It’s the day after the 5th Eastern Shore Affiliate Challenge, and I am SO PROUD!
First, the obvious: for the third straight time, we have athletes standing on the podium at the end as individual placers in their division (continuing Alyssa Stookey’s legacy!). Lori McClelland was the top overall female athlete in the Scaled division, and Claire Leocha was the 2nd place female athlete in the Scaled division! It had been a long day and by the time the awards were being presented, Lori and Josh had gotten packed up and were a mile down the road when I called them to tell them, “Turn around, YOU WON!” Claire represented Lori well on the podium, and when Lori got back we all celebrated their awesome accomplishment.
– Lori’s strength was her endurance, completing 63 burpee bar jumpovers in 4 minutes (1st place WOD #1), and 176 reps in the 7-minute AMRAP (2nd place WOD 2), and then she shot her performance over the top by snatching 85 lbs in WOD #3 (7th place).
– Claire knew that she would score well in the strength portion of the comp, but maybe surprised herself with her “engine”, blasting through 51 burpee bar jumpovers (15th place), thrusting/pushing/jumping into 157 reps in WOD #2 (7th place), and then finishing STRONG with 15 Snatches in WOD #3, 2nd only to our own Patricia Twitty! Talk about improving over the course of the day!
But there were so many other awesome stories coming out of this hard-fought competition that I want to make everyone aware of, because they represent our individual passion for ultimate fitness and also our collective commitment to our TEAM:
– Patricia Twitty, in her first competition, really in any sport, was a top-three finisher for CFKI and went on to the team event. The first team event was a 300M relay swim in which each teammate has to swim 50M. Twitty took swimming lessons last summer (I’m guessing because she somehow saw this coming?) and was our first in the pool. Twitty really didn’t want to swim, we all could see it in her eyes, but she didn’t waver and got the job done with grace. I’m so proud of you, Twitty!
WOD Highlights: Twitty placed FIRST in WOD #3: Snatch Ladder, completing 5 reps at 45 lbs, 5 reps at 65 lbs, and 5 reps at 85 lbs in 2:41! That’s 975 lbs lifted overall!
– Dana Bradshaw, a second-time competitor, had been practicing for the 6-foot wall jumpover earlier in the week when her dumbass coach put a plate in front of it to jump off of. The jump-off went great; the landing produced a nasty ankle sprain that could have bumped her out of the competition if she didn’t have the heart of a lion and the tenacity of a freaking bull shark. Dana competed and did so well, icing her ankle in between her heats and then putting her gameface on and representing CFKI amazingly!
WOD Highlights: Dana placed 4th in WOD #3: Snatch Ladder, completing 5 reps at 45 lbs, 5 reps at 65 lbs, and 3 reps at 85 lbs!
– Ryan Grantham, in his first CrossFit competition, placed 6th overall in the Men’s Rx division. It’s been a real blessing to have Grantham in the gym as one more firey competitor to push all of us, and with his great technique and internal drive, he is going to win one of these things, and soon.
WOD Highlights: Grantham placed 4th in WOD #2: 7 min AMRAP of Thrusters, Pushups and Box Jumps. His 180 reps was 10 more than his closest competitor in the event.
– Ryan Matis, a second-time competitor, is starting to climb up the leaderboard. This time he took 7th overall in the Men’s Rx division! I could tell Matis was disappointed in his WODs 2 and 3, knowing that he could have done even better, which to me is encouraging! It’s a “silver lining” to know that you placed well in an event (7th out of 39) but could have pushed even more. That’s easy to work on for next time!
WOD Highlights: Matis picked up 3rd on WOD #1: Burpee Wall Jumpovers, completing 38 reps in 4 minutes!
– Ashleigh Beck, another first-timer that needed some convincing to jump into the fire, finished 14th out of 32! Ashleigh has come such a long way from her CrossFit start just a few months ago, yesterday performing ultra-consistently with her WOD finishes of 16th (WOD 1), 17th (WOD 2), and a strong 10th (WOD 3). We’re so glad you joined us, Ashleigh, and can’t wait to see your progress continue!
– Rx Dudes: Our entire Men’s team entered as “Rx”, meaning that they did not scale any of the workouts. Our 6 Men’s Rx competitors were second only to CF Lewes’ 7 athletes in representing our gym, and we were so strong. MP Parker, Ryan Malvey and Jimmy Bradshaw all stepped up into their first competition, and there was no quit on that wall, in jumping up on that box, or in grueling through those heavy snatches with, let’s face it, no rest.
Our participation in the team competition in the afternoon ended after the swimming event when the bottom 4 gyms were knocked out, but after that we cracked open some beers (thanks, Josh and Lori!), and had a great time watching the remaining teams sweat through some tough ones while we got a chance to relax and enjoy the sunshine.
On Monday, the training begins for ESAC #6. Hope you’re having a great weekend and a happy Dad’s Day. See you back in the gym soon!
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