Well.
It’s been a week. After a rare day off work last Friday, and having such a blast with a spelling bee at Danger Zone, I remembered how fun it is to Q. You never realize how bad you are at being a Q until you don’t do it for a long time, then try to jump back in the ring. DZ was a little different; I had a plan, and willing pax, and it was an out-and-back…what could go wrong? Aside from almost running out of time, and Callahan playing the role of Saban with his almost-audible “tick-tock”. Anyhow, that’s for another backblast (that hasn’t been written yet).
This is about Bounty Hunter.
This week, YHC got a kick in the butt by a well-intended post by former Nantan Shut-In. It took a night for it to take, but it took. And it lit a bit of a fire in me. He said Carpex has gone soft. Some disagreed (and I agree we aren’t all about 1st F), but in some ways, we’ve gone soft in some other areas too (3rd F has a small and strong contingent, but my 3rd F is very shaky…how’s yours?) We do seem to have the market cornered on 2nd F, but, sometimes that leads to diminishing 1st and 3rd Fs…so, here we are.
Saw the BH Q was open this week. (note: May 5th is also open, but it’s just not the same as when it’s been May the 4th at BH…). It’s a great site, and conveniently, a new local attraction is almost open, and I wanted to take us all there to check it out. So, here we are.
I Pity the Fool put out a late notice Wednesday night of his standard 5ish-k EC. HC for that. Early this morning, he posted that Egon and Blue-and-Out were planning an 0450 launch. Crazy talk.
Pity and I stepped off at 0500: I tried to keep up with him trying to keep up with me trying to keep up with him for 3+ miles, setting a 7:42 pace…that was dumb.
At 5:28, the pax were all there (except Honeycomb…with the flag). So, next best thing is the ol’ Carpex long-sleeve with the flag on the back. No FNGs, some logistical info of where we were heading, a pledge to the flag on my shirt, and we were off.
Warmarama:
Lap of the soccer field, high knees, butt-kickers, carioca left/right, backwards run, regular, skipping (yes, Hotspot, skipping). Did it raise your HR? It did mine. Return to the bowl for:
Good Mornings, Hackysacks (inboard and outboard), King David Kicks, Imperial Walkers, then let’s go.
The Thang…
Follow me towards downtown, stopping for some exercises along the way.
Stop 1: The Thompson-Utley-Fletcher-Tunstall House, built in 1872, for some:
Merkins on my down (which is hard for some), followed by
Air-squared in cadence (surprisingly hard)
On the move again, towards Apex UMC (but hang a left and follow the gravel path Franklin!)
Stop 2: Once there, we hopped into some:
Never Cross Dollys (these were hard), followed by some
Diamond Merkins
Let’s roll again, down to the end of Elm Street, then cross at the old crossing (now gone) by Holland Jewelers, picking up the other gravel path
Stop 3: Arrive at our Southern terminus, for a tour of the almost-open Tap Station! (It’s gonna be pretty cool…looks like a horseshoe pit and some putting greens on the west side of the building). Here we did some
Alternating Side Squats, then some
LBCs in the nice soft gravel
Little run around the building, then head back north, making a left down Moore St. for a trip to the cemetery.
Stop 4: Here we did some:
Obamas (4 of them), then straight into Burt’s favorite,
Red Bull Smurf Jacks. They were awesome, everyone loved them. They were hard.
Continue our tour through the cemetery (Hotspot thinks it’d be a great location for an Ultra…paging Squatter!).
A bit of a backwards run up-Upchurch (see that?), and reconvene at the Apex Baptist parking lot for some…
Stop 5: Imperial Squat Walkers and some
Alternating Shoulder Taps.
On the move again, and a visit to the seedy underbelly of the POGL (the official back-alley route for Das Boot…), then pause just beside the Halle Center for a very important announcement from Franklin (that was disguised as a 10-count). Notably, he was promoting a theatrical production coming up, “Dilemmas with Dinner”. Link: http://thehalle.org/Calendar.aspx?EID=3071 Please attend as you are able!
Here, we found YHC’s mortgage attorney’s front lawn, that needed some attention, so we hopped in and beat down the grass a little with some
Stop 6: Never Surrenders.
Moving out again, with time drawing to a close, we moseyed back towards the flag, and Orphan led us in a signature move,
Stop 7: Scorpion Dry Docks.
Mysteriously, Pet Sounds took off on a search for something important. We did not follow.
With this, and the rest of the pax looking like they needed more, I called on our birthday boy (didn’t know it at the time) for a victory lap around the soccer field. We ran Smokey’s pace, and he smoked us all. His sprint down the backstretch was not matched by anyone. He stated on Slack, “I felt like I was 16 and not 61!” That’s what going hard is men, right there.
All arriving back to the missing flag, we convened in the bowl for site-Q Egon’s mary of choice. J-Lo Pickle Pounder? I finished things off with some Box Cutters, and a dose of Have a Nice Day.
Just a tick under 3 miles for YHC, 3 on the dot for some.
COT:
Countarama: 13 plus Blue and Out
Announcements:
Phoenix needs site Qs. If no one steps up, Phoenix will get shut down. Let’s not let that happen. YHC is not in a place to be a site Q, but maybe one of you is. Contact 1st F Qs or Parker with questions and applications.
See the embedded announcement from Franklin during the workout.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something here…
Praises/Prayers:
Praise for Hotspot’s 2.1 Abby, wrapping up her youth cheer career. She’s on top of her game and a fantastic athlete, and it’s been a good ride for their family.
Praise for 61 years on this rock for Smokey. Dude looks amazing.
Praise for you guys playing along with my silly fun this morning. My M rolls her eyes every time she sees me planning a Q…“what’s your silly theme this time?” Every. Single. Time.
Men, thank you for letting me be silly with you all on this fine morning. And also doing our part to Make Carpex Hard Again.