A Whole New Level

After attending CrossFit Central’s fifth annual Fittest Games in Austin, Texas I can say I’ve seen a competition from most angles.  As a spectator, competitor and worker.

Not only did we show up in full force at Oktoberfest Obliteration in Houston just a few months ago, we did the same at the Fittest Games in Austin Saturday. Eight athletes and countless friends and CrossFit family members were there.

I can honestly say, it’s every bit as exciting to watch as it is to compete! I’ve never been so inspired, until I watched our athletes and their tremendous efforts this weekend. One word sums it all up: Amazing!

But let’s just think for a second about the driven competitors we have at our box. We all want to step up to the podium — or at least be able to breathe after completing a WOD in a competition — but actually putting yourself through that, making it to the end, not giving up and pushing past what you ever thought was physically and mentally possible is an accomplishment in itself.

You step out to the mat for your first WOD and your judge starts running through what they’ll count and what constitutes a no rep. You get lost in it, all of it. The crowd, the yelling .. then everything disappears. You don’t hear what they’re saying; you don’t even know music is blaring so loudly the judge is nearly yelling at you. You wait, and it’s time to start. The countdown we all know so well: 3-2-1 .. Just GO. Pick up the bar and move it. Like you did hundreds of times before. Every second that ticks by, the minutes, the reps, it’s all going toward that end product. You feel your legs wobble and someone’s shoe is centimeters away from your face, but that’s okay as long as you complete what you’re doing and throttle past them. Then you get to the point where you’ve lost count, or that sled won’t move any further, the bar feels too heavy, you’ve never lifted that weight before. You then hear that judge – ‘Don’t stop! What are you doing?! PUSH HARDER!!’ And that’s the only thing you can do. No matter if your lungs are on fire, or your arms and knees are bloodied. You may have hit that mental wall.  All of a sudden, your body just starts moving again.  When you finish  it’s the best feeling you could imagine. You lay down in a pool of sweat and relish in it. Just two minutes ago you thought you couldn’t do anymore, and you did.

Competition teaches you how to get to that point, to find what everyone calls ‘beast mode’ and to flip that switch on. It takes you to a whole new level, and I’m not talking physically. It teaches you how to cheer those on around you who haven’t finished yet, to get them past the same pain, even when you still can’t breathe.

Now that I’ve done it — and watched it happen — I can’t compare our sport, our community, the love for what we do and the people involved to anything else. I saw everyone of our athletes go through these motions, these stages and come out on top. Not only that, but willing to give that last word of encouragement to someone else, to get them through.

Time to up the ante? Maybe, if you’re game. But know the energy can be seen and felt on either side of the stage. And that’s one of the reasons we love it, right?

We’re building athletes, day by day.  Class by class, lift by lift.

– Jennifer Heathcock