Lead From Within. Lead From Without.

A lucky 13 from F3RVA converged in Buckingham with 23 other F3 Charlottesville, F3 Lynchburg, F3 Capital and Bridge brothers to celebrate the one year anniversary of The Bridge. In short, those who know, know. Some things just can’t be explained. The Bridge is one of those things. I always love posting at The Bridge, and today was no different. The energy was palpable. The brotherhood was real. The bond was everlasting.

When I arrived at 7:01 – launch time was 7:30 – I was not surprised to see my RVA brothers already there, ready to go. Shortly, clown cars from all over arrived, including a solo clown car for our brother Major Payne from F3 The Capital. To say I was pumped to see everyone and celebrate this day is an understatement. It was Christmas morning, in a sense.

On top of the organic energy, a film crew was on hand to capture F3s involvement with The Bridge. We were ready to hit the ground running.

07:30, it was time to start. Circle up. Slaughter start = 11 Burpees.

Warm-o-rama: YHC decided the best way to involve and introduce everyone was to call members of the PAX to the center of the ring, one at a time, to lead an exercise 10-15 total. SSHs, Scorpion Kicks, Carolina Dry Docks, HR Merkins, Burpees, Peter Parkers, Grass Angels, Australian Grass Angels, LBCs, Imperial Walkers, Jump Squats, and more…

Circle of Doom: The Bridge has a nice track, and we made full use of it. Partner up – different nano regions. Partner one runs the track until they reach their partner, then switch. Partner 2 performs called exercises. Exercises are Bear Crawl, Triple Jump Squats, Lunges. Rinse and repeat until the exercising partner reaches the start/finish line.

Modified Forest Gumps: New partners. PLTs x 10 to each side and 10 Dealer’s Choice. In between rounds PAX performs 10 BooYah Merkins.

Merkin Balloon Toss: Partner up. PAX tosses water ballon and performs 5 called merkins each round until a winner is declared. Diamond Merkins, Merkins, Carolina Dry Docks were called.

Tug-O-War: Round 1: Bridge v C’ville. Bridge won. Round 2: C’ville v. RVA. RVA won. Round 3: Hodge Podge v Hodge Podge. Round 4: Bridge v. All-Stars. Bridge won again! 2 for 2. Boom!

American Hammers (Ivey) x 20.

Announcements: F3RVA will Q at The Bridge the 4th Saturday of every month. BRR teams are beginning to form.

NMS: Today we converged to celebrate a very important milestone – 1 year of F3 at The Bridge. At The Bridge, we talk with these mean a lot about leadership, and its meaning. I wanted to demonstrate leadership as a true vulnerability, and not being out front without meaning. We started by forming an inner circle of the men from The Bridge, with all other PAX standing directly behind them. Leadership starts with vulnerability and trust. You cannot lead until you know that you can trust those around you, that you are accepting of help and support. The outer circle is there for you. You cannot lead by yourself. You cannot lead until you can be open, free and trusting.

Next we switched places. Now The Bridge PAX was on the outside. An equally important component of leadership. You are there to lend unconditional support. To catch a brother when he falls. Champions don’t show up to get all that they want. Champions show up to give all that they have. The same goes for leadership. As members of F3 and The Bridge, we must give all that we have. We must be selfless. We must get back up when we fall down.

The men at The Bridge are doing very special things. It is a true honor to be a part of it. Thank you all so very much for being here to celebrate and honor. It meant the world to me.