Folsom Field Day

Sometime last spring when I was about 3 months into my F3 journey, I had a thought for something a little different. I wanted to put together some type of Field Day where we could mix things up for the normal workout routine, have a little competition, and possibly pull other non-regulars out to Folsom. Long-term, I see this as something that could possibly be part of a convergence…..sort of an AO vs AO competition. Maybe one day, but let’s grow it in baby steps!

With this said, I was pretty excited to put this together. I reached out to HIPAA and Allen Tate for some ideas and thoughts. In the end, I had a few handouts with a list of events, a mediocre logo, and a clipboard because…well, it’s Field Day, you must have a clipboard! With it being the day before Easter and many people traveling, I was a bit nervous about the turnout. Those fears were quickly eased as HIMs were rolling in left and right…23 participated in the first annual Folsom Field Day.

Unfortunately, the usual Folsom parking lot was officially blocked off but everyone figured out pretty easily to meet in the lower parking lot. The flag was planted, which probably helped the visitors find us. Speaking of visitors, we had a lot of guys visiting from other AOs. It was great to meet guys like Doodles, Scribbles, Headcase, Pyle, Beetle Bailey, Yo Adrian and the others! Thanks for visiting!

Warmarama:

20 Side Straddle Hops IC
10 Don Quixotes IC
10 Toy Soldiers IC
There were some negative comments about my warmup but I like to stretch a little during this time! I got ya chatter stopper though…

5 Burpees OYO

Mosey to the tennis courts. The horse track had standing water and the other field is about 20 feet below the road and sure to be waterlogged so I was forced to move this event to the tennis courts. No complaints about this move but I hope to do this in the grass next time.

I had a little race down and back across the tennis courts as a ‘qualifying heat”. I sent the guys who finished first to the left of the courts, the slower guys to the right and we counted off into 2 teams. I did this to try to balance team speed but it really didn’t work out that way. I swapped a guy as well, not realizing I was trading speed away from the much slower team 2. Q-fail. That being said, it didn’t really hurt the event that much, IMO. Instructions were pretty simple, all events were done in pairs. If you were the first pair back, write your name on the clipboard and if you were on team 1 or team 2. 2nd place does the same as does 3rd. My plan was to tally the finishes at the end for team scores. 3 points for a 1st place finish, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd place.

Wheel Barrel Race – Partner 1 (P1) does a wheel barrel to the cones (4 tennis courts) as partner 2 (P2) holds the legs. Switch and P2 does wheel barrel back to start. 2 laps each.

Run/Nur Relay – P1 runs to the end of the courts, nurs back. Switch when P1 returns to start. 4 laps each.

Flutter Kick Relay – P1 runs to the cones and does 10 Flutter Kicks In Cadence. Return to start, switch and P2 does the same thing. 4 sets each.

Hand Release Merkin Relay – P1 runs to the cones and does 10 Hand-Release Merkins, return to start. Switch, P2 does the same thing. 4 sets each. (I noted we did Hand-Release on this event because some guys move further on their Merkins….I wanted to make sure we had full range for all guys. No Cheating!!!)

Sackless Relay – P1 does a Bunny Hop to the cones and runs back to the start. Switch and P2 does the same thing. 4 laps each. (Some skipping was noted among the competitors. A few of y’all must be off to see the Wizard or something!)

Plank Off – High Plank only. Back straight(ish), butt down. You lose form, you’re out. Last man wins. Pretty simple. Cool battle between Tater Hole and Tater Tot on this one for 3rd place. It was pretty obvious neither was going to beat Yo Adrian and Gumby, who decided to make it a draw after about 4 minutes. Neither was going anywhere anytime soon.

Tug of War – Team 1 vs Team 2, as simple as it gets! Team 1 most definitely had the advantage on the courts when it came to speed and running, but there was fear in the eyes as they lined up against team 2 for Tug of War. We had to sort out a few last minute details on the rope and, after about 5 seconds, Team 2 was finished. We could have done best 2 out of 3, best 4 out of 5, or event best 100 out of 100…Team 2 would have won every time. Did I mention Team 2 dominated?

Burpee Contest – AMRAP for 1 minute. Honor system, Flying Squirrels are not Burpees! Pearl Jam took this one! Nice job!

I don’t have all the results in front of me so I didn’t list every winner of each event, but guys like Pizza Man, Freight, Doodles, Pearl Jam, Scribbles came up a lot. Gumby, Yo Adrian, Montross, and Allen Tate also made their way to the top 3 a few times as well. Check out @F3_Folsom on Twitter for a pic of the results. YHC did have final say on scoring and named Team 2 the overall winner, though some may disagree with that ruling. Def Leppard taught me well!!!!!

All in all, it went as well as I thought it could. This was just something I came up with and my main concern is that it wouldn’t be a tough workout. I was concerned about having partners rest as the other ran but that allowed for time to catch your breath and give extra effort. I can at least say for me I used those opportunities to run a little faster and sprint…well, something like a sprint…and that allowed all the guys to push as much as they could.

CoT:

Announcements: 2nd F on the 27th @ 7pm at Lewis Farm (rain or shine, M and 2.0s welcome), No Brainer Nationals May 11 at Shadyside Dragway (being put on by Ratchet to raise money for cancer…his son is a survivor!), Mt Mitchell hike May 5, The Boars Nest kicks off 4/21 at 6:15 am from Ingles (Ruck AO). Prayer requests: Gumby’s mom, brother-in-law, Allen Tate’s mom, those battling addiction, guys traveling, a young man who plays baseball with Tater Tot, and all the lost souls. YHC took us out in prayer.

• Montross aka Tronmoss aka T-ron aka Assistant Chief Rock Pusher of Folsom!