Date: 05.30.20
AO: Armada
12 PAX: Geek, Leotard, Pope, Tapatillo, Shoota, The Hackface, OT, Waterboy, House Arrest, Jorts, Magic Mic (knoxville), QIC (Swingline)
5:30 pre-party The Hackface and House Arrest asked YHC if I wanted to join them on their run, but I was holding out for Bloodclot who fartsacked. So I mosey a handful of laps around the park for a solo-ruck fiesta. 6:30 rolls around and 9 more PAX show up.
Warm-o-rama: F3 disclaimer. Explanation of the ensuing playlist - a journey through my life starting in 80’s/90’s thru today - starts with Metallica’s The Unforgiven. 20 SSH in cadence, 20 seal jacks in cadence-ish - start low, then out to side, then up, back down to low, or was it middle, Shoota is still standing there trying to figure this out. No cadence happening. OT thinks we are at 15, it was probably more like 6 but I think he just wanted this to be done. 20 hillbilly squats in cadence follow and we finish up with 10 el bartos (good mornings) OYO.
Count off 1-2 to split the PAX into 2 teams for today’s field day competition. 3 or 5 rounds depending on time. Team 1: Geek, Leotard, Pope, Tapatillo, Shoota, The Hackface. Team 2: OT, Waterboy, House Arrest, Jorts, Magic Mic (knoxville) and Swingline (QIC).
Round 1 - teams start at parking lot and race to the alien pole just north of the playground. Mode of transportation is a 4 count monkey jumper - 3 monkey humpers followed by a broad jump on 4th “hump”. Nirvana’s Lake of Fire gets us started. Man, these were a leg burner! Team 1 for the win.
Round 2 - 11’s in the field. Start with 1 burpee, then take 11 “steps” of bear taps (bear crawl with toe tap in between each step), to 10 single leg merkins, tap bears back (crawl bear with toe taps in between each step). Then 2 burpees, 9 single leg merkins, etc. until 10 burpees and 1 merkin. This was a sweaty mess, or the grass was really wet or both. Either way we were all sopping. Pope was excited about the music I think because his shirt came off quickly. Round 2 had the music of Linkin Park’s Bleed it Out and Rage Against the Machine’s Renegades of Funk, maybe even Sublime’s Santeria and 311’s Down. It was all a blur at this point. But not the band Blur, although I did have it on the list of options. This came down to wire but Team 2 won by only a few seconds. 1-1.
Round 3 rubber match. DORA in the park. Partner up with your team. Each team has 3 pairs of 2. Exercises are completed by one PAX while other runs the length of the field and back (approx ¼ mile?). Then switch. Exercises were 100 single leg burpees, 200 star jump squats and 300 big boy sit ups. First team to have all pairs completed first wins. Music included: Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood, Beastie Boys’ Girls, A Tribe Called Quest’s Buggin’ Out, Notorious BIG’s Notorious Thugs, Wu-Tang’s Visionz, Outkast’s Elevators, KSHMR’s Wildcard (start of the oontz-oontz techno). Everyone was hustling and pushing but Team 1 smoked Team 2. Jorts and I had 100 big boys left!! 8 minutes left - calling it at 3 rounds - Team 1 takes the competition! Great job everyone!
8 minutes of Mary. 30 sec on, 10 sec off. Alternating between up-downs and X-ups (similar to V-ups) and some more techno - The Fat Rat’s Stronger - and last but certainly not least NeedToBreathe’s Brother (Christian, coming full circle on my journey).
Count off, name-o-rama which includes Leotard’s backflip which is simply amazing no matter how many times you see it. Strong strong work today brothers! Great to see Magic Mic from Knoxville. Great to meet fng Jorts who posted 3X this week - great work brother!
After Hackface and House left for their pre-party run I was waiting for a few minutes hoping someone would join for the rucking festivities but no one showed. After a brief moment of sadness, I knew and trusted God had a plan. As you may know at the COT I like to share parts of my story and offer some encouragement to the PAX. I take this opportunity seriously and I had no idea what I was going to talk about today. I threw on a podcast sermon from one of my favorite pastor’s from Summit Church in NC - JD Greear. He is doing a series on the book of Romans and in the sermon he was explaining the freedom we have when we walk with the Spirit (chapter 8). This was just what I needed to hear this morning and I am certain this message was for at least one of you guys too. I read 8:1- 8:6. Romans 8:5 tells us “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” JD went on to explain that we grieve the Spirit and are not in step with the Spirit when we focus on the 5 “selfs”: Self-Will (doing it my way), Self-Glory (for my glory and recognition), Self-Gratification (to satisfy my fleshly desires), Self-Righteousness (“do good” to earn favor / salvation) and Self-Sufficiency (do it all on our own). However when we surrender all to God’s will / glory / gratification / righteousness / sufficiency we are in true fellowship with the Holy Spirit and live in true freedom. I forgot to mention this next part from the sermon - JD said when we do not surrender 100% we use God as a mere suggestion box for those areas of lives not fully surrendered to Him. And that is an area of our lives that reveals an idol in our hearts or a sin that we are still a slave to. I lived the first 30 or so years of my life completely according to the flesh. And I still have tendencies. My prayer is for all of us PAX to surrender all of ourselves to our Lord and find true freedom in this brief amount of time we have on this Earth. Love you guys and it truly is an honor to lead and bring the pain.
The prize for the winners was Tiny Donuts! My lovely M dropped them off and several people - including a cameo by Wilson - brought some joe to share at coffeeteria. All were winners and got better today - strong work brothers!!
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