so I didn't get to go to the Crossfit Games. Due to weather in Chicago, my flight got canceled and the soonest I could get to LA would be Sunday (After the games are done). I was completely heart-broken, but I'm slowly getting over it.
anyway- here was the (long-unedited) article that I wrote for the Troy Daily News. We'll see if they even print anything.
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This past weekend The Crossfit Games, a competition where top-qualifying athletes perform multiple various, yet grueling, workouts for 3-days, challenged, entertained and inspired 25,000 spectators in the Home Depot Center in Carson City, California.
Anyone with 25$ and an internet connection can register for "The Open", one global workout a week for 5-weeks where all scores are reported and compared against other participants of similar gender and age group. Last year the founder of Crossfit Infinity, Graham Spagnola, placed 47th in The Open. Top participants of The Open qualify for Regionals. Top participants of the regionals qualify for The Games. This year, Mike Lyons, the founder of Crossfit Troy, placed 4th in the Men's Masters (Age 50-55) group for The Games.
The amount of physicality and athleticism by all the participants is highly motivating. The workouts vary between doing a mix of olympic-style lifts, high-intensity cardio and gymnastic-like movements, usually for a set amount of time or max amount of repetitions. Watching 73-yr old Jacinto Bonilla from Brooklyn, NY, tie for 12th place in the "Row-Clean-Burpee" challenge, or see Schwartzs Crossfit from Melbourne Australia get first place in the "Team Chipper" challenge is definitely an event of it's own and worth experiencing.
Most people who have taken up Crossfit don't have competing in mind when they start. A majority show up at their first WOD (WorkOut of the Day) hoping they sweat, lose weight and get a little more fit. What ends up happening is that each athlete constantly impresses themselves with the addiction of setting and reaching new benchmarks, achievements and ambitious goals in AND out of the gym. But regardless of what your goal is, (lose weight, get prepared for football season, want the ability to carry more groceries from the car) Crossfit is for everyone. There are 3 Crossfit gyms in Troy with more than 500 local athletes who are training every week. |
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