Showed up at the Renaissance with a few toys to make the pax wonder what was in store.
Warmup facing the bacon with an appropriately themed playlist.
Frisbee Indian run to the singing oak. No drops.
Trivia at the oak. Pax got answer correct, so no penalty.
3 minutes of the suck.
Continue frisbee Indian run around the lake adding throws to challenge. A drop is 3 burpees. A few drops.
Spin the bottle ball toss burpee fun. It was epic.
Finish off with Sunday Mornings and a little Mary.
CoT
SYITG
Arriving in the usual oblivious fashion…without concern for who the Q might be and what we might be doing. A little chatter among the few there, then a couple more…and then with but a minute until start time Catfish shows up…”Well, since no one stepped up I guess I’ll take the Q. And before I could even think about it I blurted out…”OK, Illbtake it!” Whether we’ll admit it or not, none of us really wanted a Catfishing.
The rest is history….
Quick disclaimer/Warm up at the Peristyle/head to the park area along City Park Ave. Dips, Step-ups, Incline Merkins, Bear Crawl on Train tracks, Mini Dora, Mosey to Esplanade, Ring of Fire, Mosey Dow City Park Ave back to the flag with a few stops along the way.
Thanks to the Pax for humoring me for an hour on a beautiful Saturday morning.
YHC arrived at the mothership, the back of my SUV brimming with various. Bogey was there, stretching limbs that maybe wished they were still in bed. Then came Tool, followed closely by Squints, Bongo, and finally Smooth, who lived up to his name, arriving with the elegance of a gazelle. I was hoping for a larger turnout since the plan required splitting the PAX into two teams. Fortunately, Cheesesteak, Vagabond, Fracsac, and Catfish also joined, rounding out the group. Bongo quipped about expecting less running since YHC was leading, but the day’s agenda did include a fair amount of running, though others ended up running more than Bongo.
Following a lackluster disclaimer, as Bogey pointed out, we headed to the Peristyle for our warmup. We circled up and did grass grabbers, windmills, imperial walkers, side straddle hops, and 10 burpees, all in cadence. Afterwards, we went back to my SUV to grab our gear.
We retrieved our tools for the day: the 60-pound sandbag (lovingly referred to as Sandy), an 80-pound sand medicine ball, an assortment of jump ropes, egg weights, a bisected bosa ball that became an object of anatomical humor, a frisbee, a lightsaber (because why not?), a speaker, and the pivotal red die. We took everything to the edge of the great lawn, where we divided into two teams by counting off in alternating “1”s and “2”s, which took a few tries to get right.
Group 1 started with tabata stations on the great lawn while Group 2 began their runs to the bridge by Café du Monde, based on the roll of the die. The tabata exercises included pushups on the bosa ball, deadlifting the heavy sand medicine ball, speed jump roping, burpees with the lighter sandbag, shadowboxing with egg weights, and using the heavy jump rope. The runs were determined by the die: rolls of 1 or 2 meant one trip, 3 or 4 meant two, and 5 or 6 meant three. The goal was to keep the runners’ duration secret from the tabata group, but this rule was frequently broken.
The roles switched after the runners completed their laps, with the tabata group rolling the die and setting off on their runs. There were suspicions that Group 2 might have rerolled a few times, hoping for lower numbers. As time ran short we stopped the rotation with Group 2 getting an extra turn running. YHC called for a round of core exercises—big boy situps, flutter kicks, and American hammers—and threw in an early “recover,” which was met with some groans and hesitations.
We concluded back at the flag where courtesy of Heisenberg — not the meth cook from TV or YHC, but the physicist. I tied in today’s workout with a physics lesson about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle from quantum mechanics. It states that in quantum mechanics there is a limit to the accuracy with which certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, can be simultaneously known. In other words, the more accurately one property is measured, the less accurately the other property can be known. So you were either doing tabata (fixed position) and uncertain about the runners (momentum) or you were running (momentum) and uncertain about what was happening in the fixed position group.
We ended with a Circle of Trust, giving thanks for the day’s efforts and for all the “boobs” in our lives.
Addendum we also learned about the concept of entanglement and may have formed a qubit when Catfish from Group 1 was simultaneously running with Group 2.
7:05am March 16
Nicholls University Campus Police Blotter
Early calls from the freshmen dorms reporting a group of middle aged vandals loitering around the soccer fields and hollering “do your burpees” at each other . Several shirtless. Smells like Mountain Dew. Others with matching insignias and new member initiates forced into green mullets. Clear gang affiliates. The tall one responding to honks seems to be the gang leader. And looks like the goalie is the enforcer, clearly he’s done some time but gosh he looks familiar. Like I just saw him teaching supply chains familiar…weird
.Student Officers in bound…Tasers on the ready…
…40 minutes earlier
Peltier Park Tennis Courts
**YHC and Gecko putting out cones in a beautiful gloom at the tennis court, walking though the game plan and contingencies.
YHC: “Chillier than I expected , did you bring your gloves bud ?”
Gecko (looking at the blueprint):
“I think I might get warm when we do burpees , if not we should just run more.”
YHC : (silence) *A single tear of pride rolls down one cheek. “You’re right buddy, you’re so right..**adds more burpees to notes section **
Let’s go find some bully boys! “
Duke!!
those beans are not magically delicious!
Roll that beautiful footage!
Warmup
YHC and Gecko rolled in from setup to unveil the newest F3 Thib Logo shovel flag to 13 other Pax ready to roll.
Wet Tap has been working overtime in the studio to crank out a high quality shovel/pole setup and we finally put the components together for a world premiere. It was glorious.
Will be a great addition to rep our crew at major gatherings.
ParO’dox McBurpee and GeckOCallahan took care of the rest of warmup with the usuals.
Some pax commented the Irish accent had declined with a whole year to improve and these pax were politely asked to write their local representatives with further complaints.
Proper Irishmen Run
Drop off man does 3 Bonnie Blair’s on our way to Tennis Court.
At Tennis Court :
Irish Trivia Opener
AB, our most Irish heritaged Pax, lended YHC a beatdown consult with the below trivia opener.
YHC tried to give this nugget of info but the caffeine and nerves sometimes make me delete entire words . It came out “yours Truly Americas Best made these trivia “
Not accurate but I think “yours Truly , Americas Best” has NYT bestseller potential.
I’ll wait on my royalties check.
The Questions :
1.) Contrary to urban legends (possibly meant to deter tourists from fully experiencing the attraction), local teenagers and drunkards do not pee on this Irish landmark.
Answer: The Blarney Stoney
Goose picked this one up immediately and YHC Introduced the Blarney Stone…
We would roll a large dice with 6 options
1: Trivia
2: Trivia
3: Burpees
4; Merkins
5: BBSU
6 Bonnie Blair’s
We did assorted rounds of the above with 10 reps each and the below trivia mixed in . 10 merkins correct , 10 burpees in correct
2.0 question for the next generation of Llamas:
What’s the tagline for the cereal Lucky Charms?
-“they’re magically delicious “
**FNG (soon to be named Daryl Starwberry) took care of this one! Strong Work
According to legend what is a Leprechsuns occupation?
-shoemaker
What meat and vegetable dish is trademarked as the St Patrick’s Day meal.
-corned beef and cabbage
*late edition asked post beatdown
This common term defines something “broken into many pieces”
It comes from the Irish word, “Smidrini “
Smithereens !
Next was a clover Dora to honor the Prayer of St Patrick a
D work the quads into Smithereens!
In this prayer St Patrick asks God to remind him of his presence during all things.
(Excerpt below)
“Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me”
So we would honor this with a Dora with multiple exercise positions .
Partnered up for :
100 Apollo Ohno (1:1) Lunge walk
200 Heels To Heaven – Nur
300 SSH- Mosey
YHC cut this a bit short so we would have time for some proper Irish competition
The Grand Finale
F3 Gaelic football
Rules
-goals scored by kicking the ball in , this can be accomplished by kicking the ball from the ground or dropping the ball from your hands to feet.
– You can only take 4 steps then must pass advance the ball by throwing or kicking BUT every time you pass you must pay in burpees kick (1 burp) or throw (3 burp)
– after score opposite team inbounds the ball
To be honest this was one of those F3 games that YHC thought could either be fun or turn into a raging chaotic lava dumpster of epic proportions (like a Maui thang but with a soccer ball if you need a visual)
But with the pax help on some minor tweaks (shout out to YJ for the “only kick goals in ” idea and Goose for switching us to shirts/skins) we settled in for a fiercely competitive yet tremendously fun game of Gaelic foosball.
One of YhCs many favorite things about F3 is watching Pax of all ages switch into their respective competitive modes…it’s pure magic.
Tough to describe but A few examples may suffice.
Goose turned into a field general seeing every angle of competitive advantage. Lox turned shimmering golden and started calling his quads “Goku” and “Gohan”. Dilly had eyes every where, seeing passes with Lebron like court vision and flexing lightning fast twitch pickle ball calves. YJ turned back the clock 20 years diving on saves, you can replace those joints later my friend . Valve was basically imported straight from Real Madrid and kept saying “Olayyy” and doing knee slides . Captain D’s transformed into Captain Defense locking up the opponents top talents. Ronnie’s eagle vision noted pax rule infractions from 100 yards away as he led a legion of 2.0 goalies. Suckle was simply every where , in every play floating butterfly like on defense, only out done by his offensive sting! Pope did athletic Pope things that only a Sports Science episode could break down. Smooth broke the all time Gaelic football assist record despite previously asserting he would only participate in American football.
The 2.0s scrapped about biting ankles and popping up from falls that would put their Dads in the stretcher.
No clue where we ended on the scorecard , yHC just knows he was ready to announce we were going to play till the street lights went out and our wives came looking for us but alas 7:30a came too soon.
A mosey back to the Flags (plural!) and some Mary to wrap a bow on it.
Announcements:
Getting rolling with some Brothers Keeper work.
Check GroupMe for updates and marathon commitments/decommitments.
COT and YJ prayed us out
Welcome Daryl Strawberry !!
(Genius name)
It’s a privilege to lead you men.
Epilogue
University Police
7:25 am
The officer walked back to his car slowly as he reported his findings to his superior on the radio.
“No arrest , not even a ticket to show! “
His hands were raised in disbelief.
“I don’t get it. The reports were clear. No vandals, no gangs, no lewd behavior…heck not even a mid life crisis !!”
He paused and stared out the window of his car as the men cheered at a final goal scored.
“ Just a couple men playing a hybrid soccer game…diving into stickers to do burpees and calling each other weird names …seemingly in the prime of their life. It’s crazy , my Psych 100 class says these are the guys that are lonely, depressed , and mad at the world and I tell you the crazy part …it looks fun …like they are really having fun”
“Huh…just lucky I guess “ the supervising officer quipped
“I don’t know ..” he said back as he watched them disappear into the gloom.
“Doesn’t seem like luck has anything to do with it ….”
SYITG
Dox
Arrived to find the PAX lacking a Q ( AKA Q’less), having missed my last TWO Q appointments, I decided to jump into the vacuum.
Mosey to the Colonnade for warm-ups
SSH
IW
LSQ
REALLY SLOW VAGODAS/GRASS GABBERS
Pivoted to some YOGA
Without a prepared BD, I pulled out my trusty go to plan:
10 things 10 times, for 10 rounds
Each pax took a exercice
Smooth – SSH
Heisenberg – Burpees ( Big surprise)
Vagabond – Air Squats
Fracsac – LBC
Catfish – 8 Ct Body Builders
Cheesesteak – Lunges
Maytag – Merkins
Mr Rogers – Should Taps
Christopher Robin – Alternate Leg Wife Pleasers
YHC – BB Situps
After 5 Rounds and a stunned look on the faces of the PAX we pivoted to each HIM chooses what to do next, then it all went crazy – Trust me. It was a more than adequate way to grow in leadership, creativity and all around fitness.
COT
9 Pax gathered around the shovel flag in hopes of a quality beat down from a Q that put significant effort into the planning of said beat down. YHC intended to do his best to let the pax down easy.
The Great Lawn was like an anthill with busy workers assembling their vendor stations for the morning market, which was odd to see at 0630. So much for the plan thought out on the drive in.
Brief disclaimer and mosey to the peristyle for the warmup. The speaker was playing classic 80s music and it was good.
Head back towards the flag to stop at the truck for a few toys. Grab the 1.5 inch rope x 25 feet (or thereabouts), an exercise die (two would be dice), a frisbee, and a jump rope.
Mosey to the tree line by NOMA. Separate into 3 groups of 3.
Group 1 – Keeping the rope off the ground, run 5 trees, do 10 squats and return (timer). If the rope touches the ground it’s a 5 burpee penalty.
Group 2 – Roll the die and do what it says.
Group 3- toss frisbee, lunge walk to it, then 3 burpees.
Rinse and repeat.
Mosey to the Tulips and learn some useless tulip facts. Do some burpees. Do 3 minutes of Embrace the Suck.
Mosey to the singing oak and do failure to launch, Embrace the Suck x 3 minutes, ring of fire.
Mosey back to the flag.
CoT
NMM
Apparently we had an FNG this morning. I learned this at the CoT, which is a problem if you’re the Q. Thankfully everything worked out, except the beat down was a total mess filled with useless facts and even wrong information. Regardless, calories were burned, sweat was drawn, and no man was left behind.
Welcome Rebirth!!
SYITG
Journal entry
Feb 17, 2024
An eventful morning on the Farm
My family has lived on this property out along Hwy 1 since around WW2 and most mornings I follow a strict but enjoyable routine. Up just before the sun rises over the cane fields , I brew a pot of coffee and check the weather. Then I enjoy a quiet morning with my thoughts, some prayer and maybe even a good book.
But this morning …this morning my routine was , well, I’ll put it politely and say it was disturbed. You see, shortly after the weatherman informed me that today’s forecast was not fit for man nor beast , well I heard just that. A man , my nephew, in the yard hollering at some sort of animal. On closer inspection out my kitchen window it was no beast making these noises but a hybrid redneck dialect being emitted from another human he insisted on calling a paradox. He was in a truck loaded nose to tail with tents and tables like Jed Clampett. “Shoot fire Yankee this is a mighty fine residence, hope tha skeeters ain’t neer bad as the peltch last beatdown” he said while looking around the farm. I expected him to have no teeth at all but he only seemed to be lacking inseam in his shorts. A paradox indeed.
To my amazement, my nephew, the one he kept calling Yankee, seemed to know and welcome him and they began putting out cones and yard signs in a cold rain storm just happier than two pigs in the sunshine. Things were getting quite strange here , and little did I know it was just the beginning.
By 7:15 the rain had let up but the floodgates of middle aged men with knee braces and headbands were now wide open. Short , tall, thick , thin, they all piled in helping setup a flooded tent and passing around gold baun sticks and theraguns. Some dressed for the weather while others invested in Himalayan technology to keep there mammary glands chafe free. There seemed to be no distinction in vehicle either as they stepped from punisher Tundras or eco friendly wagons. They greeted old friends with butt slaps and elbow taps yelling obscenities like FracSac and Goosey. Quite frankly , I don’t even care to know why a Hawg would even need a cycle. This ceremony continued until there were dang near 30 of them loitering around our property! I had the authorities dialed up when I was informed they had gathered on purpose AND for a charity cause AND my nephew had actually planned on them being here! Tomfoolery! The very definition!
I settled back into my armchair to take a breather. That’s when the foghorn went off …and they started running.
The first one I saw break away from the pack looked like he had been taken right off the cover of one of those running magazines. A stride so Smooth you would swear he was standing still but hard to reconcile that with the 1/2 mile lead he had most of the day.
Behind him were 3-4 others seemingly using this gazelle as a pace car and weighing options that he couldn’t keep that pace all day..right..right?! (He would)
They had one young enough to be 15 with spring loaded rubber for legs and others flexing the scars of midlife ,held together with bioflex and gorilla glue.
Behind this second group were the real rabble rousers. A pack of 10-15 wild dogs complete with mobile tunes, homemade JV shirts and promises every turn that “I think this is it for me boys..wink, wink”
A few ringleaders in this pack but the real Don Corleone was a highlighter vested gentleman they all called Popeye. He was not blazing land speed records but something about the way he set his jaw let any observer know he wouldn’t be denied his mileage goal.
They all hit the first corner in site of the quarter mile cone and stared down a cold and wet 15mph headwind, lovely. Gosh I wonder if any of them had cozy pickleball scheduled today.
In between miles I saw various strategies of recharge. Some gorged calories , others walked it out , and some stood still contemplating the next lap. Many of these hooligans searched for a man who I guessed to be their local shaman but lap after lap he wore many more hats (and one whistle) . One part coach , one part field general, his intimate knowledge of the men was palpable . Some he pushed harder, others he let down easy, both equally effective in getting his men’s best effort. He delivered speeches to ward off ego and checked joints for oil leakage like a seasoned mechanic. With a firm nod or a head turned grin he communicated his trust. This was a leader of high impact men from any viewpoint. He whistled and they ran. They ran and he whistled.
The wind blew. The socks got wet, got swapped out and got wet again. Many met their goal mileage, passed it and kept on churning. By about 11am most having exceeded a half marathon at this point, most took a bowl of delicious pastalaya and continued to cheer on the rest.
By around 2pm there were 4 still running . And when I thought I had heard it all one yelled “back the cones up” and they took off for one last trip, this time for 1.2 miles. The gazelle in front still as fresh as mile 1 but that ole hawg wasn’t far behind. They all knew he had a little sand left in those bags. The third man was a true bewilderment. His physique suggesting he could walk on as an NFL tight-end but his running demeanor at mile 26 was simply unbothered. The redneck brought up the rear and surely he thought there was a bud light promotion for finishers. (there wasn’t, but a Coors from a friend was even better)
The gazelle found the finish line first only a second in front of the hawg and the artist they called Tana only a furlong after that.
And as the miles piled up I pondered to myself “why would they do something so utterly stupid “. With time on my hands, as the trucks loaded with tents and boxes dispersed , I came to three potential conclusions.
Was it fitness driving them ?
Surely this looked plausible as some had clear physical gifts and several maintained peak cardio strain. Were these average Yankee Jeaux’s striving to be Americas Best athletes? Unlikely. But I can only say it seemed the fitness got them here, but it was not the reason they stayed for more. An appetizer of sorts, maybe stellar quads is just the byproduct ….so I kept searching.
Were they just here to fellowship? Some signs pointed in this direction. As soon as I saw the Solo Stove fire pit I knew a high fluting party was in full swing. This crew obviously knew how to have a good time and the verbal assaults flying along with answered grins of disdain indicated enjoyment of each others company. I’m Closer to the mark here but…but no. Not quite the primary driving factor I could sense.
So if they weren’t fitness professionals and most would think a better party is available at any other watering hole then what’s left ?!
Hidden amongst the laps, intertwined between these fun loving family men, was the intrinsic need to put ones own pain aside. To combine that suffering with the brother next to him and have it all be for something much larger than themselves. That’s why they ran. Every step counted , every lap mattered. It was “only a mile” they said to each other .
But it seemed like so much more.
This was a fine day.
Postscript
Congrats to NOLA’s Smooth for winning the first annual IOAM! See ya next to year to defend .
Second place – The OG sandbagger himself Mr. Hawgcycle
Third place – Wilford Montana – forged in the fires of deep Bourg pickleball this was truly impressive brother!
To all that ran today (and one that whistled), thank you for your time , effort and commitment to raise money for several great causes today and during RCR.
Thanks to Rudy for the ground support and motivation. You really stepped RCR up this year!
Special Thanks to Enron and Bourgeois Meat Market for the awesome lunch!
As usual artistic liberties were taken in portrayal of backblast characters but Reluctant Yankee and his family were overwhelmingly gracious hosts . Huge thanks to his family for having us invade their Saturday!
It’s a privilege to lead.
SYITG
Paradox
It’s Run Cajun Run! I committed to get some steady miles on paved roads (littered with cracked and pitted asphalt) as opposed to slogging through a sloppy mess at a Metairie track. I visited an old stomping ground called the 6-10 Stomp! The last time I visited that AO was probably a year or two ago. So, in honor of showing up, the regular pax voluntold me that I was the Q so I would write the backblast.
The Thang – 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back. Closed with a COT where we lifted up the pax members who are suffering from illness, loss, and sickness. We also celebrated the wonderful gift of revelry, joy, and happiness that permeates our area during Mardi Gras.
10 pax showed up to kick off Sunday with a bang and found improvement through consistency.
With the flag planted and the disclaimer given, face the bacon for a warmup at 0630. End the warmup with 10 x 8 count body builders.
11s on the steps of NOMA. Burpees and squats.
Frisbee fun around museum. A drop means rolling the die for surprise exercises. First drop came pretty quick with 15 burpees coming up on the die.
Continue around changing to 5 burpees penalty and fitting in 3 x Sunday Mornings at the back wall.
Ended with 105 burpees and 10 pax begging for more. Sorry boyz, time is up.
COT followed by Coffeteria.
SYITG
Posting backblast 2 weeks after – we did a bear crawl relay and pax choice of exercise. Forgot the rest. Just wanted to get pax attendances recorded.
