Yesterday morning one of our own, one of our @F3Lexington brothers, was struck by a car while running with men across the river. He was taken quickly to the hospital and initially stabilized, physically, but reports indicated that his injuries were too great. By mid day the prognosis was dire. This morning we learned that our brother, faithful to his family, his F3 fellowship and to his Lord, had passed. F3 Cheech was known to cut out the sleeves of his shirts for F3 workouts and so, in his honor, so did we all.
Conditions: 135 degrees and 150% humidity
TheThang:
Prayer: For protection, for peace, and for the family Cheech left here on earth.
Exiting Hand onto King, the pax headed west on Wheat and then down the Terrace Way alleys to Blossom for the first COP in in the BB&T parking lot on Blossom to include:
SSH X 50, 4CT IC
LBC’s X 20, 4CT IC
American Hammers X 20, 4CT IC
Elevens of Squat Jumps and Mercans. Elevens is a two exercise, alternating pyramid in which the first exercise starts at a ten count and descends to one while the other exercise starts at one and escalates to ten such that the total of the alternating sets always equals eleven. Total the “Elevens” workout includes 55 of each exercise, in this case Jump Squats and Mercans.
LBC’s X 20, 4CT IC
American Hammers X 20, 4CT IC
From there, the pax exited onto Blossom and turned up Harden to the public parking lot adjacent to the 5 Points Fountain. There the CHEECH Set was repeated. What is the CHEECH set? The workout series above:
C – Crunches X 20
H – Hammers X 20
E – Elevens of Squat Jumps (55 total) and
E – Elevens of Mercans (55 total)
C – Crunches X 20
H – Hammers X 20
The LBC’s and Hammers were paired up and done back to back OYO, then the Elevens as a package followed by the closing set of LBC’s and Hammers again OYO.
Taking in the fountain, the pax needed a little more arm work seeing as the guns were bare. On the fountain walls we therefore did:
Dips X 20, OYO
Dercans X 20, OYO
Dips X 20, OYO
Dercans X 20, OYO
Exiting the yet more moist fountain area, the #Faithful headed back down Harden hooking right onto Senate to end up in the Groucho’s parking lot. A third set of the CHEECH was called to the dismay of the wearying pax. See above for the set BUT… with time getting tight, the final Crunches and Hammers were pushed off until the group was safely in striking distance of the AO. In fact, LBC’s and American Hammers were done twice, first at Emily Douglas and then again in the Hand parking lot before a closing plank was called.
While in Plank, a word to the pax: We as @F3Columbia have made great strides in fitness gathering men who can outright win the MudRun, dominate events like the Palmetto 200 and various races, complete GoRuck Lights, Toughs, Heavys, HTL’s and HH’s. The 1stF we’ve got down. And our 2ndF is strong as coffeeterias include custom mugs, our AO’s order custom hats, our Hump Days are well attended and we see constant chatter on twitter, GroupMe and a barrage of #mumblechatter from all ends of the spectrum. In Lexington there’s a 3rdF bible study called @F3Wingman that meets at 4:30 in the morning, a study that Cheech attended and led regularly before most of us hit the snooze bar. He lived out not just the 1st and 2nd F of F3 but dedicated himself to the 3rdF of his faith. We will miss him. But we have this encouragement that while he is no longer with us, he is present with the Lord he loved (2 Cor 5:8). Let us not limit ourselves to imitating his attire, #SleevelessLikeCheech, but rather imitate his leadership, his heart and his dedication to being a man of Faith.
COT & BOM with specific prayers for the Flanagan family.
Devotion by Adrian: With reference to Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God, bad things do happen to good people. And yet God uses those heartbreaking steps in our lives for our good and for his glory. It is easy to lose faith when we hurt asking, like Jesus himself, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” But we know it was the cross, on which Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice when he cried out, that redeems and saves us. Terrible things happen in life, very real reasons to mourn. God is still faithful, though, He never stops loving you. Nothing could demonstrate that more than the gospel.
Announcements & NMM:
The Mission cookout is on Friday, June 30th and we need your support. Check out the preblast and post for our brothers at #TheMission.
Be safe. Sad as a reminder as we’ve had, make wise choices to be seen in the Gloom and be careful when hitting the streets.
#SwampFox is celebrating it’s four year anniversary on July 27th. We’d love to see some #Thunder pax post over there in support.
Lots of other details fresh on the mind and available to all through McLovin’s first F3Columbia email blast. Check it out now if you haven’t gotten it in your in box.
Last but yet first, we pray for Cheech’s family. As Adrian noted, God is at work. We may be far too near to the pain right now to see his larger picture but we can trust his word and the truth therein. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26