Gentlemen Of The Gloom — Welcome to AO Battalion!!
Despite rumors to the contrary, there were no pastries served at #battalion this morning. Rather, we devoured a 1 course no-frills meal of good-ol’-fashioned beatdown that clearly established Port Royal Park as the best Spring Hill AO south of Saturn Pkwy. So here’s what happened:
Warmup:
1st F chair @Heidi hands off the AO to yours-humbly, and we announce the new name and show off our fancy shovel flag. But no time for theatrics – down to business.
We stretch our legs. Several PAX groan and say “ughhgrrehhhgu.” We short-loop mosey the parking lot to get the blood flowing, then meet at the flagpole. Battalion features a large concrete rotunda (vocab test) at the front of the park, circled by an ascending and descending ramp. It looks ripe for a crawl-bear (up the ramp) and bear-crawl (down the ramp), which we do. It might not be the Nolensville Broken Wheel bridge, but we will learn to love it anyways.
Thang 1:
I’m sure this Thang has a name, but I don’t know what it is. We split into groups and form lines at the beginning of a long row of parking spaces. It’s probably 30 slots long, but if any of those hill walkers over at Fort Pain saw it they’d probably say it was 1,000.
At the top of each space we drop and do 1 merkin, run and touch the curb, then backpedal to the next line over. Rinse and repeat, all 30 spaces. It’s kinda fun so we turn around and do it again, doing burpees on the way back.
Thang 2: 7 Of Diamonds
@Three’s Company chooses his favorite football field and we run to the corner of an end zone. We start with 7 merkins OYO then sprint 100 yards to the opposing end zone corner. We plank and wait for the crew, do 7 American Hammers, and bear crawl across the end zone to the opposite corner. We do 7 jump squats then Politician 100 yards down field to the next corner.
No one is caring much for Three’s favorite football field. We finish it out with 7 WWI’s, then crawl-bear back to our starting point. Gosh I wish we had more time … this thang was begging for another round or two. Next time.
Mary:
We close out our morning with a handful of flutter kicks, reverse crunches, and Freddie Mercuries. Actually, we’ve got a couple minutes left. Let’s do 100 side straddle hops.
And time.
Moleskine / Announcements:
We couldn’t really come up with any announcements. Couldn’t think of anything more important than launching #battalion. Heidi reminded everyone to get ready for Cannon Ball run …. 10 months from now. Looks like @Tiny Dancer posted some announcements in the Fort Pain backblast.
Keep in your prayers:
2 Buck’s son Stag as he continues to recover
Pancreas mom who is suffering from some GI issues
Pre-K as he continues recovery from shoulder surgery.
This morning I read from Philippians 2, where Paul talks about remaining humble in our pursuits and being of one mind as we live, work, and serve. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
The past year has been a challenging one for my family, and as a result I needed to step back from F3 more than I would have liked. As life begins to regain some sense of balance, I’ve been pushing to post more regularly. But it’s been a humbling experience. Though I’ve been in F3 for a good while now, more than once I’ve been the 6 playing catch-up, trying to regain what I’ve lost. More than once I’ve seen guys who are a lot newer to F3 than me cruise past as I’ve been struggling to keep up.
But I need to remind myself — posting at F3 is about much more than just me. Whether I’m first or last, doesn’t really matter. I get out of F3 exactly what I put into it. And what we are all called to put into it is to push ourselves the hardest we can, while INVESTING in the lives of the men around us. We are called to grow in body, mind, and soul together.
If you’re the 6 today, embrace it – someday you won’t be. Harness this attitude of humbleness and apply it to other areas of your life. If you’re at the top of the pack today, don’t forget where you came from.
We’ve ALL been the 6 before. Remember that “Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a servant”. Let’s think about how we can continue to serve each other, build each other up, encourage one another, and make each other stronger both on the field and off.
An honor to lead you today, men.
Get Strong! Stay Humble!