Backblast: August 22nd, 2026
AO: The Fortress – Grace Church – Perrysburg, OH
PAX:
Photon – Q
Binford
Carmen Sandiego
Comeback Kid
Crocs
Meatloaf
Nelly
Tarnished
Ukulele
Workout: 3-Man 5K-arry
FNG’s: N/A
Mission and Principles:
F3: Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Mission: To plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.
The core principles of F3 are that it is always:
1. Free of charge
2. Open to all men
3. Held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
4. Led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary. You versus you. Modify or stop an exercise if you need to. The most important thing is that nobody gets hurt.
5. Ends with a Circle of Trust
Credo: Leave no man behind but leave no man where you find him
Warm-up: I cannot remember. I’m 4-deep in missing backblasts. It was probably nothing because that would me a Photon thing to do.
The “Thang”:
Very simple concept.
Count off into teams of three. On “Go”, move the whole team of three an entire 5K in distance using only two men to propel the team forward at any point in time. Meaning that one guy has to be carried or dragged the entire duration of the 5K distance. Any method of carrying is allowed and there are no restrictions on how often, or for how long any given PAX can carry or be carried.
This was performed in the parking lot between two sets of cones set 50m apart. Reason being that this would provide a set 100m distance that teams could use to switch on and off if necessary. Parking lot was chosen for speed and due to it being dry.
Ended with:
Count-O-Rama: 9
Name-O-Rama
The Six – Nelly
LDP3
Ball of Man
Spreadsheets from the Gloom: So this happened. Or at least, it was attempted. Some of these ideas can sound so good in your head yet be absolute abominations when attempted for real. That was the case here: good idea, terrible execution. First of all, 5K is a long way. And PAX are heavy. And a given PAXs ability to carry heavier weight does not increase linearly as that PAX increases in weight himself. That was probably the ultimate downfall of this approach. I do think that 3-man teams can work, but it would have to be a very specific 3-man team. Think YHC, Coconut, and Ukulele. So this would absolutely be a viable CSAUP type event where teams were pre-made and the goal was extremely clear to everyone well in advance. But if you have some guys just showing up to an AO without any idea of what is going to be happening, you’re in for a bad time. Because modifying a partner carry is not the easiest thing if you want to keep the spirit of the event intact. The goal is to partner carry for a 5K. The partner carry is the heart of it. With this in mind, I would love to float this idea out again in the future, well ahead of any actual event, to try and get a few teams willing to try it as intended, as a 3-man team.
All that said, we did modify about 7 minutes into the workout We started with two teams of 3 (with 3 other PAX just walking laps with different weight) and modified into a single team of 5 PAX when one of the originals dropped out. Amongst the 5 PAX remaining, the team was able to partner carry the entire 5000 meters. Typically 2 guys were being carried for the duration of this. Significant carry volumes were piggy back, but a couple of two-man carries were included as well. The right group of three could probably complete this in an hour beatdown, but the number of PAX capable of fitting into that team structure would be very small.
Note to anyone considering anything similar in the future. Not all people being carried are equal. Center of gravity matters…a lot. The koala-like clinging of Ukulele was infinitely superior to Nelly’s skewed center of gravity due to his height. Carmen even had 15lbs on Nelly, yet was still easier to carry due to his more favorable center of gravity.
There was a particular theme that carried the playlist today:
“Carry On Wayward Son” – Kansas
“Carry ON” – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
Carry Me Away” – The Doobie Brothers
“Hold On” – Commodores
“Hold The Line” – Toto
“Hard To Handle” – The Black Crowes
“Heavy” – Collective Soul
“Never Let You Go” – Third Eye Blind
“The Distance” – CAKE
“Never Let Me Down Again” – Smashing Pumpkins
“Carry That Weight” – The Beatles
Overall this could have been way worse. I still think it’s possible and would love to try it with the right group. I appreciate the PAX present to encourage me to find a way to make it work without making a fuss. Maybe we’ll see a tailored CSAUP version of this in the future.
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