| Every Second Counts |
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I awoke in the middle of the night to the roar of thunder and crash of lightning. I slowly crept over to my bedroom window and peered through the blinds. It was pouring. I glanced over my shoulder at my alarm clock - the fluorescent blue numbers beamed 4:30am...this should be interesting. All CrossFit Central coaches and staff were to meet at the gym at 6am for a quick briefing and then carpool over to the event location for WOD 1 at shoal creek trail. At 7:00am sharp the first wave of Women's Challenge competitors would start to arrive. The rain came down - in fact, it hadn't let up all morning. We pulled up to the Check In Location on the Shoal Creek Trail and quickly splashed through ankle deep mud puddles to set up the check in and body marking tents. The ladies began to arrive in groups of threes, some with coordinated outfits and matching T-Shirts. Despite the dreary weather everyone was enthusiastic and ready for the Challenge to begin! Teams were body marked and sent to the pavilion near the start line to hear the breakdown of the rules. Women's Challenge from CrossFit Central on Vimeo. Crystal McReynolds, Carey Kepler, and I stood beneath the start/finish line tent armed with stop watches. “Ready Ladies?” Carey called with a ominous smile. "3-2-1 Go!" The women began chipping away at 150 burpees where only 2 women could work at a time. The rain and weather quickly became a non-issue as the ladies plunged the front of their bodies into the mud, jumped to their feet and clapped their hands over head in full burpee stance. Mud splattered, clung to their clothes, and settled in their pony tails. Cheers rang out from the coaches and the spectating crowd. I looked closer and noticed that through the unexpected grime and mud drenched clothing the women were smiling, encouraging one another, offering high fives, and truly enjoying themselves. Competitors met many obstacles along the way. Some were from the surrounding environment - slippery bridges winding over waterways, a shallow creek brimming with rushing water and bubbling over on to the trail, even an impromptu waterfall. While others were team challenges set in place by the CrossFit Central coaches including Kettlebell swings, medicine ball passes, and nutrition questions. Yes – nutrition questions during an athletic event - a true test of overall fitness and wellness.
Soon the 1st group of trail run finishers were sighted near a quarter mile out from the finish line. Coach Jeremy Thiel, who ran most of the trail with the 1st wave of competitors, sprinted ahead and called out to the finish line “Finishers Coming!”. He was completely drenched, beads of water dripped from his hair, yet he too couldn’t stop smiling. “How was it?” I asked Maggie, Annie, and Vickie shortly after they crossed the finish line. Maggie turned to me with a bright eyed grin “Flower not dirty and acrylics in tact!” showing her pristine nails to the camera. When the last team crossed the finished line the coaches packed up the gear and headed to the gym to brief the competitors for WOD 2. And the rain continued to fall.
I walked up to the gym, mud sloshing in my tennis shoes, and was greeted by CrossFit Women who had set up camp in the lobby of the gym. They were eating, recovering, rehydrating, and taping each other’s hands. Some talked strategy while other told their experience of the trail run. After 1 hour of recovery, a new pair of socks, a couple bottles of water, and a few outfit changes WOD 2 was about to begin. Coach Carey Kepler explained the rules of the workout.
Some of the women taking on this challenge completed a barbell snatch for the 1st time at the CrossFit Women’s workshop only 2 weeks earlier. The 1st wave of teams got to their starting positions and Carey called 3-2-1-Go! The women began to chip away at this brutal workout. As the event coordinator I walked the event, answered questions, twittered updates, and watched the challenge unfold. I checked in on the scores throughout WOD 2 to see who was in the lead. Lyssa, Janese, and Veronica had the top top score - there was no way anyone would beat them. Now it was a race to see who would take 2nd and 3rd place…or so I thought. The events that quickly followed are the reason I love CrossFit - the game is often times won by heart and will. A team that everyone knew was fit - but didn't know they were that close to catching the team in 1st - chipped away at the workout. They used sign instead of words to let each other know what count they were on for completed reps and what the next move was. They worked together, they worked fluidly, as a unit, as a team. Not until they finished the 400 meter run did we know they were that close to the ladies in first place. AT, Carmen, and Ariana came out with the win by only 1 second. They caught the first place team and slid by without many people noticing! As we tallied up the scores, tacked on points for missed nutrition questions, I looked up at Carey Kepler - "1 second. They won by one second!" We triple checked the scores and it was official. 1st Place:
Carmen Castillo, AT Turner, Ariana Dominguez
It left many people wondering – 1 second? What’s one second? How can one second change anything? A step when you should have hopped, a breath you took when you should have pushed through, not getting in the pull up band quick enough? The answers to all of these questions is yes - one second can change everything, after all, every second counts. This was a CrossFit competition at it’s best.
Sixty women took on this challenge and all of them completed it. They battled through obstacles, pushed each other through challenges, accomplished things they never thought they could, and everyone had a blast. In the end they were muddy and exahusted, they were beautiful, they were CROSSFIT!
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