Tag: MaryLou

Give Yourself Permission

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9  pax posted to the land of the free and the home of the brave in Fort Mill, SC (aka Walter Elisha Park aka WEP aka The Fort) for a snot-woggler of a morning.  Of course, all men are welcome at F3 AOs and none are left behind.  But, when I took note of the pax present (no FNGs and all wily veterans), I knew we were in for some real pain.  This was not a crew that modifies, and my co-Q (Copay) certainly was going to dole it out.  My mission of the morning was to keep the pax present and encourage them through the barrage.  For the record, a brief Disclaimer was proclaimed.  Then I put forth a short command — “Give yourself permission to be here and only here for the next 60 minutes…let go of everything else that might be occupying your mind.”  All pax confirmed they had permission to proceed, and then the fun began.

The Thang

Double D in the lead

Mosey up hill out the parking lot with right turn down Ardrey St

Series of Karaoke, High knees, Butt kicks, To Soldiers

Take paved trail at first intersection back into the Springs parking lot and work our way through the lot to the building with periods of Lunge walks, Broad jumps, Bear crawl, Backwards lunge walk, Crawl bear, Crab walk.

COP — Al Gore, SSH, IWs, HWs, Merkins, CDDs, Bombjacks

Mosey to UCSynergetic back lot

Pull-ups on the walkway railing + 10 Bombjacks OYO
Rinse and repeat

Mosey partway down grassy hill toward Hwy 160 and then a permission slip check was made before handoff to Copay

Copay in the lead

Build a burpee X5

Mosey to bottom of gun shop hill.

50X Side Straddle Hops

All out Sprint to top Side squats left/right and lunges down

All out Sprint to top Side squats left/right and lunges half way

Lunges and side squats left and right back up

Message Give permission and your “will” will take you further than you want, especially when it’s about doing His will

Mosey to parking lot across from gun shop

Combos:

CDD Donkey Kicks X12

Mountain climber merkins X12

Standing push up jump squats X20

Run back to parking lot
Rinse and repeat

Build a burpee X5

Handoff to Double D for the finish

Mosey to UC Synergetic parking lot along Hwy 160

Plank on curb facing short brick wall

Derkins + sprint to wall + backward sprint back to the curb
Rinse & repeat for 3 cycles total

Mosey to grassy area along Hwy 160 in front of Springs bldg

Freddy Mercurys

Flutter kicks

People’s chair against wall

Balls to the Wall

People’s chair

Mosey back to WEP

Mahktar N’Dyiae

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Well, it’s Monday afternoon, more than 48 hrs since the beatdown, and My lower body is still sore.  The soreness started Sat afternoon.  A 15 mile run on Sunday and a 5 mile run plus burpees on Monday have yet to relieve the soreness.  Copay really put it on us!

It looked as though we had an in-game EH when Copay was leading us through his first round of Build-a-burpee.  An enthusiastic fellow in his 20s/30s driving a black car w/NY plates parked on the street near the gun shop and got out of his car to ask “Is this the class?”  Of course, we said yes, waved him into the parking lot and continued the burpees until he parked and walked back over.  Suddenly, he didn’t look so excited.  He was looking for the “gun shop class” and the idea of Copay and burpees had him shaking in his boots.  We invited him back to WEP for 9/15.  We’ve got one week to work up one heckuva name.

We covered new territory around the buildings for some pax.  The pull ups on the walkway railings were new to some.  The wall along Hwy 160 was new to others.  Both of these, plus all the other spots demonstrate what an awesome AO WEP continues to be, despite 6 years of downPAINments!

The message for the workout was geared around being PRESENT and INTENTIONAL.  I came upon the phrase “I gave myself permission…” in 2-3 conversations last week and it stuck with me.  Sometimes it takes a bit of a mental device to force us to realize that (a) everything is a choice and (b) the only actions we can make choices about are those in the here and now.  Giving yourself permission to be present to do something specific and intentional is a powerful way of exercising our freedom to choose.  Copay took the “permission” idea to an even greater level with his inspiring words about “giving permission to God to do His will through me now” (only way more powerful coming out of his mouth).

Lots to think about and lots of laundry after this one.

Thanks to Bonsai for the Q opportunity and to the pax for leaving it all out there!

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4

CSPAN Send off Convergence

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141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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104

Lovely Trees and Grass

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7 Pax weren’t scared off by Jekyll’s twitter warnings that there would be lots of pain and grass (and most assuredly not the dry kind).  Weather was low 70’s and humid. Speculation swirled that the low attendance was due to F3Dads camp and the “Run Your A– Off August” contingent that had likely posted to TheYard.  But what we lacked in quantity, we more than made up for in quality of Pax.
YHC had the first half, so I issued the disclaimer and then asked everyone close their eyes for a brief period of time.  Upon opening, pax were remind that the word of the month is “presence”, and to think about where their mind was during the 30 seconds of eyes being closed.  Did their mind stay present, in the here-and-now?  Or where they thinking about the past, or the future, or just some other place or problem?
We moseyed to one of the Spring parking lots for some warmup:
  • SSH x25
  • Mountain Climbers x15
  • Dips x10
  • Peter Parkers x10
Mosey to row of trees across 160 (beside old 21).  Pax found a small stack of cones at the “first” tree, and we stopped there for a few moments.  YHC discussed more on “presence”.  The exercises with the trees went as follows.  By the way, YHC stole this idea from CSPAN who did this about 3 years ago at this same location (and a different topic).
  • Top cone pick from stack.
  • Pax held Al Gore while YHC read a question regarding “presence” (from the word of the month document).
  • Exercise read from the cone and pax performed one rep of the exercise at the first tree
  • Pax ran to 2nd tree and did 2 reps, then 3rd tree (3 reps), 4th tree (4 reps), and so on.
  • At 12th tree, after 12 reps done, pax planked until 6 arrived.
  • Together we ran back to the first tree.
We repeated thru 4 exercises before we ran out of time.  Here where the exercise and question pairs.
  1. Flying Squirrels – What memories do you have of your parents and your time with them? Were they fully present? How did their presence or lack thereof make you feel?
  2. Squats – Do you have any memories of a special person in your life that was fully present? How did that person make you feel?
  3. Crab Jacks – What distracts you most from being present?
  4. Run Stance Switch – How have you learned to be more present in your relationships? What have you learned about being present with God?
Quick follow up thoughts about “presence”, then hand off to Jekyll.
Mosey back to WEP, to the bottom of the hill famous for ladders, so that we could do….(drumroll please) some ladders.  But first, we did a review of the 5 core principles.  Just for fun, Jekyll had us do 5 burpees after the first principle recited, then 4 after the 2nd, 3, after the 3rd, then 2, then 1, and then back to 5 burpees.
The ladder work then began:
  1. Ladder 1: Squats and Donkey Kicks (to/from 11) with normal run up and down hill
  2. Ladder 2: LBCs and Merkins (to/from 7) with uphill run being backwards
  3. Ladder 3: pax choice:  American Hammers (thanks Mary Lou) and Bomb Jacks (thanks BandCamp) (to/from 7) with uphill climb being bear crawls
And just when we thought we were all completely smoked, Jekyll wrapped it up with 3 rounds of Makhtar N’Diayes (10x, 10x, 15x), with plank series in between each set.
Naked Man Moleskin
Very strong showing by all pax today. As I mentioned at the workout and on Twitter following, Jekyll did not let up as we neared the end of the workout.  Rather, with 5 minutes left, he gathered us to encourage a strong finish.  It certainly was not what any of us wanted to hear, but it’s what we needed to hear, and we are all better for it.
Long Shanks earned extra credit by running in and running out to the workout.  The workout mileage itself was north of 2.5 miles according to Strava.  T-claps also goes to Youts for digging deep to finish strong.
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If all else fails, SSH

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Honored to Q at The Fort, thanks to Bonsai, 13 PAX and Old Bay for bring us an FNG, Sherbet

Laminated post-it note in hand, and we’re off

Mosey around path, circle-ish, 10 SSH, 10 Imp Walker, 10 LSSquats
Mosey to next lot toward downtown, circle up, 15 SSH, 15 Imp Walker, 15 LSS
Mosey to next lot toward downtown, circle up, 20 SSH, 10 Imp Walker, 20 LSS
Mosey across the street to the next lot, 10 merkins, 10 LBCs, 10 jump squats
Mosey up the big hill to the big lot, 15 merkins, 15 LBCs, 15 jump squats

Move to the end of the lot, exercise 1/2 way across to lot, jog it out the other 1/2
Karaoke L, Karaoke R, Powerskip, Squat Walkers, High Knees , Butt Kickers, 50%, 75%, 100%

Base + 3 station suicides:
20 CDD
20 CDD, 50 OH Claps
20 CDD, 50 OH Claps, 10 burpees
again
20 Squats
20 Squats, 50 MNC
20 Squats, 50 MNC, 10 Flying Squirrel

Half way through the round Beacon and Corruption found us and we hit some of the warm-up highlights again
10 SH, 10 Imp Walker, 10 squats, mosey to the other side of the lot
10 merkins, 10 LBCs, 10 Jump Squats

Back to suicides
20 merkins
20 merkins, 50 LBCs
20 merkins, 50 LBCs, 10 Makhtar N’Diayes

Mosey back down the hill, back toward the park to find a piece of wall … wall sits while everyone pops out for 2 burpees

Mosey back-ish, taking the long way around, for a good 3/4 mile trip home, one stop for 25 SSH

2 minutes of Mary, ending with 10 SSH

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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The Tomahawk – Limited Mumble Chatter

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I hold myself accountable for the limited mumble chatter this morning!   As the leader of the workout I set the tone of getting straight to work and holding ourselves accountable to whatever reason we have for being at the first F of F3.  Let’s make the best of it!  Thank you all who came out!

The Tomahawk – Accountability (OYO)

Mosey around parking lot, 20 SSHs, 10 Windmills,  20 MNCs, 10 Merkins, Downward Dog, Honeymooner

Mosey to KBs

The Thang

20 KB Around the World

20 KB Figure 8s

20 KB Swings

KB Dora I

100 KB Lawn Mowers

100 KB Big Boy Sits ups

100 KB Squats

Partner runs to end of parking lot and back w/KB

20 KB ATW

20 KB Figure 8s

20 Swings

Mosey to fountain – 50 dips OYO, 20 Derkins OYO

Mosey bask to KBs

KB Dora II

100 KB Shoulder Press

100 KB America Hammers

100 KB Lunges

Partner runs to end of parking lot and back w/KB

20 KB ATW

20 KB Figure 8s

20 Swings

KB Dora III

50 KB Upright Rows

50 KB Flutters

50 KB Calf Raises

Partner runs to end of parking lot and back w/KB

COT

Prayers for Uncle Sam as he travels back to Columbia – prayers for all 2.0s as they transition through different phases of school and life.  Praises for healthy recoveries and employment.

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Just a perfect Old School Saturday @F3TheFort

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6 for the preruck

2 for the prerun

conditions perfect overcast and 46 degrees

disclaimer

Longshanks on warm-up and he ran us to Double D Hill and we started working hard, more running around WEP with timely stops for a variety of PT, mosey to Springs Building for a peoples chair sequence followed by a mosey to Little Ceaser Park

Handoff to CSPAN

partner up with a man you don’t know

station workouts:

  1. 10 Burpees
  2. 45 Mountain Climbers
  3. 40 Squats
  4. 30 Tri-cep dips
  5. 55 LBC
  6. 20 Peter Parker and 20 Parker Peters
  7. 30 Flutters and 30 Hello Dolly
  8. 20 KB Curls and Hairburners
  9. Bear & Crab
  10. 25 Seal Jacks and 25 SSH
  11. 25 Imperial Walkers and 25 Hillbilly Walkers
  12. Tug-a-war and 10 Burpees

Finished up with a tug-a-war tournament

Mosey to COT

Prayer or Praise / BOM

Excellent Coffeerteria at Peach Stand

AYE!

CSPAN

 

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Rain, pain and gain at the Fort

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At 5 minutes to 6am with no PAX in sight, CableGuy and Bolt wondered if it was going to be a dual beatdown. With seconds to spare, 4 more PAX arrived in the high moisture content morning.

We welcomed back Comeback posting for only his second post, first last fall EH’d by VuVu. Disclaimer was given and we moseyed around the WEP trail.

Taken by CableGuy to the upper parking lot for warmups.  As per his style, cadence proceeded at a pace about 50% faster than most Q’s. We kept up the best we could with SSH’s, ParkerPeters, PeterParker’s, mountain climbers, merkins, squats, seal jacks, …

*** Q’s, always take note of who’s in attendance and that a demonstration/reminder of an exercise may be necessary. ***

Staying in the same lot, we were treated to a beatdown ladder of burpees countdown starting with 10 at one end (to 1), cross lot sprint, and the other end 10 squats each time.

Marylou nicely informed us  it was a total of 55 burpees.

The blood was pumping and the arms were hurting as the rain started to trickle about halfway through.

Before Bolt took the PAX to the field for 5 pain stations, he gave the PAX a few words about our responsibility as men to watch out for and protect the women and girls in our lives. We have been going through a steady stream of news on sexual abuse, assault and domestic abuse.

An easy walk down the hill to catch our breaths before the 5 pain stations which each had their own ‘lanes’ of varying length. 5 starting cones had workout instructions on them and a corresponding turn-around point cone.   A little improvisation with only 6 PAX (expecting 10 or more), we lined up at the cones. Top instruction for one PAX, bottom for other PAX staying at cone.

cone1: top instruction: Run up hill carrying 40# to cone and back/bottom for PAX staying: squats

cone 2: top: Broad jump to corresponding cone and back;  bottom: calf raises

cone3: Sprint to cone and back/ American Hammers w/ 20# or 30#

cone4: BearCrawl to cone and back/ bomb jacks using 2-10# bags

cone5: Lunges carrying 2 sand bags to cone and back/ merkins

We did a final run through of the stations as a group.

Back to COT lot for a few minutes of Mary.

A good push by all PAX.

*** Q’s: Remember to never leave the 6 behind. Remember that we are all at different fitness levels. Be encouraging and positive and supportive.

Bolt finished with his thoughts about it being our responsibility to look out for all the women in our lives: our wives, our daughters, our nieces, our friends, our neighbors. We are seeing bad men do bad things and a lot of men who downplay the problems or don’t speak out against the perpetrators. It is our responsibility to not only protect, but to speak out against the behavior when it occurs. Talk with your women, but especially your daughters. Let them know what good behavior of men should be.

Yeti in 2 weeks.   Reminder about our community involvement in Paradise with our workouts and mentoring/reading sessions.   P200 coming.   Prayers for PAX with sick children and relatives with health issues.

Thanks to Uncle Sam for volunteering to tutor in Paradise

2 for post workout breakfast at The Peach Stand.

*** Final Q tip: After using cones and/or coupons on a rainy day, be sure to not stack cones and leave in car for a few days and dry coupons asap. Stinky!

 

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Milkshakes at Tomahawk

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I love a good Twitter Storm… a little chatter and we had a pretty strong showing for a Monday. Milder weather probably didn’t hurt anything either… Let’s get to it:

Warm up lap around the outer loop of the parking lot

Circle up in middle of lot:
10 x windmill
10 x merkins
10 x squats
15 x SSH
10 x Moroccan Nightclubs

Grab your bell and go around school to small back parking lot.

AMRAP is the name of the game today… As Many Reps As POSSIBLE… You define possible for yourself, but I 100% promise you are capable of more than your mind thinks you are.

Very simple… 40lb. Sandbag is hoisted on to a Pax shoulders, and he runs about 150 yards down and back. This man is the timer. Do the exercise on the cone until the sandbag runner gets back, then rotate to the next cone.

Cones:
Curls
Goblet Squats
KB Front Hold
Flutters with press
Clean and press (L then R)
KB Swings
Around the World (or Slingshot)
REPEAT

NMM:
If you want to know what’s in a man’s head, watch his actions for a bit… We will eventually always betray what is inside us. I had hard work on the mind over the last few days, so I attempted to bring it to the Pax. After a couple rounds, though, I think I had quitting on my mind… I gave some inspiring blah, blah, blah at the start about working hard and how we were going to do as many reps as POSSIBLE, and how we should push and so on and so on… I ran fast when it was my turn… I lifted the heavy things… but I didn’t do it with the intensity and purpose that I knew I should/could have… I keep saying, “The hard work of this world will not be done by weak men.” I know it’s true, but I think I’m not even close to strong enough yet. Fortunately, I don’t have to be yet.

Helmet, out.

 

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11

I really wish we could do more Side Straddle Hops

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Nice cool morning at WEP for 8 PAX to get after it and get better. Cornhole leads us off with the disclaimer and off we go.

The Thang

Cornholes Section:

Dynamic Warm up around path High Knees, Butt Kickers, Toy Soldiers, Side Shuffles

COP – Windmill, IW, SSH, MT climbers, 12 Ct Merkins, Moroccan Nightclubs

Hill – Accumulator
Run up SSH-28 run down, Jump Lunges-10,
Plank Punches-28,
Bomb Jacks-10,
Squats-28, Merkins-10.

Hand of to Longshanks

Mosey to the Playground for a Dirty McDeuce (all IC except for Pullups)
12 Squats, 12 LBC’s, 12 Merkins, Run a lap around the playground
12 Sumo Sqwuats, 12 Rosalitas, 12 Wide arm Merkins, run a lap around the playground
12 Narrow Squats, 12 Flutters, 12 Diamond Merkins, run a lap around the playground
12 Monkey Humpers, 12 Dying Cockroach, 12 Pullups, run a lap.

Mosey to the Springs Building courtyard
10 Dips (IC), 10 Step ups each side OYO, 5 Derkins OYO
15 Dips (IC), 15 Step ups each side OYO, 10 Incline Merkins OYO

Mosey back to the WEP Parking Lot.
Stairway to Heaven
Run to first lightpole, 10 Burpees
Run to second lightpole, 9 Burpees
run to third lightpole, 8 burpees
run to fourth lightpole, 7 burpees
run to fifth lightpole, 6 burpees
run to the last lightpole, 5 burpees,
run back down stopping at lightpoles for 4 Burpees, 3 burpees, 2 burpees, and 1 burpee

Finish with COT and BOM

Announcements – Fastest 5k next Saturday, read your newsletter

Cornhole took us out in prayer

Moleskin
1. Weather is starting to get a little cooler so just remember the saying – there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. Hats gloves, tights are all acceptable as it starts to get cooler.
2. YHC knows he talks a bunch of crap on twitter especially before a Saturday workout. its all in good fun. Get up, get going to a workout of your choice, and #getbetter
3. Thanks Bonsai for the opportunity to lead and to Cornhole for letting me share the Q.
4. Mary Lou is scary fast at Stairway to Heaven. I think he was done before the rest of us were halfway.
5. Mad props to Little John for being 68 and still kicking donkeys. Always good to have you out.

Shanks Out!!

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The real gloom at WEP

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What a great Saturday morning. I got out to the AO a little early cause I hadn’t been out to WEP in a very long time. The air was thick with fog, it was dark, it was downright scary  – the perfect type type of gloom that we love to work with.

Men  start showing up about eight minutes before launch, by the time we were ready to go we had a total of 19 PAX ready to get after it . Nomad  brought 3 FNG’s from his youth group and they were excited to figure out what was in store for them this morning.  I bet they felt differently after words.

Maximus were starting us off today so he gave the long disclaimer for new friends and off we went .

It was a nice quick jog and then circle up to do several exercises that I can’t recall individually – but Maximus pushed us to get nice and warmed up.

the Thang

Partner up

partner 1 pull ups AMRAP while partner 2 runs around the playground  perimeter.

Repeat three times

After that we will circle up in the playground dirt and did several of the exercises which included toe touches, LBCs, flutter kicks and chopsticks. Maybe an elbow plank in there as well.

Maximus then turned it over to Royale

Mosey into the grass circled up and picked new partners

Lazy Dora

No running, consists  of the following exercises that are rotated between the two partners until you get to the combined number .

100 merkins

10 each while other partner planks

200 Squats

25 each while other partner holds low squat

300  American hammers single count

30 each  while partner holds 6 inches

This evolution was terrible so I gave the guys a break after it was done and read from Discipline Equals Freedom, a section called “application of discipline ”  from Jocko Willink’s most recent book. I shared his video about the book above.  It’s one of my favorite short motivational videos on YouTube!

The next evolution involved a nice little hill for 11’s

Run up the top the hill- do 10 bomb jacks – run back down – one plank jack until you reverse the cycle down to one Bomb Jack and 10 plank jacks.

Next we moseyed halfway around the park on the running track until we came close to the front road and entrance to the park.

We formed two lines and partnered up with the person right across from you in line- sat down and did two minutes each of big boy sit ups many as you can.

finally spent the last two minutes doing as many as you can burpees – real crowd pleaser

COT with FNG naming, Gomer, Ghost Rider and Chop Block.

Announcements prayers and praises

It was an honor to lead,

Royale & Maximus

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