At its best, spring break offers 18-22 year olds the chance to embark on real adventure, deepen friendships, exercise profound independence, and rest and recover for the final push of the academic year. At its worst, it offers sexual exploitation, alcohol abuse, shame, and gonorrhea. For many, the line between is razor thin. YHC worked through his concern for his students, general discomfort with the direction of the modern world, and anxiety about what his kids will be doing in ten years by taking 18 PAX through a decidedly wholesome spring break adventure at the Vortex.
We concluded the customary warmup lap with a sprint diagonally across the fields, remembering for a moment the mad dash to the finish line each semester. It was not hard for YHC to remember this part; indeed, the stack of blue books in his bag keeps the memory fresh! After limbering up and celebrating our perfect number of 18 (divisible by both three and two, the age of manhood, and only on the cusp of “problematic”), we remembered favorite backpacking trips by partner carrying around both fields, switching at the corners. “Point A to B” hikers did burpees at the corners while those enjoying the scenery finished. For our second lap, we remembered (or imagined, in the case of most of us) spring break cruises, reconfiguring into groups of three and taking turns carrying one another around the fields (three sides only).
Paused in the corner by a conveniently placed pile of coupons, PAX remembered how much waiting is associated with travel, worked on their core, and went down memory lane all at once–by planking until each PAX had named their favorite spring break memory. Then, since for so many the break involves swimming, we knocked out 50 flutter kicks (cadence-count). The more studious in the group could relate using spring break to “get ahead,” so we honored the spreadsheet crowd by adding to their totals 50 merkins. Only now in the process of writing this backblast does YHC remember two of his decidedly un-glamorous spring breaks: coming home to work in a friend”s ceramic warehouse to make spending money for the home stretch. Fun times.
All good things, of course, come to an end. Moreover, after a week of sloth, most students find themselves playing catch up. We went literally back to school, crossing Weaver Dairy with coupons in hand for a trip to East Chapel Hill High. Half of the group worked in pairs on the Devin Hester model. A runner did ten merkins, then caught his teammate who was carrying a cinder block and traded places. The other group alternated between sets of ten tuck jumps and “rest” for 8-10 seconds in the low-squat hold. We switched after just over six minutes.
Back on the field, we at least gave a nod to some of the more hedonistic adventures Americans associate with spring break by “Animal-House” bear crawling 100 yards before bringing it in for Mary and COT.
Moleskin
Poser is now a regular, and it”s been good to have him in the mix.
Miyagi made his first appearance at the Vortex. I hope after the tuck jumps he comes back.
Five showed up for what was going to be a friendly EC full of running, KB swings, and merkins. After Peach set a somewhat outrageous pace on the first of nine quarter-mile runs, the “friendly” part largely dropped out. 180 merkins, 180 KB swings, and 2.25+ miles.
Special thoughts (and grateful ones) follow Beano on his way to a new job today.