Typically, the T3 candidates are given a specific optional event that occurs a week prior to their trials. This one is no different. Those who successfully complete the Highlander Intimidator taking place on the 18th of July in central Florida will be given two points. You do not have to bring the team flag if you don't want to, but it'll sure look cool on you!
The nine candidates are still in. None have gotten cold feet and quit yet, which is nice. According to the infiltrator in their midst, confidence is fraying with a few being concerned about their ability to meet the standard in some pregame challenges, however. Nevertheless, they have it in them to conquer this thing. On to some updates.
First of all, they have unlocked some perks:
Unlocking easy cards/dice was an incredibly wise decision. It's as if they had an infiltrator in their group taking a look at the course agenda! With two unlocks, character 8 will now be unlocked for the team:
Character 8 - This character is a number. Better hope you correctly guess the number before the password attempts have been reached!
This challenge is going to be a doozy. The team has uncovered the data drop from the previous challenge and has earned themselves their respective points. As promised, as soon as a challenge is complete, the next challenge shall appear. Inside the data drop USB stick contained an encrypted word document. In it lies the instructions to completing this challenge. However, this encrypted word document has a limited number of attempts put in to it, so let's hope that the team hasn't decided to brute force guess the password so far. If the document has reached the max attempts, it will be rendered useless and another data drop will need to be found. As for the password, the candidates will now have to decrypt it by some good ol' PT. For starters, the password is right characters in length. It is case sensitive, contains numbers and perhaps some special characters too. Candidates will have to submit their challenges via video through our Facebook group or by emailing us. One candidate can work on multiple characters, but cannot double-submit for a single physical challenge. Here is the breakdown:
Characters 1 and 2 - Nine people must complete 30 burpees in under 1:45
Characters 3 and 4 - Eight people must complete 30 ruck-push-ups. Ruck must contain 20% body weight and the push-ups must be done in a single session without breaking their form. You may use the two army approved resting positions for your push-ups. You cannot receive help from anyone or anything. Women may use their knees for up to 20 of the push-ups if they must.
Characters 5 and 6 - Seven people must complete 30 eight count bodybuilders in under 3 minutes. This must be done with a ruck containing 15% body weight. To avoid knee injury, you don't have to jump on the eighth count if you don't want to. Just raise your hands while maintaining a fully-standing posture before beginning your next eight count.
Character 7 - Six people must complete a ten mile run at a 10:00/mi pace or better.
Character 8 - The team must unlock at least two perks. This character will not fully be given. Instead, a hint about the type of character to be entered will be given to narrow down the possibilities. Hopefully the password attempts haven't been expended yet... no, you will not be told the amount of password attempts that are placed on to the encrypted document.
That's it. That's what the team must do to obtain the password. They cannot crack the password in any other way or else their challenge will be null and void. There is no deadline for this challenge either. Finishing this challenge will result in every member of the team getting FIVE (5!!!) points. Currently there are nine people in the class, and any new registrants can partake in this challenge and earn points. Currently, these challenges may be near impossible to effectively complete given the current class size.
The biggest excuse people give for not registering for the T3 is that they didn't want to join the pre-game challenges too late into the game and appear lazy or whatever hyper-inflated excuse befalls them. Well, let this challenge prove that the ship hasn't sailed. If you're still on the fence about doing this event, let this be your motivation. Your team needs you. Badly.
The team successfully spelled out "REGIMENT". Funny how it was submitted, though. One of the members mistakenly posted their "M" route after completing the run (probably an auto feature toggled on). Now sure, that could just be his typical running route. After some subtle dialogue, it was discovered that it was in fact part of the challenge, so the 1 hour time limit started. It's amazing how motivated a team can get when there is a time hack...
They got it submitted with 10 minutes to spare. Good on 'em.
Even more remarkable is that they managed to find the data drop:
Unfortunately, the document in the USB drive is encrypted. To access the drive they will have to proceed to challenge #5, which will be divulged to them tomorrow morning. For now they rest, knowing how close of a bullet they have dodged. Although a quick workaround could have been enacted by the team to determine the exact whereabouts of the device. Every photo taken (especially on a phone) contains EXIF data. Simply downloading the photo and viewing the properties of it will reveal the author, GPS lat/long coordinates and even the drive in which the photo was stored. All challenge photos pertaining to any future data drops will have this information scrubbed from them from here on out.
Also, the use of password crackers will not be an acceptable pass for the next challenge. More on this tomorrow morning.
The package has been dropped. In it lies a USB stick containing the instructions for challenge #5.
The team has no due date on this challenge, but challenges 5, 6, 7 and so on will not commence until this one is completed. If they are happy with the points that they have now, they can stop right here and take it easy for the next three weeks.
On to the forth challenge - the drop. A secret cache of data has been deposited near the Orlando/UCF area, and it is up to the team to determine its whereabouts and to retrieve the device. Upon proof of the device's retrieval, the entire team will earn one point and be given instructions on challenge #5. The following leaked intelligence has been uncovered to determine the whereabouts of the device.
The USB drive containing the intelligence looks like this.
The device was then placed inside a plastic vial
The path leading up to the dropoff point isn't well paved, that's for sure.
After going down the poorly paved trail/road, the agent stashed the data cache in that dirt mound to the left.
The top of the cap was taped and then marked with a black dot. That is the only thing showing. Hopefully the rain or falling leaves doesn't cover it.
GPS Coordinates would be nice, but this is the last recorded location of the data drop. The agent apparently had a miracle seeing that he/she had more than 1 bar of a connection on Sprint.
There is no further information about the data drop given at this time. However with the redemption of 2 points from every teammate, further investigation can commence to determine the exact latitude and longitude of the device. Better act quick, who knows who will accidentally find the device...
If you've done the last couple of T3s, the challenges should seem rather routine to you. You spell out a word, you do some pushups, or even travel through time. The next series of challenges however will be very immersive and multi-tiered. Challenges 4 through [unknown] will all be issued at once, and to proceed to the next challenge the previous one must be completed. Expect these challenges to last for the remainder of the pregame, and to awaken your inner secret agent! For now, work hard on challenge 3.
Some questions have arisen about the route for lap 2. It will be six miles long, covering open field and dense woods. You should keep your eyes constantly peeled for trees marked with ORANGE (not red) painting. If another color is marked alongside orange, you're still on the orange trail. If you're crossing a road or dirt path with tire treads on it, don't go on that road - go across. There will be two major intersections with different trail colors offered to you. You want to go on the (you guessed it) orange trails. In fact these two major intersections will require you to turn right if that helps.
Having a hydration source on you at all times during this run is mandatory. You must carry at least two bottles of water with you, or you could use the highly recommended camelbak to keep you hydrated. There will be one (maybe two) water stations along the course. Your feet will probably be wet at the beginning of the course, so don't wear shoes that will give you bad blisters. You must also run in eyesight of another person. This is the only time when you will be far separated from the cadre, so if you collapse from the heat (this has happened once before) you will not be noticed right away. Runners in the front of the pack need not worry about being in eyesight of each other as much as those in the back. After all, if you're in the lead and you black out somebody will eventually catch up to you and be able to call for help.
Here is a picture of the color orange, marked on a post. Trees will also bear this particular hue as well.
Observe: Orange. The color of your route. The water station(s) will be along the paved road, which you cross over twice.
Running in the heat sure does suck, so let's do it again! Instead, this run will have to spell out the word "REGIMENT" the good news is that one person is responsible for running the route to spell one letter. Which means that only eight need to partake in this! Here are the rest of the rules.
- distance must be at least 3 miles
- pace must be faster than 9:30/mi
- all of the letters must be submitted within an hour. Meaning as soon as the cadre is alerted to the "R", he better see the "T" in an hour.
- you can only submit one letter.
- challenge due July 7th at noon.
- each teammate earns 1 point for completion. Even those who didn't partake.
- failure to complete this challenge results in everyone losing a point.
It looks like that extra bonus was motivation for many. We are now up to 9 people registered for the class. Of those 9, it is predicted at least 2 will DNF due to the extreme heat. Some people aren't cut out to take on the heat and the decision not to have heat stroke is a wise one.
This is going to be a short, fast and brutal T3. No doubt about it.
Participation and communication have started low, especially for a class that consists of all but one regiment elite! They know better than this, and their confidence of past victories lulls them into complacency.
The more people in the class, the more chaotic. And since the T3 embraces the chaos, the next two people who register for the T3 within a week of this posting will automatically join the class with two points added to their name.
There will be no other offer like this to occur for the pregame duration of this T3.
Challenge #1 had low participation, uh oh! If the team wants to lose focus this early into the game, we're going to have some interesting live updates on the day of the actual event. Speaking of which, this event will be in the dead heat of the summer. Conditioning oneself to battle the elements and endure the heat is critical to successfully taking on events both hot and cold. This next challenge will tackle training in the extreme heat of the summer, so make sure you've got plenty of water! Here are the rules:
Understand that the T3 is going to be HOT. Statistically, the summer T3s have a higher DNF rate due to heat exhaustion. Hopefully the constant immersion in the cold spring water will help regulate everyone's body temperature, but there will be no liquid mercy during Lap 2's six mile trail run. Each runner during the T3 will have to have a hydration source and a form of identification/emergency contact on them at all times during this run. The T3 will be rough, but it is not the cadre's goal to crush you. There is no training value in that.
Everyone likes a good ol' dump in the morning, so let's start it off with a massive hearty information dump. First things first, there will be no bad perks for this event. How about that? Second, there won't be a card game at the end of each lap, isn't that swell?
Now, time to counter-balance those good things. For one, the price of the good perks has increased for this event:
Second, instead of the cards a more intense dice-roll game has been implemented at the end of each lap. Note that the volleyball court is where the checkpoint vehicle will be parked, and that if the team continues to fail challenges and miss time hacks there will be multiple dicerolls.
Dice Roll – Normal Mode
1 - Fifteen 8-count bodybuilders w/ ruck
2 – 10 dive-bomb pushups w/ ruck
3 – 25 wide grip pushups w/ ruck
4 – 15 diamond pushups w/ ruck
5 – 20 four-count mountain climbers w/ ruck
6 – 25 seven-count man-makers
7 – Lose two points
8 – Low-crawl the volleyball court twice w/ ruck
9 – Nothing…
10 – Bear-crawl the perimeter of the volleyball court w/ ruck
11 – 35 four-count flutter kicks
12 – 25 ruck-squats. Lose two points
13 – 25 burpees. Gain a point
14 – Nothing! But the next dice roll penalty gets doubled.
15 – Ten 8-count bodybuilders w/ ruck
16 – Dice roll vs the cadre. Win and do nothing. Lose and do 30 burpees
17 – 40 four-count jumping jacks w/ ruck
18 – Reverse crab-walk the volleyball court twice w/ ruck
19 – One perfect ruck push-up. Pretend it’s hard to do.
20 – Cadre does 10 burpees. Laugh at him to gain a point!
The first challenge is here! Regiment elite Jillian turned 28, so to celebrate this momentous occasion we will be doing Jillian burpees! If you want to put in your challenge submission, it must be done before 11:59pm on the 20th of June. Finish your 28 in under 1:38, you gain 2 points. Finish in 1:58, you gain a point. If you haven't registered yet, you might want to get on that so you can get a head start on the points. What are these points for? Look no further for your answer.
As is tradition, when the first five register for the class, the challenges and points system are activated! Perks, points and ideas for the first challenge video are already brewing so standby for some important updates!
Card/dice game and perks will be revealed tomorrow morning.
The next T3 has been officially announced!
From 8am until 10:13pm. They have succeeded. Words cannot describe the inspiration derived from their triumph.
Standby
Lunging to the ending point. Every lunge grinding against their pain receptors
They still don't know what's about to happen.
Little do they know, All that separates them from getting their patches is from here to that building behind them
