What Fresh POOP Is This?

The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.

Conditions: high-50s and clear

FNGs: none

COP:  none

The Thang:

Today we chose to stay close to home base for a variety of reasons. #1 on the list was that YHC realized that his headlamp was not in the car upon his arrival at The Creek. As other PAX showed up, they provided their own reasons so we stuck close by and ran some “figure 8’s”.

Turn three around the pond reminded us that it’s that time of year again. Pretzel’s buddies were back out in force. And they had left their mark on the path. Thanks to some creative footwork, I think we all managed to avoid at least most of the fresh coating on the path. I may or may not have had to perform the dance that Mack requested based on my preblast.

Snowden and Mack proved to be the rabbits on this morning as Sophia and I kept a safe distance. But in the end, I think we all hit the 4 mile mark. They just had to slow down and come back to us a couple of times. But that’s alright, it gave me a chance to get caught up with Sophia who made his running return to the Creek after a few weeks of rucking.

Mary: none for the running AO

Numberama: 4

Namerama: Snowden, Mack, Sophia, Urkel

Pledge and COT

Announcements: Mud Run and Hell Hole Hundred

Devo: YHC spoke about how we measure manhood against what we viewed as “a man” growing up. Based on a devotion from We Stood Upon Stars by Roger W Thompson.

His story was about his dad and his ’57 Chevy pickup that constantly broke down on them on family trips. But Dad never failed to disappear under the hood for a bit and emerge later covered in oil and start the vehicle to continue on with the trip. Thompson explained that this was what he determined a man to be. His Dad was unfortunately gone before he could have that conversation about what it means to be a man.

For years he struggled with the reality that he didn’t develop that skill. “Shame grows in the space where I fall short  of my definition of manhood.” After years of this internal battle he realized he shouldn’t measure himself against his father. He finally realized “I’m not my kid’s hero because I can fix an engine. I’m their hero because I stand in the water with them. I teach what I know and am honest about what I don’t. I humble myself to call for help. I think. I pray. And I fight like hell to keep them on the road. That is fatherhood.”

YHC spoke of his struggle with the same issue growing up in a house with a mechanic/machinist father and older brother. I can’t fix a car. I don’t hunt. I’m terrible at fishing. All those “manly” things are my weaknesses. But there are a lot of things I can do. And a few I do really well. I have finally come to the realization in the past year that I can focus on the things I do well and not sweat the stuff I suck at. Hopefully these are the things my 4 kids will remember about me and appreciate.