The Wheel of Unfortunate celebrated 1-year of directing FKTers to various hill workouts around Charlotte. Through pure luck and the divine touch from the WoU gods, we landed at the MuthaShip. This meant a little further drive for most of the Isotope PAX, but this AO is ALWAYS worth the drive and NEVER disappoints. It did make it easy for Slaughter, WhatDid, and Pitino (from Metro) to join us. After many questions, and some grumbling, about having to drive so far, the Isotope PAX invaded Metro and took on the Mutha of all leg burning workouts.
Here is how everything unfolded.
At 4:51, YHC left my house. I realized that knowing the Ship is in your plans for the following morning makes it very difficult to fall asleep the night before. I’ve realized that falling asleep the night before running the ‘Ship is slightly easier than falling asleep the night before Kansas plays in the NCAA Championship game and slightly more difficult than falling asleep on Christmas eve. When the alarm went off, I felt like I had slept for 27 minutes…but it was probably longer than that.
At 5:06, YHC pulled into the parking lot. Not surprising, Don Ho’s truck was already there. YHC was curious if he had been there all night to be sure he didn’t miss the standard. Although, Don Ho is almost always the first one at FKT. The surprising part was Auto was in the passenger seat. That was new. And, it meant we would have at least 3 PAX posting…which meant that Don Ho won the Over/Under bet.
By the time the Standard started at 5:10, Anchovy, Ducky, and the one and only Slaughter joined us. #F3Royalty. I had a 2 mile route planned out only to see on my phone at 5:08 that one of the roads was closed. Surely, it would only be closed for traffic and we would be fine.
All was good until the “closed” road wasn’t closed to runners….but it was pretty close. There were immediate questions about whether I knew where the route, which given my history with the Summit Standard were very warranted. The closed road did not help calm anyone’s concerns, but we made it around the loop without losing anyone and without making any U-turns. I only had to look at Google Maps once to make sure we were headed the right way. We were. I need to have more confidence in myself (others may disagree with that statement).
When we returned to the lot, Breakfast Club, Shrooms, Pitino, WhatDid, and Cherry Bomb were waiting for us. They looked a little nervous and a little annoyed that they had to drive so far. At 5:29, Swing State called asking where we were. He was cutting it close for a 5:30 launch but came running across the Dowd parking lot just in time to enjoy the 1-mile run to the morning’s ultimate destination.
Here’s what we did next:
- 3 times up the Dizzy (2 times frontwards, last time backwards)
- 3 times up the stairs (2 times running, last time bunny hops)
- Each time you got to the top…merkins and LBC. First time up was 5 and 5 and then each subsequent ascent, add 5 and 5 more.
It looks good on paper. The bunny hops at the end look good on paper. In reality they were dumb and YHC knew I would be modifying those or seriously risk catching my toes on a step and breaking my shins or my face.
Everyone completed one full set. Except Swing State…he had time to make an additional trip up the Dizzy to start is second round. #Strong
Moleskin:
I hadn’t been to the Ship in at least a year and I was reminded of several things.
- The Dizzy sucks
- The Dizzy backwards sucks more
- The Stairs suck
- The cool breeze when you hit the 12th floor is the most welcoming feeling in all of F3
Everyone crushed it this morning. The Ship is all about how much pain can you endure and keep pushing through. It’s kind of like life that way. And, like F3…it’s easy to keep going when you have guys around you encouraging you and suffering the way you are.
- Huge kudos to those who made their virgin trip to the Ship today. It never gets easier, but it will make you stronger.
- Welcome back to those that have experienced the Ship before.
Final thought: The Wheel of Unfortunate will reset for next month which means the MuthaShip slot will remain and be joined by every place we have travelled in the past year. The WoU gods may smile on us again and send us back to Metro. The question in my head is after this morning is, “If I did that same workout again, could I go further next time?” There’s only one way to find out. We’ll see when the WoU gods point to MuthaShip again…through an always legit wheel spin.