On Saturday morning, 67 Churham PAX gathered to honor the friendship of our beloved ‘Coco.’ He and his family (wife – Julia and three children – Bennett, Emory, and Landon) will officially begin a new adventure on 8/13/18 when they pack up and move to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Coco has made a difference in the lives of many F3 men, as evidenced by the extensive stream of ‘thank you’ messages he received after announcing the news of his move. One of my favorite quotes is, “People never remember what you said, they never remember what you did, but they always remember how you made them feel.” Coco has always, always, always made everyone (FNG’s/PAX) feel welcome and included. I have met very few men so skilled and consistent at extending the hand of friendship to others. It seems like such a simple thing to do, but so often we forget the immense power that a smile and kind word can have. Whether good day or bad day, Coco has always posted with a smile and a contagious, positive energy to share with the rest of the world.
Coco –
You will be sorely missed here in Churham, but we have high expectations for you to continue carrying the torch, as you work to establish the Churham – West Mountain Basecamp. We know you will do great things in the Salt Lake community.
Enough ‘mushy’ stuff. Here is what went down at TBL to celebrate Coco:
WARMUP: SSH (20), Burpees (10 OYO), Imperial Walkers (11), Burpees (10 OYO)
THE THANG, Part 1 – (TB):
“Please Pass the Rock”
PAX counted off by sixes, each group got a coupon (small-ish rock), and lined up starting at one side of the field in plank shoulder to shoulder. The first PAX does a merkin then passes the rock to the next PAX and springs up and runs to plank at the end of the line. The next PAX does the same and so on. Once the first PAX in the group hit the line on the other side of the field, the PAX reversed direction and continued back to where it all started. This pretty much immediately became a race (no surprise).
“Duck Duck Goose”, F3 Style
The PAX formed a large circle. One PAX was given a nice hefty coupon (concrete block wrapped in bubble wrap and duct tape). That PAX called out an exercise and ran a lap around the outside of the circle while the rest of the PAX did the exercise. Then, on their second lap around, the PAX with the coupon handed it off to a new PAX and repeato. Exercises called out included burpees, more burpees, merkins, LBCs, 8 count body builders, flutter kicks, cherry pickers, boat-canoe, and several others that YHC can’t remember. A brief fellowship lap was had in the middle of all this for some recovery.
THE THANG, Part 2 – (Beano):
“Who Knows Coco Best?” Game
The PAX separated into the six groups created earlier. Each group was given a piece of paper, a marker, and then was tasked with choosing a scribe for the game. The PAX then played a game that consisted of answering (working as a group) ten questions about Coco. See the list below in no particular order:
- How old is Coco?
- Where did he attend college?
- What is his full name?
- How many siblings does he have?
- What is his M’s first name?
- What are the first names of his three 2.0’s?
- What is his shoe size?
- How tall is he?
- What make, model, and color car does he drive?
- What was the most recent GoRuck event in which he participated?
The top two teams with the most right answers won a prize! The top team got to pick a person to slam a whip cream pie in Coco’s face. The second place team got to subsequently wash him off with a 5-gallon bucket of water. Also, the top two teams completed 5 burpees, and the teams placing 3rd-6th completed 10 burpees.
“TBL – Ziploc Scavenger Hunt”
The PAX stayed in the same six groups, and each group was given a ziploc bag. Each team was instructed to fill the bags with the following three items:
- Mulch from the playground
- Sand from the baseball field
- Black pellets from the artificial turf
Note: Teams had to retrieve all three items in the order given, AND at the stop for each item, all members of each group had to complete 15 merkins.
The first group to retrieve all items, complete all merkins, and return to the starting point was the winner. The prize for the winning team was the privilege of pouring a second bucket of water on Coco’s head.
Crawl, Hop, Run – Sideline Suicides
PAX stayed again in the same six groups, clustered together on the field sideline. Each PAX was instructed to:
- Bear Crawl 1/3 length across the field, then run back to start
- Bunny Hop 1/2 length across the field, then run back to start
- Sprint full length across the field, the run back, finishing at the start
The first group to have all members finish the three tasks above won. The winning group had the opportunity to sledgehammer smash a watermelon, while Coco sat in the front row seat of honor. The second place team smashed a cantaloupe, the third place team smashed a grapefruit, etc. It was a full fruit basket turnover, with Coco being hit by most of the shrapnel.
MARY: LBCs (10) and Flutter Kicks (15)
CoT:
Coco took the opportunity to say, “goodbye for now, but not goodbye for good” to all PAX in attendance. Just know that we’re going to hold you to that, buddy! Of course, there was also one full bucket of water left, so we threw it on him to close things out.
NOTE: Please mark your calendars for the Farewell Coco – 2nd F event (Wednesday, August 1, 2018 at He’s Not Here in Chapel Hill; festivities kick off at 6PM; food will be provided by Jersey Mikes – asking for small donations that evening to cover base costs) Be there!
