Quacken – Page 4 – F3 Knoxville

Groundhog Day in the Midbar

February 2, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: thequacken
Q: FixerUpper
PAX: DoorKicker (Jud), Frizzles, Shotgun
FNGs: None
COUNT: 4
WARMUP:
Warmup stuff (spoiler – it didn’t work)

THE THANG:
Mosey to Gresham
AMRAP type workout
– 10 Big Boi Situps
– 20 Lunges (the easy way)
– 30 Squats
Jog as far a possible before road turned into bobsled track, then returning back to start
Repeato

Mosey back to the AO, notice that the temperature reading on the Gresham MS school sign was frozen

MARY:
Shotgun : Dead bugs in cadence (cicada -ence?, we may have stumbled upon something there)
Doorkicker : 50 LBCs (I made a “not to 50!!” reference that no one got)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hey! We are an East region!

COT:
One of the “meta-narratives” of the Bible is The Wilderness and The Garden (midbar and eden). I’ve been listening to the Bible Project podcast series about this, and it has been fascinating and very helpful to think through. In essence, God creates a Garden out of the Wilderness of non-creation, and humans journey back and forth between these two places over and over for different reasons. Examples include:
– Adam and Eve
– Cain
– Hagar
– Abraham
– Moses
– The People of Israel (out of Egypt, into the Garden of Canaan, then back into the exile of Assyria and Babylon)
– John the Baptizer
– Jesus
– The Church

Why does this matter? What is this weird, old Jewish book?
– Maybe you’ve experienced a Wilderness time in your life, when you feel as though you’re about to go back into the dust.
– Maybe you wonder why in the Garden times, things still aren’t quite right either.
– Maybe there is more there than you might see at first
– Maybe you wonder if there are any stories bigger than your own.

Count me in on all of these :point_up:

Prayer for certain items, SYITG next time :v:

Friday Ruck PT

January 30, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: thequacken
Q: vanilla
PAX: Frizzles, Natty, DoorKicker (Jud), Mountain Ice, Postman (Scott Colby), Recoil (Blake Conley), vanilla, Mic Drop(Sam)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
WARMUP: walkin

THE THANG: random ruck routes with 10 merkins and 10 squats every 3 min

MARY: nah

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Adam (bone marrow recovery) – Recoil (Blake Conley) church member who lose home and kids in fire

COT: So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

— Mitch Albom Tuesday’s With Morrie

Supersets

January 28, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: thequacken
Q: DoorKicker (Jud)
PAX: Mountain Ice, FixerUpper, Shotgun, Z-Pack, Frizzles
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
WARMUP: Cross Country Skiers, tempo squats, Thai fighters, etc…

THE THANG: 5 minute Supersets 5 exercises, 1 exercise per minute.

High Knees
Merkins
Squat Jumpers
Plank
Carolina Dry Docks

MARY:

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Starfish Convergence on Saturday.

COT: The world is getting more and more divisive everyday. Don’t let others’ beliefs, values, and viewpoints get in the way of spreading the love.

52 Card Beatdown

January 26, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: thequacken
Q: Z-Pack
PAX: Frizzles, Magic Mic (Jarrett Woodall)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 3
WARMUP:
I was running late because I couldn’t find my ice scraper. Frizzles Magic Mic warmed up without me. I slipped and fell on ice when we walked to the gazebo in the park. So, that was something

THE THANG:
We took turns drawing cards from a deck, the card number is the number of reps and the suit determines the exercise.
:heart:= burpee
:diamonds:= decline merkin
:spades:= jump squat
:clubs:= lunge, easy way
For face cards,
Jack is 11 reps, Queen is 12 and King is 13
Aces = 25 SSH, 4ct
Jokers are wild. PAX chooses exercise and reps.
I did plank shoulder taps on a 4 count, 10 reps.
Magic Mic did American Hammers on a 4 count, 15 reps.

We went overtime by a couple of minutes so we could finish the deck. It was pretty cold but the workout warmed us up. Frizzles and Magic Mic helped me take down Big Burpee and his kingdom once again.

MARY:
No time

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Starfish Convergence on Saturday! 0700 at Asylumm. 0600 run or ruck.
2nd F Lunch on Wednesday at Kerns Food Hall!
Haw Ridge on March 27th
Genesis AO re-launch
Norris AO launch

COT:
Groundhog Day

If you haven’t seen the movie, it stars Bill Murray, who plays Phil Connors. Phil is a local TV weatherman in Pittsburgh. He is a self-centered bachelor who is looking to advance his career. He can be charming but mainly he is a jerk. Phil along with producer Rita and a cameraman are assigned to cover the Groundhog Day events in small town, Punxsutaney. Phil is not thrilled about the assignment, but he is a professional. After covering the Groundhog’s annual prediction, Phil is eager to get back to Pittsburgh, but he and his team are forced to stay in Punxsutaney due to a blizzard that Phil predicted would miss the area. He wakes up the next morning and is unnerved to find that Groundhog Day is repeating, but he is the only one who notices. Phil’s Groundhog Day repeats over and over again. It’s a never ending 24 hour loop that he can’t escape.

There is no explanation of why Phil is stuck in the loop and how he can get out. His journey unfolds in stages: he indulges in “adolescent” antics with no consequences; escalation to debauchery and darker impulses; then despair culminating in repeated (but futile) suicide attempts; a period of emptiness; and finally, self-improvement through learning skills to help others. He truly stops being a self-centered jerk and starts serving all the people around him. He brings breakfast to his team, he does an amazing job reporting the Groundhog story, he saves a man from choking and a boy falling from a tree, and much more, which ultimately breaks the cycle as he earns love and respect from Rita.

The writer Danny Rubin stressed that this transformation highlights how the same day can shift from “the worst day of his life” to “the best day of his life” based on perspective and growth.

It made me think about the mission of F3 to invigorate male leadership, and leadership is all about serving, and serving others brings happiness and contentment to our hearts.

Lastly, as a Christian, I see that in the story Phil saves himself through his good works, but I know the only way to salvation in this life is through Jesus. Jesus truly changes our hearts.

I wanna ruck

January 23, 2026 BackBlasts

AO: thequacken
Q: Mountain Ice
PAX: vanilla, Otis, DoorKicker (Jud), Hobie
FNGs: None
COUNT: 5
WARMUP:
Ruck’d tha loop

THE THANG:
Step off into the cool morning air and see where the roads take us. 2.63 miles later we arrived back at the AO

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Upcoming Knoxville starfish convergence 1/31
– AO launch: The Spillway in Norris is planting the flag for the first time. 2/4
– Goruck event coming in April. Weekend of the 24th.
– Campus/downtown 2nd F lunch next Wednesday! 1/28

COT:
‘To come back to the question, the wise man, self-sufficient as he is, still desires to have a friend if only for the purpose of practising friendship and ensuring that those talents are not idle. Not, as Epicurus put it in the same letter, ‘for the purpose of having someone to come and sit beside his bed when he is ill or come to his rescue when he is hard up or thrown into chains’, but so that on the contrary he may have someone by whose sickbed he himself may sit or whom he may himself release when that person is held prisoner by hostile hands. Anyone thinking of his own interests and seeking out friendship with this in view is making a great mistake.’

-Seneca, Letter IX On Friendship