Warm-up: the warm-up was brief but effective. The PAX jogged up six flights of stairs to the roof of the Duke parking garage. Once there, the PAX performed 10 side shuffle hops, 10 air squats, and 10 slow count merkins. That was enough warm-up.

The Workout: the Q asked for four volunteers to each name an exercise. Larry Legend, Juco, Misery, and Sweater Vest? all bravely stepped forward. The exercises they chose were: burpees, lunges, LBCs, and jump squats. At this point the Q pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and revealed the workout. The four chosen exercises were each assigned a suit (hearts = burpees, diamonds = lunges, clubs = LBCs, spades = jump squats). One by one, the PAX entered the circle and drew a card from the deck. The card indicated the reps and exercise that the group would complete next. The rep scheme was: numbered cards = their value, face cards = 15 reps, aces = 20 reps. The workout began optimistically with the three of clubs being drawn first. However, the hearts soon came out in force to the disappointment and groans of the PAX. After approximately 15 minutes of progressing through the deck, the sole Joker was drawn from the deck. This meant the PAX had to run down 6 flights of stairs to the bottom of the parking deck, run across the bottom level of the parking deck, and then backwards run up the ramps until they reached the roof. After regrouping, another card was drawn and the process continued. By the end of the workout, the PAX made it through roughly 40 of the 52 cards in the deck. A solid effort!

Mary: there were only 2 minutes remaining by the time the PAX made it back to base, which meant there was just enough time to squeeze in a 29-person plank Ring of Fire (counting to five). This turned into a multi-lingual Ring of Fire, which just reflects the cultivated and cultured nature of the Devils Ridge PAX.

COT: 29 PAX and 0 FNG’s were present. The only announcement was: SalPal will be moving out of town as early as next week. Congratulations SalPal and good luck on your next step! We will miss you. The prayer was awkward and ended abruptly, which gave all the PAX a solid laugh at the expense of the Q (aka Mission Success).