Join your F3 brothers on Friday, October 26th at 9 PM in the Ballantyne Corporate Park for The Crane Relay, straight from the mind of Frasier himself.
The Crane Relay is a Ragnar style running race (everyone based at the same location running 3 loops), but with shorter loops run on roads/paved greenways and, most importantly, teams picked in a draft. Total distance is 12 miles over 3 loops.
If you can get through a boot camp, you can (and should) do this race. More details are below or you can jump straight to the sign-up sheet here: . We need all signups by August 25th, no exceptions.
What
When
Where
Why?
Now that you are convinced and ready to sign up, here’s what’s next:
Thang
Moleskin
A man’s choice of rock says a lot about him, and it’s not always what you might think.
Sure, a big rock may indicate a powerful man. But, it can just as easily indicate a man who lets ego or overzealousness cause him to overpromise, overcommit, and then underdeliver when it comes to execution. Or, maybe it’s a man who has decided to dig deeper and push himself this morning. To try a rock just 10% bigger than he otherwise might have chosen to see what happens. Maybe he wins today. Or, maybe he learns what to do differently next time.
Just the same, a small rock does not necessarily indicate weakness. Maybe the man is coming back from injury, or didn’t sleep well last night, and is self-aware and humble enough to recognize this and choose an appropriate, lesser burden to lift until he is abler. Or, perhaps it is a man who has struggled with enough injuries in the past that he simply prefers to avoid them. Or a man who is overcautious and underestimates himself so, rather than risk failure or discomfort, chooses a rock he is certain he can lift — at the same time avoiding the very real chance of breakthrough and of building positive forward momentum.
Or, maybe you were just unlucky enough to be the last man to a rather small rock pile and had to take what was left and make the best of it.
If you were there this morning (and even if you weren’t), I encourage you to consider the rock you selected and reflect on how it might relate to other choices you make and the burdens you carry every day. Which man are you? Are you moving in the right direction? Should you choose differently next time? Maybe I’m just tired, but pondering that myself certainly led me to a couple interesting realizations which will certainly affect the next choice I make.
Whatever your choices, and whatever your reasons, I do know that carrying any burden is always easier when surrounded by my brothers — as it was once again this morning. Great representation at The Fishing Hole with an impressive 54 year age range between our War Baby – Kuechly (13) and War Daddy – Boomer (67). The sweat marks left on the top deck are just a small indication of the effort every man put forth at The Hole today. Thank you all for joining me.
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Thang
Moleskin
We’ve all seen an ugly baby from time to time, and we all know how it goes. When you first lay eyes on it, so new and fresh, you can’t help but (rightfully) think what a miracle it is.
But, once you’ve had time to look at it a little more. To see the forehead that’s a little wonky. The eyes that aren’t quite spaced right. All the little details you missed in that first glance. That is when you realize the truth of it all. Although it’s soul is, and always will be, beautiful — this is, for the moment, one ugly ass baby.
That was our experience with the Murderhorn’s spawn this morning. It was not until the 3rd trip, when we ran the hill from the bottom all the way to the cul-de-sac at the top, that we recognized it as a true thing of nightmares. Don’t think it’s quite as long as the Horn, but I swear it hurt just as bad. So, we dry heaved for a few minutes and then got the hell out of there. Still, it was fun interesting visiting fresh (possibly virgin) Maul territory and I for one hope someone takes us back. Caution is definitely warranted on Elm and Endhaven, but it wasn’t all that bad and once we got into the neighborhood we didn’t see a single car (that I remember).
Quiet bunch this yesterday morning once we hit Endhaven. Charlotte 10-Miler race veterans did make themselves known with their collective groans as we turned down Prince Edward. This friendly little set of hills is towards the very end of that race and is, by what I could gather from the expletives muttered, a definite crowd pleaser there as well. Frasier, who ran repeats up the hill encouraging PAX at this year’s 10 miler, may be the only person who truly thinks this baby is cute.
Had a great time with you all this yesterday morning. Work travel (and Stanley Cup hockey) kept me out of the gloom for longer than I like. Never realize just how much you miss it until you are right back in the middle of it. If you know one, call up a kotter this weekend and tell him how much we need him out there with us.
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21 PAX successfully dodged an onslaught of vehicles this morning and shepherded our FNG, Red Stripe, through his first workout. None of it was pretty, but it was certainly interesting.
Thang
Moleskin
YHC picked up our FNG, Andrew, at his house at 0515 and headed towards Charlotte Catholic for another muggy morning of pain fun. Without any prompting, he came out of the garage with a towel and water bottle — more prepared than I’ve seen any other FNG; good thing because Centurion is definitely an aggressive way to start an F3 career. Merlot may, or may not, have been spilled (all I know is bushes were involved) and he put in a damn solid effort and earned the name Red Stripe (Mississippi State grad — almost got Hotty Toddy; wife and 2 kids; Forest Hill elder; Air Force vet; grew up in Jamaica). Red Stripe already knew quite a few faces upon arrival and hopefully will be back soon to get to know some more. Welcome, brother.
As for the workout, the day started as many do in Area 51:
It was basically everything you might expect of a morning at Centurion. The most unusual thing about this morning was YHC at a Centurion workout. Definitely has been too long. Too many guys I look up to and that I enjoy working out with to let habit/bias (aka The Brave) keep me away so long. Recommend you also remember that this summer and try to mix it up a little.
Definitely seems like there is a lot more traffic on 51 and on Carmel than I remember there being. Seemed like every turn we made we were dodging vehicles in every direction. 21 is a large herd of PAX to move across those streets and YHC definitely could have done a better job of managing it. Next time we will just stay nice and cozy on campus.
Cut the hill set short today based on time when I realized this was actually going to be a Fast Twitch workout if we spent the whole damn time just running that hill. It’s definitely no Murderhorn, but that is one long hill. Downside, we didn’t complete our triple nickel. Upside, we had time for one quick sprint up the parking deck.
Enjoyed the time with the PAX of A51 this morning and hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Happy Memorial Day. Please remember to take a moment out of your time this weekend to remember the men and women of our armed forces who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedom we often take for granted.
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12 PAX arrived at Fast Twitch for what felt like a relatively cool morning ready (or not) for the grab bag of hilly running that came next.
Thang
Moleskin
YHC was excited to be offered this Q slot at Fast Twitch by Purell. The new launch point offers endless potential for painful, hilly suffering of which I am quite fond and I was more than happy to share this with the A51 PAX this morning. Morning felt cool at first but, as usual this time of year, that changed pretty quickly. I had visited the new AO a few times in the last few weeks so was aware of the new launch point, but multiple PAX were friendly enough to share addresses, pictures, maps and other various coordinates to make sure YHC arrived. Looks like Frasier has given us SOBs a bad name. Not sure whether I helped or damaged that reputation this morning.
The warmup was similar exactly the same as Fletch’s popular warmup last week. YHC made a point this morning to run far enough ahead of Purple Haze and Alf to not hear any complaining about running, running too fast, running on hills, etc. Unfortunately, the timed interval set required us to stay together and much mumblechatter was heard including the use of the word ‘Swift’ as a curse word. Nothing wrong with a little structure to the running, guys. Looking at Strava, it looks as if everyone played along for the most part. Appreciate it.
To appease the masses and avoid outright rebellion, our main set included moments of both hands and asses on the ground. This, unfortunately, did not make it any less painful. Took us about 4.5 miles to travel the 1.5 mile stretch of Raintree and it definitely felt like it was never going to end. The 3 trips up various parts of the Providence Colony hill, as well as the full trip up to Windbluff, were definitely soul suckers. Even Purell looked a little winded at one point so we knew we were onto something.
Rachel and Purell finished the entire Paula Abdul set with a little to spare and head back for the six. Believe Uncle Rico and Astro may have finished entirely as well and were close on Rachel’s heels either way. Uncle Rico’s (somewhat awkward by FT standards, perfectly acceptable at Swift) pre-warmup stretching* paid dividends as he edged out Astro. Astro likely would have finished quicker if not wearing a 30 year old cotton t-shirt that proved to be more of a wind-catching kite than an article of clothing. Alf and Purple Haze fueled each other with grumbles all morning and almost made it. Everyone else put in an impressive performance and refused to throw in the towel, all arriving at 0615 on the dot. All-in-all, we covered between 5.7 and 7 miles today, most at a healthy pace.
Thanks to all who came out. Pop Tart was last seen looking for a beer to fuel up for his next lap of Raintree after hearing Turkey Leg mention that the Beer Mile should really be the Beer Raintree 10K.
* recorded clip of Uncle Rico stretching available here: https://giphy.com/gifs/stretch-Ig9Z7wby0MOKk
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Thang
Moleskin
Ben Nevis is a beast of a hill and proved just right for this morning’s repeats. The idea was to run hard uphill for long enough, with a short enough break, that we built up some nice lactic acid in the legs and had to push through and keep our form in the final 15 second sprint. Worked out well enough although we probably went a little too hard on the 90 second efforts — par for the course at Swift. Saw some competition out there on the 15 second sprints — Haggis / Bratwurst showdown; Gumbo / Bunker duel; Woodson / Thin Mint drag race (Woodson by a mile).
Pleasantly surprised seeing One Niner out at Swift in spite of his tumble down a ravine a few days prior at PMBAR. Beast. Also good seeing Fire Hazard post somewhere other than the YMCA as he comes off his injury and great having Depth Charge back in the regular schedule (except for when he Qs mile repeats which YHC mysteriously did not attend). Awesome work by Magic Attic coming back to his 2nd Swift in 2 weeks. 5 minute T-pace intervals last week followed by Nevis this week is a strong start to a Swift career.
Near anarchy when lunge walking was called during the dynamic warmups. We survived. Such is the world of Swift in a post-Bratwurst era. New things will happen, mistakes will be made (although lunge walking was definitely not a mistake — if it’s good for the glutes, it’s good for the running). My only question is who’s running the pool on how long it will take before Bratwurst throws the amateurs out of the saddle and takes the reins back.
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7, make that 8, came to The Brave in spite of weather forecasts to finish their week right. 5+ miles later, they hopefully found what they were looking for. Quoting from Fuse Box’s backblast posted a few minutes ago: “In my haste to post a back blast before getting to my Saturday Honey Do’s, I failed to come up with a clever workout name.” (https://f3southcharlotte.com/2018/05/19/the-no-name-workout/)
Thang
Moleskin
Solid crew at The Brave today, as always. You can guess who was out front with names like Purrell, Rachel and Frasier on the PAX list. You can also guess who was late with a quick glance at the PAX list (hint, he made a bathroom stop on the way). What you may not have guessed (but only if you haven’t been paying attention lately) was Paper Jam coming out to The Brave for his 2nd or maybe 3rd time in a month. The whole “Paper Jam is not a runner” thing is pretty much played out at this point (Snopes officially gave it a “False” rating), but it’s really great to see new faces such as his becoming semi-regulars at my favorite place to be on Friday. Now we just need some of our old regulars back out there (I’m looking at you General_, Ringer (is this guy allowed to cross the border?), Argo, Goonie, Market Timer, …) and even more new faces coming to see what they are missing.
Forecast called for possible thunderstorms this morning which also ended up being false. Humidity was some high number, but that’s pretty much a given this time of year. Broke my promise a little and stayed away from the deck for the first half of the workout or so. Thought it would be nice to get some miles in the fresh, moist air first. Much confusion over what a “street sign on our side of the street” was, so instructions were modified to “any sign attached to a metal pole with small holes in it that is in the grass immediately to your left.” This seemed to appease Frasier and the correct number of merkins got done. Had trouble following my own directions in the parking deck, but that’s different.
Anywhere between 4.5 and 5.5 miles today, plenty of elevation change and no man left behind. Only 6 days left until another Fun Friday at The Brave.
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10 men arrived at Brazwells this morning unsure of who the Q would be but ready to get down to work as we do at The Brave every week
Thang
Thin Mint – 1st Half
Mario – 2nd Half
Moleskin
Mr. Bean had to pull out of his Q this morning due to IR. Apparently, he injured his hands doing so much spam marketing for The Fishing Hole and wasn’t prepped for a Brave Q. Lucky for us, he will be Qing in 2 weeks on 5/4 which is also his 4 year anniversary of F3. Probably don’t want to miss that. MT complained commented early (last night) that he was expecting an AMRAP — then he didn’t show to find out it wasn’t. The PAX were instructed to give him plenty of crap for fartsacking or going somewhere easier else, until YHC noticed a message from 0430 this morning that he wasn’t feeling well. All is forgiven. See you next Friday.
Always great having a Site FNG come try his mettle at The Brave. One Niner even stopped me at one point to ask who the heck was that guy giving Frasier a run for his money on the speed bump suicide. Yep, that’s Purell, making all most of us feel slow.
The goal was originally to get all 6 bumps in, but it quickly became obvious that this was not going to happen while still giving Mario his 2nd half of the Q. According to Haggis, YHC had a shit-eating grin on his face when announcing the suicide and it was as fun as it sounded. Frasier commented, accurately, that all 6 bumps could be the whole workout and we will definitely have to give this a go one day and see if anyone can get it done. My money is on Rachel. He was steadily making up ground on our 2 rabbits and would have taken them given a little time.
The stairs sucked, as always. We even had a refusenik, who turned into two, then 4 by the time the last trip up the stairs was called. They still ran, just not the stairs. Mario has been learning some new Mary moves lately, it seems. My abs hurt more than my legs at the moment which says something considering we got between 5 and 6 hilly miles.
Another tough morning at The Brave with no six left behind. Hope to see some more Site FNGs next week.
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