Shaken..Not Stirred, but Strong despite the added Water
Pre-Blast called for a 5-mi ‘shake out’ run this morning at AGS. Arrived to Womble this morning and fittingly see Master Shake parked and ready to go. The weather humid this morning, almost a complete 180 from yesterday’s perfect 51 degree dry forecast. Parked toward the tennis courts was a truck I hadn’t seen before and out emerges Martini, fresh off a distance PR at U-Turn yesterday. I know Halloween is a few short days away, and a ghost in the form of Pilgrim now comes into focus. He’s got a half planned and is meeting Bernie this morning for some miles, who is just a few strides away. Nemo pulls in and we have 4 PAX for this morning’s run at AGS and conducted the following warm-up.
Warm Up: Quick jog from end to end of the lot, with alternating lunge walks, butt kickers, and carioca. Circled up for Imperial Walkers X10, Deep Squats IC X10, Hillbillies X10, Fazio X10F\10B. Squat hold while explaining the route.
The Workout: Shake Out Run.. PAX proceeded down Stinson and up to the stop sign at the Bass Lake Road intersection. Moved left on Bass Lake, past the Dauber Cathedral (Lowe’s Foods). At Holly Springs Rd, we took a right and headed down to Linksland, where we took a right and then an eventual right on Salem Ridge. At the end of Salem Ridge, proceeded back up Bass Lake onto Stinson and then took a trip back to the flag via Ivan parking lot and the back side of the baseball fields to complete the 5mi run.
Mary: Stretches OYO
Announcements: HSHM in a few weeks. HSHM channel on Slack.. be on the look out for segment runs during the week via ShamWow and that determined Aquaman.
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX for first battling the humidity and then the steady rain that came down as we reached Salem Ridge. Nemo for picking up the six. Martini for following up his strong U-turn performance with his first AGS appearance. Acceleration alert on Master Shake. During the last 1/2 mi to the flag he took off in a gear YHC can only describe as blender setting- Liquefy. This guy is showing up every week and every week getting stronger.
Prayer:
YHC shared a few takeaways from yesterday’s long runs. OK- Let’s start with that WTF Half Marathon that started at 3:30am yesterday. Insane- Yes. Completely Pointless- No… The story behind this one is deeply rooted in accountability. About a year ago, Pikachu and Skidmark started an AO called Crazy Time, which had a 4:30am start on Friday’s and ended, leaving enough time for some EC and then eventually patronage to Cletus or Ivan. This AO has since been on hiatus, but in August-September, posts of 8 mi EC’s started to proliferate on Slack, which prompted YHC to ask Pikachu the question…”Why don’t you just do a Half Marathon EC.” To which Pikachu responds, “Is that an HC, Mookie?” I then replied with the following, “Not this month, Pikachu, but sometime in October around HSHM training time. Here’s something you may not know about YHC. I am a man of my word and although it sounded crazy, I did suggest it, and to the point that I wrote down that this would happen in October. So last week when Pikachu was at AGS, I verbally HC’d for yesterday as a promise to him, but more importantly as a promise to myself to commit to this insanely early run. In the process, I even managed to headlock Redenbacher and M4L for the run.
The moral of the story is this, it’s only crazy until you do it. Yesterday was a lesson in accountability and commitment. The fact that we had 4 guys doing a 3:30am half marathon was impressive, but not as impressive as the parking lot at Ting as we arrived back to the lot and onto the ramp in the final 1/4 mi. With all the cars parked, I could have sworn race day came a few weeks early. The PAX in SouthWake have always inspired YHC and in race season, like it is now, its a pretty incredible time to witness all of this positive energy amongst PAX to become not just better runners, but better individuals, who accept challenges together and convert the crazy into a commitment to be better men, better husbands, fathers, and contributors in the community. Amazing, Men! I’m all out of adjectives.
Additional prayers were sent for those PAX battling injuries and those training for races for continued health. Those experiencing marital challenges and all unspoken. YHC took us out.
