Lead, Then Get Out of the Way

A month ago Lutefisk reached out for me to Q today and I said yes.  Thinking to myself, that will give me plenty of time to get my sorry butt somewhat back in shape.  Well, that didn’t happen so had to figure out how to lead, without leading.   Thus U vs U was my only option.
Disclaimer
FNG Alex (Soft Tail)
Mosey to Domino’s
    Mtn Climbers (10), Carolina Dry Docks (10), Hello Dollies (10), Lunges (10)
Mosey to Dogtopia
    Side Straddle Hops (54 of course), Merkins (10), LBC’s (10), Squats (10)
Mosey to back of Dollar Tree
    Peter Parkers (10), Plank Punches (10), Freddie Mercuries (10), Monkey Humpers (10)
Mosey to Express Lube wall
    Parker Peters (10), Dips (10), Box Cutters (10), Step-Ups (10-each leg)
Mosey to Walgreen’s Drive Through – Now the U vs U part
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Merkins
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Merkins, 10- Carolina Dry Docks
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Merkins, 10- Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Wide Arm Merkins
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Merkins, 10- Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Wide Arm Merkins, 10 Diamond Merkins
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Merkins, 10- Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Wide Arm Merkins, 10 Diamond Merkins, 10 Hand Release Merkins
    Some folks did an extra lap (because they can)
Round Two
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Bomb Jacks
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Bomb Jacks, 10- Side Straddle Hops
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Bomb Jacks, 10- Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees
    Run Lap around Building(s) –  10 Bomb Jacks, 10- Side Straddle Hops, 10 Burpees, 10 Mountain Climbers ( I think this is as far as anyone got)
    Was an option to substitute Ab exercises but in true F3 fashion peer pressure prevented any of that non-sense.
Always honored and humbled to Q.  Was great to see a lot of faces, haven’t seen in while.  Appreciate the Lake Wylie boys getting up soooo early to make the trek across the pond, but stop your moaning already (Witch Hunt).
Pax: Bones, Witch Hunt, O’Reilly, Royal, Wild Thing, Slap shot, Oscar the grouch, Tesla, Long Duck, Olaf, Shop Vac, Nature boy, Cha Ching, Change Order, Fish Sticks, Duck Dynasty, Stang, Grass Knoll, Lutefisk, White Lightening, Half Shell, Cyclopes, Trucker, Zoo-lander, FNG (Soft Tail), Cake Boss
Cornhole Out
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The Kettlebell Tolls for Thee, at Cannonball

It was a misty morn as 14 gathered to sling kettlebells at Cannonball, including FNG “Silent Bob”, who was EH’d at Trunk or Treat by O’Reilly just this past Sunday.  YHC sort of forgot I was on Q till yesterday, so props for the promo from Two Ferns.  Post disclaimer for the FNG, here’s how it went down:

Warm-o-rama

  • 20 SSH IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers, IC
  • 10 Windmills, IC
  • 10 Merkins, IC
  • 20 Moroccan Night Clubs, IC
  • 200 year walk with kettlebell held high, around the parking lot

The Thang, Part I

We split the group into two teams of 7 so we could divide and conquer 3 boards:

Board I – all with 25lb kettlebell

  • single arm curls, 10 per arm
  • Goblet squats, 10 (although group 2 did 15)
  • around the body partner pass, 15 revolutions each direction
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
  • KB swings, 10 IC
  • KB Merkins, 10 each arm
  • KB lunges, 10 per leg
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

Board II:

  • Lawnmowers, 10 per arm
  • Tiny Tim (75ish lb KB) deadlifts, 10
  • Alternating shoulder press ladder, 1-5
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
  • KB calf raises, x30
  • 2 handed triceps extensions, x20
  • Single arm chest press, 10 per arm
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

Board III:

  • 10 burpees, (without KB)
  • Flutters with KB, 15 IC
  • Freddie Mercurys, 15 IC
  • KB American hammers, 15 IC
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm

The Thang, part II

  • People’s chair with KB, guys on the end do 3 leaping jump squats
  • BttW (or People’s chair mod), guys on the end do something I can’t remember
  • take walking lap around the parking lot with kettlebell held high with one arm
    • on the last leg, KB Lieutenant Dans (about 30 yards)

The Thang part IV:

  • Bear crawl relay, about 25 yards…not sure which team won
    • started by dragging the KB, then Omaha’d to simple bear crawl

For a non-running post Nessie workout we still got 1.4 miles in.  Prayers for healing and New River Women’s retreat.  Welcome to FNG “Silent Bob”.  It was an honor to lead.

Wolverine

 

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Music Q/Football @ The Deep

Picked up a sub-Q from Homebrew and it was time to bring back what we’ve been missing so badly at The Deep…

 

FOOTBALL!

 

Disclaimer for our FNG (Two Stroke) and visiting member from California (88) and we were off.

 

Mosey to Oak Ridge Elementary Parking lot where we stayed for the first half of the workout.

COP included things like Windmills, Produce Pickers, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers, maybe Merkins(?)

Music Q Time!- We did 4 songs with some exercises.  In between we cranked out 2 sprints of 30ish yards at 70% and 10ish yards at 100%.  About 10 seconds or so between each sprint.

Songs/Exercises included-

Phoenix/1901 – SSHs during verses/Morrocan Night Clubs during chorus

Hey Ya/Outkast- LBCs during verses/Freddie Mercurys during Hey Ya’s

Numb/Linkin Park- Plank Jacks during heavy parts/Shoulder taps through verse

All The Small Things/Blink 182- This one was my favorite.  American Hammers double count throughout the whole song.  Tried to get to 91 (x2=182).  We did the whole song with some breaks but the plan is to be able to do the whole songs without stopping.  I got to 52 before I had to break but kept the count and jumped back in.

Football Time!

Teams were formed.  Mostly even in size and ability.  New rules for the game were established.  Ultimate Football, dropped ball = change of possession.  When possession changes, new team starts at midfield.  When a team scores, the defense does 5 burpees.  Also had some cones marking out of bounds and end zone.

Highlights included:

-10 minutes of wet football, dropped passes, and no scoring.

-2 passing and 1 receiving TD by YHC

– Two Ferns breaking up a pass by attempting to break a pastor’s wrists/hands

 

Mosey back to COT and do some announcements/prayers

Announcements: Nessie and Party on 10/26, Regional Shirt launch!, and any donations for shovel flags needing to be made for future/current AOs.

Prayers: Survey Says Grandpa as he makes his journey to heaven (passed away during that morning), Wild Thing’s ankle and recovery, and healing for all PAX who are injured.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead as always O’Reilly!

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Cards & Bells

Yeah, why not take the deck of cards across the lake? What could go wrong? Oh, you mean Cannonball is a kettle bell workout…uhhhhh, ok.

Welcome to what went through my head as I penned the Weinke for this morning’s Q at Cannonball. During the TRAINING process for an upcoming event, I’ve spent a decent amount of time with the infamous deck of cards so the last thing I wanted to be called was selfish. I must share this with my “friends.” After all, we only have 45mins which, after a little warm up, means closer to 40.

So, once 14 others joined me and got disclaimed, we took off on our warm up jog with a little, and I mean a little, additional stretching. Back to the start for some warm up exercises consisting of:

Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Merkins and Windmills

Soooooo, get comfortable with your bell and listen to today’s version of the deck of cards.

Like normal, each suit represents an exercise and the number/face on the card represents the rep count. Here’s the twist, I’m planning to get through the entire suit (numbers at random and are decently shuffled) before moving on. Once we finish a suit, we’ll do a little 4-corners visiting. I know, I know, you’re longing for a better explanation so for those still reading (hey Funhouse), you’re welcome:

Diamonds: Slow upright rows w/ the KB.

Run the 4 corners of the parking lot with 15 Merkins at each corner.

Hearts: 8ct Body Builders with a KB swing at the top rather than a jump. We made it through about 1/2 of these before I noticed the time was getting away from me. Yeah, I’ll blame it on that.

Run the 4 corners with 15 Chop Sticks at each corner. Think Flutters but in a “C” formation rather than straight up and down.

Spades: KB Curls. While challenging these were a welcome change.

Run the 4 corners of the parking lot with 10 Dips at each corner.

Clubs: KB Thrusters. We made it through 5 of these before losing to Father time.

It seemed a little too easy in the beginning but as has been the case EVERY SINGLE TIME we do the deck of cards, it turns into a heavy dose of humility. For those that travel with work and you’re not able to find an AO to visit, take a deck of cards with you to have your own workout in the hotel gym or parking lot. It’s a great alternative to running with the fern. Unless of course, you get to run with Two Ferns.

My message today was about training. I shared some personal training journeys I’m currently on and encourage the PAX to train for something. Don’t make the mistake thinking training is only possible in the physical sense. Training is putting a plan together to get better at something or in some aspect of life. Think about how you can train spiritually, mentally, emotionally or, in a relationship. If you’re not training, you’ll be stagnant which means you’ll become part of the culture. We need to be the “break the glass” people that our conentrica calls. However, if you’re not training, you won’t get the call.

Good times hanging & laughing with the boys of LKW.

Maximus

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7th Year Convergence for The Fort

The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before.  Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.

CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.

Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”

Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP

Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence

Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under

Crowd pleaser for sure!

7 Burpees for 7 Years!

Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.

Hand off to Maximus

Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.

So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:

½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way

At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)

10 Jump Squats

Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:

NUR (backwards run) up the hill

3 Burpees at the top

Bear Crawl down

5 Burpees at the bottom

Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.

Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement.  Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,

YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion.  Then the Thang:

Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes.  Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done.  That took 10 minutes!  60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.

Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps.  We got to 8!

Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!

Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.

Burpees x 10 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
Mosey to a corner of WEP
Burpees x 9 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 8 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalita IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 7 OYO
Flutters IC x 10
LBCs IC x 10
Rosalitas IC x 10
Hello Dollies IC x 10
Mosey to another corner
Burpees x 6 OYO
LBCs IC x 10
Flutters IC x 10
COT
Naked Moleskin – The name-o-rama took forever.  That is a good thing. When 60+ PAX post to celebrate something that has obviously changed their lives, then change is happening!  Thanks to Maximus who put this awesome weekend celebration together!  His leadership is not only Effective (Using VAPE) but he is a Virtuous Leader! (Check out the Q Source for the 5 C’s Virtues of Virtuous Leadership) Can’t wait to see what year 8 brings to The Fort!  More importantly, who it brings!  Time to go EH someone.  See you in the gloom.
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C

So it is almost a week later as I write this.  Better late than never I guess. Hopefully I can recollect most of what happened!

It all started with the usual disclaimer and then a quick lap around the parking lot.

I’m not much for warm ups, but did to some this morning.  Certainly some windmills, merkins, squats, SSH’s.

I then got my speaker out for  a little fun.  Since I have been working my way through the Exicon and we would be doing the letter C today I play a song called Alphabet Aerobics, and made everyone go from Merkins to 6″ holds every time he began rapping a new letter.  The song is just over 2 minutes, but you felt it!

1st routine: The Cycle

We moseyed to the baseball field and started at home plate

  • bear crawl to 1st, 3 burpees, crawl bear to home
  • bear crawl to 2nd, 6 burpees, crawl bear to home
  • bear crawl to 3rd base, 9 burpess, crawl bear to home
  • bear crawl to home, 12 burpees, crawl bear to home

This one always sucks.

2nd routine: C.L.I.M.B.

We went to the hill and did the following exercises:

  • Ran down the hill
  • Crab Cakes, Lunges, Imperial Walkers, Monkey Humpers, Bombjacks
  • NUR up the hill
  • The increments were x2 so it started with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and then 2, 4,6,8,10, etc.
  • We did this 4 times and x2 on the exercise count each time.

3rd routine: Catch me if you can

Mosey back to main lot and partnered up.  You all know how this one goes.  I called out various exercises and Partner A did them, then caught their partner who was NUR’ing, rinse and repeat.  We did 4 reps of this and I called out a new exercise each time.

I can’t remember what we announced or prayed for, but we did!

Thanks for the Q O’Reilly!  It is always a great time Q’ing here!

Until next time,

FLUX

 

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Concentrica Cornhole… with Kettlebells!

Today was my opportunity to lead the men at Cannonball.  This place has become a PAX favorite.  Many of the men enjoy the Peg Leg pre-run before the standard start at 5:15am, so I was setting up with plenty of men gathering early.  Great to see Trench out there pre walking to get his miles in too! RESPECT.

We got the PAX circled up with the normal disclaimer.  Elmer Fudd joined us for his 2nd Day in a row, and Airwolf seems to having posted everyday for the last two weeks!  Got some new guys ready to go all in…

Disclaimer and we left our kettlebells for a little warmup.  One short lap around the parking lot to get the blood flowing then COP.

I don’t recall all, mostly just make up what feels good on COP nowadays.

IWs – Merkins – Producer Pickers – CDDs – LS Squats – Peter Parkers – Parker Peters – Mountain Climbers

Time to get to work, so we grabbed our kettlebells for a small walk back into the parking lot to circle up.

I started the 1st evolution getting all the men used to the 12 exercises (below).  We completed an “in cadence” round of 10 reps of each of the kettlebell exercises below.  Once complete we moved to our game.

My goal today was to share a man’s Concentrica.  I’ve set up this game before a few times, but with so many newer guys around and with our discussions around Q source and how to become a HIM, a refresher seemed welcome.

I drew a large bullseye on the ground with the 5 Concentrica rings.  From Center –> Out the rings are M — Shorties — Shieldlock — Whetstone — Mammon.  I gave a brief summary of each circle and how a man needs to focus his “shots” toward the center to stay in relational rhythm.  We’re not always accurate, but the goal should be the same…you want more of your attempts in the center than the outside!

The PAX would stand about 20 yards away and throw cornhole bags at the target.  Wherever the bag landed, we would rotate between the 2 exercises in each category.

They were:

M = Center

  1. 20 KB Swings
  2. Overhead Carry with a walk

Shorties

  1. 20 America Hammers DC
  2. 20 Flutters w/ Press DC

Shieldlock

  1. 25 Curls
  2. 25 Tricep Presses

Whetstone

  1. 25 Goblet Squats
  2. 20 Bent Rows each arm

Mammon

  1. 20 KB Pistol Squats each leg
  2. 25 KB Thrusters

OUT

  1. 5 Turkish Getups each side
  2. 10 KB Snatch each arm

Everyone got a turn, some a 2nd chance…I think the total attempts and workouts were 17-18.

There were two highlights to the event.

  1. Two Ferns went 1st, and proceeded to miss the target completely.  We started with 5 Turkish Getups, which set the mood perfectly. When he got the chance to redeem himself later he threw the beanbag as far as he could… clearly determined to show his distain for the heckling!
  2. Our 2nd Day PAXer Elmer Fudd was the ONLY PAX to hit the bullseye “M”. Today’s hero for sure.

We finished right on time, put the bells away and finished in COT.

Lots of Announcements – plenty to do… start with the Invergence next week!

Prayers for Costanza’s co-worker Nikki going through health and addiction issues.  And for YHC’s old friend Katie McCloud who lost her Mother to pancreatic cancer in a month.

A honor to lead,

Royale

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Tinsel’s Utensils rolled in the Deep

Great morning to bring all the props out, we had 17 PAX (4×2.0’s) kids have become “regulars” at the deep, we also had the visit from EZ rider from the Gas House Region.

We started with a slow mossey around the parking lot followed by the warm up exercises led in part by 2.0 Sonic:

Side Straddle Hops

Moroccan night clubs

Windmill

Weed pickers

Low Slow Squats

Mountain Climbers

Low Slow Merkin

As with most of my regular Q’s I had setup stations with different exercises on each station, in this case they were about 40-5- yards apart, we divided the group into 4 teams to conquer the 4 stations:

STATION 1

USE WEIGHTS 

-> 10 man makers

-> 20 biceps curls

-> 20 bent over row

-> 25 overhead press

-> 30 triceps extension

Bear crawl to station 2

STATION 2

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 20 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 Shoulder taps

-> 40 plank jacks

Crawl Bear to station 3

STATION 3

-> 10 burpees

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 20  Monkey Humpers

-> 20 lunges SC

-> 30 low squat (touch the ground with hand)

Bear crawl to station 4

STATION 4

-> 30 LBC’s

-> 30 Rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings  (15 each side)

-> 40 Dying Roach SC

-> 20 slam ball to ground

Crawl bear to station 1

Once all teams have finished all station we circled up for Royale to pick one of 3 cards that will give us the next exercise which consisted of a modified jack webb, I have used this webb twice and it’s best known to some of Lake Wylie’s pax as the Vin Diesel webb :

1 KneeKhtar N’Diaye (kneel down on both legs and get up, alternating legs) – 4 squats

Progressive to

10 KKND – 40 squats

It works your quadriceps on every single move, lots of whining during this set of exercises, next time I’ll bring extra smoked Gouda cheese for the whine.

We couldn’t  finish one of my workouts without the visit of the famous Captain Thor:

1 Big Boy Sit Up- 4 American Hammers

Progressive to

10 BBSU – 40 AH

Again lots of chatter during this one and one complained about his only Ab muscle being ripped apart after we finished,  but he certainly got better at ABS. We followed it with some stretching superman’s for about 1 minute.

With all the FiA ladies rolling in we had to go back to COT but we still had 5 minutes to spare so we finished our bootcamp with some Mary.

COT

We talked about the invergence and convergence coming up on September 6th and 7th.

Prayers for injured PAX, friends and family that are going through a difficult situation with their health and our families in general.

Great morning and great group of PAX, everyone got better!!

Thanks O’reilly for the opportunity to lead.

Tinsel Out

 

 

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Shovel Flag Handoff @ The Deep

What a day!

This morning was a beautiful sight to see.  30 men came out to see the passing of the shovel flag from YHC to O’Reilly.  I have been lucky enough to call myself Site Q of The Deep since March(?) 2018 and have loved every minute of it.  When I was first asked to take over by Royale, I said yes without hesitation.  I didn’t know it at the time, but running this site was going to instrumental to my growth as a leader within our F3 region and in my personal life.  I remember when I first took over as Site-Q, there were Saturday’s that I wouldn’t make it out and just chalked it up to work the night before.  But it wasn’t long before I got my mindset on being present and taking on my leadership role.  When Royale asked me to take on being Site-Q, he didn’t want someone to just make a schedule and be absent.  So I changed work schedules accordingly and even if for some reason I had to work the night before; I still made it out the next morning.

Thanks to everyone that stepped up to Q during my tenure.  Without you, The Deep wouldn’t be where it is today.

The Thang:

Disclaimer for our 4 FNGs and the PAX.  Mosey across to the Elementary School.  COP exercises included: SSHs, Windmills, Moroccan Night Clubs, Merkins, Flutters and Mountain Climbers.  Maybe some other stuff but I forgot.

Shakespeare’s Q- Playground Dora

PAX partnered up.  100 pull ups, 200 Squats, 300 Freddie Mercury.  1 PAX work and other made a run around the playground area.  Swap on return.

O’Reilly’s Q- Track Work

PAX got into 4 groups and lined up on the track.  Each group took off and ran approx. 100M.  After the run, PAX completed various amounts of exercises as a group and then lined up for the next run/exercise.  It started as a slow mosey for 100M but it soon turned into a sprinting race between Witch Hunt and Two Ferns.  Which then turned into Witch Hunt, Two Ferns, Flux, Shakespeare, John Wick, and Wolverine… and some others… but they were behind me so I wouldn’t know.

Exercises after the run included (in no particular order): 50 Merkins, 50 Lunges, 50 Bomb Jacks, 50 squat jumps… and stuff like that.  You’d have to ask O’Reilly what he wrote on his Weinke.  I don’t remember.  I just remember doing all the exercises and reps.

NameORama and Ball of Man at the end.

Announcements (all in the past now)

Prayers- For our brother Riverboat who passed the night before.  He was Godly man who ministered the Word until his last moment.  Fighting a brain tumor and multiple recurrences of this over the years; he never wavered in his Belief.  We were lucky to have him come towards the end of a workout at The Deep and give him his name.  He prayed over us that day.  Riverboat will be missed on Earth; but we all know where he is and there is absolutely no doubt about it.

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Copyright’s Counterclockwise Claudia

Cop

Pax started off with a full lap around the parking lot followed by some F your neighbor (exercise followed by everyone taking two-four steps to their left). AKA an excuse for me to share my 30#er.
Exercises included: bent over rows, tricep ext., Squats, moroccan night clubs

The Thang
Found this KB WOD on some CrossFit website. Claudia: 5 rounds of 20 KB swings, 400 m run

Kraken catch me if you can
Pax partnered up, P1 took two KBs and walked, P2 did a kraken burpee and ran to catch up and relieve partner for 2 laps.

DORA 100, 100, 100
P1 – KB thrusters, bent over rows (50 each arm), plank rows (50 each arm)
P2 – overhead carry to light pole (switch arm) and back

Finished with some Mary and a fan favorite counter clockwise nameorama.

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