Tales of the left hand

Arise and walk. Up and at 'em. Drop your cock and grab your socks, reveille reveille reveille!!! From a slice in the gut to the raw left hand, this vessel carried on just fine during a three day kettlebell jaunt to Salt Lake City, and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, CA. This Jarhead was stoked to have been invited to teach on base for the closed RKC workshop/cert run by Pavel and a tight team of 6. The trip began long ago, in third story apartment in Ardmore, PA. Minutes walk from the train station, the bars, the gym, and my high school. James Sjostrom RKC, my comrade from Utah, worked in a gym on the main line, and we both rallied around Dragon Door and the bells. he moved back to Utah in 2005, and he and his lovely wife and seven week old son Atticus had me as their guest for Friday and Saturday. James in an excellent instructor who was dialed into the Sports Mall in Murray, Utah. We were south of Salt Lake City, and had a crew of 10 to experiment on. There were moms, dads, weight-loss success stories, and Crossfit trainers in attendance. Crossfit 801's Tyson Oldroyd, USMC, had a great day out training and rewiring his get-ups to RKC spec. James and I, also prior service USMC, enjoyed the six hour session and compiled a handsome manual for our students to take away. Tyson and I were stationed with the same regiment on Pendleton from 98-01. Funny how these things work eh?
Saturday drew to a close, with the students participating in a grad workout, and James and I headed up the mountain. We needed a place for our heads, and climbing a small fraction of an 11,000 foot 'hill' in Utah proved to be that place. Paranoid looking over our back, we saw the face within gaining on us. We trucked up past the mirror lake, and followed the stream up for 88 minutes until we met the face of a rocky crevasse that also served as a granite waterfall, where the melting snow from the white caps fell over the sharply angled rock, and created a line of cold, clear, slake worthy water that filled the lake we would descend upon. The way down was slick, sick, and sparked a conversation between my quads and calves before long. James and I spent more than a minute at the top, and the trip down proved a good 45 minutes. The lake was around 55 degrees and we dove in without dipping so much as a toe in the glassy pocket of purifying h20. We chilled ourselves out, and feasted on Salmon, spinach salad, sliced fruit and nuts for dessert, and I mowed down some chocolate truffles and milk while splayed on the couch, AC firing at the cyclic rate, Dewey Cox's life story on the tele. Holly drove me to the airport Sunday AM, and the triple espresso had me humming my way through another glorious day of internal and external sunshine. Boarded a plane with ease, sat behind an adorable 2 year old girl who stole the sports page out of my hand and said 'Hi' whenever she could liberate her pacifier. When the 50 passenger jet descended at Lindbergh Field, RKC Team Leader, US Marine, and friend Mark Toomey greeted me and we rogered up for a rental car and sped off to the hotel. The rental car is a story you can ask Pavel about if you ever have the man's ear. He will paint a 'pretty' picture for you.
Pavel joined us at the hotel, as did Trusty RKC the following morning. Through the amplified arches of Starbucks quad espresso and onto my old duty station of Camp Pendleton, the four of us met Steve Belanger RKC, Paul Daniels RKC TL, and Robert 'Bam' Budd and formed the alliance. The Snake of Seven Lengths pulled it's quietly advertised but expertly prepared belly up to the lighter side of Marine Corps life, and gave that class a cold bath of Hard Style proportions. Expecting a workshop that introduced them to bells, the crew was met with a paramilitary force toting presses and snatches rather than M16s. We were the armor clad war dogs of Base HQ, and on the grand parade field we lay waste to bad habits and rewired the fleshy humans into a group of wide awake kettlebell candidates. I am not at liberty to discuss any further specifics nor am I allowed to post photos taken on Camp Pendleton until the public affairs office clears me, but know ye that the group is ready for more, and the instructors who speaketh of the bell were dialed into a level few will know. We moved with ease, precision, and treated the kids fairly. The 5 members who were certified will be known throughout the RKC community soon. Both of the Ladies who passed were from another planet. You will know them when you see them. And all I can say about Charlie Bergeron RKC is that Johnston and Providence have an incredible chance to train with one of this countries most pure patriots. Defending both Country and State, USMC vet and RI State Trooper Bergeron is here to stay.

Godspeed ya boys and girls!
W2