📘 EPISODE SUMMARY

On Episode 263 of the Glue-OOM, The Plague goes virtual with Village Inn — Iowa State physics grad, former Ironwood Site Q, and now a two-time flag planter in Colorado Springs. He traces how a tornado-cleanup carpool EH reshaped his life, opens up about mistaking familiarity for community back in Omaha, and explains how moving 600 miles with zero safety net forced him into the intentionality he'd been coasting past for years.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

✅ The Carpool EH — 45 minutes in a car with his boss after Blair tornado cleanup, and a casual "Monday, 5:30, I'll be there"

✅ "Probably Not" — the two words from his M that made him never miss a Monday for a year

✅ The Naming — Hipster's beatdown, nearly splashing merlot, and the π tattoo that made him Village Inn in four seconds

✅ Drawing the Driving Circle — close enough to get home in a day, far enough that nobody shows up unannounced

✅ The Real Hook — watching men lay it all on the line in COT and bust each other's chops five minutes later

✅ Best Shape By Accident — posting 5-6 days a week purely to make friends

✅ The Pit — the wide net of hometown familiarity that gave him the perception of community and killed his intentionality

✅ Ninety-Nine Percent — crediting his M for nearly all his pre-F3 emotional maturity

✅ Webb, Age 5 — his 2.0's F3 name, because Spider-Man was all they could get out of the shy guy

✅ Work In Its Place — 100% WFH, full house, and a little girl at his desk asking if he's almost done

✅ Grandpa's Standard — a man of the people who "would donate every second and dollar he had"

✅ The Site Q Ambush — a month after swearing he'd never get that involved

✅ The Colossus Con — how he tricked his best friend into a Co-Q term

✅ Valhalla & Blood Moon — planting, naming, and passing off two flags in Colorado Springs

KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "I think F3 grabbed me because I had never, or very rarely, been able to talk to other men openly."

😂 "A lot of these guys can just lay it all out on the line, and then five minutes later they're still busting my balls."

🏋️ "I am near the best shape of my life purely because I started going five, six days a week to make friends."

🕸️ "Having that wide net made us not intentional about building a strong close group."

❤️ "I credit my wife for ninety-nine percent of my emotional maturity prior to finding F3."

💼 "Your work pays for your life — it isn't your life."

🙏 "I think that is where I find God: doing the acts that he would want."

🚪 "The worst case scenario is they say no."

🧩 "As soon as I allowed myself to embrace all three aspects is when I felt the most whole within the group — and honestly, within my life."

🪨 "Holding on to your own rock through everything and knowing who you are."

CHAPTERS

00:00 🚗 Kotters & The Carpool EH: Blair Tornado and "Probably Not"

02:39 🥧 First Post at Ironwood & The Pi Tattoo That Named Him

04:59 🗺️ Council Bluffs to Colorado Springs: Drawing the Driving Circle

07:14 🗣️ The Real Hook: Men Who Could Actually Talk

11:56 🕸️ The Pit: The Safety Net That Wasn't Community

13:55 ☕ Six Months to Coffeeteria: Skipping the Second F

15:20 ❤️ The M, The 2.0s & Borrowed Emotional Maturity

19:01 👨‍👦 Fathers, Father Figures & The Adoptive Mentor

23:19 💼 Work In Its Place: "Daddy, Are You Almost Done?"

27:09 🙏 Faith Through Service & Grandpa's Standard

32:13 🏴 The Site Q He Swore He'd Never Be & The Colossus Con

38:31 ⛰️ Jump In: Advice, Valhalla & Blood Moon

42:28 🪨 Steady In The Storm: Prayer Request, NAMO & The Call Sign

EPISODE SUMMARY

On Episode 262 of the Glue-OOM, The Plague and Gator sit down with Zamboni — soccer lifer, co-founder and outgoing Site Q of The Riptide — to trace his path from three career-ending ACL tears and a 265-pound low point to becoming one of F3 Omaha's steadiest voices on accountability. Zamboni opens up about losing his soccer identity, learning to listen to his wife instead of his ego, and how Queen Service turned into the sustainable, thirty-pounds-down answer he'd been chasing for years. It's a conversation about resurfacing — literally and spiritually — after the ice gets rough.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS (✅)

• The EH that started it all
• The Ice Rink Origin Story
• The Pit — Three ACLs in 18 Months
• His Mom's "What's Next"
• Cracking the Identity Code
• The Posting Sprint
• Queen Service Testimony
• "Hamster Wheel" Self-Diagnosis
• Shield Lock, Faith & Grief
• Founding The Riptide
• Post-Site-Q Blues
• Rapid Fire

KEY QUOTES

• "I was depressed and I was sad and I really didn't know how to navigate through it all, and I resorted to alcohol and drugs and making poor decisions." — 05:51
• "It stinks that you can't play anymore, but life goes on. What's next in your journey?" (his mom) — 10:28
• "I didn't want my identity to be in soccer anymore. I wanted to try something different and really focus on being a good husband and being a good father." — 12:51
• "It's an accountability factor of what I'm putting into my body and what I'm putting into my mind." — 24:18
• "Here I am, twenty-four weeks later and I'm thirty pounds down." — 26:38
• "I felt like I was on this hamster wheel of fitness... I wasn't feeling like I was getting any healthier." — 28:59
• "F3 gives you grace and meets you where you're at." — 40:36
• "I call it the post site Q blues." — 45:17
• "Just remember: KISS. Keep it simple, stupid." — 45:17
• "How about those shoes, Zamboni?" — 49:54

CHAPTERS

1. Prayer & Kickoff — 00:00
2. The EH at Starbucks with Swiss Army — 01:37
3. First Post & The Ice Rink Origin of "Zamboni" — 03:36
4. The Pit: Three ACL Tears and the Fall to 265 — 05:51
5. Rebuilding: Marriage, COVID Gym & Faith Sparks — 08:07
6. Hanging Up the Whistle: Identity Beyond the Job — 10:28
7. Posting Progression, Pre-Running & The Murph — 15:13
8. Brotherhood Found: Friendships Before and After F3 — 19:52
9. Queen Service: Accountability, Donuts & 30 Pounds Down — 24:18
10. Shield Lock, Faith & Wrestling With Grief — 31:21
11. Founding The Riptide & The Site Q Blues — 42:55
12. Rapid Fire & Prayer Requests to Close — 49:54

EPISODE SUMMARY

The Plague and co-host Stripes sit down at The Nomad with Joel "Snare" Stenberg — former Site Q at the Berm, sandbag hammer, and the Minuteman of Lexington — for a story about what happens when a man simply refuses to stop showing up. EH'd by The Plague himself three years ago, Snare traces the road from shin splints and "this isn't for me" to Iron Pax, the flag at the Berm, and a new First F leadership role — with his boys OG Monkey and Chipmunk now leading workouts of their own. It's a masterclass in steady cadence: faith built with his wife, confidence built in his kids, and brotherhood built one "me too" at a time.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS (✅)

• ✅ The Plague EH'd Snare for months — respectfully, patiently — before that first Bunstown beatdown and the NameORama that made him Snare
• ✅ The couch moment: shins destroyed after a four-mile mosey, ready to quit, choosing to come back anyway
• ✅ Cheapseats' coffee prophecy: "Pretty soon you'll be pre-running" — and how the challenges (Murph, the vest, Duffman's sandbags) turned Snare into a hammer
• ✅ The wake-them-once rule: how OG Monkey and Chipmunk earned their spots in the gloom and now Q workouts as middle schoolers
• ✅ Why the boys' biggest gain isn't fitness — it's the confidence to lead grown men in a COT at age 10
• ✅ The Sad Clown confession: "Everything should be going great, but I just don't feel full — am I normal?"
• ✅ "Me too" — the two words that carry more weight than any solution
• ✅ Snare's faith journey: Lutheran meets Catholic, back-to-back services, and accidentally building their own marriage prep
• ✅ Leadership from VQ to Site Q to First F: keep it simple, give boundaries, meet men where they're at
• ✅ Taking the flag at the Berm from Schnitzel — and the humility of being asked
• ✅ The closing wisdom: who you marry — and who you surround yourself with — determines your success
• ✅ The Stripes Hot Seat: blizzard beatdowns, Street Dance's infamous 11s, and the man Snare wants to know better

KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "F3 meets you where you're at... and encourages that next step." — [07:30] 🗣️ "If we don't start them young, if we don't start them at some point, when does it ever start?" — [19:30] 🗣️ "Everything should be going great, but I just don't feel full, in a way. Is that normal?" — [25:45] 🗣️ "For everything you felt, somebody else — and probably many more — have felt that way too." — [26:30] 🗣️ "When I don't get to go out in the gloom, I miss it... you feel empty a little bit." — [27:00] 🗣️ "There's hope and purpose in faith. If you have those two things in life, you're a long ways towards being successful." — [36:00] 🗣️ "Keep it simple. Give boundaries. And then let guys do their own thing." — [40:20] 🗣️ "It may not be perfect, but it's the best of me today. And we'll just keep getting better the next day." — [46:45] 🗣️ "Who you marry determines a vast majority of your success and happiness in life." — [48:10]

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Welcome to the Gloom: The Minuteman from Lexington 01:59 — The Couch Moment: Shin Splints & Almost Quitting 06:00 — Pre-F3 Life: Late-Night Workouts With the M 08:02 — The Vest Goes On: Murphs, Challenges & Duffman's Sandbags 13:58 — Wake Them Once: Bringing OG Monkey & Chipmunk to the Gloom 17:52 — Confidence Over Fitness: Raising Leaders, Not Just Athletes 24:18 — The M's Support: What F3 Gave Back to the Marriage 25:30 — Am I Normal? The Sad Clown & the Power of "Me Too" 32:00 — Two Churches, One Family: Snare's Faith Journey 40:05 — Keep It Simple, Give Boundaries: VQ to Site Q to First F 48:01 — Who You Marry: The Concentrica & Choosing Your People 49:30 — The Stripes Hot Seat: Rapid Fire, Blizzards & a NaMoRaMa Close

EPISODE SUMMARY

The Plague sits down with Slow Clap (Kyle Leonard) at The Nomad, joined by co-host Wait Time, for a wide-ranging conversation on six years in F3 Omaha. Slow Clap traces his path from a Minnesota hockey rink to a COVID-era first beatdown at Golden Spike, through Site Q at the Armory, a Shield Lock, and a lifetime of marriage and mentorship lessons. The episode closes with an unguarded ask for prayer — for a distant son and a mother in hospice — that turns the whole conversation from workout stories into a testimony of servant leadership under real pressure.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS (✅)

• 🏒 Slow Clap's roots as a competitive hockey player from Edina, MN — skating at 3, playing D3 at Bethel
• 💍 His wife's nudge into F3 during COVID for the guy-friendships he was missing working remotely
• ❄️ The nine-inch snow beatdown and 50 mph crucible wind — the workouts he remembers most
• 🙏 A powerful parking-lot moment where a prayer he offered got reciprocated by the guy he was praying for
• 👨‍👩‍👧 How F3 rippled into his family — Shield Lock dinner with wives, grandkids at the 2.0s, son-in-laws drawn in
• 💒 39 years of marriage and the "submission competition" mindset that changed everything
• 🛡️ What makes a Shield Lock actually work: consistency over perfection
• ⛪ His faith journey — accepting Christ at 13, not following as Lord until his 20s
• 🚚 The moving-day story that never happened but proves what F3 brotherhood is built to do
• 🏈 His VQ — a hockey-themed line drill at the Armory football field
• 🤝 Handing the Armory flag to Flip Cup after a night of prayer
• 🙏 Closing prayer requests: a wayward son in Oregon, and a mother recently in hospice

KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "I don't know if I can do this." — First workout,

🗣️ "One guy goes, slow clap. Perfect. It stuck."

🗣️ "I need more friends, more guy friends."

🗣️ "There's nothing more powerful though than kind of going from being in your head that you're the only person struggling with it to having some guy put his arm around you before you get back to your truck."

🗣️ "The worst thing you can be is a consumer."

🗣️ "When you're the leader of your family, that means you're the chief servant."

🗣️ "Guys that stop tend to stay stopped. And guys that keep going tend to find that margin in their life to keep working out."

"I don't want to make excuses, but it's not so much about the muscle or the willingness or the capability. It's — my knees are just killing me today."

🗣️ "I'll probably have 40, 50 pickups lined up outside our door and they'll move the whole house in a matter of an hour or two."

🗣️ "We feel like there's gotta be something to get him to look our way and say, we need you to come get us." — 1:00:15

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Mic Check & Pre-Show Setup

01:44 — Meet the Family: Son-in-Laws in the PAX

03:58 — Live at The Nomad: Intros with Wait Time

06:07 — The First Workout & the COVID On-Ramp

08:19 — A Wife's Nudge Toward Brotherhood

10:31 — Hockey Roots: Edina to Bethel

14:29 — The Naming Story & the Respect Pop-Up

21:11 — The Honest Health Check at 61

23:14 — The Sad Clown Warning: Stay Involved

26:49 — The Concentrica: Family, Shield Lock, Grandkids

28:52 — Marriage as a Submission Competition

35:15 — Whetstone: Leading From Your Own Scars

39:31 — Faith, Small Groups, and the Chief Servant

47:52 — Willing and Available: The Wolf Den & Moving-Day Story 5

1:49 — The VQ and the Armory Flag Handoff

1:00:15 — Closing Ask: Prayers for a Son and a Mother

Lead From the Back: Ditka Trades the Front Row for the Wolf Pack

🎙️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE

The Plague and co-host Stripes sit down with Ditka (Brian McCann), Site Q of the Wolf Den, for a Glue-OOM that runs from a wing-eating disaster in high school all the way to the hardest COT of his F3 life. Ditka unpacks how a West Point-bred, win-at-all-costs intensity got humbled by F3 into something he'd never learned before: how to lead from the back. Along the way he opens up about manifesting destiny with his kids, building real Shield Lock in the Wolf Pack, and carrying his father's recent Alzheimer's diagnosis with faith instead of denial.

✅ HIGHLIGHTS

• 🐻 Ditka nearly got named Squirts after a legendary X-Lax wing-eating disaster before the PAX landed on Ditka instead
• 🌧️ His first beatdown attempt got rained out — he showed up anyway the next morning at the Armory, 268 pounds and gassed
• 🏈 Sports installed a "win-at-all-costs" foxhole mentality he carried straight into healthcare SaaS sales
• 📖 "Complacency breeds failure" became his mantra after reading Good to Great — the tool that took him from good to great in every area of life
• 🔄 F3 taught him something totally new to his DNA: how to lead from the back instead of always being out front
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 "McCann's Can" — the family manifesto he's installed in his kids, built on manifesting your own destiny
• 💔 The hardest COT of his F3 life: opening up to the Wolf Pack about his father's recent Alzheimer's diagnosis
• 🤝 Shield Lock built through nothing fancier than asking questions and showing up consistently for the Wolf Pack
• 🏁 His VQ at the Comps in front of 54 PAX, and passing the flag to Chugger to keep giving it away
• 🙏 Closes with a rapid fire, a Namorama, and real gratitude for the brother who got him out in the first place

💬 KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "Complacency breeds failure." — 17:29 🗣️ "F3 has been the tool for me to go from good to great in every aspect of my life." — 17:29 🗣️ "I want to be put in high-pressure situations. I want those high expectations." — 13:20 🗣️ "It taught me how to lead from the back." — 24:56 🗣️ "True leadership is knowing when to apply those different methods." — 26:48 🗣️ "We're McCann's. Why? Because we can." — 35:51 🗣️ "We can't let it define who we are. We're going to tackle it head on." — 37:43 🗣️ "I do it anyways." — 39:52 🗣️ "I can't begin to thank you enough for everything you've done for me." — 59:44

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 — Prayer, Intros & Taking the Mic 00:46 — How Stripes First Got Ditka Out 04:51 — Rained Out, Then All In: The First Beatdown 06:43 — Naming Day: From Squirts to Ditka 13:20 — Foxhole Mentality: Sports, Sales & Win-at-All-Costs 17:29 — Complacency Breeds Failure: Good to Great 24:56 — Learning to Lead From the Back 32:26 — McCann's Can: Manifesting Destiny for His Kids 37:43 — The Hardest COT: His Father's Alzheimer's Diagnosis 41:31 — Shield Lock: Building the Wolf Pack 51:59 — VQ, the Flag Pass & Advice for Future Site Q's 57:48 — Rapid Fire, Gratitude & Namorama

(Hashtags go in the first comment, not the body: #F3Omaha #GloomToGlue #Brotherhood #Leadership #Omaha)

Street Dance: The Guarded Sad Clown Who Learned to Lead

🎙️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE On this episode of The Glue-OOM, host The Plague and co-host Gator sit down with Street Dance (Tony Ferguson, F3 #47), a former Site Q of Beacon Valley. Street Dance shares how a total stranger EH'd him lakeside with zero introduction, how he quietly carried 60 pounds and a guarded, closed-off mindset he didn't have a name for, and how F3 taught him the difference between looking fine and actually leading right. This one goes deep on preparedness, faith without a church building, and what it means to lead yourself before you try to lead anyone else.

✅ HIGHLIGHTS 🌊 EH'd lakeside by Speed Bump — a total stranger who never even introduced himself ⚖️ Gained 50 lbs freshman year of college, hit 260 lbs by his wedding day 💥 His VQ breakdown of "Sad Clown" hit him like a freight train 📱 Rewired his social feed and his mindset — "you are what you consume" 🚴 Sprinted four miles to rescue his wife and daughter after a blown bike tire 🧭 Cracked the Concentrica code — work-life balance is a false frame ⛪ Never a churchgoer, but found his sanctuary in the COT 🚩 Took the flag at Beacon Valley, handed it to Barstool, hit the post-leadership lull 📓 His daughter wrote in her journal about how F3 changed their family 💃 Danced with his wife in the kitchen — first time ever 🤝 Now mentoring through Teammates, eyeing a Waterloo launch

💬 KEY QUOTES 🗣️ "I finally figured out what the hell's wrong with me." 🗣️ "You are what you consume." 🗣️ "If you're not prepared fitness, then you can't lead right." 🗣️ "That's my church. And I get it every day." 🗣️ "The more you give F3, the more you get back."

⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 — Pre-Show Prep & Meeting Street Dance 02:10 — Who EH'd Him? The Random Lake Encounter 04:14 — The Street Dance Origin 08:30 — The Weight Gain, The Wake-Up Call 10:37 — Sad Clown Revealed 21:33 — We're All Fighting the Same Fight 26:02 — Preparedness in Action: The Bike Tire 30:48 — Cracking the Concentrica Code 42:52 — Faith, the COT, and Church Without a Building 49:38 — Taking the Flag at Beacon Valley 54:08 — The Lull After Leadership 58:30 — Third F, Mentorship, and Waterloo

EPISODE SUMMARY

On this episode of The Glue-OOM, host The Plague and co-host Gator sit down with Peel (Greg Drasinski) of Mission Forge to trace two years of transformation — from a sweat-soaked first Murph to Site Q, VQ leader, and Shield Lock brother. Peel opens up about drifting from his Catholic upbringing and finding his way back to faith through the men around him, now leading a church initiative and training for a marathon with Team World Vision. It's a conversation about overthinking, showing up before you feel ready, and letting brothers carry you until you can carry others.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS (✅)

• 🏃 EH'd by Escobar at the Boundary Line for a rookie Murph — pre-workout and humidity nearly took him out on day one
• 💪 Went from working out alone to "all in, 100%" within weeks of his first post
• 🛡️ Built one of his tightest Shield Locks with Escobar — five or six vacations together in two years
• ⛪ Opens up about drifting from Catholicism and finding his way back to faith through F3 brotherhood
• 🏛️ Now leads a faith initiative at his church (Water's Edge) and is training for a marathon with Team World Vision, raising support for clean water in Africa
• 🚩 Became Site Q at Mission Forge alongside Shark Week — built a system that grew the site to 1,000+ posts in two years
• 🎤 Details his VQ at Fancy Feast — nearly 30 guys showed up, and he was terrified he'd "mess it up"
• 🧠 Names his biggest personal battle as an overthinker/planner who never feels "ready" — and how F3 taught him to move anyway
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Talks candidly about "tone" struggles with his wife and kids, and being intentional with his 8- and 10-year-olds
• 🔄 Closes with rapid-fire — dream sites, least favorite exercise (burpees), and a call to keep stepping over the boundary line

KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "Your worst days are your best days... that's your best day, when you don't want to get up." — 09:58 🗣️ "It brought my faith back to me just because of the guys around me." — 14:12 🗣️ "It's okay to feel uncomfortable to get comfortable." — 41:45 🗣️ "We're gonna help you. We're not gonna let you fail." — 32:10 🗣️ "My ultimate goal is making others better. And if others get better, then I get better too." — 20:16 🗣️ "Take a chance." — 43:46

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Welcome to the Gloom 01:42 — The Boundary Line: How Peel Got EH'd 06:05 — Alone vs. Together: Why the Group Made It Stick 09:58 — Your Worst Days Are Your Best Days 14:12 — Losing and Finding Faith 16:26 — Building the Shield Lock 20:16 — Free to Lead and Making Others Better 26:11 — Leading at Water's Edge and the Marathon for Team World Vision 32:10 — The VQ at Fancy Feast 34:21 — Q-Foria and Becoming Site Q 36:27 — Running Mission Forge with Shark Week 41:45 — The Leadership Laboratory: Stepping Out Before You're Ready 45:37 — Rapid Fire and NaMoRaMa Close

KEYWORDS & HASHTAGS

#F3Omaha #GloomToGlue #Brotherhood #Leadership #Omaha #ShieldLock #MissionForge #Faith

🎙️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE

The Plague and Gator sit down with Pitchfork (Bill Koch) of Trident for a story that starts with a year and a half of stalling and ends with a farm kid running one of Omaha's most storied AOs. Pitchfork walks through his First F in a freezing wind at Hallock Park, the near-miss on getting stuck with "Noodle" as a name, and the sink-or-swim four months it took him to go from FNG to Site Q. Along the way: a twin brother pushing him from a distance, a wife who does FIA, two kids with 2.0 nicknames already, and a faith journey from Lutheran confirmation to Catholic conversion that found its legs praying out loud at 0530.

✅ HIGHLIGHTS

✅ His twin brother, wife, and Double Dip spent over a year quietly recruiting him ✅ His First F at Hallock Park — 30 mph winds, no idea where to put his water bottle, Firewalker on Q ✅ How he dodged getting named "Noodle" and became Pitchfork instead, thanks to his grandpa's farm ✅ Mother Goose's late-night text that locked in his second workout ✅ Three-sport athlete in Axtell, NE who found nothing stuck again until F3 ✅ The coupon workout in the snow that nearly sent him to the ER — and six months to come back ✅ Discovering pre-runs by accident, now doing them 90% of the time ✅ Racing his twin brother from a distance — no direct competition, just mutual benchmark ✅ How marrying into FIA changed his marriage's communication ✅ His kids' 2.0 nicknames — Affinity and Raptor ✅ Taking the Trident flag four months into F3, VQ'ing in six weeks, admitting the imposter syndrome ✅ Passing the flag to Room Service and learning to let go — "it's your baby, even after you pass it" ✅ The real story behind Trident's Namorama being a "selfie-rama" ✅ His faith journey — Lutheran roots, RCIA into Catholicism, and finding the courage to pray out loud ✅ Two life lessons for any PAX: get comfortable being uncomfortable, and prepare for what you wish for ✅ Closing prayer request for his grandfather, currently hospitalized

💬 KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "I have no excuse. I have nothing going on Saturday." 🗣️ "Nobody was better than the next person." 🗣️ "I grew up on a farm... so I said my first job was a farmer — and that's how they got me Pitchfork." 🗣️ "Once you're at the bottom, you can only go one direction — so I committed." 🗣️ "It's your baby, even after you pass it." 🗣️ "Instead of be careful what you wish for — prepare for what you wish for." 🗣️ "I think it's important to ask for prayers for yourself, instead of putting other people first."

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 — Cold Open & Prayer 02:07 — The Recruitment: Double Dip, Jackson Five & the Text That Sealed It 04:15 — The Pit: First Workout at Hallock Park 08:00 — Farmer, Not Noodle Man: Getting the Name Pitchfork 09:48 — Mother Goose Seals the Deal & the VQ He Almost Missed 13:23 — Axtell Roots: Three-Sport Athlete to Rec-League Drifter 15:24 — The Coupon That Nearly Broke Him & Falling for Pre-Runs 22:32 — Twin Benchmark: Racing Jackson Five From a Distance 27:02 — Second F, Coffee & Marrying a FIA 31:15 — 2.0s in the Gloom: Affinity, Raptor & Family Workouts 35:31 — Taking the Flag: Site Q, Sink-or-Swim & the Namorama Legend 43:31 — Multiplication, Faith & Final Prayers

Honey Maid: The Wholesome Leader Built from Scratch

🎙️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE The Plague and Gator welcome Honey Maid — Site Q of the Coliseum — to the Nomad for a conversation that starts funny and gets real fast. What begins as a COVID-comeback story about fat pants and an accidental marathon turns into an honest look at leadership, faith, and what it actually costs to show up for your family when everything breaks at once. This is Shield Lock in action, not theory.

✅ HIGHLIGHTS 🔹 How "Cracker" almost became his name before Honey Maid saved the day 🔹 Fat pants, Oreos, and the COVID dad-bod origin story 🔹 Jesse Itzler's "plant a flag" idea sparking a first-ever marathon at a 7:14 pace 🔹 Learning that coffee — not the workout — is where F3's magic happens 🔹 An eye tic and burnout force an honest conversation about balance 🔹 A church youth group gone wrong, and the pastor who brought him back 🔹 Taking the Coliseum flag and learning leadership isn't "lead from the front" 🔹 Son Charlie's medical crisis and wife Maggie's postpartum hospitalization 🔹 28 Coliseum PAX filling an empty Q board in seven minutes flat

💬 KEY QUOTES 🗣️ "I bought a pair of fat pants that day." 🗣️ "Nobody's gonna wait for you. Get here on time." 🗣️ "It's you and mom against the baby. The baby is the enemy." 🗣️ "My job today is just to be here with you." 🗣️ "The reality is that we are enough."

⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold Open: Setting the Table 02:52 Welcome to the Nomad: Meet Honey Maid 05:05 The Naming Story 07:26 Fat Pants: The COVID Wake-Up Call 12:00 Planting the Flag: The Marathon Decision 16:22 Slowing Down to Build the Engine 21:34 Shield Lock and the Coffee Conversion 26:24 Marriage, the Dream Feed, and Balance 33:37 Vulnerability and the Q Source Classroom 44:55 Faith: From Black Eyes to Coming Home 51:38 Taking the Flag: Leadership Lessons 56:37 The Real Pit: Charlie, Maggie, and the Village

🎙️ ABOUT THIS EPISODE The Plague and co-host Stripes sit down at The Nomad with Brett "Biscuits" Ritter — Riptide Site Q, Wolfden veteran, girl dad of two, and one of the most quietly resilient stories in F3 Omaha. What looks like a confident, community-building leader on the other side of a site launch is actually a man who spent his first year of college hooked on opioids after major foot surgery, carrying the shame largely alone until a single advisor's ultimatum sent him home to make the hardest decision of his life. Biscuits unpacks the playground EH that pulled him back after 18 months away, the January 5th beatdown that hooked him for good, and the frustration with "open to all men" not being fully lived out that didn't produce a complaint — it produced Riptide.

✅ HIGHLIGHTS

🍪 EH'd by KOA, showed up once at Paradise, then vanished for 18 months

🏃 Completed a one-mile-a-day streak for a full year — and still stepped off the scale unhappy ⛸️ Ice skating accident at his daughter's birthday party wrecked his knee and Achilles

💊 College foot surgery led to opioid dependence, depression, and a year of silence

🚽 One advisor's ultimatum sent him home to flush every pill — cold turkey, never looked back 🏋️ A sweaty T-Swift hug in eight-degree weather on January 5th sealed the deal

🌊 Launched Riptide with Zamboni: lean into the current, don't fight it

🤝 A hard pre-run with Toto broke them open and built a brotherhood across opposite sides

⛪ Minister's kid who did bike church in California and came home to the church his dad planted

🧻 Organized a Hope Lodge paper and water drive that rolled in nearly $1,000 in supplies

🦶 Toga: reactivating toe strength and foot mechanics — the plantar fasciitis answer nobody talks about

💬 KEY QUOTES

🗣️ "I was so numb that I didn't care."

🗣️ "I flushed the pills and never looked back."

🗣️ "I'll prove you wrong."

🗣️ "We just gotta lean in and love on day one, no matter where they're coming from."

🗣️ "If you keep fighting, that's when you lose."

🗣️ "Going with it and just giving in to where God is pulling me is how I can actually make it through."

🗣️ "We want nothing but the best for each other."

🗣️ "The church is not a building. The church is the fellowship."

🗣️ "You should be pretty proud of yourself."

🗣️ "Before you quit, talk about it."

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 — Cold Open & Mic Banter at The Nomad

02:09 — Meet Biscuits: KOA, Paradise, and 18 Months Gone

04:00 — The Playground EH & The One-Mile-A-Day Journey

05:50 — The Ice Skating Injury, the Achilles, and the Name Origin

10:12 — The Surgery, The Pills, and The Cold Turkey Turning Point

12:22 — Proving the Doctor Wrong: Two Marathons and a Reframed Identity

14:32 — From Observer to VQ: The Path Into F3 Leadership

18:15 — The Frustration That Built a Site: Tater Todd and "Do Something About It"

20:19 — Launching Riptide: Open to All Men and Swimming With the Current

23:35 — Co-Q With Zamboni: Logistics, Energy, and Earning Trust on the Road

25:41 — Pre-Runs, Vulnerability, and the Hard Conversation With Toto

29:44 — Family Fellowship: Jelly, Bear, Gravy, and the Wife Who Always Knows

37:26 — Faith Roots: The Right Reverend Ritter and Coming Home

41:04 — Third F: The Hope Lodge Paper and Water Drive

43:17 — Grace, Ownership, and the Story Still Being Written

45:21 — "You Should Be Pretty Proud of Yourself"

47:23 — Final Lesson: Before You Quit, Talk About It

48:00 — Rapid Fire with Stripes & Toga Explained

53:15 — Current State: New Job, In-Laws, and Prayer Requests

55:36 — Final Affirmations and Sign-Off