The Durham Dirty Dozen challenge began today. 0500 is early. The Al Buehler Trail is dark. Floyd wasn’t sure anyone would show up. But like the baseball field in the cornfields of Iowa in Field of Dreams, we built it, and they came. 22 strong, including some F3 Chapel Hill boys who made the long drive and braved the lost 15 minutes of sleep.
The EC thang:
Split into 4 groups. Group 1 does 3 sets of 10 pullups (regular, chin-ups, wide grip). Group 2 overhead press with slush pipe/air squats. Group 3 does ruck thrusters and merkins (this, in retrospect, was a poor choice by YHC. Both as an exercise combo with all the waiting to do the thrusters and with what was to come. But I digress.). Group 4 did kettle bell swings and Freddy Mercuries.
Bonus round – one set of max 3 count dead hang pullups. Rest of pax did air squats and rows.
On to the main event…
31 pax found the shovel flag and gathered round. Merkin Monday was looming large, especially for those who found themselves at EC doing the aforementioned group 3 exercises.
No time for warmup, Te’o was off like a gunshot leading the pax to the pavilion…for…merkins!
40, 30, 20, and then 10 merkins. There was much rejoicing. Fun to have 31 pax counting out merkins in the pavilion. Wake up the echoes, eh Te’o?
Mosey on down to K-ville. Not just any old mosey, either. YHC set a 90 second timer and every time it went off, 15 merkins. This got tiresome. Pretty quickly, in fact. Lots of comments about the smell around Cameron. YHC informed the CH pax that this was the smell of success. The scent was not as strong at the football stadium.
Bear crawl through K-ville. Good time…
Mosey on over to the chapel, more merkins along the way…every 90 seconds in fact. The pax discovered that one of the FNGs (honestly, 2 FNGs, for this workout…I’m sure they’re thanking whomever EH’d them right about now) was the dean of the Duke Chapel. The cursing tapered at this point. 10 derkins two steps up, 10 derkins three steps up. Not surprisingly a bit difficult at this point.
Light yog to The Pit, a Devil’s Ridge and specifically at Te’o favorite. More merkins along the way. Te’o led the pax in a rousing flutter kick/dip extravaganza. 10 flutter kicks, 15 dips at each of the 5 or 6 big steps. With some merkins every 90 seconds. This was really a lot of fun.
Mosey on back to the start, more merkins.
COT
Moleskin:
– Welcome FNGs Hail Mary and Hydrant. Major tclaps to you fellers for making your F3 debut at this merkin-fest. Hope to see you both out again!
– Total merkin count was a subject of intense debate. 100 merkins at the start. Probably about 12-13 sets of 15 merkins. 20 derkins at the chapel. Make it 315 maybe? Plus probably 40 or 50 at EC.
– Total good form merkins also a subject of debate. Floyd and Coco combined for 5. YHC did a couple of real merkins at the beginning. Calling what YHC was doing at the end a merkin would be laughable.
– Great to have some CH pax out for the F3 D3. Hell week was an awesome event that got everyone excited. Hoping F3 D3 is similar.
– Tclaps to Crocket for taking us out with a nice prayer at the end. Keep The Stig in your prayers. His parents were in a bad car wreck last week and his dad is not doing well. Come by here, my Lord…
Aye!
Riggs
