Mongoose

Old Taft A.O.

48 friends, PAX, M’s and 2.0’s gathered for what would be F3 NWInd’s (3rd?) Annual Easter Extravaganza. While at home, getting ready to set up, I confirmed that it would be in the high 20’s, low 30’s for the morning. We had a last-minute change of venue and had to make some adaptations on the fly. But with a team of H.I.M.s efforts and time, we were able to slip right in without a hitch. HHH and I covered coffee (due to no electricity at Taft), we soldiered on and assembled a fantastic family-friendly workout.

I want to give a special thanks to the men that started their day extra early to set up. And special thanks to the men that donated eggs, refreshments, and Easter egg fillings (candy and money). You all made this gathering memorable for everyone.

With 5 main iterations, we had PAX lead each chunk:
1. Warm-Up – Roadshow
2. Animal Walks – Gummy Bear
3. Kids vs. Dads – PacRat
4. Sharks & Minnows – Roadshow
5. Simon Says / Mary – PacRat

We all had enough to Q without any iteration being overly burdensome to any single PAX. Going forward, I think this is the way to lead big workouts. 4 PAX pouring creative energy over a 10-15 minute section yields a much better output than one Q attempting to make something for everyone.

0700

Warm Up – Roadshow

PAX/2.0’s/M’s to circle up. Spread out – 48 PAX is quite a bit!

Windmills x10 IC
Toy Soldiers x10 IC
Moroccan Nightclubs x10 IC
Skull Claps x10 IC
Seal Claps x10 IC
Squats x10 IC
Jumping Jacks x20 IC

Animal Walks – Gummy Bear

Gummy Bear lined the crew up on the W. side of the field. As he stood in the midst of the crew, he called out an animal, gave a brief demonstration of how to best walk like that animal, and then turned it over to us to Animal walk for 15-20 yards:

Leap Frog
Bear Crawl
Bunny Hop
Crab Walk
Alligator Walk
Elephant Walk
Goose Walk
CHEETAH HUNT! – 400m lap as fast as you can around the track. Now, some kids handily made it around the track. Others found that 400m feels a lot longer than it looks. Given enough time, everyone who set out to finish successfully made it around the track.

Dads vs. Kids – PacRat

This was the output of Troy’s demo on Tuesday and Friday. Who was the fastest? The Kids or the Dads? We had about the same amount of work to do, so it came down to who wanted it more.

The dads split into 2, 8-man teams, but worked as a single unit. Half the dads pulled the sled to the half way point on the track (green line). The second team of dads finished the rest of the pull to the half way point (light blue line on the N. side).

The 1st dad team then pulled the sled back to the half way point (green line), and the 2nd team of dads pulled the sled back to starting line. Easy enough? With 650lbs, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Let me tell you!

The kids were organized by height and split into 2 teams. The tallest and shortest kid were assigned to Team Red, the 2nd tallest and 2nd shortest were assigned to Team Blue. We alternated until the teams were about as evenly distributed as could be.

The kids’ task was simple, but not necessarily easy! They each had approximately 130-150 eggs per team. Each kid could grab 1 egg, run about 20-25 yards, and put it into the team basket. Kids ran back and grabbed another egg and repeated until all 260-300 eggs were drained from the buckets. Now each egg required a kid to run 40-50 yards, so it was not easy! But they kept going because they saw how much progress the dads’ were making, and they weren’t about to lose.

Once all 3 teams were finished, we found that Red team finished first, followed by Blue team (20 seconds later). The dads finished about 20 seconds after the blue team, so the kids’ won the contest! We were all pretty pooped at the end, but this is an F3 Easter party after all 😀

Sharks vs. Minnows – Roadshow

During setup, the PAX on SLT marked a section of the field. Kids’ lined up on one side for the most readily identifiable game in grade school gym class. The Minnows’ job is to run through the field to the other side. The Sharks’ job is to tag a minnow. Once a minnow was tagged, that minnow was now a shark. The next round started and now there are more sharks. We ran the rounds until we had would no doubt be the last class, and dubbed those the winners of the round.

We played variations on the rounds (frozen sharks, 3 steps only, etc) and ran several back. The excitement of getting by a Shark (or a Shark tagging a new minnow) makes you forget that you’re running all out, yet again, after running all out all morning long. But it’s not work when it’s fun, and fun wins the day.

Simon Says / Mary – PacRat

10 minutes to kill, and a hard stop at 8:00, I had to get creative. 600 seconds of ab fire didn’t seem appropriate, so we made a game of it.

Simon Says

Just like you remember. The kids circled up and played a game of Simon Says. Stretch and cool-down moves were worked in, but every now-and-then, Q omits the key phrase “Simon Says”. Rather reliably, a kid would get caught up in the quick change movements, and slip up when Q neglected to give the magic command.

After Simon Says, we did situps. Every whistle blow as 1 sit-up. We performed 10 situps. After the sit-ups, we had a contest on who could jump the highest in a jump squat. At first we did 1 as high as we could. We repeated that a few times. Toward the end, we saw who could perform 5 jump squats as high and as fast as they could.

We closed the set with Brogra stretches. Once we got into plank, we did 1 merkin, stretched, 2 merkins, stretched, and finished with 3 merkins. Jump back to flat back, arms out, controlled breathing while doing a reverse swan dive.

0800

BONUS – Easter Egg Hunt

Kids line up on the S. side of the field. The area was flagged for Easter Eggs, and a section was reserved for kids between 1-6 years old. Once the whistle blew, kids went like gangbusters to pick up eggs filled with chocolate, sour patch big kids, and money. We loaded about 600 eggs, but they were gone in about 2 minutes. From the outside, it looked like the highlight of the day.

Moleskin

What a fantastic time! The PAX and SLT put great effort into getting this day to be and awesome, family-friendly event. I’m proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with PAX that take the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility (D.W.) to see that these events were a smash. I’m toast from the last 2 days and it feels awesome.

For the M’s and 2.0’s that know Dad / Huz goes to F3: We do it because we love those we protect. Although I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend with my brothers, a strong, disciplined husband will lead and protect his family. And if a man cannot get right, he cannot help others. F3’s founder, Dredd, says that man must strive to be, and not seem. We test ourselves out in the gloom every morning. When it’s 89 degrees, when it’s -10 degrees. When it’s raining, when it’s comfy. Our love for those we serve and protect is what gets us out there on these early mornings. It was our great pleasure to spend a chunk of that time with you all today. I trust everyone had fun, and I longingly look forward to the next one. It was our greatest hope that they enjoyed the time spent with their dads/huz, and I hope they were able to make new friends and memories.

God bless you all and Happy Easter, F3 NWInd!

73’s,

PacRat
KD9GNS