F3 Knoxville

Best Naturday Ever!

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Natty
PAX: FixerUpper, Lilydipper, Brick, Natty, Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), Kung Blue, Casey Kasem, Doubtfire (Nick Bond), Crash Dummy, Waffle House (Brady Greene), Swimmies (Nathan Chesney), Dain Bramage, High Heels
FNGs: None
COUNT: 13
WARMUP: SSH, Toy Soldiers, Thai Fighters, Grady Corns, Shoulder Press, Chinooks (B), Moroccan night clubs, Army Cherry Pickers, seal claps, tempo mkns

THE THANG: Mosey to the Restroom walls to perform some Australian Nut Knockers, then 20 Bobby Hurleys, all out run up the grassy knoll to the level spot for 20 mkns then continue on up to top of hill, squats until 6 was up. Next were three rounds of 10 BBS followed by 5 mucho leggos running down the strip and back in between rounds. Dips until the 6 was up. ID a partner then mosey down to the level field High Heels mentioned was the wettest part of the park. All good for some wheelbarrows to tackle the length of the field with your partna. Mosey / Jog to the bowl performing some (B) side shuffles and Bernie’s along the way and hold a low plank til 6 up at base of bowl. Proceed with 3 laps fast as ya can around the bowl and doing 5 burpees at base and 5 at top each lap. Flutters and Big Boys until 6 was up. Indian run to the back beast hill, rear man performs 5 HR mkns and sprints to front of line. Quick pace up the hill to level spot to perform Apollo Ohno’s and Bonnie Blair’s. Quick pace mosey and return to AO

MARY: crab reachers, hello Dollie’s, Freddie mercuries Superman’s and gas pumps

ANNOUNCEMENTS: convergence starfish here 1/31

COT:Best Day Ever

Last year I travelled to Steamboat Springs, CO 3x, as many of you know to visit my sister Beverly, and brother-in-law Gary who is facing Stage IV Lymphoma. As an added bonus, Steamboat is quite a paradise all year long. Each time while on these trips I’d see stickers that said, “Best Day Ever.” I heard it was coined by a local guy revered by others for his positivity and efforts to get youth active in their community and enjoying all the activities Steamboat has to offer.

I didn’t really investigate it more, but still liked the phrase, so it always sat in the back of my mind. On this last visit I spent almost 2 weeks in CO and always when I go in the winter, I’m eager to hit the slopes. Unfortunately, there was very little snow when I arrived and so for more than a week, I just looked up at the mountain, hoping for some big dump to arrive and let me miraculously ski all the runs I could. Well, that did not happen, but we did get some snow for a few days in a row after Thanksgiving, enough to take a chance and hit the slopes. They basically had one run open the 1st day I went (they called it 2) and the 2nd day they had 2.5 runs (they called 5). For reference, when fully open, they have 184 runs, not to mention the ones you can make on your own through the trees or going out of bounds.

I generally try to strike up a conversation with folks when I ride up the chair lift. One guy asked me where I was from and when I said Knoxville, TN, he lit up & said he owes Knoxville and the 82’ World’s Fair for his career choice b/c it was when and where the Apple McIntosh was introduced and he spent his earnings from working the fair that year on purchasing one which launched his path into IT. But on another run up the lift I sat with an old man and a young lady who had never been there before. She asked about the conditions, and I said, well, considering there were basically two runs, we had very little snow and the visibility sucked, it could be better. But the old man said, “Best Day Ever!” I immediately responded, ya know, you are totally right. Without knowing all the back story on the phrase, I knew right then what it meant to that community. Savor every moment you have in nature, savor the days, months, years you have left to enjoy God’s creation and all the possibilities that lie in it. Just because there was only a couple runs open, it was still awesome, still wonderful, and I luckily had not paid the standard $289.00 lift ticket price, because I learned last season how to save. Point being, no matter what the conditions are, or what your favorite activity is, cherish the ability to do it, to live it, to share it with others and if you have a crazy or unfortunate event or story to tell, it at least makes you interesting at parties.

My trip home gave me that story…I booked a Lyft ride the night before for a 5 AM p/u and flight at 7 AM. Woke up, got ready, carried luggage downstairs and looked at my phone…no driver. Scrambled, freaked a bit because I wanted home bad. Then finally got an Uber p/u at 5:40 for what’s normally a 30 min ride to the airport, was much longer due to the blizzard that arrived for my departure. A nice Jamaican guy in an SUV picked me up and we got going only to get in a convoy of cars behind the snowplow which we followed slowly all the way to the airport. I arrived with no time to spare, got lectured by airport staff, but allowed to load my luggage, get through security and right on board only to wait 2 hrs. to leave (after watching an entire movie on the tarmac). De-icer broke and so once finally off, I knew I was going to miss my connection. I booked another flight while in the air (direct from Denver to Knox). I arrived thinking I had plenty of time, but taxiing was almost 30 min which left me 5 min to go 0.7 miles from gate B8-B58. In my skill set, ok I got this…but with wearing all the winter clothes, jacket, and backpack, it was not easy…I felt my chest pounding and eventually was out of breath. I even had to stop once to take a breather. Made it to the gate, the attendant cheered me on as she was about to close the door. Last one on the plane…I coughed for over an hour. But I made it home 4 hrs. early and grateful to be there. As many of you know, I went through a lot last year, but each day I wake up now I’ve thought about the term, “Best Day Ever.” Stay positive, even through the rut. It’s infectious. Make each day better than the one before it. It’s a state of mind in many ways, but who and what you surround yourself with makes the opportunity for an even better day possible. God has given us all this gift of life, use it wisely.

The Little Things

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Lilydipper
PAX: Steam, Joshua Foster, Pusher, Crash Dummy, Rooney(Carl Whipple), Drum Major, Curveball, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Tenderfoot, Lizzy
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: 20 Side-Straddle-Hops, Run around the parking lot, 10 Mountain Climbers, Run around the parking lot, 7 Twistees, 7 Knoxville Cherry Pickers, 10 Tennessee Rocking Chairs, 30 Brady Corns, Little of This and That.

THE THANG: Mosey up Mini-Cardiac. We will stop at the top to do 20 Squats.
Mosey to the bottom of Cardiac.
Next we will run back up Cardiac, stopping at the following points to do the following exercises:
First Curve: 20 American Hammers 2 ct

Second Curve: 20 Hello Dollies

Third Curve: 20 Decline Merkins

Benches: 20 Bench Dips

Next, we will Mosey to the crosswalk of the roadway to do 20 more Squats.
Then we will run to the bottom of the Dragon Fly. We will then do a Route 66 up the Dragon Fly, doing Bobbie Hurleys at each light and adding one each time until we do 11 Bobbie Hurleys at the 11th light.
Next, we will run back down the Dragon Fly to the parking lot by the nice restrooms. We will Bear Crawl 20 paces, lunge 20 paces and continue that past the restrooms, then run to the end of the curb.
Next, we will Mosey to the Caribbean. We will do candy canes around the parking lot, stopping at every other island to do an exercise and ending with the second island we stop at on the other side. Those finishing first sweep all men back to the beginning. Here are the exercises we will do with each cane:

Cane 1: 10 Shoulder Taps (each shoulder = 1)

Cane 2: 10 Carolina Dry Docks

Mosey to the middle of the parking lot south of the playground. We will Bernie Sanders to the end of the parking lot, then mosey to the AO.

MARY: No time.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Convergence at Asylum on Saturday, January 31 at 7 am. At the AO we will split F3 Knoxville into an East and West region with new Na’ntans being appointed for each new region.

COT:

Message:

The Little Things
I see a 72-year-old woman in my psychotherapy practice that I think quite fondly of. Her name is Rhonda. She is a strong Christian woman and her faith in God had helped her greatly because last January, 2025, she lost her daughter to cancer. Rhonda is a good mother (she also has a son) who was quite close to her daughter who was survived by a husband and two of Rhonda’s grandchildren

There have been weeks of pain, weeks of wondering about God, weeks of anger at God, but also a strong reliance on God that has helped Rhonda to come to an acceptance of her daughter’s death.

Something that really hit me recently when Rhonda was talking about her daughter was Rhonda saying, “You know what I really miss, John? I miss those simple calls from Laura and just hearing, “hey mom”. Yes, Rhonda has so many memories of her daughter but she longs to hear that simple “hey mom” again.

It makes me think of how valuable the simple things are to us. In F3 it is often the simple things that I love about our brotherhood. The “hey, Pusher or hey, Tenderfoot” when guys come into the circle before the workout. The mumble chatter and High-Heels yelling out Walker! when we are running along the trails. The laughter at our board meetings. The honk to the guys and wave from the guys as someone takes off after the workout.

That simple ”hey Mom” was an automatic acknowledgement that you are comfortable and are loved. We should be thankful for those “heys”. And so guys, hey, I’m thankful for you.

Prayers: Prayers for Pele’s former high school friend who recently committed suicide, leaving behind a wife and two children. Prayers for his family and friends who grieve. Prayers of the 5-year-old student of Drum Major’s wife. The student was recently diagnosed with cancer. Prayers for organizations who raise money to fight cancer including a group who will be putting on a Fight Against Cancer Night. Anyone interested in going to the event can talk to Tenderfoot.

Hot Toddy Quadruple Birthday Q

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Lilydipper , High Heels, Charmin (John Willis), Snitch (Cory Beilharz )
PAX: Veggie (Rylen Huddy), Natty, Wes Franks (Pony Tail), Drum Major, Curveball, Crash Dummy, Dain Bramage, Mr Jinxy, Pele (Jon Lindberg), Bail Bonds, flyball, MD Hammer, Pusher, Crawdad (Robbi Dickens), Honeydew, Lulu (Greg Huddy), Rainbow, Crop Top
FNGs: None
COUNT: 22
WARMUP: Lilydipper led us in 20 Side Straddle Hops, Curly Stomps, 7 Twistees, 10 Windmills, 7 Pterodactyls Forward, 7 Pterodactyls Backwards, and a Little of This and That

THE THANG: Snitch (Cory Beilharz ) then led us on sidewalks we could barely see due to lakes and puddles out to the Bros Bowl. He nearly killed us from there. We started with10 Merkins on the bottom and ran clockwise to do 53 (Snitch (Cory Beilharz ) turned 53 on December 23) Bench Dips then ran to the bottom to do 22 Hello Dollies in the lake there at the bottom of the Bros Bowl. Thank goodness there was no sewage from the Bowl. Next we ran clockwise up to the top again to do 53 Incline Merkins on the benches. We ran to the bottom only to do Tempo Squats in the lake. The man made us run clockwise on more top to the top of the Bros Bowl to do 23 Step-ups on the Benches. In an exhausted and drenches state, we got back to the bottom.
High Heels took over from there. We ran to the outdoor chapel and I thought God would have mercy on us there. But not with High Heels in command. We did Doras, each partner running around the chapel in the rain while the other partner did exercises. One would expect about 100 of each exercise but not with High Heels. He had us do 120 Merkins, 240 Bench Dips (our arms were in pain!) and 360 Side-Straddle Hops. Gassed and nearing death, we were looking forward to Charmin (John Willis) lightening things up as he took over the Q. But no!!! Charmin (John Willis) has us run, instead of sidewalks, through a grassy, muddy, trench-filled mess with rats and other varmints floating by us until we got back on the watery roadway to the AO. Ahh, the AO! No!! The man, saying he needs to work his quads for ski patrol, has us Bernie Sanders all the way to the top of Mini-Cardiac and do 5 Burpees in the river up top. Then we run back down past the AO to pick up doggone boulders and take then to the pavilion. He then has us do some kind of configuration of 11s that I never understood, saying we should quadruple each exercise of Curls and Gobble Squats. I finally plopped my boulder down on the picnic table and nearly broke the top. From there, Charmin (John Willis) takes us to steps that were so soaked and muddy that we couldn’t see our feet. He has us do a multitude of Calf Raises with toes out, inward, outward, and every which way but upward, which almost occurred if I hadn’t had the rail to hold onto and keep me from falling backwards. Charmin (John Willis) was kind enough to let us go back to the pavilion, pick up those doggone boulders, and put em back where we found em. Ahhhhh, Sweet Respite. But no, we had do the traditional Asylum Daybreak race up Mini-Cardiac after the COT.

MARY: We had no stinking time for a Mary

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The fact that we had Hot Toddys waiting for us was announcement enough!

COT:

Message: The four Q leaders each talked about something they were thankful for in 2025 and something they were looking forward to in 2026. High Heels was on target when he told us we have so much to be thankful for.

Prayers: Prayers of praise for Mr. Jinxy whose daughter, Carli, the wife of our very own Hooker (Grant Gentry) who now lives with Carlyi in North Carolina, just had a baby. This is the couple’s third child. Prayers of praise for all God blesses us with.

10x

AO: asylum-pm
Q: Swanson
PAX: Pele (Jon Lindberg), Mr Jinxy, Lizzy, CRISPR, Dain Bramage, Lilydipper, Crash Dummy, Shotgun
FNGs: None
COUNT: 9
WARMUP:
– Baby Arm Circles – 10 ea way
– Michael Phelps
– Squat & Reach – 10
– SSH – 20

THE THANG:
10 ea
– Hello Dolly (4 count)
– Merkins
– BBS
– Plank Shoulder Taps
– Flutter Kicks
– Mountain Climbers
– Jump Squats
– LCRC
– Burpee
– Mucho Leggo

Hill run, Pax remove one exercise and repeat.

Ring of fire with goblet squats (with weights) or Merkins

MARY:
10 heals to heavy
Boat/Canoe

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Polar Plunge
– 10:30am Starbucks at Northshore/Pellissippi
– 12:00pm at Y in Townsend

COT:
Listen to your body. Persevere when you can. Rest when you need!

12 Beatdownz of Christmas

AO: asylum-daybreak
Q: Kodak (Charlotte Metro (S) Weasel Shaker)
PAX: Brick, Crash Dummy, Kodak (Charlotte Metro (S) Weasel Shaker), Dain Bramage, UGA, CatGut, Jumbo, Crawdad, Waffle House, Drum Major
FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
WARMUP: Like instant coffee, the Terrible Rotten Very Bad Workout started with a jolt- no hellos, none of that touchy-feely stuff. We ran. Not far, but kinda fast. Fortunately no one broke a hamstring. Loops around to the playground for some SSH, Walkers and others. Then we opened the mailbox and discovered Santa had left the PAX a love, letter detailing . . .

THE THANG: The 12 Beatdownz.

Here’s the list-

12 WWII Sit-ups
11 Squats (in cadence)
10 Ukrainian Hammers (in cadence)
9 Carolina Dry Docks
8 Imperial Walkers (in cadence)
7 LBCs (in cadence)
6 SSH (in cadence)
5 ‘Mericans
4 Jump Squats
3 Heels to Heaven (in cadence)
2 Burpees
1 Manmaker/Special

Here’s how it actually works-

Days 1 & 2 – mosey to COT Lot. For the 1 of Day 2, run a 3 level suicide (light, light and far side) with 5 squats at the base each time.

Days 3 & 4 – mosey to the Bowl. For the 1 of Day 4, run a Long Lap

Days 5 & 6 – short mosey to the playground. For the 1 of Day 6 – 1 minute hang (EC if you want to add in pull-ups. No one did).

Days 7 & 8 – short mosey to the other side of the soccer field. For the 1 of Day 8, run a 4 level suicide (18 yrd box, midfield, 18 yrd box, end line) with 10 of any exercise (dealer’s choice) at the base each time.

Note- possible that the Q messed up a bit and called the suicide early and so made everyone run the field backwards as punishment. That’s what happens when you are on the Naughty List.

Days 9 & 10 – mosey to the field (the Q sad that it’s not cold and muddy) For the 1 of Day 10, run up Pickett’s, bear crawl each of the hills and, just for fun, Crawl Bear the middle one. (FYI – that last part REALLY sucked, even the Q kinda regretted it).

Take a beat and look for sunrise

Day 11 – everyone faces out and looks at the pre-dawn beauty while exercising.

Day 12 – mosey back to COT area (high-fives to the family of 5 (kids looked to be ages 4 – 9 or so) out for a family workout). For the final beatdown, sprint up that hill!

Clock struck 7:59 am on the dot at the 6 got to the top of the hill. Mosey on down for COT.

MARY: None. She wasn’t invited. Don’t know what y’all got going on up here in Knoxville inviting women to your workouts …

ANNOUNCEMENTS: I think some idiots are going to go jump in really cold water outdoors in the middle of winter.

COT: Some of the greatest works of Christ on Earth involved healing the sick and the lame. YHC grew up seeing the sick, blind and lame as “others” in need of a good doctor. That’s not right. The lame aren’t “others”, they are us. We all are broken and we all need God’s help to be made whole. Some of us just keep our infirmities hidden on the inside.


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