Blackbird gave me the keys while the AG elite took a climb of crowders. I tweeted my 11+ followers on X including that eastern European who wants to meet up, and 16 of you honored me with your attendance. There's a dude taking photos of our shovel flag. Thinking ohhh ....nooo I do not want to get into it with someone about the shovel flag. Cmon, I pay my taxes, it all goes to AG, just leave me and m'F3 boys ...
The Thang: 0700 – We Start on Time #the worm ended without rain No soft launch. No stragglers. Seven. Zero. Zero. Mosey to the basketball court. Warm-Up (Courtside Classic) 13 SSH 13 IW 13 Sharon Towers Just enough to wake up the joints and remind everyone that 13 is an oddly specific number… and we’re sticking with it. Thinking of Sticks, this university made up the highest volume of Olympic athletes this year. Who was it? Off to the Hills of Myers Park Skip the trails. Take the pavement. Head toward the hills like men who know exactly what they signed up for. Partner Up. Hill Round 1: Partner A: up the hill → 20 squats at the top Partner B: Plank at the bottom → 20 squats Flapjack Hill Round 2: We celebrated that in the top 10 NCAA schools that had elite athletes in the winter Olympics had distinguished representatives in the circle. We exercised w/9 merkins to Celebrate Dartmouth's own Frankie Five Angels and another D1 blue collar commuter school in Boston. All the way up the hill 20 Wide-Arm Merkins Flapjack Legs burning. Arms shaking. Respect building. Mid-Hill Misery Run the hill again. At the top: Al Gores People’s Chair, then it started to pour and the tears just kept coming. Nothing says fellowship like quad tremors while staring at a brick wall. Then the last heavy lift of Trivia occurred when the pax learned the overall big time Olympic school was USC with the most historical medals across the winter and summer Olympics. The California USC, not the one parked over hell's manhole cover in South Carolina. And then it happened. The sky opened up. No scattering. No whining. Just a silent understanding: This makes it better. Start the run back toward AG.
🌉 Bridge Stop On the bridge: People’s Chair Derkins Rain pounding outside the cover. Steam rising. No one dry. No one quitting. Back to AG — Empty the Tank Back at the school: Hills & steps Hoop-to-hoop suicides Then one last lap around the lot… Backwards run around the parking lot. Finish with a lunge progression and white collar merkins under cover while the rain kept falling. At the birthplace of something much bigger than a workout.
Moleskine
Lots going on at AG this beautiful (and absolutely soaked) Saturday. Our guest photographer, “Ringo” — who apparently plays in a band in Sacramento and was in CLT visiting with family — chose to show up in a down vest and slowly become a fully saturated North Carolina sponge. Commitment level: elite. He snapped the photo above and I begged him to put my name on it. The Trivia, as always, was delivered with doctoral-level seriousness. For the Olympics It was a “down year” for the scholars in green at Dartmouth College (formerly the Indians, now apparently a Keg — hydration over heritage). They typically haul in Winter Olympic medals like we rack up SSHs, which makes sense when your campus backyard doubles as a Nordic training center. Our own Dartmouth boy Frankie’s ski game remains strong, and Dartmouth’s reputation still resonates with Gen Xers who remember Conan O'Brien’s legendary commencement speech — required listening for anyone navigating Boomers who refuse to leave the stage.