Intro: The original goal of all Crossroads beatdowns was to hit 2 miles, have music and a theme. Checked off two of those boxes today and came pretty dang close to the hitting all three. With the election dragging out into yet another day, how about we do an F3 style election with some patriotic music to keep us moving along?

Warmup: 2 for the pre-run festivities and for the rest of the group a short mosey to knock out 10 cotton mills, 10 hillbillies, sun gods forward and reverse and michael phelps OYO.

The Thang: Everyone cast their secret ballot, picking 1 or 2, before we got started. The 1s won the day (or did they??) so to the block pile we went. Long mosey with the block over to the bus lanes for a mini-millenial, since they played such an important role in this election. First one to 100 reps says go and the PAX sprint to the end of the bus lanes and then mosey back to the start. We did 5 rounds which consisted of curls, squats, chest presses, block swings and overhead presses, all with the blocks.

Since both sides are claiming that the other side is trying to steal the election we played some Steal the Ballot, the ballot being the block. PAX were split in half and one person from each side was assigned a corresponding number. Q called out a number and the PAX on each side that had that number sprinted to the middle, grabbed a block and sprinted back to their side. First one back chooses the mary exercise for everyone to do. After having to carry the blocks back to the middle for round 2, Doubtfire wisely suggested we run to the middle to pick up the block, run back to our line and then first one back to the middle would win the round so thats what we did for the next rounds. Everyone got their number called and we got in some crunchy frogs, big boi sit ups and heel touches.

With time running short had one last thing in mind. Since both candidates are playing catch up in a few remaining states, did one lap of catch me if you can. Partner A runs backwards while partner B does 3 burpees. Partner B runs forward to catch Partner A and they switch. Pick up our blocks and back to the flag where we did some american hammers until everyone was back in and we ended right on time.

COT: Prayers for Yogi, recovering from injury. Also for Alcoa’s daughter who fell ill last night. Beyond that just generic prayers for our nation right now and all the divisiveness. Let’s be the example and go out and make a difference in our local community and hope it spreads across our state and the nation as a whole. With all our differences that exist among the PAX in F3Cherokee we are still able to come together and show mutual respect and do the hard things in life together. It takes being intentional and disciplined to keep it up, so keep showing up for the guys next to you each day and we’ll all be better for it!

Tuneage:

Minority – Green Day

Hypnotize – System of a Down

Testify – Rage Against the Machine

Unf@*# the World – Prophets of Rage

Zombie – Bad Wolves

B.Y.O.B. – System of a Down

American Idiot – Green Day

Dear Mr. President – Fitz and the Tantrums

Paper Planes – M.I.A.

Land of the Free – The Killers

Born in the USA – Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen

One – Metallica