Rest day.
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
- Seneca
This is the first addition of five seperate parts of Big Jon's write-up. Enjoy.
Songs & stories from a trip to Carson
By Jon Kissick
If you talked with anyone at the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games who had been to any of the previous six CrossFit Games, the conversation would eventually touch on how different these Games are from what they were in 2008 or 2009 or whenever. It was an unavoidable topic and readily apparent to anyone in attendance. Eventually the conversation would drift to conjecture about the nature of this growth curve. Where will the Games go or look like in the future? Plotting from the previous six data points it’s anybody’s guess. Are we looking at a linear growth curve, or something exponential? Where will this sporting event be in 5, 10 or 20 years? I heard some very interesting guesses.
Between 2011 and 2012 the main changes I saw were:
1) The scale: last year you could almost always find empty seats in the track stands. This year they expanded the track stadium seating by 2,000 seats and not only were there no empty seats, but it was over a dozen deep for standing room at the fence compared to three last year.
2) The respect shown the athletes: other than the lack of aid stations along the triathlon course, the support facilities offered the athletes was noticeably better than last year. Two massive air conditioned tents, one on the Galaxy field and one behind the masters competition space was a major step up from the floor of the staging area under the Home Depot Center last year. Each tent was littered with big screen TV’s, posted heat schedules and warm up times, copious amounts of good food, random swag and physical/massage therapists waiting to work on the athletes.
3) The vibe of the athletes: for me the biggest change between these two years was the overwhelming perception that these were no longer amateur or community athletes but more and more like professional or Olympic level athletes. I have no data to support this perception, but I couldn’t avoid the sense that the caliber and quality of athletes competing was a little higher and more consistent than last year. If that is in fact a trend, then I am really curious where this bus will end up.
As for the FRCF athletes, I for one will say trying to keep up with an Affiliate Cup Team, three women and one masters athlete is a triathlon I am happy not to run for at least another year. Seriously. It was logistically impossible and physically/mentally draining to keep up with all the heats and events going on at Carson. Next year I am bringing a pedometer to actually track the distance I cover between the track, the stadium, the master’s pit, our tent and the athlete’s tent. Everybody should give a major shout out to Skip and Brad for keeping it fun, keeping it together and generally (usually) being at least half a step ahead of the craziness.
And a major shout out to Kadir for convincing the Manhattan Beach Police that it was a customary practice in the country where we come from for a Coach to take his athletes for an ocean swim only after ALL the bars had closed. Penance to the Gods for good speed next year or something was what I think Kadir told the cops. Work hard. Play hard. It’s a law in some universe.
Although local gyms Invictius and SPC clearly had the largest cheering sections, it was apparent that FRCF is not an unknown commodity in the CrossFit community. I was stopped a number of times throughout the weekend while wearing my FRCF Blues by people who wanted to comment on the class and fitness of our athletes, or to mention that they or a friend had stopped in for a workout while traveling and wanted to share a favorable impression.
In fact when our girls returned from Pendleton they had somehow picked up Christy Philips’ gear bag. So while we were at the athlete’s party on Wednesday night Pete went looking to see if he could return the pack. Traveling around the Manhattan Beach Marriot Pete ran into Pat Sherwood, of the update show. Pat seeing the FRCF shirt said hi and commented on how well our gym was doing. Pete said “yeah, yeah, whatever, can you get me in touch with Christy Philips”. Pat said sure, gave Pete her phone number and headed off.
When Pete called Christy and introduced himself as ‘Pete from Front Range CrossFit’ she said she’d be happy to meet him back by the back stairs. I know, amazing. When Pete caught up with us later by one of the many open bars he said pointing to his FRCF shirt, ‘these things are like a whole ‘nother set of credentials around here’.
True Dat.
“Well I’ve been across this country
from Denver to the ocean
and I never met girls who could sing so sweet
like the angels that live in Houston”
Roll me easy - Little Feat
