29 hardy PAX gathered at the Outdoor Education Center on the outskirts of the UNC campus Saturday morning for the inaugural rendition of The Ram, a multifaceted county fair of running, sprinting and every bodyweight exercise imaginable conducted over a 4.25 mile tour of campus. The challenge was ratcheted up notches galore by the Pax having to weave amongst all of the comely pink-clad coeds preparing for the ZTA Franklin 5K, the wayward over-served basketball fan staggering home after the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament win, and the heresy of running the steps in Kenan Stadium to the sounds of Hall and Oates blaring from the sound system for the UNC Dance Marathon.
Nonetheless, they persevered through it all and no one was worse for the wear. Mud Run? GoRuck? Pieces of cake for sure.
Rodeo took the baton out of the gate and led the warmup at the top of the hill coming out of the OEC parking lot.
SSH x 30
Imperial Walker x 10
Mountain climber x 20
Makhtar N’Diaye x 10
SSH x 10
From there Adolphus carried the F3/USA shovel flag to the Intramural Field in front of Carmichael Arena for our first Pain Station. Painful indeed, with the Pax splitting into three groups for a special Ram version of Usain Bolts.
Group 1 Bear Walks halfway across length of soccer field, then sprints to end and all the way back. Meanwhile, groups 2 and 3 are doing perfectly executed, slow-count merkins. Rinse and repeat through each group. Finish with a group sprint across the field and back.
Then it was on to Kenan Stadium, where the bright lights and music from the Dance Marathon greeted the Pax. The plan to split into groups of threes with one Pax running the steps and the other two doing Burpees and rotating through had to be aborted due to all the noise and traffic, so YHC quickly adjusted to a tour of the concourse of the stadium, with 12 count Carolina Dry Docks, 20 count Step-ups and 60-second People’s Chairs executed at various stops.
The group then exited Kenan, ran past the Bell Tower, up Columbia Street and took a right onto Cameron Avenue and proceeded to the Old Well. The early birds circled up to a lively round of 20 SSH as they awaited the arrival of the rest of the Pax.
Stefan then administered a killer blow by taking the group to the north end of McCorkle Place and unleashing the dreaded X drill: run the sidewalks in an X fashion, stopping at every corner of the big rectangle for one the following: five Burpees, 10 CDD, 10 Merkins and 10 Peter Parkers. This loop was executed three times, with some of the boys from Raleigh (Chong Li, White Shoe, et al), bringing their A game as several of the ZTAs cooed and winked as they passed by.
The group was just over an hour into the proceedings by now and proceeded to Henderson Street, then east on Rosemary to Boundary Street and worked its way to the Forest Theater, the 98-year-old venue where Shakespeare has been produced and Andy Griffith once plied his skills as unknown member of Carolina PlayMakers. Dr. Riggs from Durham assumed the reins of terror and led the Pax through a flurry of abs (six-inch raises, LBC, Hello Dollies, Russian Hammers, etc.). Then the Pax did two-legged Bunny Hops up the ancient stone steps, five Burpees at the top and Bunny Hops down. Repeato.
The end now in sight, the Pax ran up Country Club Road and back to the OEC, where Rodeo applied the piece de resistance:
Bows N Toes
SSH x 20
Plank Jacks x 10
Front (merkin), Back (flutter kicks), Throughs (jog in place) x 5
Then down the valley where the Frisbee golf course is located:
Merkins on the wire x 10
Dips on the wire x 10
SlowMo merkins on the wire x 5
FastMo dips on the wire x 5
6MoM:
Russian hammer x 21
LBC x 10
Rosalita x 20
Russian hammer x 15
Jail break sprint up the BFH to COT
COT
Moleskin:
– Tclaps to all who participated, and to the Pax who represented from Raleigh for making the trek. Everyone pushed themselves through the pain and no man was left behind. Lots of quality mumblechatter.
– Tlcaps to War Baby 007 for coming strong and representing the next generation of F3.
– Tclaps to FNG Propane, who chose this of all days to make his virgin post.
– (from the Pax): Special Tclaps to Shooter for dreaming up this painfest, and for all the work and preparation put in to make it happen. Can’t wait for next year!
(posted on behalf of Shooter)
