Today marks 12 years since we lost my best friend, Shawn Hogan. Shawn was truly one of a kind—a rockstar in every sense. At just 28, he achieved more than many do in a lifetime. He excelled as an academic, soldier, and athlete. While I could go on about his many accomplishments, I’ll let you explore those details for yourself:
https://www.douglasandjohnson.com/obituary/2761295
https://www.instagram.com/jimbobroski/reel/CtrZItxA6P_
So in Shawn’s honor YHC decided to do a little memorial to him with some exercises inspired by Shawn’s athletic prowess.
Started out with some stretching and introductary stories about Shawn for the first 5 minutes. After 5 minutes was up for strecching every minute on the minute until the end we would do 2x burpees, so that’s 40 times, which is fitting because Shawn would have been 40 this year.
First round of exercises was a triple check after we moseyed on over to the tennis courts. There we all got into teams and did three rounds. Runner is the timer, and the two others did a mix of flutters and Freddie Mercuries. Next exercise was the big one.
Linked above is an Instagram video that explains some of it. So Shawn being the great solider that he was after he passed away CrossFit did a Hero WOD for him. The workout that Shawn made years ago which was inspiration for this consisted of running a total of 5 miles and every 5 minutes you do 50 merkins and 50 squats, all the while the clock is still going, for the five minute increments. The goal is to finish the merkins and squats as fast as possible so you can use the balance of that 5 minutes to pack on some more miles so you can get to a total of 5 miles. YHC modifed the workout to be 5 laps around the tennis courts with each lap stopping to do 50 merkins and 50 squats. This proved to be a bit too much and YHC had to do an audible part of the way through, but spirits were high, and by the way we were still stopping to do 2x burpees every minute.
After that it was over to the pull up bars for Shawn’s favorite exercises pullups and dips. Given his love of rock climbing Shawn could do an incredible amount of upper body exercises. Team up in threes for a triple check, timer does 5x pullups while other two do dips and side straddle hops. Finished with that mosey back to the flag for Abs Mary, which was inspired by a spring break trip to south beach Miami our senior year at VMI.
Finished out with names, numbers and announcements.
YHC took us out.
Thank you all for partaking in this little memorial for my dear friend Shawn, much appreciation for the love and support this group has offered over the years.
