Karen Cernich

“If we suffer together, we bond together,” Chris Jackson, Labadie, said Saturday morning, July 25, standing on the main stage at the Washington Fairgrounds as he wrapped up a grueling workout for the local F3 group. And suffer they did. Group members began with a run around Lions Lake, stopping every so often to do a set of burpees or jumping jacks.

OK, it’s not actually a park, more of a pocket-size nature reserve, but you probably didn’t know it existed. No one tried to keep it a secret; it just sort of happened that way. From a distance it looks like private property, part of someone’s yard, because it is in the middle of a neighborhood.

It’s a stretch to imagine the blue spring floor at Planet Gymnastics in Union as a pool, but competitive swimmers from teams across Franklin County have been doing their best this summer. With socks on their feet and their arms stretched out in front of them, hands resting on a large foam mat normally used by gymnasts, the swimmers kept their heads down as they prepared for a relay race.