The gloom was especially gloomy this morning when Lone Ranger and I pulled up ten minutes early to my home AO: the Piranha. An eerie empty parking lot awaited us on the day of my VQ, and I wondered if I’d be Qing a crew of two. The awkward feeling quickly faded, however, as Pallino arrived on his bike, and by 5:30 we had a really solid showing.
VQ’s are awkward. No two ways about it. So we embraced awkwardness as the theme of the morning. In honor of 13-year old Lone Ranger, we made “13” our number of choice for the warm up. YHC was proud that he only screwed up the cadence tones once. A bit awkward, but hey, 80% on my first try!
Warmup:
13 SSH IC
13 WMH IC
13 Good Morning IC
13 LBAC IC
13 Imperial Walkers IC
Main Event:
If I couldn’t avoid the awkwardness, at least I can make everyone share my pain. And what’s more awkward than icebreakers/forced social interaction? To that end, the PAX partnered up with the guy he knew the least well in the group. That meant poor Lone Ranger was stuck with Floyd. The exception was, of course, that notorious cheating pair: Castaway and Bellhop, who clearly have known each other from childhood.
Mosey down to the lower lot for a 2ndF variation on Dora. During a set, the parner backward ran to the far side and forward ran back (able to keep awkward eye contact the whole time). Between sets, the pairs ran a 2ndF lap around the building. During the lap, the PAX desperately tried to pry information out of each other, as they were warned by YHC that there would be a test! Though I don’t think Lone Ranger and Floyd talked much – at least, I can’t think of an explanation of how they possibly could have lapped me and MLP.
40 burpees
2ndF lap
60 merkins
2ndF lap
80 WW2s
2ndF lap
100 squats
After the 4th set, me moseyed back to the flag for the final event.
2ndF Ring of Fire
The PAX thought it was just time for a little Mary to close things out. But oh how wrong they were! We began a ring of fire alternating high plank, left hand, and right hand, but with an agonizing 2nd F twist! When it’s your turn, it’s a showdown between the PAX and his partner. The partner shouts out things he knows about the PAX, and the PAX does one merkin per thing. The turn lasts until the PAX runs out of merkins, or the partner runs out of things. If the PAX wins, 5 loser burpees for the partner.
It surpassed YHC’s wildest dreams of endurance. There just seemed no end to these PAX’s knowledge of intimate details of each other’s lives. Poor Cardiac eventually collapsed, his merkin ability overwhelmed by the torrent of his biographical details streaming from Pallino’s memory. The group was shocked by Lone Ranger’s tame and tasteful account of Floyd’s life – surely Floyd had been very selective! In the end, we all planked far longer than anticipated, and YHC mercifully waived all penalty burpees.
Seriously – thanks for making it a great VQ guys! I really enjoyed it, and can’t think of any group I’d rather share this awkward milestone with than y’all.