Hour 24

THE SCENE:
The atmosphere was electric! 29 men, most of which had completed several workouts up to this point (some had taken shots of whiskey), stood at attention with CMUs, ready to face the final workout of the event. Up until this point I was dragging physically and emotionally, but as soon as I walked out into the center of men, I got an adrenaline shot and felt better than 100%. Game time!

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER: Done

WARM-O-RAMA:

A large portion of the PAX were already warmed up from Paper Trail’s sprint-o-rama and dodgeball but one more warmup wouldn’t hurt.

• 1:30 High Knees + 5 up/downs
• [10x Hand-Release Merkins IC + 15 SSH IC] x2

THA-THANG:
This workout was modified from the 2020 Week 2 IronPAX Challenge.

• Mosey to far horse arena with CMUs
• AMRAP with CMU
  • 20x Blockies
    • 25yd Rifle Carry + 10x Thrusters + 25yd Rifle Carry
  • 20x Squats
    • 25yd Rifle Carry + 10x Thrusters + 25yd Rifle Carry
  • 20x Merkins (Alternating)
    • 25yd Rifle Carry + 10x Thrusters + 25yd Rifle Carry
  • 20x Swings (KB)
    • 25yd Rifle Carry + 10x Thrusters + 25yd Rifle Carry
  • 20x Windshield Wipers
    • 25yd Rifle Carry + 10x Thrusters + 25yd Rifle Carry

MARY:
25x Flutter Kicks IC

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA:
29: Barnum, Cantore, Carver, Caveman, Chef, Choker, Climate Control, Couch Potato, Evan Almighty, Geppetto, Harry Potter, Hobby Lobby, Hobo (QIC), Landline, Malco, Matlock, O Positive, Paper Cut, Paper Trail, Passport, Ricky Bobby, Roots, Scarecrow, Speaker, Teacher’s Pet, Tremor, Upgrade, Vengeance, Yoga Matt

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
The manly life is the strenuous life. A man must step out and do hard things for his family and for others. And he must do it over and over again. One of the greatest losses in modern society is the willingness of men to fulfill this masculine duty. We’ve been entrapped in selfishness.

The old saying is true: No pain, no gain. Challenges bring growth. Hard work builds character. A soft life weakens it. We seem to naturally shrink back and snuggle up in our comfort zone but in order to live a life of growing and overcoming, you must embrace challenges, difficulties and trials.

By coming out here, putting in the work, pushing yourselves voluntarily, that is a good start. Get in the mindset of not only doing hard things but embracing them.

MOLESKIN:
I chose this workout several days before the event purely based upon the mindset of “what was the hardest workout I can recall doing in recent memory”. I wanted the PAX to really feel that they had truly accomplished something when it was all over. I hadn’t considered how I was going to be feeling this late into the event… and for the last 6 hours my mind was constantly telling me that I should choose an easier workout… but I leaned into what I know is true: challenges bring growth and hard work builds character. I’m glad we ended with this sufferfest, together. It was a fitting end to a long event. Everyone was dead tired and kept doing the reps, hoisting the CMU overhead again and again. When Even Almighty shattered his CMU next to me, he was able to switch with Upgrade whose arm had given out, so he could do half-CMU reps with his “good” arm. I still chuckle to myself when I get the mental image of Ricky Bobby doing “side-straddle hops” with his elbows glued to his side.

The entire event was far greater than I ever imagined or hoped for. I honestly thought we’d have 2 guys post in the middle of the night. I would have considered it a success with 30 total guys posting (we had 83)… I think I’ve had 30 guys tell me that they want this to be an annual event!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
An event like this can’t happen without a ton of help and I won’t ever know the depth of the generosity provided by the PAX but I do want to throw some special shoutouts to those who volunteered to make this event a success. (Apologies to those I left off)

• Everyone who brought out waters/coffee/Gatorades/muffins/fruit/nuts/Twinkies
• Chef provided TONS of firewood and several PAX provided fire pits (Boudreaux for sure)
• Barnum drew caricatures for several Q’s
• Guys who provided 12 shovel flags
• 24 Q’s for leading workouts
• Photoshop and Barnum for the incredible logo and patch design
• Slicnut and O+ for the goody boxes
• O+ for his homemade haymakers! (I ate a ton of these…)
• Cheezesteak for the awesome name for the event and his leadership on raising money for the different orgs
• Speaker for the initial idea and dedication to making the event great
• Landline for filming with his GoPro and helping with food prep
• High Note for filming and ongoing effort with editing the footage for a cool hype video
• Moneyball for cooking several hot meals!
• Last but not least, Wheezer, for taking the reigns on all the meals! He planned, shopped, hauled, and cooked tons of delicious hot food!