THE SCENE: Unusually Warm, upper 70s, partly sunny but getting dark earlier and earlier…
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER Check
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 SSH, 4-ct IC, 10 Cherry Pickers, 4-ct, IC, Twist stretches…
Then Jinxy told us Swimmies (who we thought was just typically late) was actually stuck on the entrance road with a blown clutch. So… forget the rest of the warmup… MOSEY RUN TO THE RESCUE!
Followed Swimmies to his car, which was on the entrance road from Lyons View, dead in the water, smelling very unpleasantly of fried clutch. It was HIM’s to the rescue! Pushed it up to a pull off area, then proceeded with warmup.
10 Hillbillies, 4-ct, IC, Little of this and that.
THA-THANG:
[Q crumples up his Weinke and starts just making stuff up, since the original workout was supposed to be on the opposite side of the park from where we moved the car… Crawdad appears out of nowhere. So does Brick.]
Moseyed to terraced hill on side of Everest. Start at the bottom, do 5 reps of three exercises , then run up to first terrace and return, do 10 reps of each exercise and run up second terrace and return, then do 15 reps of each exercise and go all the way to the treeline. EXERCISES: Merkins, Squats, American Hammers (2-ct)
MOSEY to perimeter trail and over to edge of park that looks out at the Veterans Cemetery. Pause, take a moment to pay respects to the Veterans buried at the cemetery.
NICKEL/DIME/QUARTERS along perimeter trail to top of the Tail of the Dragon. Run 1 light post, do 5x exercise, run 2 light posts do 10x exercise, run 5 light posts do 25x exercise.
- [Can’t remember the first exercise… something awesome]
- CDDs
- Mountain Climbers (2-ct)
MOSEY to the hill along the Tail of the Dragon that leads up to the monument. Do 7’s Top: Prisoner Get Ups, Bottom: Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees. These were brutal.
MOSEY to AO. DORAS. Partner 1 works on exercise, Partner 2 runs about 2/3 up Baby Cardiac. Exercises are 100 Merkins and 100 BBS. Final Sprint up Baby Cardiac with everyone.
MARY:
Hamstring stretches, 20 American Hammers, 4-ct, IC
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 strong. No FNGs
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Veteran’s Day is tomorrow, and it’s had me thinking about those who have served our country, the men and women that have been a part of the armed forces, as well as their families. We took a moment earlier to pause and remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. What does sacrifice entail?
One of the defining traits of human beings is altruism. Altruism is the practice of doing things that benefit others even at the cost of your own happiness, welfare, or (to use a biological term) “fitness”. It is unusual in the Animal Kingdom because of the principle of “Survival of the Fittest”… if an action benefits someone else rather than you, you might be the one eaten by a cheetah on the Serengeti, or fail to make sweet love with that attractive she-moose over there, or die of thirst in a desert with a limited number of watering holes
What force is it that allows men and women to sacrifice their comfort, families, even their lives in service to others? To me, it is the gift of Grace from God.
St Francis of Assisi articulated this when he said “Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”
But there’s more to it than that. Even though we have the ABILITY to sacrifice and be altruistic doesn’t necessarily mean we will USE that gift. What inspires us to use it?
Bob Hope, who entertained troops overseas for decades, once said, “I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate, and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny.”
And as Ernest Hemmingway said in a FAREWELL TO ARMS, “When you love, you wish to do things for that which you love. You wish to sacrifice. You wish to serve.”
Another saying about veterans is that they don’t fight for what’s in front of them, they fight for what’s behind them. We are fortunate to live in a country that is free from tyranny, where military service is voluntary, where autocrats and dictators do not hold sway over our democracy. The veterans that paid the ultimate price didn’t fight for themselves, they fought for what they loved. America the Beautiful. The Land of the Free.
The veterans who have served and died for this country overcame self, and is so doing, in my opinion, became one with the Grace of God.
MOLESKIN:
Prayers for several PAX and their relatives.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: