The Friday prior I attended Gump’s 12 Year Anniversary Q at Cletus.  As we worked out Gump asked each of us “How many years with F3?” and “What’s kept us coming back?  What does it mean to you?”.  With my anniversary a week away, I had already started thinking about what F3 meant to me and Gump challenged me to really dig deep and think back on my almost 9 years.

Well that just took me down a rabbit hole.  I started looking at our F3 PAX album, going back to look at backblasts, and recalling all of the people and the things I had experienced.  I started to realize how many classes of F3 PAX had come and gone.  There are still some guys around from 9 years ago but some of them had left for different reasons – family, work, moving to other locations, injury.

How many of them still looked back on their F3 glory days?  Would they come back?

I made a list of names based on the backblasts and photos.  Not comprehensive, somewhat random.  That Friday, I put up a pre-pre blast with my intention to reach out to this list and asked PAX to come up with their own lists and reach out too.  I started to text…

Venkman, Oyster, Lawn Dart, WebEx, R-22, Coal Ash, Tetanus, Yoshi, Soft Serve, Kosher, Straight Cash, Genie, Huggies, Bobby Boucher, Fanny Pack, Sprinkler, Axe (with an E), Martini, Oh Yeah, Cowboy, Aquaman, SlideRule, Warbucks, Lipstick, Skidmark, DawgPound, M4L, Emeril, Redenbacher, Bernie, Wallaby, Stubs, Leftovers, Stickers, Skittles, Particle Board, Pacman, FedEx, Peeping Tom, Wiggly, The Natural, Blue Hen, Flanigan, ShamWow, Dahmer, Master Shake, Snap, Shredder, Fonzi, Lipsync, Patch, Crosby

By Monday, I had about 25 HCs/SCs from the list and another 9 HCs on the post (fitting).  I didn’t get to the whole list, I didn’t have all the contact info, but I did what I could.  I had Gemini make me a little teaser image without the names and updated the pre-pre-blast post.

By Thursday, I had a few extra names from the list.  Some SCs had become HCs, some had to drop.  The Pre-blast launched and it was a flurry of comments and emojis.  By the end, 22 PAX had HCd on Slack.  Some overlapped with my Kotters list, some didn’t.  This was going to be big… Like 30 guys!?  I planned from the start to pay homage to my first FNG workout Q’d by Emeril and CHIPs.  I reviewed it and it checked out as appropriate for this sized group.  Emeril and CHIPs had 33 PAX that morning…  The table was set, the coffeteria plans were ordered (thanks again Pikachu, Gizmo, BnB, Abe, Rico, and Wild Turkey)

BTW – Hit up Rico if you want to order those pastries he brought.  They were amazing and he’s pledged to support my requested 3rd F cause for the day with a portion of any proceeds.

Rico’s Store – https://adoroportugal.com/shop-our-products/ols/products/pastel-de-nata-12-frozen-prebaked

3rd F Cause – https://secure.alsohio.org/site/TR/Endurance/General?pg=team&fr_id=1181&team_id=6540

Oh wait… one last minute addition.  Downrange and Full House are calling for EC…  As Full House reminded me “Go Big or Go Home”  FML ok fine.  I set my alarm for 4:20.

EC: Full House, Gillette, and Downrange for 2 miles

We returned to a packed Cletus parking lot with an overwhelming number of faces and the cars kept rolling in.  Peeping Tom, one of my original EHs from WoodCreek had traveled from JACOGA to be here as promised.  Fanny Pack!  SlideRule! Stickers!  Wiggly!  TomTom (Thanks Bumblebee)!?  Dahmer!  Shredder!  Fonzi too!

There were more but my head was spinning and I felt like I was at a wedding.  So many people I wanted to catch up with and only time for a quick hello but we’d have to wait for coffeteria.

We did a count-off…  50 PAX counted!!!  WHAT!?!?

FNGs: Welcome 404 (Wed Developer), Yooper (Formerly from norther Michigan but not the U.P.)

In my haste to get moving and get this crowd away from the residential, I forgot all about our FNGs.  As the group started their mozy to the back lot.  Someone shouted to remind me and I ran back through the crowd to give em the disclaimer.  9 years of F3 hadn’t prepared me to manage this workout but heck most of my smaller workouts I get the checklist a little twisted.  And we mozy’d on.  TO THE BACK LOT!

Oh hey!  It’s CROSBY!!!  walking the trail to catch up with us for the workout.  51 PAX is now the count

The Workout: Thang 1, Parking lot – B O M B S
Partner up, similar to Dora 1-2-3 but more exercises. Partner up. Pax 1 does exercise while Pax 2 runs to from the back of the lot to the entrance and back. Swap out and continue the exercise until each amount of reps are complete. The exercises and reps are: 50- Burpees / 100- Overhead Claps / 150- Merkins / 200- LBC’s / 250- Squats.

^^^This text was ripped almost exactly as it was written from my FNG workout backblast which was originally posted to our Facebook group on 7/24/2017.  Slight details changed since the original venue was Paradise City.

I did get the chance for some cool exchanges with this crew as we passed each other through the workout.  Fives, fist bumps, and mumblechatter.  It was pretty awesome.

Warm Up: good morning, windmills, willie mays haze, SSH

Once again, I was all mixed up.  We never did a warm-up so I decided to put this in the middle as a palette cleanser.

The Workout: Thang 2, Catch me if you can

Same partners, partner 1 does 2 burpees while partner 2 takes off.  Once burpees are done, partner 1 runs after to catch partner 2.  Once caught, they switch and continue until back at the flags.  The route was from the back lot, around the baseball fields by way of the parking lot entrance, back around to the bridge, right at the shelter passing the playground on the right, around the Soccer fields and back to the main parking lot.

Mary: Despite Lipstick’s prediction based on my first ever Q, the workout filled the whole time and there was nothing left for Mary.  COT began immediately on the tennis courts.

Announcements:  What a amazingly crazy morning with all the PAX at Cletus.  I wanted to post here to put some emphasis on a surprise/not surprise NANTAN announcement this morning.  the surprise… Breach ran along side me on the way back to the flags and said something like “seems like a good time to announce you as NANTAN”  the not surprise, I asked for the job.  I want to thank Breach for his leadership.  He took charge post-covid as we were looking to re-energize South Wake and has done an amazing job navigating tough conversations and building on our already awesome community.  As long as I’ve known him, he has always lived in all 3 Fs.  The Marine in him has given him some special skills in 1st F | For 2nd F, he’s always down for coffee, beer, and a good time.  Especially if there are costumes involved. |  You wouldn’t have had to be around long to know how big of a 3rd F heart Breach has in his charitable giving, his leadership with Travis Manion, road side clean-up, and the list goes on.  Thank you Breach and I look forward to turning to you for your guidance.

T-Claps (Recognition):  All of these men for beating the fartsack to join me on this crazy spectacular morning.  I had a bunch of fun and loved seeing the band back together.  52 PAX in all for a single workout.  So much brotherhood and support felt.

A separate shout out to Crosby for his loving donation of a kidney and his willingness to join us during his recovery.

Prayer: X-Rays mission trip safety and success.  Flip Phone’s family as they mourn their loss.  All others spoken and unspoken.

From my FNG backblast, CHiPS provided —

Proverbs 17:17 – A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 – Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in face you are doing.

My first attempt to get the whole group

Breach got ’em all

Coffeteria was so cool

My original clown car – Peeping Tom and Lipstick