Long, Slow Grind

The Thang:

Conditions: 72 degrees (F) w/ a slight air movement and lower humidity

On Saturday morning when Slack message, “Any takers for the Q Monday?” when out from Valvano, I immediately jumped on it and was thinking, “Doug Shaw!” but follow-up message within minutes from Valvano was “Location?”. I then thought, “nope we’re hitting the Fantasy Harbor Bridge” for the rather lengthy ascent to the actual beginning of the bridge span so the Beach Church parking lot would be our rendezvous point. Upon pulling into the lot the lone vehicle is Hoser sitting in his M’s minivan awaiting for the fun to begin and within minutes others began arriving including our newest rucker “Brady Bunch” who showed after the one minute warning but just as the disclaimer was being given.

Here’s what was accomplished . . .

Rucks only for a ruck around the perimeter of the entire Beach Church parking lot to get out legs warmed up. Once back to where we began the PAX with training bags were instructed to retrieve and others w/out training bags were invited to take one of two “Kikoman Soy Sauce” five gallon buckets fill one-third with sand for fun as well as an annoyance. There was only one taker and kudos out to Brady Bunch for picking one up.

At this point, we were off w/ rucks, training bags and one bucket ‘o fun headed for the bridge via the sidewalk parallel to George Bishop Parkway. About 2/3 of the way there next to the green road directional sign that notes “Fantasy Harbor” we made our first stop and dropped bags and bucket for the following:

15 Merkins, 15 Curls & 15 Squats

Once all were finished we “rucked up” and we were off for as Valvano noted, the “long, slow grind” of the Fantasy Harbor Bridge to the other side where we stopped and were safely located under a bright LED street light. The next round of exercises were as follows:

15 Carolina Drydocks, 15 Upright Rows, & 15 Calf Raises

We would again “ruck up” and “bag up” and back over the bridge and down the George Bishop side. At the green “Fantasy Harbor” direction sign we would again drop bags and completed the following:

15 Diamond Merkins, 15 Alternating Shoulder Presses & 15 Jump Squats

After “ruck up” and “bag up” instructions were given we were off again and made our final stop for one last round of exercise to include the following:

15 Wide Arm Merkins, 15 Tricep Extensions & 15 Squats

The PAX would “ruck up” and “bag up” one final team to the starting point to drop training bags and finished just as we began with a ruck around the perimeter of the Beach Church parking lot.

This final perimeter ruck provided #mumblechatter that included the movie “Ghost” and the pottery scene involving Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze as well as #mumblechatter that involved included extra long stays in college to take a variety of slack off classes to make it thru.

Time was called at the start point, all PAX were present and accounted for and time was given for announcements and prayer requests.

Freed to Bleed Blood Drive on October 30 at the Carolina Forest Recreation Center located off of Carolina Forest Boulevard.

Prayer request from Flop for Crystal who resides in the Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach and experienced flooding as a result of Hurricane Isaias.

Prayer request from Kiwi for M and 2.0 while he is away, on the road, for work.

COT / BOM by YHC

An apology was given by YHC to Kiwi for inadvertently lifting up prayer for Flop while he was out of town for work this week instead of Kiwi which made for additional laughter and cutting up.

Thank you PAX for showing up, the solid push, strong work and terrific effort from start to finish. I am made better because of you.

Aye! Lombardi.