PAX: Hallmark, Amway, Kitty Litter, Cheap Trick, Promo, Homegrown, Squeeze Bag (Peak City), Sanka, Biles, Astro, Shipyard, Jigglypuff, Floppy Crust, Greenbow, Punch Out, Spade, Sherpa, Yoga Mat, H G t v, Chops, Hermes, WebMD, Morpheus, Fruit Loop, Texas Ranger, Captain Jack, Memento
PAX (not in Slack): Yogi, Mr Terrific, Sneak
FNGs: None
COUNT: 31
Here it is. The backblast you’ve all been waiting for. What a day men. Just want to start with some acknowledgemtn of all the HIM that made this day possible. All the guys that stepped up to Q sites, Jigglypuff for taking the SAG Q, and the entire SAG team. Without those pax none of this would have been possible. TY4YL!
Let’s get at it though. What a gorgeous weather day for this 2025 version of The Highland Games. Couldn’t have dialed it up any better. After getting every checked in and assigned their clans for the upcoming festivities we kicked it off promptly at 0545-ish with Squeeze Bag on the bagpipes. THANK YOU Squeeze Bag for coming over and absolutely crushing it on the pipes this morning (check Nextdoor for a glowing review). Announcements made, pledge pledged, and Squeeze Bag played us off on our way.
Over to the Point Break side of Waverly for some warm-ups led by YHC. Pax were high in spirit and full of mumblechatter at this stage of the Games. Once properly warmed, including a full set of SCary Stretches which blew our visiting pax’s collective minds, off we set for the first proper thang at FWD.
Thang 1 – Homegrown took the lead at stop one assigning each clan a task. The tasks were, shotput across the back field, coupon carries down the greenway, dips/irkins/derkins at the bunches by pavilion, and rockwork. Each clan rotated through each station and crushed it. Nobody was taken out by a flying stone, so off to a good start. Let’s continue!
Thang 2 – Lengthy mosey all the way to the home of the premier 0530 Friday AO, Shepherds Watch, for some Ultimate Frisbee led by the pax formerly known as Spayed. The clans paired up and had admittedly a ton of fun. Lot’s of slipping, sliding, spectacular defense, amazing catches, and of course, plenty of burpees for drops. Both teams claimed victory in the end and perhaps the true victor will never be known. In higher spirits than ever off the pax set for the next stop.
Thang 3 – Cross Tryon and head down to the top of the hill before the tunnel. Pax were gathered and WebMD took over. Pax were instructed to storm the tunnel complete with battle yells while running through. This was definitely one of the high points and the effect was truely nailed. Well done Web. Grab the rope and mosey down the greenway a ways for some…. tug of war led by WebMD and rookie of the year candidate Promo! Clans were paired up again and multiple rounds of tug of war were completed with a sprint in between each round. Pairings changed each time and resulted in some riveting mtachups. Indigenous peoples run to the end of the greenway and then regular mosey onto the next stop.
Thang 4 – Amway took the lead at the bottom of the dam hill, where lo and behold pain sticks were awaiting us. Pain stick dora-esque beatdown ensued. Each pax in the clan took a turn carrying the pain stick to the top and completed overhead presses to failure for points (one rep = one point). Bring the pain stick back down and the next pax goes. Pax at the bottom completed a Dora of 100 squats, 200 curls, and 300 rows. At one point Yogi decided to come up with his own method of returning the pain stick and almost broke multiple pax’s ankles, but thankfully nobody was hurt. Score was actually somewhat accurately kept and the winner was determined to be the Blue clan (Let’s go Blue clan!). Next up…. SAG STOP!
SAG team crushed the refreshment pit stop even if Chris R’s music did upset a gentleman who apparently sleeps in his polo shirts. Also, unfortunately (?) no plantains this year. Properly refreshed and refueled off we go for…
Thang 5 – One of the newer AOs launched in SCary is the Saturday morning 3rdF – The Accelerator that runs in conjunction with Loch N Load. The Accelerator is a 4-5ish mile run with a purposeful 3rdF discussion topic selected by the Q that week. Amway gave an overview and clans stuck together to discuss the topic of, “Which of the 3 Fs do you need to focus on most in your life right now?” I can only speak for my clan but the conversation was great, thought provoking, and really encouraging to hear other guys share. TY4YL in launching this great addition to our region Amway!
Thang 6 – Our Accelerator portion ended at Lochmere Village where none other than Fruit Loop was await us with a bucket of golf balls, how very Scottish. Next up was a golf ball relay race. Legs consisted of bear crawl golf ball push, merkins while holding the golf ball between your knees, bunny hopping while holding the golf ball between your hands with your palms down and not using your thumbs, and finally a lunge walk followed by tossing the ball into a bucket (10 penalty burpess if you miss). This was a ton of fun and resulted in many good laughs. But the fun wasn’t over, off we go!
Thang 7 – As we rolled into Ritter Park, the (un)official home of SCary, Kitty Litter took the lead. Clans were paired up and completed caber toss and giant tire flipping. At one point a tiny dog was almost impaled or flattened by cabers until successfully captured by HGTV (who proceeded to tell the lovely lady what all these crazy dudes were doing). Throwing logs and flipping tires is always a great time and this was another highlight for many of the pax. After we were done throwing heavy stuff around Shipyard stepped up and had a surprise for us… We needed the logs at the next stop, and there was only one way to get them there. One log per pax, and lets mosey. But don’t forget the flags!!! This ended up being quite the task and admittedly a lot harder than I thought it would be. TClaps to all the pax for carrying the logs and flags, nice work!
Thang 8 – Around we made our way to the back lot of the adjacent office park for what promised to be an experience with Shipyard at the helm. And boy did he deliver. With the help of CPR construction some pallet sleds had been created and were staged at one end of the parking lot. Our task, use the logs as rollers and pull the sleds to the other side, heaviest pax on top of the sled. At this point a lot of rule bending occured, but the Blue clan absolutely crushed it and completed the task to the letter of the law, and blue everyone out of the water. Well done Blue clan. Apparently according to Shipyard though, everyone lost and had to carry everything back to the start. This was arguably even worse than rolling the sleds down. Done and dusted time to head for home.
Our fearless SAG guide Astro on his trusty segway scooter led us back to Waverly where we were greated by the sweet, sweet sounds of Squeeze Bag serenading us with the bagpipes once again. Simply lovely. And with that it was a wrap.
COT: SCary picnic 4/28, 4-7pm, eating at 5:30p. See Sbarro for the sign-up sheet. SIGN UP!!! Several prayers lifted up.
Thanks again to each and every one of you for coming out this morning and making the effort to be there. Even moreso, thanks to each of your families and friends for putting up with us and the crazy stuff we do, the true heroes. It was an outstanding morning and an honor to your HG Q this year. F3 and this group of guys is incredibly and I’m lucky to have found my way here (shoutout to Astro for the EH almost two years ago now!). Way to crush it this morning!!