Tag: Dogpile

Byrd Park

  • F3RVA: Field Day 2019

    FIFTY EIGHT (58) 4th graders at heart posted for Vinny’s Second Inaugural Field Day. The bell rang, we slammed open the double doors and hit the school yard. Scoring was explained, and teams lined up ready to fight for the Ghost Flag, the only way we know how.

    Crab Soccer: Two, five minute rounds. Winners and losers squared off in round 2.

    Wheel Barrow Relay: Teams lined up on the start line and partners wheel barrow-ed to the cone. Boo Yah Merkins x 10, switch wheelbarrow and return to start/finish line. PAX did Jump Squats while cheering on their classmates.

    Sack Races: Teams lined up on the start line and one at a time, hopped in the sack and raced out to the cone and back. First team across wins. SSHs for the PAX.

    Tunnel of Love: About 1/4 length of the Carillon Field. First team to have their entire team across the finish line wins.

    Merkin Egg Toss: PAX partner up and line up across from their partner. Toss the egg and perform various 10 count Merkins and 5 Burpees on the whistle. Teams could finish first, second and, third in this one. Once eliminated PAX moved to the side and joined in on the called exercises. Finalist were about 50-75 steps farther apart from where they started.

    Fifty Yard Burpee Dash: Teams line up on the start line. One at a time they sprint to the cone, perform 5 Burpees, then race back to the start finish line. American Hammers for the PAX.

    Tug-O-War: Round Robin style tug-o-war. Every nano region squared off.

    Back to the Flag – YHC took us out / handed out crowd pleasers in the form of Pixy Sticks and Hugs Fruit Barrels.

    Announcements: Of the many, these are what I can remember. HDHH next Wed. at Palani Drive. Breaking Bread needs volunteers. Please do this if you haven’t. It’s an awesome experience. You’ll get more out of it than they will. Ask if you don’t know what it is. Lab Rat’s M is in Phase II of her brilliant effort to prepare young adults with special needs for jobs. They are raising money for RAISE. See Lab Rat for details. Shakedown is shaving his head in June, I believe. See prior BBs or him for details. It’s for charity, not just some random Shakedown thing.

    Moleskin: WOW!!! What a morning. 58 guys, that’s awesome! As I was making my way to DP to set up, Kubota texted me to say that he just saw Swirly. Not possible. Swirly was in beautiful Blue Field, VA. He would have told me if he was back in town early. I wasn’t falling for that, especially after BT texted me yesterday to tell me he was out. Fool me once.

    05:45 Breakfast Club rolls in, and sure enough there’s Swirly. Sleep deprived and fired up baby! My man drove 5+ hours late night to post. Love it!

    05:50, Mr. Holland rolls in with a box of ox blood bow ties and cummerbunds for Team RCP (winner’s of the best dressed, going away).

    06:00 and grumblings from TYA, hey Swirly, what’s your watch say?

    06:01, teams finalized and off we went to meet head referee Bleeder, red and yellow cards in hand just in case. He was supported by Cliffhanger and Red Bird.

    The events went off as good as could have been expected. Tons of all out competition, and good fun. No serious injuries – Wedding Singer, get better brother.

    Special shoutouts to the Team Captains – Gumbo, Kubota and Spit. Great job recruiting and getting your teams fired up. As Handshake said at ETs, y’all were perfect class moms. T-claps to Bleeder, Kubota, Cliffhanger, Red Bird and, Shakedown for all of their help today. I was really hoping Bleeder got to use a red card, but all-in-all, we behaved ourselves.

    Congratulations to SOJ for capturing the Ghost Flag today in dominant fashion. Here are the official standings:

    SOJ: 14

    Tuckahoe: 10

    RCP: 9

    DaVille: 4

    I invite you all to add your anecdotes from today. Possibly my personal favorite was TYA in his classy F3 tux. That, and the awesome showing of brotherhood. Oh, and the team uniforms. They were fantastic!

    See y’all May 16th 2020.

  • Trying something new

    27 redwoods arose for a sunny and 70 beatdown with YHC giving the PAX choices. Choices are not typically what the Q doles out at an F3 beatdown but YHC was feeling generous. After couple days of teasing a split Q no one really believed it was going to happen, especially since Marmaduke was set as the other half. A warmup run over with the animal that we call Upchuck, he successfully pulled of the triple dip capping a week well into the double digits of posts.

    THANG

    Start off with a tribute to UNCC student Riley Howell, a true hero, with 21 burpees OYO for the 21 year old student.

    Mosey to the first circle for a little warm up of SSH, DQ, Russian Soldiers and IW. Brief explanation of the choices – High tempo running Q with YHC or ground and pound with Marmaduke. Swirly offered to grade Duke’s Q after the “incident” on Thursday.

    Rosie Q – Head down Love Hill to the bridge. Increasing merkins at each lightpole all the way up the hill, 1 up to 14. First finished goes back and finishes with the 6. Decreasing jump squats on the way back. Mosey over to the pipe loop for an individual triple check (quadruplish). At the bottom 20 CDD, 20 Monkey Humpers (hold the monkey if you need to Saab), 20 American Hammers – run the loop, repeato 3x. Head all the way up the trail to the rusty cage. Ladder down 5 pull ups to 1, in between rounds run to the fire hydrant for 10 WWII. Indigenous run through the Arts in the Park tents, around the field and back to the circle. Meet up with the ground and pound crew.

    While YHC was leading a group of fools around the grounds, Marmaduke was adminstering his own version of a beatdown that looked a little something like this:

    Ground and Pound Amphitheater Style! Ladders!

    Start at the bottom. — Choose an exercise and increase on each step by one.  1 rep on first step, 2 on second step, and so on all the way up to 18, and with the ladder you must come down.

    Exercises included:

    Incline Merkins

    Squats – Worked on Form

    LBCs

    Single Count Flutter Kicks

    Arm Circles – 18 forward, 17 Backward, 16 forward, etc…..

    Monkey Humpers

    Audible to Finish – 3 WWIIs on each step all the way to the top then mosey to meet other group.

    Lots of Plank variations in there as well ( Thanks UpChuck)

    NMS:

    Marmaduke: Mumble chatter was great!! Greenbow has some reading to catch up (Ill leave that alone, inquire as you wish or see Upchuck)  Tryhard brought FNG Cooper, now named Opie, who never left our sight, great mix to have a pup running around this morning.  Great to see Bone Thugs continue to push and post, keep it up brotha!!  Appreciate they PAX who put in work on the G&P this morning, hope you got a good one in. Also appreciate you letting me lead today after my debacle on Thursday, as Swirly said, I may never hear the end of that one but that is what this group is all about, and I agree with him whole heartedly!  Make it great one fellas!

    Thanks for indulging me this morning fellas. Been thinking about this for a while since we typically have such a large Dogpile crew. 25+ can be hard to handle. Welcome to F3RVA Ice9, great work today, way to push the PAX and the miles, hope you enjoy your stay in Richmond. Phonics was on fire across the bridge, he and Garbage Plate were cruising there and back. Hitchhiker and Shakedown took the hard way and hit the high tempo alternative after the Breakfast Club, the humidity did not do you any favors. Get ready for it boys, summer is on it’s way. Good feedback on the split Q, it may not be a weekly thing but I encourage anyone that is interested to set it up once every month or two, it worked great.

    Enjoy the weekend, every moment is precious.

  • Ground and Pound Til It’s All Out!

    0545 arrival time at Dogpile with AO secured by Bleeder. Shovel Flag planted in the ground with Breakfast Club rounding the turn. Kubota planted his flag and the PAX started to arrive. 28 Spring Loaded Men (1 FNG included) showed up to get it all out and see what the Q had in store…0600…time to mosey. Short jog to roundabout for COP: x 10 Don Quixote’s, x 20 SSH, x 5 Burpees, x 15 Flutter Kicks, and still mumblechatter so Q decided to start the fun.

    The Cooper: x 10 Burpees, x 10 Merkins, x 10 Squats and run a lap. Lap was down the hill at Pump House and back up to the roundabout. Repeat exercise with one less rep, x 9 Burpees, x 9 Merkins, x 9 Squats, run a lap. Repeat and continue down to x 1 Burpee, x 1 Merkin, x 1 Squat and a final lap. While waiting for PAX continue, flutter kicks, LBC’s, and Iron Cross were enjoyed by the PAX. PAX picked up the 6 and moseyed to The Lawn.

    Field of Dreams: teams of 4 partnered up and exercise explained. Corner 1 (Home Plate), Corner 2 (First Base), Corner 3 (Second Base), Corner 4 (Third Base). Each partner went to a base. Home Plate performed 15 Burpees and ran to first-first to second-second to third- third to home. While on the bases, first base did merkins, AMRAP. Second base, LBC’s, AMRAP. Third base, Squats, AMRAP. Run all bases till all partners had performed 15 Burpees. Mosey down to the other side of The Lawn.

    Merkin Ladder: Run 50 yds, x 20 Merkins. Run back to the start, x 19 Merkins and repeat til 0 Merkins required. With time constraint, audible called however, Swirly crushed it and completed the ladder!

    With time to spare, a Q favorite-AYG spirit the distance of The Lawn.

    And mosey back to the flag and Puppy Pile welcoming us back!

    Number-ama, Name-r-ama, Announcements: Field Day May 11. See your respective captain for uniforms. Shakedown and Sugar Sock’s M’s are having an art sale at Perk (Bon Air Shopping Center) on Sunday. Stop by and show your support!

    YHC took us out.

    Naked Mole Skin: The Q heard the mumblechatter in COP and decided to start the work out so all that energy could be expunged out. Most all exercises can be found in the exicon. YHC will add “The Cooper” to the vault and takes up approx 30 minutes!

    YHC wanted to work out Field of Dreams on baseball field at RLL but ran out of time. Time constraints and several PAX members were upset at the distance already run!!

    Swirly, respect for finishing Merkin Ladder! Archive that one too!

    Take Out, welcome to The PAX and F3RVA! Hardest thing to do=get out of bed! Keep posting and the workouts get easier…..well kinda! Glad you made it this morning!

    Gentlemen, yes YHC gets emotional some times. Life is not easy nor is it fair! And we all have battles and scars that shape us. But this group and what we do, what we stand for is SUPER and POWERFUL! YHC has had a roller coaster month but being at The Gloom and having these workouts makes my day better!! HANDS DOWN!! Embrace that power and continue to be awesome, striving to make a difference!

    Only those who post understand! And may God continue to bless each of you, for all the days we have the privilege to take a breath!

    Loud and Proud,

    Flatline

  • Dog Pile Buddy Rush

    33 gathered as the moon was setting and the sun rising to see what is in store.

    Here is how it went down.

    10 Burpee start

    Mosey to COP all IC: 22 SSH; 15 Abe Vigoda; 22 Grass Angels; 22 Australian Grass Angels; 22 crunchy Frog; Arm Circles; 22 4 count HRM.

    Mosey to Carillon field. Partner up 6 Boo-ya Merkins. Partners group in teams of 4. Gomer Pyle and Bulkhead demonstrate buddy rushes. Pax practice on the short width. Pax buddy rush down the long width. Civil war rush back to the Carrilon. Much rejoicing.

    Mosey down love hill to pump house road. 10 Spider crawl: Spider Merkins + bear crawl. Thats 80 merkins, Fudd.

    Pipe Loop triple check. P1 Flutter kicks; P2 Squats; P3 Run

    Mosey to flag

    Bodos took us out.

    Announcements

    Puppy Pile next weekend at 705a

    NMS – This is Day 7 of YHC Q week. Its still amazing that I have been part of this org for just 2 years. Such great bonds in that short time.

    April 22, 2019 is YHC 2 year anniversary, hence the week of Q and the 22 reps. I will be on a plane Monday, so Upchuck has Hoedown. Enjoy your Earth Day.

    PAX that have been around more than 5 minutes, might have heard that YHC was in the Infantry and Combat Engineer at one point during formative years. Covering the last 50 meters (with 82mm mortars) or 100 meters (with 105mm) is the critical task for an employer with many critical tasks. Hence the THREE second buddy rush= I’m up, he sees me, I’m down. After the chaos of getting started, Bulkhead and I relearned that this is why we have team leaders and squad leaders to coordinate movement. Otherwise, men will do what men will do. Thanks again for working through it. It will be better next time. Hoo-AH

    Also PAX might have heard that YHC attended Univ of Richmond hence the Spider Crawl. When you are looking forward to Bear Crawls to break it up, you know you found a good exercise. Props to DaVille (Opus?) for renaming the formerly awkwardly named 8 point creature Merkin. Spider Born and Spider Bred!

    Pipe Loop. Celebrates F3RVA.

    10 Burpees. Why not? Get some.

    Thanks to Shakedown for documentary-ing.

    Thanks to the PAX for working strong all week and for the opportunity to lead.

    BMNT chart: https://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2019&task=3&state=VA&place=richmond

    http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/2832/the-differences-between-civil-nautical-and-astronomical-twilight/

  • F3RVA Field Day 2019

    F3RVA Field Day 2019

    The Second Annual – First Inaugural Installation of F3RVA Field Day is set for May 11th at Dogpile. This year the four teams will be divided into Nano Regions. Captains will be:

    Tuckahoe: Kubota DaVille: Spit SOJ: Gumbo City Proper: Vinny*

    Ideally each team is completely made up by nano region, but we’ll see. With that, choose team uniforms as you wish. Consider the gauntlet thrown. Team Tuckahoe, may I suggest flannel shirts.

    I intend for the Ghost Flag to be up, but don’t have control of it. Whoever is holding it as of May 11th, please bring it to Field Day and put it up for grabs. Corporate thanks you in advance for your cooperation.

    *YHC knowing the events will offer no advantage to his team. But see Wilson if you want to file a formal complaint. He mans the hotline.

  • It Has Come to My Attention that We Aren’t Running Enough…

    17 track stars, including 1 FNG ACTUAL track star converged on the Carillon in this truly gloomy morning full of April Showers. Only the Q brought an umbrella….weird. Seeing that everybody was already wet, we might as well enjoy the morning and find ALL the puddles to run thru:

    -COP in the field next to the police officer memorial

    • SSH
    • 10 Richard Kimbles OYO
    • Imperial Walker
    • Saab’s iteration…arm circles and Don Quixote
    • Merkin

    Burpee Lake- 3 burpees at each light pole around the lake. Lunge up and down the hill for the six.

    Orangutan- At Rusty Cage, start at the bottom and climb up the bars as far as you can. Repeat times 3. 20 jerkins OYO

    Legs and abs Yoga- 10 minutes of some yoga concentrating on legs and abs. Yup.

    4 minutes of Mary.

    NMS

    With so much extracurricular running going on pre-Dogpile these days, I decided to give everybody more of what they are craving….running. It’s a long ways to and from burpee lake, and all the way back to rusty cage. I was really surprised to see Breakfast Club show up with 15 minutes to spare before Dogpile start at 0600….with the deluge going on, I would have thought you would want to keep moving. I shared an umbrella with Emoji and Shakedown. Rosie wanted to sit in the truck, which I told him he is welcome to if he could produce a dry towel. He could not.

    Once we got going, it became evident that Handshake was going to steal the show with his impressive 4th F game. He claims that it was from spaghetti, but I would venture there might have been low levels of rat poison involved as well.

    Apology of the week goes to FNG Tadpole, for the attempted disclaimer. I did my best to get thru it but was CONSTANTLY interrupted. I pleaded my case at Elwood Thompson’s that mumblechatter should have been out of bounds during the disclaimer, but was told from MULTIPLE sources (read as: everybody at the table) that I got exactly what I deserved. And for that,

    Lab Rat Apologizes…

  • It’s National Make-Me-Laugh Month

    27 stand-up artists took the stage to earn their 15-seconds of fame in today’s edition of The Dogpile. Temps were sunny and 70, with a slight dose of misty, muddy, and nasty, all perfect for an UpChuck Q.

    Mosey to the Amphitheater for the COP

    Today’s workout celebrated National Humor Month with the PAX encouraged to bring their worst joke. PAX approval earned the PAX member the right to select the next exercise. PAX or Q disapproval earned everyone 5 burpees.

    The PAX also gathered in celebration of a number of other National Awareness, Celebration, or Appreciation Months.

    COT: In celebration of National Alcohol Awareness Month, the PAX did exercises in increments of 40, 24, 12, and 6, with several sets of 5 burpees thrown in for good measure. The Q also was reminded to welcome an FNG and provide the disclaimer.

    SSHs x 40
    Hillbillies x24
    LBCs x12
    Something x6

    Mosey to the Great Lawn to Celebrate Mathematics Awareness Month.

    The PAX were reminded today of squares, both the shape and the numerical multipliers.

    Exercises were:
    Run 1/4 of the way down the Great Lawn for 4 lunges, take a 90 degree left turn, mosey across the field for 9 WWIIs, take a 90 degree left turn, and head to the end of the field for 16 burpees. Reverse the rectangle and repeat the 9 and 4 exercises on the way back to the start (i.e., “the prostitute”).

    Hold 6 inches for The Six.

    Second round…run 1/2 way down the field. Continuing with the rectangular theme, do 25 HRMs, 36 squats, and 49 flutter kicks. Repeato on the way back.

    Hold 6 inches for The Six.

    Third round…run all the way down the field, perform 64 mountain climbers at the corner, 81 LBCs at the other corner, then run back the length of the field for 100 SSHs. Repeato the exercises on the way back.

    Hold 6 inches for The Six.

    Do a round or two of 5 burpees somewhere in there.

    Note: Some PAX included their own celebration of Irritable Bowel Syndrome Awareness Month along the way. Google it.

    Staying on the Great Lawn for Couples Appreciation Month

    Partner up for wheelbarrowing down the Great Lawn. At the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and end of the Great Lawn, stop for each partner to perform 25 PLTs. At the end, appreciate your partner by holding six inches. Then, swap partners for 25 of Wilson’s Boxing Cockroaches. Add a set of DonQ’s at the end.

    Mosey to the Amphitheatre for National STDs Education and Awareness Month (Also a real thing)

    On each step in the Amphitheatre, perform 5 ABDs, 5 pickle pounders, and 5 monkey humpers.

    Perform one forward roll (pull knees to chest, lean forward…that’s just how I roll.)

    BTTF

    Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, Lab Rat took us out.

    Announcements:

    All the PAX were reminded of the fragility of the lives we have been given this week. Keep Alan and Holly Nicolette, their family, and their friends in your prayers this week. Also, Gomer Pyle lost a college friend (aka, The Hammer) this week at far too young an age. Keep him and his widow in your prayers.

    NMS:

    YHC thanks the PAX for indulging his childishness yet again. There were some good groaners this morning, and YHC confesses to being fully prepared to retell a few.

    Today was a mudder – YHC’s favorite kind of workout. It’s a wonderful reminder for YHC of the intensity and fun that are literally rolled together in an F3 workout. Thank you all for pushing.

    Welcome to our FNG. There was much discussion in the COT and at ET. YHC has settled on Hustler as the name. Looking forward to having him join us regularly. Welcome!

    Go Hoos!

  • Pre-blast: New Saturday Extra-Credit run starting 4/13

    The Early Risers club will run the trail loop once a month in the dark starting at 4:00 am. First run date is 4/13.

    Then you can hit Dogpile at 6:00. Get your headlamp ready.

  • The Squirrels Were Merry and Swirly Can’t Stop at 10

    Birds were chirping, Dogwoods in bloom, and the Squirrels were Merry today. Thirty-five Pax were merry as well, as least in the beginning.

    Mosey to the second circle for COP:

    • Don Quixote
    • Helicopters
    • SSH
    • Crabcakes
    • Scorpion Kicks

    Over to the Grand Field to get down to business. Bro Code in effect for Ascending 4 Corners. Elbow planks for the six.

    • Corner 1 – 10 Hand Release Merkins
    • Corner 2 – Karaoke the length of the field, 10 Hand Release Merkins, 20 four count American Hammers
    • Corner 3 – Bear Crawl the width of the field, 10 Hand Release Merkins, 20 four count American Hammers. 30 four count Flutter Kicks
    • Corner 4 – Karaoke the length of the field, 10 Hand Release Merkins, 20 four count American Hammers. 30 four count Flutter Kicks, 40 two count Mountain Climbers

    Partner up for 3 sets of 20 Wilson’s Boxing Cockroaches.

    Form two columns and space out with 5 feet of separation for a Caterpillar. The six bunny hops over the Pax to the front. Three times through.

    Form a Tunnel of Love and commando crawl back the other way – three times through.

    Partner up again for 3 sets of 20 PLTs.

    Go to the end of the field for triple check.

    • Partner 1 runs the length of the field and back
    • Partners 2 and 3 perform Plerkins

    Mosey over to the first circle for Mary Ring of Fire. Pax chooses an ab exercise of 10 reps, leads the Pax in that exercise, and passes to the left. Except for Swirly who did 50 or 60. Exercises included.

    • Rosalitas
    • LBCs
    • Reverse Crunches
    • Freddie Mercuries
    • Left leg lifts, Right leg lifts
    • Holding 6 inches

    Back to the Flag where YHC took us out.

    Announcements:

    • See preblast for this Wednesday’s HDHH at Palani Drive following the Roller Coaster run. Kubota is on point.
    • Face Plant vq @ Spider Run on Tuesday

    Lockjaw


  • Grow Together

    89 growth-oriented men loomed large in the light of day to accelerate themselves as leaders. Temps were the same as always…sunny and 70. More or less, here’s how the dogs barking in the Carytown shopping center parking lots tell the tale:

    COP: Bono led a quick circle up before leading a jack-rabbit speed mosey to the closer circle for some warm up time. Exercises were burpees, burpees, and more burpees. 10, 8, 6, 4, and 10, if memory serves.

    Brisk jog around the Great Lawn and then to the Amphitheater. During the run, learn about another F3er and share a story of your own. The topic was falling down and getting back up – metaphorically. YHC thanks Puffs (of Roanoke) for some good chatter along the way.

    Amphitheater: Again, a variety of exercises…spotlight on the bear crawls down the amphitheater and the crawl bear back up the amphitheater. YHC has never worn shin guards to Dogpile or WDog, but will consider doing so going forward.

    Circle up on DREDD for a mixture of merkins (regular, wide, diamond), flutter kicks, mountain climbers, and Q-ing instructions. YHC tips his hat to Hitchhiker for leading the group in a set of 10 clapping merkins, which shall hereafter be called Hitchhikers.

    For many of my brothers, YHC included, there were a challenging few moments here. More to follow below.

    Mosey to the Great Lawn for a series of team events.

    First event: Team Hopscotch Races. Line up in 3 teams. Each team forms one line, facing east. Team members separate themselves side-to-side by no more than 5 feet. Assume the plank position. First man on the North End of the line bunny hops over every other man on his team. Upon reaching the end of the line, that man assumes the plank position. Every other man in the line takes his turn, building the line closer and closer to the Carillon. First team to reach the south hill of the Great Lawn wins.

    Second Event: Any Three Ways You Can. Same teams, this time heading North. Every man on the team must use 3 methods to migrate the long length of the Great Lawn. Running of any manner is not permitted. All other methods are acceptable. One many on each team must be carried the entire way. A team finishes when the last member of its team reaches the north embankment. Biggest losers do 20 burpees. 2nd Biggest losers do 10 burpees. Winners plank.

    Third Event: High knees and down to the ground. Slaughter led us in a 2 minute reminder that high knees are challenging to keep up, and dropping to the ground is easier than getting back up. YHC was thankful that temps were in the 30s, not the 80s.

    COT: Number-am-a, Name-a-ram-a, a dude in a really bright shirt took us out.

    Announcements: GrowRuck tonight, 18:00 at Dogpile. Bring a 30 lb rucksack, yourself, food, and $20 in a plastic bag (to take a cab home).

    NMS: First, YHC apologizes to every man who attended, but is not listed. YHC is doing the back blast to create a forum for the guys who were present and may have thoughts / comments to share. Please add anyone who attended in the comments.

    Second, YHC apologizes for the sermonizing hereafter. Our resident pastors were not all present, and for YHC the following is cathartic. Here goes:

    It has been YHC’s absolute pleasure to be a part of this group for 2 and 3/4 years. This group has reinvigorated YHC’s life, and it has helped focus more purpose into each day. YHC started the run over from ETs with Saab. We talked about our expectations for the morning and the possibility that the physical side would be challenging. Alas, for YHC – and perhaps for many of us – today ended about leadership, both successes and failures. On a personal level, YHC heard things from the Q that simply were not consistent with who we are and how we want to be represented as F3Nation. Rather than rehash the situation, YHC will stick with Flatline’s motto: only those who post know. YHC’s interpretation was that a poor choice of approach from the Q to another man started a downward spiral that the Q did not know how to back out of. Instead, the Q hit rock bottom and continued digging. Later, there was another comment that YHC found frankly baffling regarding the language skills of a PAX member. YHC intends to address both situations with the Q today. YHC encourages other men to do so as well, if they feel so called.

    That said, YHC’s friend Hardywood has provided a critical leadership lesson, an awakening really, over the past few years – YHC will summarize this in the form of a question: “How can we, as men and as leaders, transform a negative situation into a positive opportunity for learning and growth?” Today gave each one of us a real life experience from which to grow ourselves and others.

    One of the 5 principles of F3 is that it is open to all men. That is the spirit of F3RVA. We welcome, and we encourage. And, sometimes, we roll our eyes and wonder. YHC encourages each member to remember who we are in everything we do and always be true to our principles.

    A second part of F3 is that we “Leave no man behind, and leave no man where we find him.” That lays on each one of us the burden and the opportunity to provide leadership to each other – whether to a new member or to F3Nation’s Nantan. No man among us is perfect. The Nantan bears a special spotlight, illuminated more brightly than those on any of the rest of us. We may not be sure of what to do when a leader publicly tumbles. YHC hopes each of us is reminded today of who we are and of the behaviors, words, and leadership we seek to represent. YHC encourages each of us to pick up our brothers when they stumble or fall behind. And, YHC also notes…heavy is the head that wears the crown. When a leader of 18,000 men stumbles, he faces a challenge. Let’s help him up.

    Lastly, YHC wants to thank Hitchhiker for his leadership. When put in an extremely challenging position in front of 88 other men, Hitchhiker stood tall when the rest of us were taken aback. Life threw a curveball your way. Rather than stumble, Hitchhiker dug deep and led us. As someone noted after the workout, clapping merkins or clerkins or whatever they are called will hereafter be Hitchhikers for anyone in F3RVA. Great leadership, my friend. Thank you.

    Let’s grow from today.