F3: Faith, fi tness and fellowship

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F3: Come for the fitness, stay for the fellowship

Local men enrich their lives and develop leadership through workouts, socializing and serving

by PATTI STOKES (aka “Typo”)

OAK RIDGE/NW GUILFORD – “Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.” That’s the creed of F3, a national program that includes free, peer-led workouts for men in various regions of the country and across the world.

Every week at noon – rain or shine – a group of F3 participants gathers at Oak Ridge Town Park for a challenging 45-minute workout, a time to focus on faith and serving, and afterwards, socializing. At its core, those are the three components of F3 – faith, fitness and fellowship.

The F3 mission is to “plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.”

Most F3 groups meet in “the gloom” – at 5:30 a.m. – and a few meet during evening hours and on Saturday mornings, but the group I recently shadowed blessedly meets every Wednesday at noon (a much more appealing time for me, especially if it involves being active).

Mark Veradi (aka “Spurrier” – we’ll get to the reason for the nickname later) started the noon F3 workout group in January 2020, after working from home. Attendance picked up as others also started working at home during the peak of COVID; several men have since returned to the office and aren’t available midday, but on any given day between five and 20 men will show up.

As in other F3 groups, participants range widely in age, backgrounds and fitness levels. Before joining the group, many had experienced a decline in their fitness levels over the years.

“I think a lot of people would say they’ve gotten in the best shape of their adult life doing this,” said Val Follo, whose F3 name is “Heisenberg.”

“I wish I’d done it several years ago, when I first saw a group like this and thought, ‘wow, I’d like to get in a men’s group like that,’” said Jeff Bacon, aka “Kevin,” 65. “But I thought, ‘Ahhh, I’d better get myself in shape first…’ when I finally started, I was in even worse shape, but this really

Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO Mark Veradi, aka “Spurrier,” is light on his feet while doing a skater’s exercise during an F3 afternoon workout he led at Oak Ridge Town Park on Sept. 13.

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