3-Alarm Fun Run – 2021 Year in Review

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“How did these runs with 3-Alarm get started?” “What are 3-Alarm’ conditions?” “Why does it burn when I pee?” Here’s the answers to your burning questions.

First of all, shout out to everyone who posted in 2021!!! As you know, 3-Alarm wants to meet everyone in F3 SouthWake. Here’s our start: 16-Bit, Banana Seat, Bobby Bouche, Bobby Dall, Bondo, Cancun, Cash Roll, Cupid, Dawgpound, Dumbo, Emeril, Fanny Pack, Forceps, Full House, Gillette, Go-Gurt, Gump, Lipstick, Martini, Maybelline, Midget, Pikachu, Slide Rule, Snooze, Sprinkler, Swisher Suites, TomTom, U.T.I., Wild Turkey, Woody, Yogurt, Yoshi and 2.0s 3rd Down, 4th Down, Flower, Isabella, Slash, Sketch, Vader. That is an awesome start! Good times are in the attached photos. Who did I miss?

How did all this begin? My daughter (F3 Slow Pitch) and her boyfriend (F3 Go-Gurt) were friends with 3-Alarm from high school. One night in the fall of 2019, they were Facetiming with 3-Alarm and he got wind that I was in F3. I had never met 3-Alarm before. They handed me the phone, introduced me, and 3-Alarm immediately said his classic, “Heeeeeey!” and “Let’s go run!” That’s all it took.

Pure Joy – 2019 November 1st Run. I invited Pikachu and Go-Gurt on that first run. It was cold and dark and drizzly and I was definitely overdressed. See photo. I knew nothing about pushing a running chair and barely knew 3-Alarm. But I quickly learned, this kid is excited about running! He would yell out, “Weeeeeeeeee!” and “I’m happy!” What a blast! Pikachu remembers: “My just overwhelming memory from the first run, and really all the runs, is just pure joy. Every time I run with 3-Alarm it doesn’t matter what kind of day I’ve had or what mood I’m in – he has a contagious joy that has the ability to just completely turn my day around!” Wild Turkey has expressed this same sentiment. He looks forward to leaving the work behind and enjoying 3-Alarm’ enthusiasm for life.

Time Lapse – 2021 Spring. Covid had been around for a year or so. I hadn’t seen or heard from 3-Alarm in a looooong time. While dropping off my 2.0 Zumba at Holly Springs School of Dance (HSSOD), I pulled into a parking spot, looked to my left, and lo and behold, there’s 3-Alarm. “Davis!” I shouted. We were both glad to see each other. I asked Davis is he had been running lately. His joy quickly turned to dejection, as he answered NO. Sensing this urgent need, I said, “Let’s go run!” That’s all it took.

2021 Tuesday Runs – Pure Joy. Since early June 2021, F3 has been running with 3-Alarm every Tuesday. Why do we do this? Pure Joy! So much fun. I asked 3-Alarm what he likes most about our Tuesdays together. He says: F3 feels like family. Everyone welcomes me with open arms.

3-Alarm has impressed me in so many ways on these Tuesdays. He has an infectious enthusiasm that resonates with everyone. He literally has fans everywhere. During our runs, we’ve had fans stop their cars, shout out from their porches, stop us on their dog walks—just to say hello. In the summer, this happened over and over. What do you remember about your first meeting with 3-Alarm?

Tuesday Splashes. We were settling in on Tuesdays and more and more PAX kept trickling in. Early supporters included Bobby Bouche, Cancun, Dawgpound, Fanny Pack, Go-Gurt, Martini, Maybelline, Pikachu, Wild Turkey, and more. To sweeten the draw and to make things more fun for 3-Alarm, we added a splash down at the end of the run. By the time we reached August, we had a record turnout in the record heat. See photos.

FNGs. 3-Alarm has a keen ability to make friends and did his own recruiting for the Fun Run. While out walking with Mama Hope, one of his nurses, he met people and got busy. He texted me and was so excited to announce that he had an FNG coming. The following Tuesday, we dropped by Cole’s house. Cole wasn’t completely ready, but joined us for his first F3 workout. He was wearing very thick sweatpants in the August heat and I know he was roasting! We named him Snooze because he loves to chill and sleep. 3-Alarm also recruited Charlie, a 7th grader, who lives in Holly Glen and rides BMX and MTBs. We named him Cash Roll after a BMX trick created by BMX champion Daniel Dhers

911. Things were not always peachy on our runs. 3-Alarm has several conditions (Polymicrogyria, Dandy-Walker Syndrome, and seizures). In late September, the seizures were serious enough that Pikachu, Wild Turkey, and I followed our procedures for this situation. We timed the seizures and called Davis’s mom, then 911. Davis spent a few days in the hospital undergoing extensive diagnostic tests. For the next 3-4 weeks, we had second F instead of running. If we ever have to call 911 again, 3-Alarm wanted to request the specific medics who he had befriended on his ride to the hospital 😊.

“Out of the Goodness of His Heart?” In October, Bondo organized a special treat for 3-Alarm and all of us—A visit from Mr. and Ms. Wuf. See photos and separate backblast Wuf Sighting on Acorn Falls, October 26, 2021. Davis’ mom asked me this question during the October visit from Mr. and Ms.Wuf. The answer of course, was YES, Bondo did this out of the goodness of his heart. Certainly a highlight for 3-Alarm and all of us. Woody: Don’t take that picture without me!

“That’s a big cat” In October the Halloween lights and yard decorations were in full bloom. Wild Turkey did not wear his glasses on these runs or was hallucinating. A giant Rudolf looked like a cat 😊 This was followed by many Christmas light runs through Hilly Glen. Again, lots of fun, see photos. Wild Turkey says the neighborhood lights runs were among his favorites of the year. See my favorite in the BONUS FOOTAGE below. What your favorite 3-Alarm memory of 2021? Reply below.

Christmas Party 2021. Mr. Ambitious requested an F3 Christmas party at his house. I explained that it would be a little challenging to organize given the short notice, Covid surge, and busy schedules. But, all the F3 brothers came through. We had a party of at least a dozen PAX and 2.0s. Pikachu brought the magic hot cocoa maker and we showered 3-Alarm with some additional F3 swag and coffee gift cards (like he didn’t have enough!). See photos.

What’s next? 2022 brings another 52 opportunities to experience the Pure Joy for yourself. Are you ready?

BONUS FOOTAGE

2019 HS Half Midget, Pikachu, Snap. Midget lined up Pikachu and Snap to push 3-Alarm. Pikachu remembers:  I remember hearing I was recruited with Snap and knew we were gonna have fun flying through the springs! The joy that Davis has on race day is on a whole other level. And at Holly Springs Half that day the grit that he showed was on a whole other level too – the bumpy course definitely didn’t do him any favors but he persevered and definitely gave me one of my best HS Half memories (and there are plenty of great ones over the years!). Note that Pikachu also ran 3-Alarm in The Quay, where many of you met 3-Alarm on his way to the finish line.

2021 HS Half Banana Seat, Wild Turkey, Yogurt, and 3-Alarm plus Midget, Matt, and Wolfie. 3-Alarm called out this event as one of favorites in 2021. Banana Seat helped Matt push Wolfie. Wild Turkey ran 9 miles EC. I was feeling good but did not push 3-Alarm until around mile 7 of the race, which was mile 16 for Wild Turkey! Forceps, Cancun, Wild Turkey, Mama Hope’s son, YHC, and others joined 3-Alarm and his dad for Second F at 3-Alarm’s favorite coffee shop, Our Moments in Time.

“Erin, Erin, Erin!” A chance meeting at the FV Christmas parade. This is probably my favorite outing with Davis in 2021, maybe because it was completely unplanned and unexpected.

Davis’s sister and my 2.0 F3 Zumba were among the hundreds of dancers from the Holly Springs School of Dance performing in the parade. We had both dropped off our dancers early and by chance walked up the hill together to select a prime spot to watch. Davis’ dad (Dan), Davis, and I joined a woman who was sitting on one of the built-in benches in front of town hall, poised to see her kids and grandkids pass by in their 4-WD Jeeps and such. “Kathy” shared her bench with Dan and I while Davis positioned himself front and center on the curb to wait. I must admit, sitting on that bench had a real Forrest Gump feel to it. I had a blast just sitting there hanging with Dan, who I had only met once or twice. Kathy watched and listened to our interactions with Davis and was intrigued. By the time it was over, our new friend Kathy was a big fan.

Watching Davis interact with the parade was amazing. For once, I grabbed his phone and took photos from there. Everyone was friends with Davis.

“I’ll email you!” About halfway through the parade, a convertible rolls up among the elected officials waving to the crowd. Suddenly, 3-Alarm sounds the alarm. He starts bobbing up and down and yelling, “Erin, Erin, Erin!” over and over again. Dan and I looked at each other like, What? Davis kept yelling. Finally, the legislature representative Erin turned our way and saw Davis. She was so excited! Davis, how are you? Great to see you! And as she is rolling away, she’s pointing at Davis, twiddles her thumbs like she’s texting, and exclaims, “I’ll email you!” It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. Dan and I were flabbergasted. And I was so impressed. This just showed the range of Davis’ influence. All the way to the Legislature in downtown Raleigh!

Bear crawls and duck walks and crab walks, oh my!

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Nothing fancy about today.  It was cold so we showed up and got our sweat on.

FNGs:

None

Warm Up:

SSH x20 IC

Windmills x10 IC

Sir Fazio Arm Circles x10 IC forward and reverse

Daisy Pickers x10 IC

Imperial Walkers x10 IC

Hillbillies x10 IC

The Workout:

Starting at the first median in the parking lot the PAX lined up.  We were going to do a bear crawl Jack Webb.  We’d start with our 1:4 of merkins and air presses from where we were starting and then, between each set, we’d bear crawl two parking spaces and work our way up and down the parking lot to complete the Jack Webbs all the way up to 10:40.

After this we did what I call Duck Walk Spud Webbs.  These are similar to Dan Taylors but reversed.  We still maintained the 1:4 ratio but it was in cadence lunges and then squats.  Again, starting at the first parking median we did the first set and then duck walked two parking spaces to do our second set.  So on and so forth until we completed 10:40 for a total of 221 squats.  And also me saying “down” 221 times.

After this was done we moseyed around to the back of the school.  We stopped at the road on the side of the school because I thought I had ideas but that stretch of road was too long for what i was thinking.  I’ve since come up with better ideas that we’ll visit next time 🙂

At the basketball court we lined up for a crab boil.  Starting at one goal we crab walked to the other side were we did 10 in cadence crab cakes.  Crab walk back to the other side of the court for 10 in cadence crab humpers.  One more trip across the basketball court and we finished with 10 in cadence crab jacks.

We lined up on the near wall to do a round of BTTW and peoples chair.  Afterwards we went over to the knee wall for a quick set of irkins, dirkins, and dips.

In mediocre Sheepdog fashion we circled up for some CQC and did two round of 20 single, double, and triple punches.

After that we moseyed back to the flag for…

Mary:

Circle up and on our 6.

LBC x10 IC

Sleeping Hillbillies x10 IC each side

American Hammers x10 IC

Yoga stretches

Announcements:

Wilmington is coming up.  UTI and Friends are also going to Myrtle Beach to run there and have some room open in a house.

T-Claps (Recognition):

Motor Boatin for starting couch to 5K.  Great program and great way to get in to running (it’s how I started).  Way to get out there!

Prayer:

Farva’s M’s grandmother in the hospital.

My co-worker recovering from cancer surgery

Kosher’s uncle passing away from covid

Finkle’s family friend with a recent cancer diagnosis

Gigawatt lost his father

Finkle and his 2.0 and their DMV woes

 

 

Always an honor men, have a great weekend!

 

010000

Is this still an AWESOME route?

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EC: Pikachu, Skidmark, 187, Full House, Mc Nugget, UTI

FNGs: Not today.

Warm Up: It was cold. We discussed the route and headed out.

The Workout:

The AWESOME route (Skidmark pointed out looks like the Grinch)! If you were not there you TOTALLY missed out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary: short on time.

Announcements: Panera is hiring. Q source meets every Wednesday at 0645. Check 3rd F channel for location.

T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX for choosing the DRP.

Prayer: ALL PAX to stay healthy and COVID free, unspoken.

YHC took us out. Always an honor to lead.

The Nest is the new Disney

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FNGs: none
Warm Up: SSH, Hillbillies, Good Mornings, Fozio Arm Circles / Seal Claps / Overhead Claps. Penalty burpees were waved in light of today’s workout.
The Workout: Falcon Park has a baseball diamond. But today we used the whole park for our 7 of diamonds. One exercise performed at each corner, switching the exercise every round. Starting with 7 count and increasing by 7 each round. It went like this:
– Round 1 (performed 7 times at each corner): burpees
– Round 2 (performed 14 times at each corner): merkins
– Round 3 (performed 21 times at each corner): squats
– Round 4 (performed 28 in cadence times at each corner): LBCs
(Round 4 was performed in the parking lot with karaoke on the long sides. Someone said they felt like a princess and that The Nest was the new Disney AO.)

We then mosied over to the picnic shelter for Urkins / Durkins / Dips and People’s Chair. 3 rounds.
Mary: Popcorn Mary followed by some quick yoga.
Announcements: Jan 17th day of service.
T-Claps (Recognition): Finkle and Gamecock for taking me around their EC route.
Prayer: Kosher’s uncle Frank. Finkle’s family friend, Edna. PAX continuing to heal.
Moleskin: I’m going to steal a thought that Martini brought up at COT.
We have a limited number of days left on this planet. The average life expectancy is 78. You can do a calculation based on that to determine how many waking hours you have left (on average).
For me, 78-38=40. 40x365=14,600. 14,600x0.67=9,782.
So I have about 9,782 waking hours left, on average. This can help put things in perspective. Of course, no one is guaranteed tomorrow. We are seeing that every day.
All the more reason to make the most of today.

Farva’s 35th Birthday Beatdown

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FNGs:N/a
Warm Up:4 for 2+ miles EC then returned to find a parking lot full of PAX who had no idea what they were in for. Did a quick mosey around the parking lot along with some line agility drills, circled up for side straddle hops, arm circles forward and reverse, seal claps, overhead claps, and good mornings.
The Workout: I told everyone to partner up by size and what weight they’d like to use. There were 2 45lb plates, 2 35lb plates, 2 25lb plates, 2 70lb dumbbells, and a 75(ish)lb atlas stone. Then I proceeded to lay out the Farva 35 challenge.

Fun with Dora

Alley work

Rinse and Repeat

Victory Lap

And finally 35 man maker burpees

First Dora using one of the plates was 100 curls for the girls(in cadence), 100 overhead press (in cadence), 100 tricep extensions(in cadence), and 50 merkins together with your partner. The Pax that wasn’t doing the reps ran line agility down the parking lot and back before switching.

Alley work- grab a dumbbell or atlas stone and go down half of the alley and back. Switch with your partner as needed, the partner not carrying the weight would bear crawl or duck walk.

Rinse and repeat, but the Dora this time was 100 weighted squats(cadence), 100 mtn climbers(cadence), 100 chair kicks, and 50 monkey humpers (in cadence) together with your partner. The pax not doing reps went down and back as before. Then back to the alley to finish the rinse and repeat.

Next was a victory lap around the school to celebrate what you’d just accomplished.

Finally this beatdown was to end with 35 man maker burpees.

Mary: All pax helped finish out the Burpees with no time to spare.
Announcements: Q sheet opportunities
T-Claps (Recognition): Everyone who made it out to support my birthday Q!
Prayer: I took us out

We all got crabs and someone lost their pancreas

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FNGs: None 

10 HIMs posted to GP on a perfect morning for boulders.  YHC brought the music box and discs

Warm Up: 10x3cts of: Good Mornings, Willie Maze Hays, Imperial Walkers, Daisy Pickers,  Sir Fazio Arm Circles (both directions), arm stretches, 20x3ct SSH and 5 Burpees OYO for tardiness     Mosey to rock pile.

The Workout

Circle of Rock (of course): Mosey to the Rock Pile pick a LARGE rock (if it can be curled by anyone with one arm – it ain’t big enough). Alternate rocks between exercises.

2 sets of 10x3ct of each exercise:  Curls for the Girls, Overhead Tricep Press, Wonder Bras, Bus Drivers, Rut Rows, Squats and Ground Pounders.

2 sets of 10x3ct:  Rock Press and  Skull Crushers

1 set of 10×3 ct (10 min abs): Windshield Wipers, Low Slow Flutter, WWIIs, Box cutters

2 sets of 10×3 ct Rock Spanks (with and without consent) and Single Arm Merkins.

Partner Up and do 2 sets each of Ice Cold Rock Planks and Get your Crabs Plank on while other runs 50 yards.

Mosey to the Putting Green

8 ish rounds of Get ‘er in the hole:  Pax take turns putting discs at basket and return to LBCs. Make the put and you can walk to the basket to retrieve discs, miss and you have to Bear Crawl to the basket and Craw Bear back before you can retrieve discs.  In between every 2 sets PAX exercise 10 ct of Merkins, SSH, Squats, and Star Jump. Shredder was hit in the small of the back and apparently felt pain in his pancreas even though its not located there. 

Mosey to Wall of Pain for 2 sets of 10 x 8 ct Step ups, 10×3 ct Dips and 10×3 ct Erkins

Prayer Requests:  Kids back in school amid spike in COVID, big event for Cancun next Friday (48 hr Ruck),  Motor Boatin’s brother going through a divorce after 25 yrs of marriage.

Announcements: Long Ass Run some time in Feb, MLK 3rd F Opps (Travis Manion and Town of Holly Springs), Q source has started this week,

T-Claps (Recognition):  HazMat laid down 4 workouts this week.

Bad form burpees according to the FV J. Larsen Creeper

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FNGs: none

PAX: @Pumps, @Florence/Flojoe, @Warbucks, @Finkle, @Sprinkler, @Pots, @Sunshine, @Gamecock, @Martini
Warm Up: Mosey over to the basketball courts.  Followed by SSH 20 count in cadence, 10 walkouts, 10 good mornings in cadence, and imperial walkers 10 count cadence.
The Workout: I was a good boy last year, so Santa got me some new F3 toys to share.  We had 5 different stations and broke up into 2 teams of 5 and 4.  The stations were the “dice of death”, slam ball, jump rope, agility and sprints, and the battle rope.

While one group was the timer at the dice of death doing burpees, squat jumps, lbcs, SSH, and other various activities the other team was doing the other stations and then we would switch after three exercises were completed with the dice.  We did 4 rounds.  Little did we know that that morning in the gloom we would be come the talk of the town.  Apparently, our friend James Larsen videoed us doing burpees and wanted to give some critique on Facebook all the while it became a fantastic PR stud filled stunt for F3 in Fuquay.  It’s too bad we didn’t give them the full show with some pickle pounders and monkey humpers…James my friend, if video taping guys working out at 5:45 in the morning is your thing come back next week for some great footage!
Mary: Merry go round.  Thanks @sunshine for the monkey humper addition in cadence to 30 lol.
Announcements: Q source happening on Wednesday evenings at 6:45.  check slack for details.
T-Claps (Recognition): Special recognition to the Larsen Creeper for his award winning video footage.  https://fb.watch/amCz6mhtUj/
Prayer: Several job interviews, Sprinkler and family, Pots’ dad recovering from covid, and Pots’ cousin with tumors and treatment for them.

The Abyss is DARK (Abe Q 6 of 7)

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FNGs: none
Warm Up: Jog around the soccer field. Circled up for SSH, Good Mornings,
The Workout: Mosied over to the Abyss. YHC has been following a similar routine of four exercises, run, repeat. Simple but effective.

Round 1 (repeat 3 times)
Merkins x10
Squats x10
Lunges x10
WWIIs x10
down the Abyss and back up

Round 2 (repeat 3 times)
Shoulder Taps x10
High Knees x10
Side Lunges x10
LBCs x10
down the Abyss and back up

Round 1 (repeat 2 times)
Wide Grip Merkins x10
Tempo Squat x10
Jumping Lunges x10
American Hammers x10
down the Abyss and back up

Mosied back to start for Mary.
Mary: LBCs x30, Homer-to-Marge with single leg variation, Pickle Pounders, wrapped up with some quick yoga.
Announcements: Jan 17th day of service, sign up to Q!
T-Claps (Recognition): Full House and Miget for getting back out after recovering.
Prayer: PAX recovering from sickness and injury, Sprinkler’s family, mental health this time of year

Let Sleeping Truckers Lie (Abe Q 4 of 7)

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FNGs: none
Warm Up: SSH, Burpees, Good Mornings, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, Fozio Arm Circles, Seal Claps, Overhead Claps, Moroccan Night Clubs
The Workout: Mosied over to that hill. A trucker was snoozing on the side of the road, so we kept our voices down. Hope he got his beauty sleep.
Started with 11s. Squats at the bottom, Merkins at the top. Bear crawl on the way up and mosey back down. Someone might have suggested that bear claws are better than bear crawls, but YHC is skeptical.
Wrapped that up and mosied over to just past the oil change place. PAX grabbed two palm-sized rocks and lined up at the end of the parking spaces.
Curls for the girls x25
Triceps x25
Ruh Rohs x25
Overhead Press x25
Sprint down, sprint back. Repeat.
The rocks were cold and unforgiving, so YHC took pity and decreased the count to 20 on the third round. Returned the rocks and mosied back for Mary.
Mary: Popcorn Mary (YHC’s favorite) with some LBCs, Box Cutters, Low Slow Flutters, etc. Wrapped it up with some brief yoga.
Announcements: Jan 17th day of service, Tiger Blood moving to a new location (see Slack)
T-Claps (Recognition): UTI for his 3 miles of EC.
Prayer: PAX sick and injured, UTI’s father and Uncle (prayer/praise for continued recovery), Sprinkler’s family for their loss.

Two Chilly Penguins

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It’s freezing out there. The Nest saw two cold flightless birds this week.

FNGs: none
Warm Up: Normal warm-o-rama
The Workout: 2 rounds of 4 corner stack. Pushups, jump squats, Turkish get-up, Carolina dry docks. Squats, lunges, Frankensteins, duck walk.

Finished up spelling penguin with our exercises. Pickle pounders, E2K, nine inches, ground pounders, underdog, irkins, high kNees.

Mary: 6 rounds of core exercises
Announcements: MLK day of service
T-Claps (Recognition): Finkle for braving the cold and EC
Prayer: Finkle’s class, praise for Gamecock’s wife test.