The Third Manniversary Workout of Dos Equis
It is still strange to me to say that I was EH’d for F3 from a magazine article.
Dos Equis
76 degrees, (9) #HIM: Mountie, Brisket, Aviator, Quick Change (FNG), ScarU, Photo Finish, BoyRDee (down range from F3 Kansas City), and LoneWolf of F3 Upper Valley VT on Zoom. Dos Equis, Q.
In May 2018, I read the cover story in Christianity Today on “Mending Men’s Ministry, which was a profile about F3 and the F3 group in Franklin, TN. I also read the Billy Baker Boston Globe articles mentioned in the magazine article, which were on male loneliness in middle age and beyond. These articles also mentioned F3. I went to the F3 website and thought; ‘”What have I stumbled on?” Searching on the website, I could not find an F3 group in New Jersey, but there was a group F3 Valley Forge in Phoenixville, PA, a town I knew well from performing there with The Kingsessing Morris Men at the annual town Firebird Festival in December, and from partaking the incredible craft beer/brewery scene there over the years. I read a lot of the website. I read “Freed to Lead.” Now it’s time to show up at a workout, which I did on Saturday, June 30, 2018, leaving Princeton in dark-thirty, but very much enjoying sunrise and lifting fog driving through Valley Forge National Park on the way to Phoenixville. I knew where to find the workout at reeves Park, for I was looking for the shovel flag. This was only week #6 of the F3 Valley Forge, which started on Memorial Day weekend in 2018.
For the workout today, I included elements from that workout, (Side Effects, Q)
Warm-Ups, starting at middle of soccer pitch
(Honestly, we were warmed up upon arrival with the current air temperatures.)
Imperial Walker 15x
Smurf Jacks 15x
Hillbillies 15x
Mosey to Entry Road
Route 66, Exercise at every other tree : Lt. Dan, Starting at 11 and counting down.
Mosey to Basketball Court
Homer to Marge to Mr. Burns
Heart Chargers
Homer to Marge to Mr. Burns.
Mosey back to Entry Road
Route 66, Exercise at every other tree; merkin, starting at 1 and counting up to 11 (That’s how they do it in Kansas City.)
Mosey to hill next to Soccer Pitch.
Bernie Sanders (That one’s for you, Lone Wolf!)
A part of Jacob’s Ladder: run up to top of hill and do jump squats. Repeat of this a couple of times.
Mosey back to our starting point, the middle of soccer pitch
Lounge Act (This one, which I contributed to the Exicon, is from my Princeton YMCA days.)
Boat/Canoe/Kayak
COT
CountARama
NameARama
The Naming of the FNG – Welcome Quick Change!
It’s been a great ride these last three years. At the F3 Valley Forge workout on this day three years ago, I was apprehensive if I was going to stay through it and keep up all right. The routines and camaraderie did remind me of noontime Princeton YMCA workouts that I did in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I expressed to the men this morning my gratefulness to them for encouraging me on in my fitness, and my desire to be that way with them. I expressed gratefulness for the brotherhood, established and growing among us. I expressed gratefulness for the growth of faith in my life, and the working out and practicing of it.
It was great this day to have an FNG join us, to have a down range pax join us, and to have our Green Mountain brother join us on Zoom from Vermont.
F3 Princeton started 9 ½ months later after June 30, 2018. A story for another post – but appreciation shout out to CSPAN, WallE, Four Seasons, and the F3 groups of Valley Forge, Philly and Lehigh Valley.
Onward…
…and Happy First Anniversary to F3 Indian Valley!
Your brother,
Dos Equis
