The Whisperer

Preamble:

After a long and overdue sabbatical from Rubicon dating back to June of this year to focus on running events it was absolutely fantastic to be back.  Checking Slack yesterday MT threw out Rubicon was Q-less and I love opportunities to go all-in and scooped up the spot.  Nice pre-run with MT, Lumberg and White Claw and was great to get the legs moving again and felt like the scene from Forrest Gump when he was kid and started running and the braces started to break into pieces.  I knew immediately that the mind, body, and spirit needed F3 and it was time.

Warm-O-Rama:

Familiar melody of SSH, Weed Pickers, and Merkins.

The Thang:

Thang 1:

We went right to work at the adjacent planters and each Pax hammered out 100 reps non-stop of 25 box jumps, 25 Derkins, 25 box jumps, and 25 Derkins.  Air Chair for the Six not much time there as everyone hustled through the prescribed reps.

Thang 2:

Quick mosey over to the track and we got in an abbreviated Mucho Mile with each lap doing the 50 rep Mucho of 10 regular, 10 wide, 10 diamond, 10 staggered left, and 10 staggered right.  4 laps around for a total of 200 pushups.  The lactic build up here starting around lap 3 was special.  The reps at Lap 4 for most including myself resembled more of leading a breakdance class teaching the Worm than a pushup.

Thang 3:

Hit the rock pile.  Notice provided to grab a heavy ass rock the size your great grandfather would have picked up to put in work like the days of WWII before men began using face moisturizer (no knock I apply and 15 SPF daily). From there we went to the bottom of the hill by the FOD and original call was for 25 reps but as we started could sense the Pax wanted more and we bumped the rep count up to 50.  Starting at the bottom we did 50 chest presses and carrying rock to the top we did 50 curls.  2.5 sets of this pattern for a total of 250 reps after the bonus chest press at the top.  While waiting for the Six we ran up and down the hill.

Rally to the flag where a great man Devito started the Mary and then called upon newer F3 members that haven’t Q’d yet to lead a Mary.  Great job by all to step up and get 19 men in sync.

COT:

Awesome work from F3 Alpha to generously raise funds for NLB and donating a Uhaul of supplies and cash donation.

Congratulations to Pitstop on the sale of his home and happy new home searching.

TP for Pinky and MT’s 10U girls’ soccer championship tonight.  Sounds like the drama filled semi-final game needs to be shown on ESPN Classic.

Naked-Man Moleskin:

Can’t express enough the power of this group and growth of friendships that can develop within this group that penetrate far below surface level.  That is something earned by answering the whisper in their head to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself and help other men get better.  These friendships are forged through hard work and pain through effort that allows you to connect and know that there are other crazy dudes out there wanting to push themselves and those exactly the type of men you want to surround yourself with.  Men that won’t always tell you what you want to hear and are willing to challenge you because we all know we need to show up and be the man that those around us need us to be.

I’ve mentioned before but will keep singing the praises of F3 and the connections made until someone tells me to shut up.  I started F3 18 months ago and here I was a couple weeks ago giving it all I had for almost 29 hours running 103 miles up down and around a mountain in the cold on some skinny ass legs.  I didn’t ask an old high school buddy or a work contact to come help but enlisted Miller Time who I met through F3 and quickly realized we shared a common bond of pushing new limits and actually seeing what can we accomplish through testing ourselves.

Here we were together gritting out some tough miles in the dead of night and knew I needed someone there by my side that understood the mentality of what it would take to finish and wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself when it got tough and the fire was warm.  A guy that would push me to shuffle my feet even if just for a minute when it was the last thing I wanted to do on planet earth.

These are the type of relationships that are mandatory we have in our lives today to  be the man your M needs you to be and the Father your children need to guide them through a wild world.

You don’t have to run 103 miles there could be something challenging your going through in your personal and professional life and you’re going to need that buddy there with you to remind you to “shuffle your feet and keep moving forward”.  I guarantee you’ll find that buddy within F3.