An Easter Miracle

Conditions: The morning was impeccable. No wind, clear skies and The Gloom gave way early. Homer and I met up up 30 minutes early for a 3 mile EC run. Tis the season. It was perfect to get out there and burn the extra calories.

Homer and I had some good mumble chatter going during the run but the real magic began when we got to the AO. We had about 15 minutes until go time and thee (3!!) FNG’s showed up. It was amazing. These were ’s doing even though he didn’t show up. I’ll still give him credit despite this glaring flaw.

Not only that, one other FNG showed up out of the blue. This one due to . So now we’re standing at 2 regular attendees and 4 FNG’s. I can’t say I’ve ever been at a beatdown where the FNG’s outnumbered the OG’s.

But the icing on the cake, with one minute left to go time, YHC saw another guy running by, yelled at him to join our group AND HE DID! FIVE (5!!) FNG’s. It was a Passover/Easter/Ramadan miracle.

Of course, with one minute passed, Amtrak and Phat Joe show up fashionably late. They were lined up for a penalty burpee but this wasn’t the time. We had a golden opportunity here and I definitely wanted to take advantage of what we were seeing and promote these new guys to come back. So I kept the penalty burpees to myself and definitely switched up the beatdown I had planned.
Warm-Up:
We made it through the preamble and the 5 core principles which lead us straight to Warm-o-Rama. Now, with this many FNG’s, I needed to take the extra time to explain the ropes like counting, our goofy names. But they caught on quickly.
• SSH x 20 IC
• Daisy Pickers x 15 IC
• 5 burpees OYO
• 10 merkins, together
• Tie Fighters x 15 IC both sides
The Pre-Thang:
I thought we’d have some fun with the new guys. I brought a 40 lb sandbag and used that as a prop for a little friendly competition. I placed it in the middle of the base of the stairs. We then broke into two groups, one on each end of the AO stairs. One at a time, each group would send a PAX to bear crawl to the sand bag, touch it and crawl bear back. We did this until one team sent everyone once. Somehow my team won. We had to do 10 merkins while the losing team got in 20.

Having finished that we moseyed with the sandbag to the playground. This was a Guardian Ruck but instead of passing the flag, we passed the sand bag. It was as miserable as you’d imagine. But once we got to the playground it was time for…

The Thang:
I definitely didn’t anticipate this many FNG’s. It was a hugely welcome surprise but definitely required a pivot. I had lined up The Dab (200 burpees in 20 minutes). Thinking that I wanted these guys to come back, that plan got scrapped for a new one. YHC invented a new exercise name The Switchback. The idea is simple: We split back up into two groups. One group was responsible for doing pull ups. The other group did Cut a Flip. And one PAX stayed back with the sand bag doing Air Squats x 25. This PAX was the pace setter. Each group did their exercise AMRAP until the air squats were completed. Once completed, he would yell “SWITCH”. Cut A Flippers would move to Pull Ups and vice versa. The PAX that was doing Air Squats would move to Pull Ups and one Pull Up PAX would rotate to Air Squats x 25. This back and forth continued until everyone did Air Squats once.

YHC learned that with more PAX came more pull ups which is great but a great way to burn out your shoulders.

Once we were done with the Switch Back, YHC pulled out his music and we did Happy Feet/High Knees to AC/DC _Thunderstruck_. Each time we heard “Thunder”, we did an air squat with jump tuck to finish the move. That was pure misery. You can thank Amtrak for the jump and tuck.

Lastly, we got Flo Rida’s _Club Can’t Handle Me. We did AMRAP tricep dips for the first half of the song and then AMRAP Raise the Roof for the second part. At this point, all were mostly toast so we packed it in and did a Guardian Ruck back to the AO.

Before jumping into the Mary routine though, it was time for a rematch of our earlier relay race. Teams switched sides and we did crab walk to/from the sand bag. This time it was a completely different story with the other team beating us by an inch in a photo finish. 10 merkins to them, 20 for us.

Mary:
We had 5 minutes left for Mary and made the most of it. After a quick explanation of what Mary is and how to do it, we got on our 6 for:
• LBC x 15 IC
• Protractor
• Zombie Crunch x 15 IC each side
• American Hammer x 15 IC
Announcements:
• Looking for PAX to join the Ragnar relay team. See for details
• Goat Rodeo needs a new Site Q. Talk to or for details and/or to sign up
• April monthly challenge is posted. See the website for more details or to record your progress.
Count-O-Rama
Name-O-Rama
Q took us out in respectful homage to Sky Q. We exercised gratitude for the holiday season, for our health, the beautiful day, the gift of 5 FNG’s and the opportunity for another day to practice leadership and courage.

Aye – Sumo