On June 6, 1944, three American officers huddled in a bombshell crater on Utah Beach in Normandy, France. Realizing the tide had carried them to the wrong place on the beach, the trio made an impromptu decision:  We’ll start the battle from right here.” and from there they moved forward from a difficult starting point… Randy Kilgore – Our Daily Bread

Just over 3 years ago, men from Charlotte landed on the beachhead of Pullen Park in Raleigh, NC and like those officers from D-Day who were in unfamiliar territory, they said essentially the same thing – “let’s start the battle from right here”.  Little did they know the aftermath of their actions and what would become F3Raleigh.  Flash forward – 3 years later – Thursday, we celebrated 1 year for Juggernaut with 53 PAX turning out from all over – including a return visit from our own Johnny Utah.  At coffeeteria afterward, our master EH’er Floppy Disk put out a call for help to Q the original F3Raleigh AO – Pullen Park.  Floppy was of course off to help expand the mission of F3 to yet another locale – Wilson, NC.  YHC took up the challenge and only later Friday afternoon did I realize it would be #D-Day.  The F3 Raleigh beachhead has long been secured and on this day, different waves of men posted around the city and beyond to push ourselves, honor and remember the sacrifice of the men who ventured into a gloom many of us will never know.  To my F3 Raleigh brothers at Quickhatch, the Crick, Whiplash, Catalyst, Ambassador and Wilson – it was humbling thinking about all that has happened in these short 3 years – thank you for your encouragement and keeping it real – #BandofBrothers

For YHC, this was my maiden Q at Pullen Park and while I’ve posted there many times, I arrived early with rucksack in tow to get more familiar with the AO.  After a brief walk around, I returned to find some PAX gathering – many of whom I don’t normally see.  At 7am sharp – we hit the ground running – the theme of course – to honor the men of #D-Day.  YHC was carrying a rucksack and informed the PAX that it would be going with us today – everywhere.  Here’s what went down.

WARMUP:  Run to upper parking lot past the pool, circle up.

  • SSH x 71 (#DDay71)
  • Imperial Walkers x 30
  • Mountain Climbers x 30
  • Good AM x 20

Pass the ruck to another PAX – run to the rock pile by the tennis courts.  Pick a rock and circle up.

  • Curls x 20
  • Squat to High Press x 20
  • Tricep Extensions x 15
  • Flutter Kicks w/rock overhead x 20

Repeato – put rocks up – after a quick countoff of 11, we jogged down the hill, crossed the bridge and went down to the corner of the lake.

YHC explained that we would be doing “Pearls on a String” (aka POAS) as follows – at the 4 corners of the lake, we would do the following exercises with squat holds after you were finished with each corner while waiting for the PAX to finish.  In between each corner, we would run – initially…

  • 8 Point Man-Makers x 5 (squat hold when complete)
  • Prisoner Squats x 10 (squat hold …)
  • Merkins x 15 (same)
  • LBC’s x 20 (same)
  • Lap 1 – all together – 1 PAX carried the rucksack
  • Lap 2 – partner up for Ring of Fire – Partner Carry the long straightaways (flapjack as needed) – the odd man out carried the Rucksack – stopping with the PAX at each corner – alternate exercise for LBC’s was lunges).
  • Lap 3 – repeat – but pass the rucksack after 2 corners
  • Lap 4 – Indian Run (rucksack guy had to start at the back – pass rucksack after 2 corners)
  • Lap 5 – Indian Run (same thing to make sure all PAX had a chance to carry the rucksack)
  • WWII Situps x 59
  • Recovery run back towards the carousel pavilion

Pavilion:  Alternating Left-Right stepups x 20

MARY

  • LBC’s x 20
  • American Hammers x 30

COT

  • Announcements/Prayers
    • Komen Race next Saturday June 13th – signups still available – signup for team F3Raleigh
    • Strong prayer closed us out (can’t remember which PAX led the prayer)

Moleskin:

  • Great seeing the brothers from South Wake – hope to catch you guys again sometime
  • During the Ring of Fire, a mom and her kids were walking around the lake, the 2 small boys loved seeing us do partner carrys and decided to join us – YHC thought they were just running along until I looked down to my left and saw one brother carrying the other – #Awesome
  • Tecumseh got to put his medical training in action when one of the boys fell and hit their knee – he’s such a nice guy and ended up carrying the little guy on his back for a time
  • Deadbolt has a pretty amazing Ford truck

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