in leadership. YHC has led as NANTAN for The Fort region for about 15months. Prior to that I was Weasel Shaker and prior to that 3rdF Q and in-between Site Qs of Ranch, Ballroom, Crossroads,, ChicknWizdim, and led CSAUP teams at P200, Kiawah and others.

It was time to hand over the keys to this well oiled machine to a new leader. A man I’ve watched grow and lead in all 3 F’s and lead well. First got to know him well on the 2014 BRR 9 man team. I was asked to attend Colombia mission with with him in 2015 that he led. Have Qd many times with him and attended a retreat in Boone with him in 2017 and saw his heart for God, Family and the PAX of The Fort. In 2018 he led BEYOND and pushed men to not only dig deep physically but to stretch themselves emotionally and spiritually. This sealed it for me that this man understood leadership and that men needed to be Freed to Lead.

MAXIMUS is the new NANTAN of The Fort!

I personally am excited for this next chapter and look forward to more men being Freed to Lead by his example and inspiration. With this change, some other leaders have stepped up as well.

  • Weasel Shaker = Funhouse
  • 1stFQ = Royale
  • 2ndFQ = Wegmans
  • 3rdFQ = Gecko

I personally want to thank Old Bay for years of leadership and more importantly friendship. I true HIM who makes so much happen behind the scenes that there is no way The FORT would be where it is today without him.

Also, want to thank Anchorman for 2nd F Q during my time as Nantan, as well as all his leadership at Footloose, encouraging guys to push themselves and the many great ideas and ways to challenge the PAX. Appreciate you brother!

BOM – Gecko had great words to close out this convergence. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus and all of the Holidays, I pray we find JOY in everything and not take anything for granted. I appreciate all the PAX and my brothers of THE GLOOM.

Cake Boss

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Hat trick at Slowburn

Quick disclaimer for this BB: after 3 Q’s in as many days, some details are a little fuzzy.

After a quick disclaimer we moseyed down the hill to the far side of the building on the right. After we completed your standard warmup, we got right down to business.

The first order of business was a little thing called triple check. We divided up into groups of 3 and up against the building, P1 held an air squat, P2 held a plank and P3 ran down around the island and back. P3 goes to P1, P1 to P2, and P2 runs. Did this little number 3x in keeping with the theme of 3s .

Next we moseyed down to the long side of Lowe’s and found a piece of wall and held a wall sit while the person on one end did 3 burpees and ran down to the other end and found a new piece of wall to hold up. After every person completed this, we did it again. If YHC didn’t have another trick up his sleeve we would have repeated .

We then made our way down to the front of Empire Pizza to find a nice stale beer smell to complete our last of 3s. We completed a little thing called triple nickel. We did 5 merkins on one end of the parking lot, ran to the far end and did 5 WW2 situps. We completed 5 rounds of this. Moseyed back to COT for some Mary and tried to avoid the early morning Chick-fil-A cravings .

Thank you to Smithers for the invite to lead!

Wegmans

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WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

————————————————————————————————————–

And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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You Can Blame Dark Helmet

The past few weeks have been anything but typical for me. Laid off from my job and then I planned to do a road trip which turned into the road trip from hell in many ways. But God was and is faithful and I made it back home safely and was able to get some drugs in that helped start the recovery process. That being said, I wasn’t sure about my q coming up for the first time at The Fort. But I had just qed at Laces In with the same illness, but didn’t know it. So I figured let’s go for it. About five minutes into COP I thought I might have made a serious mistake, but thanks to the many mercies of God I made it through.

COP was a bit of a blur but it included your typical:
SSH
Imperial Walkers
Hillbilly Walkers
Merkins
Windmills (slowly)
Moroccan Nightclub

After COP we made our way up the parking lot Springs Industries to find a nice flat spot where we could hang out for a while.

The next thing that followed was my theft of Union County (NC)’s Mindcrime’s invention. At center do five burpees, run, to one end and do ten merkins, come back to center, five burpees, run to the other end and do ten LBCs. Repeato until you’ve done ten rounds of ten merkins and ten LBCs. This quickly started to suck in the soup that is South Carolina in August. There was much hatechatter against the q, which makes me very happy and I know you’re working.

After much hate mumblechatter we stopped for a breather to talk about discipline and got a good word about how that ties into being a disciple both of our Lord and of life and making a difference in our own lives so we can make a difference in our families and our world. Aye!

Next up Cindy showed her ugly face and we made our way to the wall where much standing around was seen and some work was put in. Cindy went like this: ten merkins, ten dips and ten squats (or at least I think it was squats. Haven’t gotten my nap in yet). Go until q calls time!

Jekyll was threatening a coup so I wrapped up the sweat fest and we went into some stretching, weird yoga moves and other things to distract you from the fact that I just made you burn off a lot of calories.

Welcome Iron Man to F3 Nation! Thank you sir for your service to our country and for checking out F3 one day while at the park. Great first post!

Be sure to read the newsletter and keep up with all that’s going on at The Fort.

Thank you Bonsai for the chance to lead and I hope I gave you your money’s worth. As in time is money and I hope it was well worth your time.

DT out.

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The Fort – Choosing to Get Better

This Q started out marvelously with Nomad welcoming Bubba Gump to his first workout.  Apparently this must have been his first in a while, because he wasn’t in the database to tag him in the PAX…  Nomad wrote up the workout and then emailed it to me because he is now on a retreat for church trying to corral high school boys.  Prayers for Nomad.

Here is what he wrote:

Another hot and sticky morning at The Fort. Many had the freedom to choose, and 18 PAX chose to post and get better

Q: Nomad

Still the Novice Q, YNC referenced the weinke often was checked multiple times. Mumblechatter of more stretching needed, attempts at messing up the count were heard. Pain was endured.

Warm-up: String of Pearls
Jog – 0.6mi around WEP
SSH x20
Windmill x15
Squats x 15

Moroccan Night Club x25
World War 1 Sit-ups – 15 OYO
Railroad Tracks – 2 lines of 9 x2 rounds

Fishstick’s Ladder up the hill by COT
UP – Exercise 1 x10, Exercise 2 x 5
Down – Recover jog
Bearcrawl/Merkin
Lunge/Squat
Backwards Crabwalk/LBC (10)
Bearcrawl/Carolina Dry Dock
Partner wheelbarrow Up once for each partner

Q: Tesh

Tesh took over, and jealous comments of shoulders and abs were spoken of Tesh. Pain was dispensed.

Wall shoulder dips
Mosey
Partner up
Oblique box jumps x25 each side
LBC x25
Shoulder tap x15 – balls, merkin, plank
Line up – lunge hold – jailbreak
Merkin typewriter x10
Al gore (tree hug)
Arm lifts
Calf lifts
Mosey
Partner
Oblique box jumps x25 each side
LBC x25
Crunches 4-points (both knees) x15
Shoulder tap x10- balls, merkin, plank

Prayers and Praises
Flat tire’s Mom
Nomad Gauntlet youth group with church
Red eye – New York mission field
Pusher – marriages

Mumblechatter
Bubba Gump returns from injury (actually was scheduled to Q)
Tesh’s shoulders and abs in a tanktop
Pusher talking USC attendance vs Clemson expectations

I enjoyed all the flack I got, keep up the chatter.  I hope everyone else enjoyed the typewriter merkins, oblique box jumps, and wall dips.  Cause I know I did.

T-claps to Nomad for under-promising and over-delivering!

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