5 Years is a long time, but not really — Area 51 Convergence for 5 Year Anniversary

  • When:09/14/16
  • QIC: Runstopper, Joker, Hops, Tiger Rag, Stone Cold
  • The PAX: 106 men of Area 51, SOB, Metro, The Fort, & The Dash among others


5 Years is a long time, but not really — Area 51 Convergence for 5 Year Anniversary

WARNING: Long backblast but hopefully worth the read and colorful commentary will ensue.

Mermaid, our current Area 51 Nantan, hatched this idea for a 5-year celebration of F3 in Area 51.  After date and AO selected (of course Anvil/The Rock AO was the obvious choice), Mermaid tapped 5 old farts of Area 51 to Q this convergence, including the 2 former regional Nantans – Joker & Tiger Rag.

After the pax rolled into 3 or 4 different lots at the AO and delivered KB’s to Stone Cold, food to Mermaid for Calvary pantry, etc., we all converged in the middle lot for a Runstopper Q’d COP.

Hopefully, the 106 men who posted got their morning’s worth of pain from Runstopper’s COP and the 4 stations.  YHC heard mumblechatter in COP about too many burpees and who calls 20 merkins in COP?  The usual suspects did not disappoint – Gummy, Semi-Gloss, Swiper, Spackler, Udder, and others for sure.

 

The Thang & Ye Olde Moleskine:

COP:

Merkins, MCs, Burpees, LBCs

Quickly split the pax into 4 groups and give instructions as to stations and rotations.  Most of the pax were listening, with the exception of the aforementioned knuckleheads – Semi-Gloss, Spackler & Swiper.  More than one Q remarked that those 3 seemingly arrived about 5 minutes late to the 10-11 minute rotations, if at all; but were generally roaming around at their leisure.  Don’t remember seeing Spackler or Semi-Gloss at my station?  Heard Swiper for sure.

Saw a lot of familiar faces in the gloom, and a lot of unfamiliar faces, too — both great things!

** Joker’s station:

The workout consisted of the following

·         200 meter warm up lap

·         Find a partner

·         Partner 1 – full speed 200 meter lap, while Partner 2 does merkins

·         Partner 2 – full speed 200 meter lap, while Partner 1 does merkins [total merkins varied by group… 100 – 200]

·         Partner 1 – full speed 200 meter lap, while Partner 2 does squats

·         Partner 2 – full speed 200 meter lap, while Partner 1 does squats [total squats varied by group…. 150 – 200]

·         Each group did a medley of planks and/or LBCs

Joker:  “By the time guys got to my station [after having done kettlebells and/or hairburners] they were wiped out pretty good”

“There were three guys at the workout today that were also at the first Area51 workout on September 10, 2011…. Joker, Slapshot and Ocho Cinco”   T-claps for the 3 original Area 51 pax!!!

YHC’s 10 cents: Grateful to Joker for the courage to start this thing in Area 51.  I feel confident YHC can speak for hundreds & hundreds of men in saying “Thank You” for your willingness to lead and start something which has positively impacted us in many ways, some of which many don’t even realize fully.

Hops’ station:

Pax did a bunch of different plank and mary exercises, including (I think) but not limited to the following:

CCVs….of course!  Funniest comment of the morning was when Rev asked Grapevine if he did CCV’s at Curves

Makthar N’diaye’s, Very Slow Flutters, Knee-Ups, American Hammers, Elbow Plank w/Leg Lefts, Dolly, LBCs, etc, etc

Prairie Fire Mary – in the 3rd group, Fire Hazard helped YHC demonstrate and by then the abs, hip flexors, etc. were shredded.  Fire Hazard pert near severed some stuff in YHC’s gronoidal region #withauthority

Old school sit-ups with partner 2 in plank on partner 1’s feet. Flapjack

When YHC noticed Nibbler among the pax, I remarked I hadn’t heard any audible “encouragement” from him; the other Q’s did hear Nibb’s customary commentary I’m sure!

Tiger Rag’s station:

·         3 man – 1/4 mile hairburner loop.  Partner 1 push, Partner 2 and 3 5 burpees each and CMIYC.  Rotate until complete.

·         ¼ mile mosey

·         3 man inchworms.  Partner 1, Inchworms x 5, P2 & 3 5 squats. Rotate until each Pax does 5 rounds (or until time).

TR’s Observations: “None.  No one had fun.  No one talked.  Everyone left abruptly.”

YHC’s observation: Very thankful for all of the time, energy and thought TR has put into making F3 Area 51 what it is today — which is a much healthier, stronger & well-organized entity than it was 5 years ago and well-positioned for the next 5.  Aye!

Stone Cold’s Station:

KB Tabata:  1 min ON, 20 sec rest
Good Mornings
2 hand swings
Cleans
Squats- goblet or tea bag
Clean + Squat + Press
High Pulls
Viking
Alternating 1 hand swing
KB Crunches
There was a mixture of that in each group.
Stone Cold’s observations:
Kept getting “where’s the music?”  Q fail
I think we had more KBs show up than Pax- didn’t use half of them but thanks to those who brought em out.
Runstopper liked my socks but has requested them in tights.  #christmaspresent
Voodoo and High tide tie for the best KB form in Area51.
The Area51 Runners (#skinnyarms) stared at the bells for awhile until they figured out that you pick it up by the handle.
Q:  Who did the most mubblechatter out there today?  Gummy, Swiper, or Semigloss?
I must admit the Pax came to my section a little beat up…complaining of hairburners.  They seemed not so eager to swing the iron and had a little tough time hanging in for the full minute of ON time.  But all in all they did well.
*** FINAL Commentary:
I’ll start with restating TR’s prayer request for Frasier: Please pray for Frasier and his family as his dad is very ill.  Frasier is one of the pax, along with many of you, who has poured himself into the pax in many ways.  Let’s lift him up brothers.
Only one life to live on this big ball (as Dredd calls it).  Steward it well men.
It was a pleasure to be part of the Q team for this 5th year convergence for Area 51.  Among many faults YHC has is a tendency to be a bit verbose….shut up Alf, Gummy, Ickey, TR, and a host of other quick-witted pax who are now roasting me.
But since I drew the short-straw to write the backblast, I’ll close with a few observations of my own:
* Men are not good at forming what I call community.  But I firmly believe we are all hard-wired for it.  106 pax this morning are living proof that F3 has gifted us a community of men that want to struggle well together through life – physically, relationally and spiritually.
* While I sit here unemployed, wrestling with the accompanying anxieties and fears with a wife and two boys and all the “stuff” of life; overall I’m encouraged and hopeful.  That hope certainly has a lot to do with my faith; but it also has a lot to do with the encouragement from you guys.  I’m not saying I’d be in a really bad place without F3, but glad I don’t have to test that hypothesis.  What I am saying is that I’m thankful for the fellowship, moreover friendship that I have with you knuckleheads.  I need F3.
* OK, I’ll shut up now after closing with this quote that I think captures what F3 has meant to so many of us who find ourselves struggling with a lot of the same challenges in our lives.  And a community of men who help us realize that we’re not alone.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one”

 – C.S. Lewis

 

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Fault Line
Fault Line
7 years ago

Solid workout this am…pretty tough herding 100 cats wearing Kettle Bells rolling in the wet grass. Thanks to all the Q’s.

Retread_a51
Retread_a51
7 years ago

Great BB Hops, I almost felt like I was there. Hate that I missed the convergence, but I’ve come down with a case of post-BRR #funkeye that’s left me temporarily unable to post.

Thanks to all the Pax for doing what you do to make Area 51 great.

Ickey Shuffle
7 years ago

I just wish I’d met you all five years ago instead of two.

Horsehead
7 years ago

Great workout.

Only complaints were the partner crotch drippers (only exercise that is better with tights) over in Hops’ wet grass country and the fact that Runstopper chose this horrible sticky little plate out of the whole bunch during the pukeburners. Since I had parked in Sublot B18, I was unsure if I could get to my granola bar in time before I passed out. Fortunately time was called and I was able to recover by not doing any KB exercises at the next station.

– HH

Voodoo
7 years ago

Great backblast and workout this morning. I had just recovered from the BRR and now I’m sore again! Thanks to this morning’s Qs for leading the workout and also being instrumental in bringing F3 to south Charlotte so we could all benefit from it. Also thanks to the current regional leaders and all the other men (many of them working anonymously behind the scenes) who have kept F3 alive and thriving.

Ickey said it best in his comment above. I’m going on 3 years in F3 and wish it was 5 (or 10 or 15).

Mermaid
Admin
7 years ago

Great backblast Hops. That workout hurt. No surprise for A51, especially with our founding fathers on Q. 3 years and 5 months ago I posted my first F3 workout in A51. Centurion. Byron’s 40th. Dora on Q. It was very difficult and I didn’t know for sure if I would come back out. I kept hearing things like: Keep posting. It won’t get any easier, but you’ll get better. #truthnugget T-claps to our Q’s today, who were instrumental in building A51 from one workout on 09/10/2011 to what we have now. T-claps to the Functional Q’s, Site-Q’s, PAX and Board members. This thing does not work if we do not lead. All of us. Thankful to be surrounded by men who are willing. Let’s continue to give it away. Throw some headlocks on and keep finding those men who need F3. We all did.

Joker
7 years ago

Great job this morning lads [channeling my inner Bulldog]. I couldn’t imagine anything better than a 5:15AM workout with 105 of my closest friends. It’s been a great five years. All I did was “push a ball down hill”… you guys did the rest. Let’s keep it rolling for another five more…

And, I can honestly say that I preferred leading my station four times, if that’s what it took to avoid the KBs and hair burners…

Reverend Flo-rida
7 years ago

For the record, f*cking with grapevine was in response to him saying he couldn’t ride with me to the convergence because it might mess up his clothes. The guy wears 100% cotton 100% of the time. Not like he has some super special silver ion filament based wardrobe.

The hairburners sucked because the exercise in between hairburners was burpees. If I had known we had inchworms coming, I would have pulled a hammy or come up with some other excuse for failure.

Great stuff this morning. Glad I got out of bed at 430 for this . Thanks for the leadership and the efforts all around.

Swiper
7 years ago

Rumors of Nibbler’s death are ill-founded and unappreciated. Good to see (and hear) him along with FishWrap and the Rev. Also good to see Winston-Salem expatriates Starfish and Van Pelt out there.

In other news, let’s play two truths and a lie. Spackler and Semi Gloss are terrible influences, chatterboxes, and models of perfect form. Ready, go.

Spackler
Reply to  Swiper
7 years ago

When you join this crew, safe to say it’s best to just buckle up and enjoy the ride. And occasionally wear earplugs. Although, I looked like a complete saint when dude kept throwing out vicious ‘F’ bombs. That even got a whoa out of me.

Snowflake
7 years ago

Great workout, if you’re into that sort of thing. A nice (belated) baton-pass party. I’ll second the T-Claps for Joker and TR. A huge jump start to A51 thanks to their efforts. I know Mermaid will keep the trains running on time.
Hairburners suck, you can always find Spackler in a crowd, and 106 is an awful lot of Pax.

Well done –

Spackler
Reply to  Snowflake
7 years ago

FTR, I/we crushed the hair burners. It was much easier when you don’t have to do the burpees 🙂

Hairball
Reply to  Spackler
7 years ago

Follow the TR “do as he does, not as he says” on the burpees and you’ll be fine. Fun fact: my wedding day was the day Area 51 was founded. Coincidence?

Horsehead
Reply to  Hairball
7 years ago

I was just thinking, “Wow, your wedding day was on the same day as A51 was founded and your anniversary was on the BRR – what a coincidence!”

Then I realized that was the same thing.

I am wicked smart.

– HH

Frasier
7 years ago

It is awesome to be a part of such a great group of knuckleheads. They make you laugh, push you and always support you.

I appreciate your thoughts today about my dad. I found out two years ago during the BRR that he had cancer and there isn’t much time that passes in between when someone from my team doesn’t ask how he is doing. #F3FreeRange

Keep pushing to get more guys out. I think this F3 thing might catch on.

Drop Thrill
7 years ago

So obviously I missed this somehow being out of town picking up my 300th coaster!

My last 2.5 years have been so much richer and healthier because of F3.

Many of you walked with me through the sickness and passing of my mother. I know I would’ve been much worse off without you guys during that sifting.

Happy birthday A51!

Dumpster Fire
Dumpster Fire
7 years ago

“Men are not good at forming what I call community. But I firmly believe we are all hard-wired for it.” Well said, Hops. More importantly, well done.

Excellent AO, Excellent Qs, and a solid group of guys all-around. Across a continuum of fitness conditions, I saw guys pushing hard to change their personal status quo, with the PAX encouraging them to do so without regard for anything other than the KB, plate, reps, or distance in front of them. Aye.

Happy 5th, Area51.

Bugeater
7 years ago

F3 is an amazing thing for us dudes in need of sharpening. It keeps us balanced, grounded, and fit. First post flashback: Aug 11, 2012, clown car ride w/ mall cop and hops to our lone A51 Sat AO, Area 51, w/ Joker on Q for some Olympics. Hops explains why I can’t wear ear buds, McGee went beast mode grabbing gold, and joker and TR battled for the other medals. From there a string of 4 mud runs, two BRR’s, a spartan race, and a whole lot of 2nd F… It’s been awesome fun boys. We don’t know too far ahead what’s in store for us, life takes a lot of turns, but let’s keep grinding fellas.

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