It’s Sunday morning, and for the first time all week I woke up sans alarm clock. Wonderful, yet a little weird.
Let’s back-track.
My family (Liz is the M and Ellie and Ceci are the 2.0s) is on an extended northern swing and with work responsibilities I needed to stay put in Cary. With that, the idea was born to not only post at all opportunities this week but instead in typical F3 fashion see if I couldn’t lock in and Q every step of the way. This is not a recount for Back Blast purposes (I’ve logged ’em all), but a chance for YHC to share what I saw this week, and what inherently makes our region (Carpex and extended) a special place, and further cements why F3 is such a big part of my life.
“Quickly, quickly, quickly” here was my QIC schedule this week:
- Kryptonite – mileage record (4.55)
- FOD – crab soccer and a visiting Pax w/ a helluva beard
- Rush Hour – hot as h-e-double-hockey-sticks (tclaps to 2 So. Wake Pax for attending)
- Insomnia – whilst not an official AO, YHC provided the course and paced the Pax (for as long as I could)
- SNS – EPIC (more to come)
- Thunder – on the road in So. Wake
- BO – home sweet home
- Slippery When Wet – Vanilla
- The Arena – humbled
- The Crick – finished strong w/ the Raleigh Pax, made a teenager almost pass out
All of that only confirmed what I already knew.
The brotherhood is real.
Here’s a moment of honesty; I was (until recently) uncomfortable calling F3 a (or the) brotherhood. That sounds strange, I know, but here me out. When I think of brotherhood or hear the term “the brotherhood” my mind automatically thinks of our military and namely the Navy SEALs (not to mention cops and firefighters). And if you ask Burt, he’ll attest, it’s why I’m not a big fan of wearing military camo (no offense to camo vests guys, those are bad ass, and I know your hearts are with mine). I don’t want it to seem like I’m playing soldier when men and women have laid down their lives in that uniform. It might sound a little weird, it’s just how I’m wired.
As we finished a strong Memorial Day Murph at Ocean Isle Beach, a group of us (YHC, Burt, Banner and Parker) ran towards a local breakfast spot at the pier. I believe the owner thought we were former military (shovel flag in hand of course) and offered to buy us breakfast, even tossing out a “thank you for your service.” I was proud of our men that day for quickly letting him know “we’re just here to honor those who served and paid the ultimate price” and also “thank you, we’ll just get a cup of coffee.”
To my point on the brotherhood. We say “brother” we toss around a lot of “bro” but how often do we get to really think about what that means. This week has given me time to do that, and most importantly see that. Just over 1-year into F3, and fresh this helluva week, I saw just how real the brotherhood is, and why we should be proud to call ourselves that.
No example more evident than what went down at Bond Park on Wednesday morning.
It’s kind of hard to put it into words, but on a fairly random Wednesday in June something special happened. The Carpex Pax called for a convergence and the chance for our brother Dana Smith “Chinese Downhill” to share his personal story. Some of us have heard it, and some this would be our first time. Before that we had to pay the price of admission to hear him, and pay it in typical F3 fashion we did.
Pax launched between 0430 (some even earlier, Maid) and 5(ish) for the Maynard – just a quick 10.7, because it’s a Wednesday. More Pax gathered for the 0505 launch of Insomnia (YHC still attests I Q’d that). From there it was the 0545 bootcamps of SNS and our brothers from Torotoises came in as well, while Vespers launched for a fellowship run. We took 37 out for an epic SNS-session. One for the ages, I hope.
And after we all paid that admission, we circled up for COT – 70-freaking-7 deep. Wow.
I can’t tell you what CD talked about, it doesn’t do him service. Instead, I can offer you this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccUxBFBHumg]There it is. We all have unique reasons why F3 means so much to us (however I’d bet many of those reasons are similar). Quickly, here’s mine.
We moved here from the DC-area in September 2016. I had spent the last 6 years working in the belly of the beast and a huge part of that time (like A LOT OF IT) was spent working long hours, traveling, spending way too much time commuting, and constantly being on email/text/social media for work. When I was home with my new and beautifully growing little family, I wasn’t home (you know what I mean). I was every bit a sad clown. Work out every now and then. Check. Keep up some form of appearance. Yea, I guess, check(ish). Drink beers with beer drinking friends. Check. But, as you guys know, a lot was missing and I didn’t know what it was… yet.
Almost two years later (and 14 months of F3 later), I’m in much better physical shape. Down 20 lbs and up muscle strength that I haven’t had since playing sports as a teenager. But you guys know, it’s more than a workout, and it’s about a lot more than just the fitness. Shut-in always points out when EH’ing or talking F3, “it’s the workout that brings guys out, but it’s the 2nd and 3rd F that keeps them coming back.” He’s 100% right. What I’ve gained for those other 2 F’s can’t be measured, but I feel it every day. Thank you.
Guys, I took a moment (and hope you did too) to just look around on Wednesday morning. Did you see it? It was the brotherhood, and I’m grateful to be a small part of it.
Until next time, see you in the gloom!
-Kitty
p.s. Tclaps to Repeato for EH’ing me. Love you, bro.
p.p.s Yes, there are #KittyQWeek commemorative shirts, of course there are.