Now, that may seem like a long time. BUT, most competitors practice when the workouts come out. (At least one workout from the event is posted ahead of time. Sometimes more, depending the length of the event.) So 3 weeks was SOON. I planned to practice. I promise, I did. It seemed like the days "got away from me." Typical excuse.
I strategized with a CrossFit coach and mentally prepared myself.
The day came quickly...It was nerve-racking to see all of the different people. Muscly women, tall bulky men, short skinny people...I always had a prejudgement of each. I'm human...SHOCKER. Turns out, don't underestimate the short or skinny people! Dang!
Anyways...I haven't competed for anything since the high school dance team days. I loved the feeling of competing. I thrived from it. I absolutely looooved the rush. So I was ready to do that again. I mean, when you're 24, there's not much you can do as far as competition and being a part of something with such...
The first workout was great. Collin was my partner (this whole competition was a partner competition.) We faced eachother for the first WOD, and alternated a certain amount of certain moves...i.e. cleans, back squats, shoulder to over head, snatches, ect. I'd say we whooped it with one of the fastest times in our division.
The second workout was by ourselves but they added the two partners' scores together. It was 1 minute of as many power cleans as possible. OUCH. Seriously...this is when I remember my arms starting to swell. SWELL. You couldn't tell I had wrists! Then you had a 10 second transition to get to the "rig" (pull up bar) and do a "dead hang" for one minute...or as long as you could. Might seem easy, until you do X amount of super fast power cleans. My hands were numb and I am a chalk abuser when it comes to preparing my hands for anything metal. I reached into the chalk bucket to prepare myself for the dead hang...WITH ONLY 10 SECONDS, MIND YOU...and there was NO chalk. Mental buzz kill, WHAM! Ok cool, soooo let's get creative. Ok, no, there's no getting creative as the judge following me was hurrying me to get to the bar. I wasn't sure of the best position to stay still and to get that 60 seconds under my belt. The thoughts going through my head were numbing my hands...I think it was something like, "so many people are staring at me right now," "I'm going to go demolish one of those protein muffins when I get done here," "I wonder how the guy on the other side of the rig is doing (there was 2 people: 1 guy, 1 girl, on the rig at one time), "I wonder if I should adjust my hands, my fingers hurt," "man, 60 seconds is SLOW," THEN I opened my eyes..."I bet that guy is enjoying his donut and Diet Pepsi (ew)," "Shoot, do I cross my feet?" And I looked up to see 3 of my 5 fingers still clenched to the bar...I could hear one of the CrossFit coaches from the gym I go to telling me to bend my arms and squeeze my hands tighter...Just when I went to do that, BOOM. I fell. I looked at the clock, disappointed, only making it to 50 of the 60 seconds...10 seconds left, really? I beat myself up pretty bad after that point. Sometime later coming to, I gave myself a pep talk..."Dude, you lasted longer than some people! And you made it to a heavier weighted clean than others! There's nothing to be bummed about. This day is about learning!"
Now, I thought the 2nd workout would be the worst. Well, #3 (the final) was about to punch me right in the face. Collin and I were to start with 150 single jump ropes, followed by 12-9-6-3 of the following (each of us had to do all of the reps): dead lifts, man maker wall balls (BARF), kettle bell swings, with a cash out of 150 single unders with a 10 minute time cap. Every time we got to deadlifts, we had to take off or put on weight depending who's turn it was. Collin's weight obviously heavier than my weight. This guy was tough...Man maker wall balls...woof. Basically, these are doing a burpee onto a wall ball and then getting up to throw the wall ball at a target. If you didn't hit the target, the judge would "no rep" you...meaning you had to do it again and the first one didn't count towards your total.
I told someone recently that one has to be sort of sick and twisted (in a good way) to enjoy CrossFit at a competitive level. Depending on the gym, even in the every day workouts...we do some crazy stuff! I love it. I am so glad I did that competition. I know Collin is, too. We came out on top, tying with another team for 1st place. The tie-breaker was whichever team had more 1st places in the events. The other couple, unfortunately, got us there. So we received 2nd place. I'm plenty pleased with it, considering we DIDN'T practice any of it. (Trust me, I learned my lesson here).
I can't wait to compete again!
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