DATE: 2021-06-19
AO: F3Capital-News
Q: Maj. Payne
PAX: Lucius, Dial-tone, El Niño, citrus, Bobcat, Fish Fry, Traveler, Yard Sale, Zeus, 3 mile, Jag, Roddick, Hightower, Jenner, Popeyes, Horshack, Black Diamond, Old Bay, Kodiak, Refueler, Early Bird, Toolbox, Gadget, Bone, Obadiah, Nano
FNGs: Freestate PAX Brady Bunch, TheGeneral PAX Blue Cheese, Horizon PAX BigShort COUNT: 32
32 #HIM gathered at Theodore Roosevelt Island for the first post-COVID Anniversary Convergence. Number 3 for the re-launch of F3 in the DC Capital area. (Some old skool PAX also launched waayyy back in 2012, and yep, we pulled them into the fold of F3TheCapital too!) The official launch date is June 16, 2018, but the PAX chose to honor the occasion on the closest weekend this year. Multiple site Qs assembled together to design a pass-the-baton style beatdown.
Here’s what ensued…
El Nino (Sparta Site Q)
Warm up: Fellowship jog to Station 1, with butt kickers, high knees, and karaoke. Then SSH, WMH, Arm circles, Mike Phelps, Down Dog, Cobra Kai, Air Squats.
The Thang:
1. 2x One Minute Merkins (chest to deck), for reps. Theme was honesty/integrity with yourself and others.
2. The pit of Despair: In teams of 4, climb out of 4-foot-deep pit 156 times, in honor/celebration of the 156 years that slavery has been officially abolished in Texas on June 19th, 1865. 3. In teams of 3 “chair carry”, every member of the team 50 yards.
COT: Be honest with yourself, and your brothers in F3. Pick up the six when you’re not it and trust your bothers and lean on them when you are the six.
Refueler (LoCo Site Q)
The Thang: 4 sets of 4 leg exercises
Set 1: Iron Mike’s, High Knees, Squats, High Plank recovery Set 2: Apollo Ohnos, Reverse Lunges, butt kickers, Al Gore recovery Set 3: Side-to-side Leap and Hops, Up/Downs, squats, high plank recovery
Set 4: Bobby Hurley’s, Mountain Climbers, Al Gore recovery (ended with just 3 exercises on this final set….know your pax).
COT: Identity and Impact – how F3 refocused me on where my identity is truly found and how to come along side other HIMs in F3 to make an impact on them for good and an impact on our community.
Hightower (F3TheCapital Nant’an)
The Thang: Fellowship jog to boardwalk. Stay single file. If you are about to pass someone, pick them up and run with them. Do not pass. Always pick up the six! Then continue with Burpee Ricky Bobby along the entirety of the boardwalk. At the overpass, SSH Motivators from 10 to 1 (full SSH, then arms shoulder high SSH, then just feet SSH).
COT: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him! Always pick up the six!
Horshack (Freestate Site Q)
The Thang: Fellowship jog to TR monuments. Count off to group the PAX 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3… Mosey clockwise between stations . . .AMRAP 45 on / 15 off
Station 1 (lower abs):
Flutters
Leg Lift Rosalitas
Outlaws
Station 2 (obliques):
Dying Cockroaches
American Hammers
Freddie Mercuries
Station 3 (upper abs):
LBCs
Reverse Crunches
E2Ks
Convergence in front of TR Statue (core):
Plank-o-rama
With this being F3 The Capital’s 3rd anniversary, I wanted to talk a little about The Power of Threes. Three legs allow a table to stand. Three primary colors. We perceive the world in three dimensions. Threes also play a big role in every major religion. The triangle, a polygon with three edges and three vertices, is the most stable physical shape. For this reason, it is widely utilized in construction, engineering and design. In structures, like the geodesic dome of Buckminster Fuller, the triangular elements are structurally rigid and distribute the stress throughout the structure, making them able to withstand very heavy loads for their size. Our host – Teddy Roosevelt was no stranger to taking on heavy loads. His biography is full of 3s: He was a public servant at the three levels – local, state and federal. He also shares Mount Rushmore with three other great presidents. And of course, Robin Williams played TR in all three Night at the Museum movies in that franchise. I also want to acknowledge Juneteenth – our newest federal holiday – the anniversary date today of the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas. But many don’t know Teddy Roosevelt’s role in promoting racial equality. At the 1884 GOP National Convention in Chicago TR – at age 29 – gave a speech convincing delegates to nominate African American John R. Lynch to be the Republican Convention’s chair. Shortly after taking office as the youngest President ever in 1901, 42-year-old Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House which generated bitter, and at times vicious, reaction across the heavily segregated South. More about the power of threes If you’re old enough to remember School House Rock, you’ll know that THREE is a Magic Number. As some of you know, I got started with F3 in 2012, with Early Bird. 3×3 – 9 years ago. F3 has been magic in my life – providing me with the structure I need to play full out across the various roles I choose to play: husband, father, soccer coach, executive, Sunday school teacher, and Site Q. Each F plays a big role:
1. First F is for FITNESS – the organizational role of fitness is that it is the magnet for the nation as it attracts others. It’s not about making out-of-shape people fit, it’s more about consistency and predictability to get right in other areas of your life. I was a nationally ranked swimmer for most of my life and became burned out in college. Once that structure and routine was gone, and so was my fitness. F3 brought fitness back into my life.
2. Second F is for FELLOWSHIP – the organizational role of fellowship is to provide the glue. If you’re like me, you may not have developed many consistent male friendships after high school or college. Once in the real world, I moved a lot, got married, started a family and friendships became distant and tied to other parents. F3 provided me with the glue: the people, the place, and a light-weight program to make, maintain, and deepen friendships.
3. Third F is for FAITH – the organizational role of faith is impact. If you’re like me, once you’ve been around F3, and you participate in the fitness and you build friendships, you then come to a point when you want to play a bigger game in life, when you want to take on bigger opportunities and challenges. We naturally begin to get clear on our purpose and the possibilities out there for making a greater impact in their communities. Dredd, the founder of F3 Nation, calls the 3rd F the Dynamite.
Final COT: YHC provided a quick account of what F3 meant to me, recounting the days when the F3Churham PAX provided the daily beatdowns starting over 5 years ago leading to today. In short, F3 has changed my life. It’s changed so many other’s lives as well. F3 is leaders leading leaders. It’s Fathers becoming better fathers. It’s about becoming a better role model, and recognizing that we must be positive, calm and confident to be that great role model — oh, and you may not even realize who you are a role model for, so always strive to be better. Every man is a potential PAX, and most don’t realize how much they need F3 in their lives. It’s up to us all to be there for our brothers, because we all need to be lifted up at one time or another. Be that man to lift your brother up when he needs it most!
F3 The Capital 