Saturday marked the culmination of my Pile Of Rocks tour. In celebration of my 10 years with F3, I traveled back to Charlotte last week and did 5 straight workouts (Saturday through Wednesday) at the AO’s I worked out at for about 8 years before moving to Florida. AG (The Mothership!!,), Man Cave, Split Ends, ALS and the last one was Gamucci, where I was named by Dredd in March 2012. I had to return to where it all began, see many of the pax I had not seen in 2 1/2 years, and I was blessed to be able to do the take out prayer at all 5 at COT. Many Many thanks to GAAP, Haywood, Phoenix, and The Cat for all teaming up to EH me earlier in 2012.

Most of these workouts were in the 30’s and very low 40’s. Despite being a thin skinned Floridian where temps in the winter gloom are 55-65, I didn’t complain. Much.

So, you ask, what’s a pile of rocks? In the Bible, when the Israelites saw God working in their lives they stopped and commemorated the moment by building a pile of stones. For example, when Samuel and his army easily defeated the much bigger and stronger Philistines with God fighting ahead of them, he made a pile of rocks. When the Israelites, lead by Joshua, crossed the God-parted Jordan River into their first steps into the Promised Land, it was time for another pile of rocks. The Bible and some folks also call this “memorial” an Ebenezer. Life gets busy and sometimes rough, and we need to stop and praise Him for deliverance as well as faith-building times of struggle.

So of course, I signed up to Q the first workout on my return to bring the Pile of Rocks tour to my current pax. Smudge, Train, Froggy, and Mud Pie were there as well as McDreamy (my real brother; nantan from Racecoast/Daytona) and Tagalong (a definite Kotter doing his first post after arm surgery late last year). Glad to have you back Tagalong and blessed to have McDreamy with me on the last show of the tour.

And to not leave you in suspense, yes…everything was done in with the number 10 in mind.

Shoutouts and Team Effort: All during the workout, each pax was to tell all something that was a pile of rocks moment with them. Nice sharing on family and jobs and other major impacts were shared. And since F3 is a team effort, I had each pax interject an exercise throughout the workout. We never walk alone unless we want to….and I surely don’t want to do anything without God and the others He surrounds me with!!

COP: SSH, Abe Vigodas, Mountain Climbers, Merkins, Peter Parkers, and Running With Scissors – All 10 each with a couple on repeato

THE THANG:

• Short mosey to the shore, then Heartbreak Ridge (see the movie; Indian Run with arms raised like Profile) to Hooker’s Pier.
• At foot of pier, run to end of pier to start 10 Big Boy Sit Ups, then back to beginning for 10 squats and then run to showers (about 25 yards) to do 10 merkins of pax choice. Then a ladder with 9, 8, 7,… until done.
• All during workout we had the shout outs for each man’s personal pile of rocks as well as each offering a called exercise..some in Mary position. We had Holy Rollers, Heels To Heaven, Lieutenant Dan’s, LBC’s, and more for fun. All 10 count of course. I added 3 reps of 10 each of knee jumps to add to the fun.
• I had to get the pax in the sand, so to the beach seawall for People’s Chair (each pax counted down 10 seconds) then 10 derkins and a decline plank.
• On mosey back, we finished with Walking Like Dinosaurs (bear crawl Indian Run style with each pax running 4 times around our slow moving Brontosauruses).

COT: Countarama, Namearama, Announcements and Prayers: Our time included awareness for F3 Mental Battle. Not only just a March awareness, but a year round 24/7 struggle. We talked on men sharing struggles during a workout, one-on-one with a pax, a professional,… Prayers for various healings, marriages, and journeys.

So blessed to lead these fine men on the last call of The Pile Of Rocks tour. So very blessed to be called into F3 nation 10 years ago. Thanks to all for not letting me be the same!

Bird Hole