Popper’s Gauntlet and a Birthday Bash

Preamble:

Happy 1st birthday to The Bridge AO, and Happy 36th birthday to YHC.

YHC discreetly positioned our beatdown scoreboard and kicked off the delightfully eclectic and retro soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 & 2 at the war memorial, then doubled back to the Farm Burger meetup spot.

Standard disclaimer and we were off.

Warm-O-Rama:

Short mosey to the war memorial. SSH, Weed Picker, Windmill, Moroccan Night Club.

The Thang:

As a birthday gift to the PAX and our beloved 1-yr old AO, YHC shared my weekly Sunday morning solo routine that has helped me pass the time over these many weeks of COVID dystopia.

Like Thanos’ misguided quest to gather the six infinity stones for his mighty gauntlet, the PAX must attempt to complete six rounds of pain in Popper’s gauntlet within our ~40 remaining minutes. Each round consists of reps and laps. Move from left-to-right across the program outlined below, finishing all exercises in a column (can opt to rearrange the order of exercises within a column) before moving onto the next column. PAX noticed that as rounds elapsed, reps decreased while laps increased.

While no PAX collected all metaphorical infinity stones within time, all PAX put forth a valiant effort and made it quite far through the program. Scoreboard, with PAX marking in red their stopping point at the buzzer:

COT:

Prayers for El Matador’s mother who passed away. Strength and comfort for the grieving family.

Prayers for Homer’s well-earned and long-awaited vacation, that it would be refreshing quality time with family.

Prayers for Zohan’s M traveling to Israel to celebrate a new birth in the family.

Congratulations on 1 year of beatdowns at the Bridge. Many thanks to Mayor Homer for bringing donuts and coffee to celebrate. His vision of an AO while PTC Town Center was still under construction has paid dividends many times over in the form of sweat, camaraderie, and growth in all aspects. But wait, there’s more: Before too much longer construction of the actual namesake bridge of The Bridge AO will actually be complete, elevating 11’s at The Bridge to new heights. (Insert bad joke sad trombone sound here).

Naked-Man Moleskin:

As YHC turns 36, how thankful I am to have fellow PAX pushing me to be the best man I can be. Two years ago the Sad Clown mentality was strong; now the HIM mentality has taken over. Iron Sharpens Iron, and I’m honored to lead and be led by these mighty PAX in the gloom.