Some background reading first:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Dollar_Mile

My friend, and new Isotope Weasel-Shaker Gambini; wanted to bring the Fallout crew over to Gladiator as a way to get Pax to travel to new AOs.  He said something like, “I’m sure you’ll cook up a great workout”.  Woah there buddy…that’s setting the bar a bit high for YHC isn’t it?!?  So, we decided to Co-Q this one, and brought back a fan favorite from30-Apr-2019.  (Someone please let me know if that hyperlink doesn’t work)

This a race type workout, with one team given a head start and the other team stacked with unfair and great athletic ability.  All of the Standard runners were told the plan in advance, because we’d need the “Defenders” to know how to proceed.  The morning went down something like this:

0500:  Run Standard with Cobra, Gambini, and Peart Plus.  We laid down cones where the pain stations would be and explained the workout.

0530:

WARM-O-RAMA:

• Mosey around the parking lot with high knees, butt kickers, and Quadraphilia towards the top of St. Mark’s parking lot.
• Circle up near the intersection of Stumptown Rd. and Ranson Rd.  Disclaimer given.
• SSH x 10 IC
• IST x 10 IC
• Elbow Plank while workout is explained
• Note:  Used strike-through font to indicate some things that happened or were mentioned in the first 2019 iteration of this workout, that we didn’t use this time.  Basically, today was a Burpee free workout to be enjoyed by all!

The “Million Dollar Mile” Thing:

• Team 1:  “The Defenders”.  On the television show, they’d be the exceptional athletes chasing down contestants and trying to prevent them from winning $1 million.  Today, they were trying to force us to do as many Burpees as possible.  (Actually, we were intentionally vague on “punishment”.  Er…let’s just say no-one really wanted to do Burpees.)  This team consisted of everyone not listed below.
• Team 2:  “The Contestants”.  We’d be given a head start and would attempt to run 1 mile and complete pain stations along the way, before getting caught.  This was Toby, Amen, Deadhead, Bob Ross, and YHC.

So Team 1 waits an honest minute, while completing some Squats perhaps?  Then…the chase is on.

Leg 1:

Team 2 runs on Ranson Rd. and stops at Shiella Caruth Dr.  (Left side of the road).  Every team member completes 10 Mericans and 10 Jump Squats OYO (honest, good reps).  Team 1 would complete the same exercises upon arrival.

Team 2 at this point can concede (lazily?), and stop.  But the price would be 100 Burpees, so we decided to keep running and try our luck that we wouldn’t get caught!  Nah – there was no option given to concede this time!

Leg 2:

Team 2 continues on Ranson Rd. and stops at Hunton Ln. (Right side of the road).  Every team member completes 15 Mericans and 15 Jump Squats OYO (honest, good reps).  Team 1 would complete the same exercises upon arrival.  By the way, if Team 1 arrived before Team 2 completed this “obstacle”, then we’d have to do the full 100 Burpees.  (Luckily…they didn’t)

Team 2 at this point can concede, and stop.  The price would be “only” 75 Burpees…but still we decided to press on.

Leg 3:

Team 2 continues on Ranson Rd. and stops at Timberview Ln. (Right side of the road).  Every team member completes 20 Mericans and 20 Jump Squats OYO (honest, good reps).  Team 1 would complete the same exercises upon arrival.  By the way, if Team 1 arrived before Team 2 completed this “obstacle”, then we’d STILL have to do the full 100 Burpees.  (Luckily…they didn’t)

Once again, team 2 at this point can concede, and stop.  The price would be “only” 50 Burpees…but getting past Leg 3 meant that 50 Burpees was the max we would do.  Just like in the TV show, where completing 3 “obstacles” guarantees the contestant $50,000.

Given we had nothing to lose, we pressed on.

Leg 4:

Team 1, “The Defenders”, were gaining some ground!

Team 2 continues on Ranson Rd. and stops at Hightower Oak Street. (Right side of the road).  Turn into the neighborhood to get away from traffic.  Every team member completes 25 Mericans and 25 Jump Squats OYO (honest, good reps).  Team 1 would complete the same exercises upon arrival.  By the way, if Team 1 arrived before Team 2 completed this “obstacle”, then we’d STILL have to do 50 Burpees.  (Luckily…they didn’t)   

Once again, team 2 at this point can concede, and stop.  The price would be 25 Burpees.

But the finish line was so close!  So we pressed on.

Leg 5:

Team 2 sprints down Hightower Oak Street, to the next intersection at Bur Lane.

IF every team member made it without getting caught, then we “win” and avoid any Burpees.

However, if Team 1 caught any one of us before reaching the finish, the penalty would be 50 Burpees.

The Result: 

Well, it turns out a 1 minute head start was still a bit too much to overcome.  Next time, we’ll recalibrate to 30 seconds?  Or, Gambini suggested a couple of other tweaks to make things VERY interesting.  Now we know for next time.

After that we all needed to catch our breath a bit.  Everyone did:

• Low Flutters x 50 IC  (Some were hoping for a car interruption that never happened)

We moseyed a bit, and explained that the hill on the way out of the neighborhood was a Strava segment.  Actually Cobains…was late in telling people this.

Mosey back to the AO together, stopping at the same intersections for the pain station ladder in reverse:

• Mericans x 25 OYO, Jump Squats x 25 OYO
• Mericans x 20 OYO, Jump Squats x 20 OYO
• Mericans x 15 OYO, Jump Squats x 15 OYO
• Mericans x 10 OYO, Jump Squats x 10 OYO

We all arrived back at the AO in time for some Mary:

• Elbow plank (Gambini)
• Low Dolly (Gambini)
• Box cutters (Gambini)
• Crunchy frog x 10 IC  (Turnpike)
• V-UP holds (Toby)
• Homer to Marge (Amen)

Recover, recover.  According to Strava, we covered 2.24 miles.  Gambini and YHC would admit that is on the run-heavy side.  We agreed the Preblast would be more indicative next time.

The “Running Man Moleskin”:

1. We prayed for Moonlight’s continued recovery and for our fallen friend Cardinal.
2. Good to meet Cobra today.  They say in F3 you don’t get to pick your nickname.  However, “Cobra” is a nickname that he bestowed upon himself as a 10 year-old-up-and-coming-baseball-player.  His EHer, Fudd, decided that was a swell enough nickname so here we are!
3. Man Toby is sure a fast runner…for someone who claims not to be a runner.  Thanks for letting us try this idea again bud.
4. Appreciate Macbeth for caring about everyone’s safety on the runs back, keeping everyone in line and informed.  That is what a leader does when the Qs…er…lead a questionable (at best!) route.
5. This isn’t YHC’s first rodeo.  I know how to stack my team with athletes:  Amen, Bob Ross, Deadhead, and Toby…these men won’t be caught easily!  Proud to have you as fellow “contestants” in this workout…
6. …but also realized I need to get to more bootcamps.  If I had known how solid POS, Hot Wax, and The Colonel were as runners, I’d have stolen them for my team as well!
7. (Gambini don’t read this line)  Ditto for Peart Plus…the running is coming along solidly bud!  Appreciate you visiting from Fallout…but can I interest you in a nice Fartlek one of these Tuesdays? 
8. Frontier mentioned the jump squats aren’t good for the hair.  My bad bud, got to keep that mane flowing. 
9. There was some excitement today during COT…did Bel-Air just reveal is true age?
10. Snake Eyes led a much tougher workout at Titan yesterday.  Somehow…he mixed in more mileage AND more pain in 45 minutes.  What is your secret bud?
11. Talking Heads is teaming up with 9-Lives for an Adventure Race in April.  Folks, this could be a great intro to the sport if interested.  It is local and the price is right.  I’d urge everyone to consider it.  Talking Heads, may we reach out to you or 9-Lives for more info?
12. Shameless plug:  Please help out the MQs and sign up for a Q.  Special shout out to PAX like Toby and Gambini who are holding down MQ jobs while keeping it interesting with convergences like today.
13. Announcements:  Sunday night at Boat Yard Eats, 66’s 2.0 and his fellow musicians will put on a nice show.  Also, Jaws is moving back to Birkdale on Saturday.  If you are available and can lend a hand moving, he’d appreciate it.

Solid running / hunting gents.  Next time we’ll make the head start shorter and will encourage more “running man” quotes.  Humbly submitted by your Co-Qs:

 Gambini and Turnpike