The Bull wasn’t meant to be done in sub-freezing temperatures, I guess. A beast like that deserved a balmy 65 degrees. 47 pax (plus 1 who didn’t read his email and arrived a bit late) planted 6 shovel flags briefly and circled up for F3 Durham’s first 4 hour extravaganza.
Brief instructions, maybe a disclaimer or two, then on with it…
COP:
SSH, Imperial Walkers, merkins, and maybe some other stuff
Into platoon formation…number off by fours, get into platoons. Each platoon was assigned one or two shovel flags and a team ruck. At least two shovel flags not constructed by Choo Choo weren’t able to complete the event. The pax had better success, although given what you’ll read those broken shovel flags, which were shoved in the sag wagon, might have fared better.
Travel to…
[YHC should note here that the traveling was not just a mosey from point A to B. There was considerable time built in for the platoon leaders to inflict some punishment on the pax in some way of their choosing. Punishments included merkins, dips, air squats, tunnels of “love,” etc. Basically another AO spread all over downtown Durham. There was much rejoicing, at least in YHC’s platoon.]
…Watts Elementary. Major surprise for the pax here. Four of Churham’s finest…logs were waiting for them. This was loads of fun. Carried them about a mile and a half. Those not carrying logs were doing fun things like sprinting ahead and doing merkins.
So anyway, moseyed with the logs all the way to Duke Park for the first official site:
Log PT, aka it pays to be a winner. Site Qs were Bushwood and YHC.
Flutter kicks x 76
Cadre Phil overhead claps x a million
Here’s where it paid to be a winner:
Line up in platoons facing center. 4 guys on a log. Log press x AMRAP in cadence, rest do merkins. 1st place does 5 burpees, 2nd 10, 3rd 15, 4th 20. Platoons rotate to a new log, then repeato with a new set of guys.
Log relay races. Down to the parking lot and back, 5 guys per log, rest low squat hold.
Log overhead hold as long as possible (5 pax), the rest plank.
At this point the logs had overstayed their welcome among most of the pax, and so were retired.
15 minute rest. [YHC should also note here that Chester deserves huge tclaps for his job with the sag wagon. Couldn’t have done all this without someone doing that.]
Onward, without logs, but with plenty of pain mixed in, to Old North Durham Park for site #2:
Tennis Ball Game. Site Qs were Assisi and Blindside.
Merkins x 70ish (what?). There was some significant mumblechatter at this point.
The Game:
20 tennis balls on one side of the field, 20 on the other. 2 fields were set up for the 4 platoons. Each platoon lined up on a side. Then there were 4 terrible minutes were each platoon would bear crawl to one side, grab a ball, then bunny hop (aka bunny gallop from what YHC saw…and did) back with the ball and drop on the line. The platoon with the most balls on their side at the end was the winner. 3 rounds, round robin style.
Also paid to be a winner here: 4th place did 40 blockees, 3rd place 40 burpees, 2nd place 40 SSH and one lap around the field, 1st place one lap.
Another water break here. May not have been on the original plan, but necessary after that ridiculousness…
More traveling, more pain along the way. Pain included a partner carry up some conveniently located hill near the farmers’ market. [Another side note, got lots of funny looks from the Durhamites this morning. Lots of people asking what we were doing. Just ~50 guys with shovel flags dressed mostly in black…is this odd?]
The third site, American Tobacco Campus, under the Lucky Strikes water tower: [F3 Durham’s own Lucky Strikes fartsacked this one…what a shame…]
Not sure what to call this one, just an old fashioned beatdown. Site Q was Te’o.
Flutter kicks, heels to heaven, and some other pain
Merkins x 20 x 2
Flutter kicks over the water [lots of odd looks on this one for sure]
Pack it all up and head back towards home, with some more pain, and a big hill. Got to site #4, the quad at Duke’s East Campus.
4 corners, with burpee island. Site Qs were Floyd and Cardiac.
4 stations, burpee island along the long straightaway. The fun for YHC’s platoon included some gorilla walks, burpees, bear crawls, crawl bears, burpees, crab walks, and mountain climbers.
Mosey on back to the starting point…and The Bull is secure!
COT
Moleskin:
– Tclaps to all who helped with this. Lots of work on the backend by the site Qs and the platoon leaders. Some guys who couldn’t make it also helped. Tclaps to Choo Choo for hauling the logs.
– Keep Bones and Scandal in your prayers. Scandal’s brother in law (who was also Bone’s friend) passed away. Life is precious…and fragile…
– Strong work by the War Daddy and War Baby of the pax, Tooth Fairy and Crocket!
– Strong work by those who did the RDU doubledown with The Mule and then The Bull.
