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!!

The post [1stf-convergence] 2025-04-19 Q’d by OTW (On The Way) appeared first on F3 South Cary.

AKOA Week Day 5 and last stop in the POGL. Much to Franklin’s delight YHC was the AKOA Q of the day. Start off with the mission and the pledge and off we mosey to Apex Baptist. At this point it was voiced how sad the pax of Peak City were that no other SCary-ites came (Sawf Cary indeed). YHC attempted to make excuses for SCary, but no, they were right, c’mon guys! Anyways, warm-ups in the tiny front lot, with full SOUTH CARY STRETCHES, since it was part of AKOA Week (Sponsored by SCary). Long way to the back of the church for thang 1.

4 Corners around the church consisting of:
American Hammers
Travolta Merkins
Carolina Dry Docks
Dying Cockroaches

Some are still trying to piece together the theme here…. Anyways, once completed mosey over to the United Methodist Church for some quick rock work. Squats, rows, and lunges (in cadence I think). Running short of time mosey to All You Got Alley for all you got back to the flag. Few minutes of Mary while the ruckers, walkers, and runners returned.

Announcements were announced including Franklin letting YHC know coffeteria was immediately following next to the plugged in coffee maker, shocking.

The post [ao-downrange-peakcity] 2025-02-07 Q’d by OTW (On The Way) appeared first on F3 South Cary.

Problematic numbers this morning but great to see some neighbors visit from the Peak tribe. Disclaimer then pledge then off we go. No elaborate plans but our friend from the far far west in LaLa Land debuted a new exercise yesterday, so we had to try it out. Warmups with stretching then mosey to the long hill that Bing shared during BRR training.

7’s was the call with the Lt. Dan Tuck Jump Burpee at the top and WW2’s at the bottom. Nope that’s not the bottom of the hill keep going. Finished with 6 regular burpees as a group.

Mosey back to the warmup spot for some post hill stretching. Back to the flag for a few popcorn Mary and HAND with 2.5 minutes to spare. Our lone Ochoer returned safely with mysterious blood stains.

DDD 2.22, HG25 4.19, SCary Picnic 4.27, HDHH 2.5 at Craft

MIAGD!

The post 202529 Q’d by Kitty Litter appeared first on F3 South Cary.

And that’s all she wrote for the 3rd annual South Cary CSAUP; The 2024 Highland Games.

First things first, BIG UPS to the allstar SAG crew led by @HGTV. You HIMs made this entire CSAUP as effortless as it could be for the participating pax with the support you provided. The crew spent their time, energy, and even their personal funds making this happen for us. TY4FL. YHC, for one, feels surprisingly fresh after running the 12.5 miles and I am going to attribute that to the support crew.

Also a big round of applause to Poncharello, who travelled all the way from the other side of the county (Wake Forest Region) to play the bagpipes and send us running into the GLOOM. SCary is entirely grateful. After a short speech by our very own Nantan, Pocharello wowed us with his musical piece (star spangled banner) in theme with the Scottish Highlands. With that we picked up the shovel flags and collectively hit the road.

@Kitty Litter and @Jigglypuff led us to the entrance of the Greenway where we were instructed to do some warm ups and light stretching. A nice appetizer to what was to come.

First hiccup of the day when the peloton took a wrong turn and ended up on the wrong trail, which we quickly remedied. On the right path and a mile of jogging, we arrived at #ao-fri-slipperywhenwet.

Thang 1 – Our Qs @Amway and @Spayed had the pax teamed up in 3s and had each team find a throwing rock. One team-member handled shot putting the rock over a swampy field while the second and third team member performed dips in the shelter and bear-crawls in parking lot, respectively. When the shot-putter finished his turn, duties were swapped among team-members. 4 rounds and we were done. Winning team won the prize of having to do 5 less burpees than the 10 the losing teams had to perform. Mosey on to the next site.

Thang 2 – Arriving safely, we were greeted by the @Hallmark and @Water Wings at #ao-wed-pointbreak. We were broken up into several teams and we went team vs team pushing two vehicles up the parking lot. The pax were skeptical of the claim that the vehicles were separated in weight by a mere 10 lbs. This was one heck of an effort pushing those vehicles up a slight incline. Done and dusted, we all picked up the shovel flags and moseyed onto the next site a mile up the road.

Thang 3 – #ao-tue-flirtinwithdisaster was our next destination and the Qs here were @Joe Smith and @Banjo (Carpecker). Pax were divided into 2 and one half went to the muddy field near the Greenway entrance for some stubby log tosses while the other half stayed to do a round of caber toss. These strong man exercises were accompanied with Popcorn Marys. Tough stuff here.

Thang 4 – One of the few climbs in the route to reach our destination at #ao-fri-shepherdswatch. @Astro and @Flintstone divided the pax into 4 teams and YHC was marvelled at the efficiency at which the teams were assigned. Almost like grabbing a ticket at the DMV in the form of @Flintstone assigning each pax a number as soon as we entered the location one by one. Good stuff fellas. Tug-O-Wars was the main course here and the smiles on the faces of the pax made it known that we all had a jolly good time. YHC has a grievance that almost all the rounds were won by the team that was pulling on a slight downhill. Conspiracy theory maybe? Shovel flags in hand, the pax headed to the next site, the longest stretch of 1.6 miles.

Thang 5 – Arriving at #ao-sat-lochnload we were surprised to see flag poles, pallets, cinder blocks, ropes, and @HGTV’s smiling face. This surely meant he had something deviously painful in store for us and indeed he did. 4 teams pushed a pallet with a bunch of cinder blocks. The challenge was to go from flag to flag while pulling these pallets with one teammate on board. At each stop, we had an assigned exercise administered by a SAG crewmember. Tough stuff again.

Like the half-time intermission for any competitive event, we were rewarded with one at this point. A cornucopia of cut up fruit, rice-krispies, pickles, mustard, water, gatorade, etc. awaited us. YHC has another conspiracy theory that the guy who was in charge of the bananas accidentally bought plantains instead. I should probably have put eating those plantains as Thang on its own.

Thang 6 – Refreshed the pax were surprised by the unveiling of 4 heavy and dusty tires and a 12-foot long 4×4. This pole was used to carry those 4 tires all the way to #ao-mon-kryptonite and the pax were expected to chip in and take turns without ever laying the contraption on the ground. Running was kept to a minimum because of the awkwardness and weight of the whole operation.

Thang 7 – @Life Alert and @Texas Ranger awaited us at Java Jive and the makeshift #ao-wed-hulkamania site. We threw kickballs into surprisingly flexible and mobile human basketball hoops while lunges were performed for a make and burpees for a miss. It was deemed a race by the Qs so I don’t know if YHC saw even one properly executed lunge or burpee. Regardless, we can all agree that the human-basketball-hoop was the real MVP of this basketball operation. It wasn’t about the shot, it was all about how well the human-hoop moved to assist the making of the errant shots.

Flags on hand and the tire and pole contraption in our collective hands we were off to our final destination, #ao-mon-kryptonite. These final 1.5 miles were tough sledding, but in the end we all made it back, which YHC was grateful for.

COT: SCARY picnic on the 19th of May, various blood drives for you to be a part of, Respect and Honor week coming up, and the naming of FNGs Tide Pod, and Sunkist. Prayers and Prayers!

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. This is how YHC feels after completing the whole route wearing a 20lb ruck-vest (well, the floating part, not the stinging part). It was a great honor to be a part of this operation and once again I want to point the spotlight to the SAG crew. Even though they did not shed a single bead of sweat they still managed to become the MVPs of the CSAUP. Also great thank yous to all the volunteering Qs who showed us a great time all while challenging us at the same time.

Love to all.

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!

The post [south-cary-highland-games-2024] 2024-03-16 Q’d by Sherpa appeared first on F3 South Cary.

17 PAX emerged from the gloom to make themselves better today. After some flip flopping from Floppy on larger number of HIM than anticipated, we finally landed on the beatdown I had planned. We Pledged, we moseyed, and we warmed up. After a brief 5 minute explanation of the workout, need to tighten that up. Our workout today consisted of 5 stations each of strength and cardio. One partner did the strength aspect while the other did cardio on a 40/20 Tabata. Each minute you swapped and every two minutes you moved to the next of the 7 couplets. The stations were like this:
1. Sandbag Squats – Sandbag walk
2. Curls – Murder Bunnies
3. Rows – Lung Walk
4. Merkins – Plank
5. Overhead Press – Bear Crawl
6. Mary
7. Run

I did not bring enough coupons and we had to adapt. Good thing this Q is a Marine and used to running out of supplies for his troops. It ended up being a bit of mix and match to get it done but it was a good 32 min beat down.
We finished with a short Mary, COT, announcements, and a quick prayer. Then off to coffeteria and some solid fellowship.
Thanks for coming out and MIAGD, gents!!

The post 202306 Q’d by Floppy Crust appeared first on F3 South Cary.

43 brave PAX set out in the gloom this morning to compete in the South Cary Highland Games. 13 PAX were lost along the way. Roughly 12 miles were covered along a route with 7 AOs.

Kudos to our SAG Team lead by Francois. Thanks to the guys who stepped up and Qd along the way.

As always it was great to see our brothers from other regions. Carpex was able to capture the . Scary moment as raleigh put up a good fight.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead this morning. Looking forward to next year!

MIAGD

The post [1stf-convergence] 2023-04-15 Q’d by Life Alert appeared first on F3 South Cary.

There were actually people for the ME! but still had a rucking contingency crash COT. Beast Q (6-6-6) up and down the KF hill, everyone had PERFECT form, following last week’s lessons. Ghost Flag tomorrow at Piranha Park, 0645, breakfast around 0800 at Vicious Fishes. Good to see everyone! MIAGD

The post 2023-03-03 Q’d by Clockwork appeared first on F3 South Cary.