It’s hard to believe, really. One year ago, a few of us renegades who don’t fancy running as much as some of our more cheetah-like brethren decided that enough was enough and struck out to put in some work on Fridays.
But we didn’t want it to be just any ole workout. We wanted it to be really hard. We wanted that, “Snap! I’m so dizzy and may splash merlot” feeling at the end of every Friday. We had been doing Murph and variations thereof for some time as the original #Rogue1 in #TheWood and so we turned to hero WODs. Perfect.
For some time, YHC had been celebrating RED Friday by wearing red to Remember Everyone Deployed and saw a perfect opportunity to raise some awareness for what our men and women in uniform go through. There’s a backstory to that…
I am a veteran and come from a military family. Men in my family have served this great nation since they first hit the shores of the northeast as indentured servants from Ireland back in the early 1700s. I always assumed everyone knew and understood the many struggles and sacrifices – both at home and abroad – of our service men and women. When I got married, I learned that was not necessarily the case.
I took my beautiful bride up to Norfolk, Virginia and gave her the grand tour of one of the Navy’s finest fighting vessels – an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which houses the mystifying and state-of-the-art radar system known as AEGIS. It wasn’t long after that trip that I made a little trip to the sand box to do whatever I could to help my country locate and kill Usama bin Laden. I still get giddy on May 1 every year knowing that the world is a much better place without that dude hanging out on the #BigBall.
Upon my return, my M told me she really had no idea what military families went through until then. Since that time, I have tried to educate the fine people of #TheWood, who have no military base relatively close.
REDFriday was a perfect opportunity to continue that mission and impact my brothers with workouts honoring the fallen.
There is routinely 8-10 men posting at REDFriday each week. MeterMaid took the torch and has made it better than anything I could have imagined. He removed the burpee penalty for pax not wearing RED, but, in fairness, it’s not often that guys show up not wearing RED these days.
REDFriday is something special. It’s just…different. Guys push harder. There is always a strong spirit of teamwork. When guys who post there see each other out and about, they look at each other and know they crushed an intense workout and left that workout changed forever as the story of a Real American Hero turned over and over in their head.
It’s a special time as we sit quietly and listen to the story of a hero. Some have been even more powerful, like last week when Flossy cooked up some nasty hate in honor of his brother-in-law, a Laurens County deputy who was killed responding to a call. Who does a one mile run in EVERY round for three rounds? REDFriday guys, that’s who.
LiteBrite did what LiteBrite does and cooked up a sweet t-shirt design for the #Faithful. But that’s just not good enough for this band of brothers. We put the call out to the Nation to grab some swag and make a donation to Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, an organization on the front lines and directly impacting the lives of soldiers and sailors across the globe.
The Nation responded. To date, we have sold close to 200 shirts and collected $250 to donate to NMCRS.
Then the idea caught hold in some other places. On 9/24, REDFriday launches in Mint Hill. On 11/5, REDFriday launches in another area of Charlotte. Jacksonville and Savannah have expressed interest. Savannah had the shirt order reopened just to get in on the swag action.
The awareness is being raised. A number of pax right here in #TheWood have noted how they are much more aware of what soldiers, sailors and airmen go through. Some are even converts from the running crowd. Now it is spreading across the Nation.
I hope the pax of #TheWood can help us celebrate tomorrow. I’m even hoping for an appearance from the #TaperQ. Doubtful, but a man can hope, right?
Until they all come home…
Aye!