Going, going...gone

I just competed in my third CrossFit Games. It’s been two years since my last trip to Carson. Here's my story of the 2015 Games.

Sunday July 19^th

Seeing my beautiful daughter, Justine, immediately upon landing could not have made me happier. Well the turkey and blueberries she had for me came in a close second. AND she was ready with the Uber app to get us a taxi.

I could use that height for rowing, you know.

It wasn’t long and we were walking into the Manhattan Beach Marriott to register and pick up my games equipment. It was exciting for me to have Justine there. The other two years I did this alone.

There was a short wait for one of the Reebok reps to come and take us into the change area where we walked to a high bar table. He placed a BIG box labelled with my name on the table and handed me a new sports bag. I was waiting for him to open the box but he knew how to make it fun. He explained how the uniforms were chosen this year and pointed out the gal who designed them. He talked about a special make-up kit she put together for each Master’s athlete. It included waterproof mascara that I hope you all noticed me wearing. Finally he smiled at the look on my face or maybe at the size of my biceps and opened the box.

It took forever to try it all on. And I mean trying just one of everything since we received multiples of each piece. It did get my shoulders mobile.

Next was the accessories stop. I was pretty sure we were getting a pair of shoes but when my Reebok rep told me we were getting five pairs of shoes my jaw dropped. Trying on five pairs of shoes took even more time. Justine was an angel not saying a word as I tried on each pair at least three times. She packed each pair into the new bag. We moved on to get a water bottle, a hat, a toque, a swim cap (EEK!! Courtney!!), five pairs of socks, knee sleeves and headbands. It was crazy!

Back to the Uber taxi and off to our house in Venice, CA. It was really nice but no AC. That was a slight oversight when booking. I hit the pillow with quite a headache that night. I’m pretty sure it was not enough food.

Monday July 20^th

I woke up feeling much better. We headed over to Duece CrossFit where we met Logan, coach/owner. Coach Chad was in heaven. Logan ran Strongman seminars, which meant the box was very well outfitted for a Strongman workout. However, I’ve never heard someone complain so much about the heat. #itssohotouthere #imdieing #clairemorewater

Nicole, Claire, Justine and Matt did the class WOD. I think there were some Grace PR's!!! I worked on 10 repetitive snatches, T2B, C2B and some of the fun things being done in the WOD such as rolling pistols.

CrossFitters always have arms around each other.

Coach Chad and I took off soon after this for the Stubb Hub Center in Carson for a briefing on the WODs. This year was a little different than what I knew from previous years. Coaches and athletes were going to be very separate. Our coach could only come into the warm up area with us. We were walked into the stadium the way we would go before each workout and the coaches went a different way. This was my view as we headed down the tunnel into the stadium for the first time.

My first look at ZEUS.

What we found out at this briefing was that we had to be present each morning at 7:30 am to get the real briefing on each day’s WOD's. So much for knowing a little more.

We got moved to our warm up area to wait for our coaches. It was a mass workout going on before anyone could say 3 2 1 go. We all wanted to test the equipment. I immediately noticed the Free From treadmills and wondered if this was a clue to our 1000 m run. Needless to say I jumped on that first to figure it out. Next I moved to the pull up bars. WOW they were high, higher than I had ever practised on, but not too bad. We would have a block to the side if needed to step up on. I didn't give that pull-up bar much more thought at the time.

Tuesday July 21st

The Triplet

To be honest I can't remember a thing about starting this workout. All I remember is finishing the first GHD's and running up to the ZEUS rig. I'm not sure what it looked like for you, the spectators, but it truly was ominous. It was like a Transformer ready to reach out and grab me. What I'm about to explain happened in less than 2 seconds so keep that in mind. I run up to Zeus with great confidence that I will jump to that pull-up bar and knock out my first 3 C2B's. I get under that pull-up bar and look up. (remember, MAYBE 2 seconds) It felt like I stood there and just stared. As I looked up it was dizzying. I could see my pull-up bar and the other huge bar at the top of Zeus and then to the cloudy sky that had no ceiling. What I couldn't tell was exactly how high my pull-up bar was. My depth perception was shot. I jumped thinking, "Please let me catch that bar."

After that lucky jump I went straight to the box at the side knowing this was not going to go like it did in practise. The C2B's in this workout proved to be my undoing. I was not prepared for Zeus. The 16th place finish really didn't bother me, surprising even to me. I knew there were a lot of points up for grabs yet and some of them were going to be after my name.

Max Thruster
I'm very proud of this workout. I thrustered 160# even though it got no-repped for my feet moving. My successful 157# got me a 1st place tie. Looking back on this event, I waited too long to attempt 157#. I knew I would have time for three attempts BUT I had to be absolutely sure that 157# was going up so I used up a substantial amount of time resting for it. An error? Perhaps.

SQT
The practise run-through of this workout really hurt and as such, I was most nervous about this one. It was way too fast to make mistakes. I worked very diligently on visualising how it would go and continued to tell myself it was a good workout for me.

At the end of round two I found myself in a good place. In a field of 20 athletes it's hard to know where you are in the mix. I made a mental mistake by thinking Cindy Kelly, next to me was my only competition. When I picked the bar up for the 3rd round of snatches before she did plus saw her stop in that last set of 10, I slowed down thinking I could take a little break. We both, however, were being clearly beaten down the row by two other gals who found another gear for round 3, Kelli Dean and Tracy MacEachern. I was disappointed in my performance in this workout because I didn't feel completely drained after. It was kind of, sort of an indicator that I didn't leave it all on the field. That's NOT the person I want to spend more time with at the finish line.

Wednesday July 22nd

The Long Chipper
During the briefing of this event we discovered that the run would include an uphill climb three times. I knew this would not be as fast as my flat road run in the practise. AND I only had about a minute to spare in the practise run over the time cap given to us. Therefore it would be a race to get as far as I could into these reps. And I would have to have to face that pull-up bar owned by Zeus. Coach Chad had me prepare for this by practising how to get my grip in place as I anchored myself with my foot against Zeus. Only then would I move into my kip and get going. This all had to happen swiftly and efficiently. Another mistake I made was not preparing for 10 ft wall ball shots. Remind me, please, to always throw to the 10 ft target and maybe even use a 16# ball. :) That should prepare me.

This one I remember the beginning well. We all had to stand touching the marker for our lane in the red paint. My judge tells me as soon as we start I can cut past my marker into the blue to head for the stairs. Great, I thought. Apparently no other judge told their athlete that because I was the only one who cut into the blue. I was sure someone would be coming out to grab me (maybe Zeus) and tell me I was disqualified for it. All was well.

It was so hard to tell where we were in this run as we all had to run to our lanes to enter the field. I was sure I was behind even though the run felt quite good. I got to that 70# med ball go to it. There's some good and bad about the announcers. I focus on concentrating on my movements and yet you can hear them and want to listen to get a sense of where you are in the mix. Apparently I wasn't as far behind as thought on the run or the med balls went really fast because I get to the box jump-overs tied in first. Nice I thought. This is fun. I really did feel great all through this part. Then...Zeus and the C2Bs. I was prepared this time. Our practise payed off. They went much better than on Day 1. I definitely didn't stay in first place but ended this event in 8th place. I was surprised at that...and pleased.

Double Hanger
At this point I was running out of workouts to get close to the podium. These last two workouts, including this one, went well in the run-through. I knew this was about controlling the DU's. I could go unbroken on the hang C&J. So the plan was to be slow and controlled on my DU's to save grip and forearms for the C&J. I felt really confident about this plan.

And now I start laughing almost hysterically as I go back to this workout in my head. I totally panicked from the first set of DU's. You know how I said earlier hearing the announcers can be good or bad. Here they were bad BUT it was my choice to let them influence me that way. I could hear them saying names of other athletes that were heading to the C&J and I had at least 30 DU's left to do. It was a total rookie reaction. Change my plan on the fly. And then it began. Trip up after trip up on the DU's. I finally get to the C&J and do them unbroken. If I had been listening then to the announcers I would have heard how I moved ahead of several athletes on my unbroken C&J's and MAYBE could have calmed myself down. That would have been a veteran reaction but no. I chose to throw my plan out the window with the kitchen sink and play another game. Anyway it makes me laugh because I remember right now how I felt right then. It was total panick. And that person is NOT who I want to meet at the finish line either.

The Sandwich
What can I say. I stuck to my plan and it worked. :) I wish I could have watched my judge's fingers more closely. I watched my interview. Man, I'm crazy...just slow down, stay calm and don't look so psycho. Sheesh.

With Aaron and Liz!!!

Final workout ~ Amanda
Coach Chad says the right thing 95.5% of the time. This was one of them "Hey, it's not what we hoped for but it's gives you a chance to prove yourself." Yes, Coach, it does.

I knew, in fact most of us knew we wouldn't finish in the time cap. Shellie E in 5th place knew she would and Tracy M in 2nd thought she had a chance. Shellie did indeed finish. I watched the replay of this workout and admire how calm and steady she was. She has a pretty deep gymnastics background but still worked very methodically at every rep. The rest of us got caught on bent arms in the bottom or lockout in the dip.

Again, no idea where I finished in this workout but I was certain I fell out of 3rd place. I am disappointed in myself that I didn't look to the crowd to wave at all my Synergy family who were cooking in the sun to watch me. They deserved a wave from me. All I was thinking about is that I will finish this workout in this time cap over the next year.

Back in the tunnel.
The 10 of us headed back into the tunnel. Our Reebok team told us to hang on as they need 3 people to go for drug testing. The first name they say is "Laurie with the long last name". Tracy M gives me a sideways hug and says "What's wrong?". I obviously was not hiding my stunned look. I said, "Oh no there's a mistake. Check that again." The Reebok gal smiled. I said, "Really there's a mistake. Check again." I'm not sure if my resolve not to accept her stats put everyone on alert but the drug testing got put on hold. 1st and 2nd were definite but 3rd place was definitely being verified. There were 5 of us sitting waiting for the results. Cindy Kelly with 1st, Tracy MacEachern in 2nd, and Sue Habbe who went into the final in 4th but finished ahead of me in the final, and Shellie Edington who was 5th going into the final but won it, and me. Shellie and Sue each thinking they may have jumped to 3rd and me who definitely thought I did not.

Had I made that thankful and grateful look to my fans in the crowd before leaving the stadium floor I might have seen Coach Chad and Matty B waving frantically. They had already done the math and knew that I hung onto 3rd place by 2 points. Anyway, when we got the definite, final results in the tunnel I still didn't believe it and as dehydrated as I was, still had some tears.

Remember reading one of my posts on "winning" and how I decided to see "winning"? And of course there was Coach Chad's great response to my whining about my performance in The Open. Well I can tell you that stepping onto that podium in the 3rd place spot was ... winning at it's finest.

This year was very different for me, going back. It wasn't my agenda. It was a bigger one. Thanks, Gen Grant, for this. It came with me to Carson.

I always pray with joy...being confident of this,

that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion

until the day of Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 1: 3-6 (NIV)