Capture Gladiator’s Flag

Preamble:

It’s always interesting to see how many PAX post on the day after a holiday.  YHC put a message out on Slack that this would be a beatdown that they wouldn’t want to miss, so at 5:30AM we had 10 PAX willing and ready to play some games.  And that is what we indeed did.

Warm-O-Rama:

DB drills in the parking lot, then circle up for:

• SSH
• Windmill
• Imperial Walker
• Weed Pickers

Head back through the parking lot for DB drills, on our way to the turf field for the main event.

The Thang:

Split into 2 teams for Capture the Flag.

GAME SETUP & RULES:  Each PAX gets a pool noodle (cut in half) color coded to their team’s color.  The field is wide and fairly short, with a half field line of cones and a set of cones making an arc around each side’s flag, sort of like a penalty box in soccer.  On your side of the field, you are in defense mode and have to be in a crabwalk position the entire time.  On the opponents side,  you are in offense mode, staying in bear crawl on that side.  The goal is to hit the flag (which consisted of a “slow for children” sign with flag attached) which scores 1 point.  If a team scores, everyone goes back to their side, the opponent must do 3 burpees and the team that scored does SSH until the other team is done.  If you are tagged by an opponents pool noodle on the offensive side, you stand up and do 5 squats, then run back to your side.  When you are on your side in defense mode you cannot be tagged, rather you are looking to tag out their offensive players.  The key to this setup is that the bear crawl is slightly faster than the crabwalk which gives the offense a better chance to score leading to a higher point total.  We used a 90’s rock playlist to jam to.

After 20 minutes of non-stop action, we took a quick halftime break for a:

• Dora 1-2-3 on the turf field.  Partner 1 runs while partner 2 does the exercise.
• 50 Big Boy Situps
• 100 Flutter
• 150 Freddy Mercury

We played 10 more minutes before wrapping up and heading back to the flag for 2 minutes Mary.  The score ended with Tebow and Brownie’s team coming from behind and cleaning house.

COT:

I can’t believe it’s been nearly 3 years since the Gladiator launch.  YHC was there that day and it’s been really impressive to see the growth and acceleration of this AO since then.  During the closeout, I mentioned how as men we need mornings like this where we can laugh and play games with friends.  It brings us back to our childhood and keeps us youthful.  Prayers were asked for the family of a good buddy of mine who we lost to leukemia last week.  RIP Mark.

Naked-Man Moleskin:

We missed Stroller and a few other regulars who were out of town.  But where was DC2, Viking, Manchester and a few other oldie regulars??  Would love to see these high impact men come back to the gloom sometime soon.