So 10,000 years ago in a land far far away, or 2 months ago on a high school practice field 4 hrs south of Nashville, a little event was going down. An event that would change the world forever. An event that Disney would make a feel good movie about. An event that babies everywhere would be comforted by the tale of the event that saved their lives.
I'm talking about the Garage Games Series CrossFit Innovate March of Dimes Throwdown (say that 3 times fast, I dare you). This annual event which started three years ago has grown to phenomenal proportions, all the way from being a humble fight gone bad throwdown with a few out-of-box members participating to a local throwdown to a Garage Games Series event that people came all the way from Nashville, Coweta, Huntsville, Gadsden, Florida, and yes...EUROPE (glad Kristen made her flight homne) to participate in.
The design was simple - start off with Open WOD 12.1. 7 minutes of burpees (with the surprisingly horrible 6 in jump - sorry am i triggering flashbacks? PTSD episodes? get thee to a box immediately and take down a WOD to remedy). After WOD 12.1, you would do 2 more events. Best score, as always, wins. Sweet. Simple. AWESOME.
I was coming down from CrossFit Music City along with two first time competitors - Alex Brigham and Kari Louis, both awesome females that train with the 6 am Beast Club (if you're facebook friends with me, you know the 6am CF group very well from my daily posts - to those of you who have blocked me from your news feed as a result of those daily posts - SHAME ON YOU...you should use it to appreciate their badassery and motivate you to achieve the same). Along with the 3 female CFMC competitors, Alex Huffstetter and Daniel Hightower were coming along to compete in men's scaled division. Our fearless leader and WODmaster, Stacey "Dickey Blaze" Greenway would be there to "support" and "strategize" the day to help us achieve our best. OR....far more accurately, he would be there to take lovely during-WOD pictures that we would later steal his camera to dispose of.
I would be doing women's RX. Sure. Why not? Don't be intimidated that one of the WODs has atlas stones and ring pushups. Just give it your all and assume last place. :P What my attitude should have been: GO! Fight! WIN!
Also making appearances of awesomeness - my CrossFit Tuscaloosa family! Yay! Let's be honest - whole reason I came down (sorry spider monkey). Carla, Dayna, and Twinkie competing for the 2nd time. And bringing along JB, Stephanie, Candace, and Amy to power through a multi-wod competition to see if the loss of those CF Competition v-cards would be just the first of a lifetime love of CF competition. And who could forget Sarabeth. Oh Sarabeth. Everyone hates that you compete. No one likes you anymore. STOP WINNING EVERY SINGLE TIME! Thanks. Love, everyone who keeps coming in 2nd and 3rd and 4th ...and how ever many other places rest below you.
WOD 1 - 7 minutes of burpees. After extensive research (watching 5 minutes of Patrick "Manimal" Barber's facebook video analysis), I decided the best way to tackle this WOD would be to put tape right where my hands needed to hit so I could just jump up without looking. Don't look up - you'll get vertigo. Check. Ok. 3...2...1...immediately fall to the ground and pop back up. Over and Over again. Luckily, my "stickler for the rules" "can't be paid off" friend, Russell Moore from CrossFit Northridge, was my judge. Love the man, but hated hearing "NO REP!". But I kept going, and since I was next to the amazing Jessica Parks (who you can all watch on Team Iron Tribe at Regionals this week), I just kept moving. There was no keeping up, but there was keep moving. And nothing helps move you more than everytime you come up hearing Spider Monkey and Jonah from Brute Fitness yelling at you to drop back down. Their voices....truly something to hear. Once. and only once. Because even over the music and everyone else cheering, their voices have the power to blow out your ear drums (Disney will leave that part out - instead it will be a James Earl Jones voiceover narrated memory of a childhood accomplishment).
WOD 2 - OMG it's been so long I've pushed this out of my memory. Maybe because it was my disaster WOD. WOD 2 was 3 rounds of 15 ring pushups, 10 stone cleans (116/93 Rx/ 93/42 scaled). 12 min cut off. Awesome. Remember reading about Kristen and Emily (those bomb dot com girls who like to play with stones and other awkward objects). Now imagine them doing this WOD. Imagine Emily's super human legs powering up a 93# atlas stone. If that just made you smile, congratulations! You're a leg kind of person. CrossFit competitions are also good for writing Cosmo magazine type quizzes. In all fairness, even with superhuman strength and strange love of all things heavy and awkward, this WOD was a struggle for most. I only recall Sarabeth doing true touch and go on the cleans throughout the entire WOD.
Here was why this was my disaster WOD. It's a simple formula: Ring Pushups + Opal's jacked shoulders = no rep no rep rep. Upon seeing I was not going to be able to do the full ROM on these, Josh (head honcho of CrossFit Innovate and the mastermind behind this event) pulled me down to scaled for this WOD. Grrrr! Except not - in reality, this was the better choice to get in a solid WOD of doing hand-release pushups and the stone cleans and getting in a good WOD rather than stare at the rings for 12 min with a score of 0. While frustrating, I can't complain. I can just master the heck out of ring pushups once my shoulder can deal with the load at that angle.
It must be noted about this WOD though that both of my newbies from CFMC took on this WOD in true beast mode fashion. For their first competition, Kari and Alex better be pleased with 1st and 2nd place finishes on this WOD. They also exemplify something you learn in competition that is hard to truly comprehend when you're doing a WOD with the group. The true meaning of NO REP. It is one thing for your coach to correct you on standards in a group setting. It is entirely another to have a single person assigned to you watching every line in your body and nailing you with a No Rep when anything is off. These girls have pretty awesome pushups. And in the box, it may feel like they get it right everytime. But in a competition with good standards, you will NOT get away with missing out on standards. No siree bob. I believe Kari came off, even after a first place finish, with a "geez louisa may how many times did I get no repped?" face. It's why competition is a whole new ball game loves. And a game we LOVE!
WOD 3 - Chipper. 1000 m row. 10 Ground-to-OH (155/105 Rx; 95/55 for scaled). 20 Over the Box Jumps (24/20 - box jumps for scaled). 30 KB Swings (70/53 Rx; 53/35 Scaled). 40 Double Unders (singles for scaled). 50 m OH Walking Lunge to the finish. Between each station shuttle run back to the rower.
The 105 Ground-to-OH gave me some serious trouble. In our heat, Carla and I were at it forever. Poor shoulders. But I got through and was able to get 23 double unders in by the time cap. Sometimes your body says quit. Sometimes you hear a spider monkey and a brute saying otherwise. And sometimes, you're in your own head enough that you hear nothing else than the sound of your sweat pouring the pain from your body. WAIT? What? The sound of your sweat? You can hear that? Yes, my friends you can. If you haven't yet, sweat harder. Go harder. I'm particularly proud of my girl Dayna who went at this like a BOSS! She got a good ways into the double unders, her arch nemisis (correction: FORMER arch nemisis) and demonstrated true strength on the Ground-to-OH.
Daniel and Alex (thought I forgot about them didn't you?) finished out the day strong. Suffering through the final WOD, I could tell both men were just ready to get their beer on. I should point out that I suspect both of these guys signed up for this competition because it was in Tuscaloosa - their old college day haunts. TROUBLE. But if a desire to finish is there, I don't care if the desire is to finish at the podium or to finish at a bar crawl. Just get through the WOD and do the work.
Overall the day was a success. Kari and Alex finished out in 1st and 2nd place respectively in the scaled division. Guess what ladies - that means no more going scaled for y'all. Daniel and Alex finished toward the top of men's scaled. My scores don't matter because WOD 2 took me out of the RX scoring entirely. (though I will note I was very happy with my finishes in the other 2 wods). Jonah took 2nd in Rx men (sure he feels about Justin Goins who took first the way most women feel about Sarabeth on a regular basis). I would tell you that Sarabeth won women's RX but you already knew that. Crystal, Spider Monkey, and the Bomb Dot Coms kicked some serious butt and left me in amazement as always. Jessica has another multi-wod event under her belt to prep her for regionals. And Kathleen has shown a full recovery from her last atlas stone experience - see the post about Garage Games One.
And a serious proud shout out to the amazing efforts put on by my CF Tuscaloosa loves. Awesome possum. I will now have to plan a competition in Nashville just to have all y'all caravan up here to show off your impressive CrossFit skills.
A HUGE thanks to the volunteers (love you Russ & Susan) and the CrossFit Innovate team for putting on an amazing event. I can only imagine what next year has to bring.
So maybe it didn't change the whole entire world forever and ever. And MAYBE....Disney won't make a feel good movie about it - though they should. But babies were definitely saved, and for that they should be comforted.
I'm talking about the Garage Games Series CrossFit Innovate March of Dimes Throwdown (say that 3 times fast, I dare you). This annual event which started three years ago has grown to phenomenal proportions, all the way from being a humble fight gone bad throwdown with a few out-of-box members participating to a local throwdown to a Garage Games Series event that people came all the way from Nashville, Coweta, Huntsville, Gadsden, Florida, and yes...EUROPE (glad Kristen made her flight homne) to participate in.
The design was simple - start off with Open WOD 12.1. 7 minutes of burpees (with the surprisingly horrible 6 in jump - sorry am i triggering flashbacks? PTSD episodes? get thee to a box immediately and take down a WOD to remedy). After WOD 12.1, you would do 2 more events. Best score, as always, wins. Sweet. Simple. AWESOME.
I was coming down from CrossFit Music City along with two first time competitors - Alex Brigham and Kari Louis, both awesome females that train with the 6 am Beast Club (if you're facebook friends with me, you know the 6am CF group very well from my daily posts - to those of you who have blocked me from your news feed as a result of those daily posts - SHAME ON YOU...you should use it to appreciate their badassery and motivate you to achieve the same). Along with the 3 female CFMC competitors, Alex Huffstetter and Daniel Hightower were coming along to compete in men's scaled division. Our fearless leader and WODmaster, Stacey "Dickey Blaze" Greenway would be there to "support" and "strategize" the day to help us achieve our best. OR....far more accurately, he would be there to take lovely during-WOD pictures that we would later steal his camera to dispose of.
I would be doing women's RX. Sure. Why not? Don't be intimidated that one of the WODs has atlas stones and ring pushups. Just give it your all and assume last place. :P What my attitude should have been: GO! Fight! WIN!
Also making appearances of awesomeness - my CrossFit Tuscaloosa family! Yay! Let's be honest - whole reason I came down (sorry spider monkey). Carla, Dayna, and Twinkie competing for the 2nd time. And bringing along JB, Stephanie, Candace, and Amy to power through a multi-wod competition to see if the loss of those CF Competition v-cards would be just the first of a lifetime love of CF competition. And who could forget Sarabeth. Oh Sarabeth. Everyone hates that you compete. No one likes you anymore. STOP WINNING EVERY SINGLE TIME! Thanks. Love, everyone who keeps coming in 2nd and 3rd and 4th ...and how ever many other places rest below you.
WOD 1 - 7 minutes of burpees. After extensive research (watching 5 minutes of Patrick "Manimal" Barber's facebook video analysis), I decided the best way to tackle this WOD would be to put tape right where my hands needed to hit so I could just jump up without looking. Don't look up - you'll get vertigo. Check. Ok. 3...2...1...immediately fall to the ground and pop back up. Over and Over again. Luckily, my "stickler for the rules" "can't be paid off" friend, Russell Moore from CrossFit Northridge, was my judge. Love the man, but hated hearing "NO REP!". But I kept going, and since I was next to the amazing Jessica Parks (who you can all watch on Team Iron Tribe at Regionals this week), I just kept moving. There was no keeping up, but there was keep moving. And nothing helps move you more than everytime you come up hearing Spider Monkey and Jonah from Brute Fitness yelling at you to drop back down. Their voices....truly something to hear. Once. and only once. Because even over the music and everyone else cheering, their voices have the power to blow out your ear drums (Disney will leave that part out - instead it will be a James Earl Jones voiceover narrated memory of a childhood accomplishment).
WOD 2 - OMG it's been so long I've pushed this out of my memory. Maybe because it was my disaster WOD. WOD 2 was 3 rounds of 15 ring pushups, 10 stone cleans (116/93 Rx/ 93/42 scaled). 12 min cut off. Awesome. Remember reading about Kristen and Emily (those bomb dot com girls who like to play with stones and other awkward objects). Now imagine them doing this WOD. Imagine Emily's super human legs powering up a 93# atlas stone. If that just made you smile, congratulations! You're a leg kind of person. CrossFit competitions are also good for writing Cosmo magazine type quizzes. In all fairness, even with superhuman strength and strange love of all things heavy and awkward, this WOD was a struggle for most. I only recall Sarabeth doing true touch and go on the cleans throughout the entire WOD.
Here was why this was my disaster WOD. It's a simple formula: Ring Pushups + Opal's jacked shoulders = no rep no rep rep. Upon seeing I was not going to be able to do the full ROM on these, Josh (head honcho of CrossFit Innovate and the mastermind behind this event) pulled me down to scaled for this WOD. Grrrr! Except not - in reality, this was the better choice to get in a solid WOD of doing hand-release pushups and the stone cleans and getting in a good WOD rather than stare at the rings for 12 min with a score of 0. While frustrating, I can't complain. I can just master the heck out of ring pushups once my shoulder can deal with the load at that angle.
It must be noted about this WOD though that both of my newbies from CFMC took on this WOD in true beast mode fashion. For their first competition, Kari and Alex better be pleased with 1st and 2nd place finishes on this WOD. They also exemplify something you learn in competition that is hard to truly comprehend when you're doing a WOD with the group. The true meaning of NO REP. It is one thing for your coach to correct you on standards in a group setting. It is entirely another to have a single person assigned to you watching every line in your body and nailing you with a No Rep when anything is off. These girls have pretty awesome pushups. And in the box, it may feel like they get it right everytime. But in a competition with good standards, you will NOT get away with missing out on standards. No siree bob. I believe Kari came off, even after a first place finish, with a "geez louisa may how many times did I get no repped?" face. It's why competition is a whole new ball game loves. And a game we LOVE!
WOD 3 - Chipper. 1000 m row. 10 Ground-to-OH (155/105 Rx; 95/55 for scaled). 20 Over the Box Jumps (24/20 - box jumps for scaled). 30 KB Swings (70/53 Rx; 53/35 Scaled). 40 Double Unders (singles for scaled). 50 m OH Walking Lunge to the finish. Between each station shuttle run back to the rower.
The 105 Ground-to-OH gave me some serious trouble. In our heat, Carla and I were at it forever. Poor shoulders. But I got through and was able to get 23 double unders in by the time cap. Sometimes your body says quit. Sometimes you hear a spider monkey and a brute saying otherwise. And sometimes, you're in your own head enough that you hear nothing else than the sound of your sweat pouring the pain from your body. WAIT? What? The sound of your sweat? You can hear that? Yes, my friends you can. If you haven't yet, sweat harder. Go harder. I'm particularly proud of my girl Dayna who went at this like a BOSS! She got a good ways into the double unders, her arch nemisis (correction: FORMER arch nemisis) and demonstrated true strength on the Ground-to-OH.
Daniel and Alex (thought I forgot about them didn't you?) finished out the day strong. Suffering through the final WOD, I could tell both men were just ready to get their beer on. I should point out that I suspect both of these guys signed up for this competition because it was in Tuscaloosa - their old college day haunts. TROUBLE. But if a desire to finish is there, I don't care if the desire is to finish at the podium or to finish at a bar crawl. Just get through the WOD and do the work.
Overall the day was a success. Kari and Alex finished out in 1st and 2nd place respectively in the scaled division. Guess what ladies - that means no more going scaled for y'all. Daniel and Alex finished toward the top of men's scaled. My scores don't matter because WOD 2 took me out of the RX scoring entirely. (though I will note I was very happy with my finishes in the other 2 wods). Jonah took 2nd in Rx men (sure he feels about Justin Goins who took first the way most women feel about Sarabeth on a regular basis). I would tell you that Sarabeth won women's RX but you already knew that. Crystal, Spider Monkey, and the Bomb Dot Coms kicked some serious butt and left me in amazement as always. Jessica has another multi-wod event under her belt to prep her for regionals. And Kathleen has shown a full recovery from her last atlas stone experience - see the post about Garage Games One.
And a serious proud shout out to the amazing efforts put on by my CF Tuscaloosa loves. Awesome possum. I will now have to plan a competition in Nashville just to have all y'all caravan up here to show off your impressive CrossFit skills.
A HUGE thanks to the volunteers (love you Russ & Susan) and the CrossFit Innovate team for putting on an amazing event. I can only imagine what next year has to bring.
So maybe it didn't change the whole entire world forever and ever. And MAYBE....Disney won't make a feel good movie about it - though they should. But babies were definitely saved, and for that they should be comforted.
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