"Run These Sandbags Around the Building"

[Written at Fran's request while she was away - Tom.] That was our team's first task at this morning's "Suffer on Saturday" at Cross Fit North. The point of which was to give the other competing team time to do as many kettle bell (KB) swings [warning: head banger music] as possible. There were 9 sandbags to divide among our 16 people - too many to split evenly. We paired up and took off while the other team commenced swinging. After a surprisingly short time, my sandbag became a real burden and I passed it off to my partner who sprinted off like a man possessed. Eventually we got all the sandbags back to the gym and the other team had to stop their KB swings and tally their score. Once the numbers were recorded it was their turn to haul ass and ours to start swinging. I started with what was, in the coaches' opinions, too light a KB so I had to spend some time looking for a more suitable weight. That accomplished, I needed a quick lesson in technique as I'd never done these before. When the other team returned, my number of swings was the puniest of the team, but hey, it was my first time. The other team's next task was to do as many dips as possible while, you guessed it, we ran those darned sandbags around the building. Did I mention it was raining? No worries though, the 2nd time around was a little easier because I had a better idea of what pace was sustainable. Arriving back at the gym, we found the other team had put up incredible dip totals. Several of them did prodigious amounts of that exercise! It turned out the dips weren't overly taxing, because as soon as you burned out someone else would take your spot and you could rest and recover. However, I was worried about the parallel bars on which 5 or 6 people were doing dips simultaneously - it was really flexing! The other team returned so away we went again w/ the now-familiar sandbags. While we were on this last leg, they were climbing the ropes hanging from the gym's ceiling. Once it was our turn, I realized that rope climbing isn't as easy as when I was in grade school - probably because I weigh more than 65 pounds now. With two ropes we had to take turns - most people got in two climbs before our comrades-with-weary-arms returned. Who won? Well, aren't we all winners for getting up early on Saturday and subjecting ourselves to this treatment? No, you say? The dips were our Achilles’ heel so to speak and the other team more points than we did. If only we had Fran on our team...