Climb Kili One Blerkin at at Time

Preamble:

I knew something was wrong when I was headed out the door right on time, which is unusual for ole Pitstop at zero-dark-thirty.  Sure enough, the truck wouldn’t start.  It’s an old truck, and we have bonded over the last 200k miles.  I know how to touch her in just the right place when she gets ornery like this.  So I did – and for the first time in history that didn’t fix it.  I tried again, and again, and again, and again.  The neighbors in our townhouse community must love me right now.  Finally on the fifth or so try she revved up, and we rolled into the Rubicon on two wheels – which sent the 3 cinders in the back tumbling.

Warm-O-Rama:

WOA began with loading all of the cinders into Jambo (the truck).  “Jambo” is Swahili for “hello”, but in one of my all-time favorite movies – “Hatari!” – John Wayne would call out “Jambo Jambo!” on their way out to adventure.  That represents the spirit of my truck so well that my kids gave it that name years ago.  Go ahead and make fun – I dare you.

Several disparaging remarks were cast at Jambo by the Ford owners, but we just ignored those.

WOA continued with:

• SSHs
• Crab Cakes
• Bridges
• Sandra Bullocks
• Moroccan Nightclubs
• Chinooks

Jambo faithfully hauled all of the cinders to the new equestrian center parking lot and the PAX joined us by foot.  Not one Ford owner expressed appreciation for the favor.

The Thang:

During a tough Widowmaker led by Flo recently I thought “yep – this is the next Rubicon workout”.  So it was, specially modified for cinders and time-compressed for the Rubicon.

Each round consisted of:

1. Blerkins (block merkins – pushups on the cinder block)
2. Thrusters (squat + overhead press with the cinder)
3. Bench press
4. Lunges
5. Run

Start with 21 reps/exercise and subtract 3 each round.  So 21-18-15-12-9-6-3-1

Exactly as planned we finished right as we ran out of time.  2 cinder blocks were seriously harmed in the making of this beatdown.

We returned to the flag and performed the favorite curb-hand-walk.  And Mary was well and thoroughly had.

Just as we finally finished – Flo showed up.

COT:

Apologies that I don’t remember the prayer requests.  YHC feels lower than dirt for that.

Splinter (F3 Name “Dave Burgess”) gave the TNT.  He represents Ubora TZ, who “serves a community of people living in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the Siha District of Tanzania with a number of initiatives for holistic community transformation, including education, health, business and community.”

In February Ubora hosts the ClimbKili Challenge to raise much needed funds for this community.  $40 entry and the challenge is to run the distance of the Mt. Kilimanjaro climb.  Apparently $40 will feed 8 Flos for a year, or something like that.  I believe it will also buy a ton of textbooks, food and other essential goods that the villagers need.

Splinter and Flo are regulars at the Hooch, and the trash talk began quickly.  Join up today and help TEAM RUBICON thoroughly embarrass team hooch like we have every time we have competed against them in the ClimbKili Challenge.

Also, if you want to join us in a REAL climb up Kilimanjaro in 2022, come on over to the #adventure-travel channel on Slack.