20 PAX for the Veterans Memorial Ruck & 60 PAX for the beat-down. Our day started off with a chilly, windy Ruck consisting of 17~F3’s, 2~FiA’s, 1~2.0 FNG ( 12 year old, now named “Crash”) and 1~dog! We started on time at, of course, at 6:00 am. The Ruck was lead by Tim Carr~F3 Bloodhound. He is a Veteran, Army Special Forces Green Beret. With our weighted Ruck, layers of clothes, hats, gloves, an American Flag and great attitudes we left the playground parking lot at the Cherokee Veterans Memorial Park and headed for the trail. Many of our Rucks were weighted down from the can food goods that we were carrying. The food was being collected to donate to our local food bank. We Rucked the trails surrounding the park from 6:00 am till 7:00 am passing the American Flag between all of us every quarter mile. Each of us were proud to carried the American Flag. The conversation was light and positive as we watched the sun come up together. Always keeping it tight and even once rounding the 6 up to keep them in the group. As we rounded the last corner we could see the large crowd gathering in the parking lot. The PAX were now rolling in for the beat-down that was scheduled to start at 7:30 am.
60 PAX – F3’s, FiA’s & 2.0’s were present to take part in our Veterans Memorial Beat-down. 13 FiA’s mixed in with all the F3 and a few little 2.0’s. The Beat-down was lead by 4 Veterans. One from 4 different branches of the military Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. Each Q had a station where they lead their part of the beat-down. We all gathered in a circle to start and counted off by 4 to get in our station groups. We all did 5 Burpees in between each station, symbolizing the addition struggles that Veterans face when they come home from their service.
- F3 – Bloodhound’s & Westside’s station – Army Special Forces Green Beret, my husband & F3 Bloodhound was the Q for the first station that I visited. He had us each grab a 40 pound sand baby out of the back of his truck and walk it to a circle. We held the 40 pounds against our chest as we did squats for the duration of a song, Flower by Molby. Bring Sally up and down! Holly Molly Molby!! – After that we bear crawled while dragging the the sand baby around the circle till the time expired and it was time to go to the next station.
- F3 Dixie Chic’s Station – This station was Q’ed by a former Marine. We did a collective count of Push-up, mountain climbers and burpees with our partner. WOW … my arms were tired. FiA – Chocolate Chip was my partner.
- F3 Mickey & Aquaman’s Station – This station was Q’ed by a former Navy Officer. We kept it “Low & Slow” as he put it. We did duck walks, crab cakes, LBC’s, burpees (with no hop at the top) and a bunch other exercises as he called them out. The time expired and it was time to move on again.
- F3 Wiggum’s Station – This Station was Q’ed by a former Air Force Airmen. I again partnered up with Chocolate Chip and we began our workout. One of us ran to the end of a path while the other one did an exercise. We ran forward and backward on the path. The other FiA did IBC’s Push-ups, air presses and a number of other exercises. When the time ran out we ran to the start and made a circle again.
We had a long prayer for our men and women that are currently serving and our Veterans. We named our FNG’s and gave our Veterans a few gifts. We shook hands and clapped for each other as we all told each other our FiA and F3 names. Huge shout out to our FiA – Smooth Operator that was the most experienced in age in the whole group!! Great job girl. You rock!! We then busted out the coffee, creamers, fruit and other breakfast yummies. Aquaman passed out a goodie bag to all that participated full of water, coozies, a Frisbee, and stickers. So awesome.
I was so proud and my heart was full of joy to be a part of this amazing group on this very chilly Saturday morning sweating for all the men and women that serve. The pride we shared and positive energy were wonderful. I love my Veteran, I love my FiA’s, I love all the F3’s that were present and I love the way the whole day played out.
Originally posted to FiA Nation