I arrived with my team, Crossfit Socal, on the Thursday afternoon before the Games. I was relaxed and excited to have a weekend away from work (lululemon athletica) and do a fun wod with my teammates. I was not thinking, however, about how we would rank against all the other affiliates.
I competed on the US National Kayak Team at World Championships and Pan American Championships for eight years; I retired a year ago. I know what its like to sit in a corner with headphones on, feeling the pressure of competition weigh on your shoulders before an event. A few months ago I was reintroduced to that feeling at the Crossfit Games Qualifiers in Southern California when I was trying out for the individual event. I left the Qualifiers placing 15Th, feeling crushed, and having no fun.
The Affiliate cup felt entirely different. I did not count down the days leading up to the Games, or do any extra superstitious preparation. I did SoCal’s daily WODs and went to our team practices, which were usually followed by cheat meals. It was a blast.
Our first event was the Stadium WOD, we were around 30Th place after the morning heats. I was happy with my performance and proud beyond belief of my teammates. I got all my deadlifts unbroken which was cool, but I was more proud of my teammate Emily who powered her 108lb body through 30 135lb deadlifts, after just recently recovering from a back injury. She’s little, but lionhearted.
The hill run was next for us. I was the first leg of our relay. We had a false start before my heat which made me laugh and mellowed me out, but got my energy pumping. I pulled us into 2Nd place after the first leg, the hill was tough but we had prepared by running Tecolote Canyon in San Diego.
Emily ran next and charged the downhill pulling us into 1st, our support team from SoCal was going crazy and our teammates not in the run event were screaming “lean forward, drive with your toes”. Adam and Seth went third and fourth holding us in 2nd place with 1st place a few strides away. On the fifth lap, we didn’t spread out, we charged up the hill as a team. We passed the first team at the very top of the hill and let loose downward passing the finish line 1st, setting the fastest time of the morning, 11:32. Somehow having “fun” had gotten us competitive with the top affiliates, and SoCal was announced in 10Th place after the first two events.
Before our last event, the Overhead Squat/Pull-Up WOD, we each planned our weight attempts for overhead squat and decided who was going first. We all had our “safety” weights for OH Squat and we had a “Push Goal”. We talked about staying relaxed and focused during the event, because adrenaline was not going to help an OH Squat PR.
Emily went first and was the only one of us who got her push goal weight on the first try (85lbs a PR for her). Nuno, Erwin, and I all missed our “safety” weight and had to re-group after the initial frustration.
On my second attempt I got 135lb, which was a huge relief, so I went on to pull-ups leaving the squat rack to the big boys. After 10 minutes of multiple attempts Erwin and Nuno finally got their “safety” weights. With 8 minutes to go and a few pull-up sets done, Erwin got 255lbs beautifully (which he thought was 245lbs, luckily we didn’t say anything).
I attempted 145lb and missed it on the third rep, I walked away and finished my third set of pull-ups. Nuno went on to try 185lbs- he missed again. While Nuno went to pull-ups I made a second attempt at 145lbs. My first two reps were solid; my last rep I went below parallel and got stuck for what felt like 30 seconds (in reality it was probably about 1 ½ seconds). I dug in deep and imagined ripping the bar apart and pushed out into full extension. I made my push goal.
Nuno went back at minute 19 for one last attempt at 185lbs. He got two reps full depth and made a fourth and fifth attempt going too shallow to count, the fifth attempt he went deep, wavering wildly at the bottom he stood up and finished within the last 10 seconds of the time allotted. We all screamed. We didn’t know how we ranked, or what our score was, we only knew we did our absolute best. We walked away with huge smiles on our face and a score of 926, tying us in second place for that event.
On Sunday we were announced as tying for 6Th place (technically 7Th). Part of me was heartbroken missing the final by 1 point, but mostly, I was glowing with pride for my team placing in the top 10 out of 98 teams.
It was hard watching the final, not because we didn’t have a shot at winning the Affiliate Cup, but because it would have been another opportunity to compete as a team.
The Crossfit Games was stress free. I had fun with my affiliate, I was inspired by the athletes, and I was introduced to competing a different way. We never took ourselves too seriously and I realize how committed I am to competing like that, no matter how “elite” my team or I get. They are “Games”, right?
