What a weekend! I don't think I can really put my amazing experience into words but I will give it a try :)
Firstly I can't thank everyone at CrossFit Santa Cruz enough for their amazing support before and during the Games, this, without a doubt had a huge influence on my performance. Knowing I was being coached by incredible coaches really helped my confidence levels going into the Games. Thanks to Patrick and pals for helping me stay so relaxed during my lead up, I almost forgot we were competing until the day before when it dawned on me we had to run 7km and perform a max dead 40min later!!!! Thanks to Jobst and Eva T for their friendship and support, these are some REALLY cool people :) Thanks to Donna for her magic fingers, she was a lifesaver and to Matt for bringing kiwi (the pug)....sorry Ginger, you weren't cool!
Darren arrived in town ( a little worse for wear!! What did you guys do to him?) on the Thursday and we all headed out on Friday to register and catch some of the Affiliate Cup Games. Santa Cruz had an awesome team competing and ended up in 17th place out of about 99 which is an incredible performance. It was jaw dropping to watch Annie Sakamoto from Santa Cruz Central crank out 30 deadlifts at 60kg in warp speed (she probably weighs about 54kg!). The atmosphere was a great taster for what was to come on Saturday and I was super excited to be amongst it.
I had a game plan going into each event and made sure I stuck to it. The only thing that didn't go as planned was the last wod where i not only pulled my back severly after the first few reps but also smacked myself in the head with the bar!!! I think I was just saying to someone the other day...'How do you hit your head during a snatch?' Turns out, I know how.....
The run was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done to date. Beat the sand dune run hands down. I can't remember how many hills were involved but there were a few and they were steep and long and steep and long :) This is what I did about 5min after completing the run....
Patrick looks like he is about to pass out! Thank god you can't see my face!
Forty minutes later I pulled a PR deadlift of 112kg. Couldn't have asked for anything else but deads are a real weak lift for me so I knew I had to really push the run to get ahead in the points. I was stoked to finish 14th in the run. However my 49th place in the deadlift wod brought me back into about 20 something place. The 170m sand bag hill sprint was probably the highlight for me....That might have been because it was over in 1.11min, or maybe because I seemed to have had quite a good race and ended up with the 7th fastest time ;) I was in 16th place going into the row/sledgehammer wod.
Yes this hurt my neck!!
The row/sledgehammer wod was pretty comical! Watching the fittest men and women in the world taking wild swings at a tiny stake was pretty demoralising and mildly humorous at the same time! I thought I had a pretty good run with my stake, however I was wondering why no matter how hard a smacked the thing it didn't seem to be moving? Turns out that the middle athletes were consistently slower at hitting their stakes in than the outside athletes? mmmmm....bummer for me! I still managed to get 26th place in this wod despite my less than average rowing and hammering skills :)
Sledgehammer anyone?!
Going into the last wod I was in 18th place. I was pretty happy to be in this position given the huge bias towards stronger individuals throughout the day. I was mentally prepared for the wall ball/snatch wod but physically I was barely holding on with my teeth! I had tweaked my back earlier in the day on a deadlift attempt and it was manifesting into something quite nasty several hours later. Getting timed out of wod 5 with about 7 reps to go was pretty devastating but given the circumstances I feel like I pushed it as hard as I could and really couldn't do anymore! This train wreck took me right back to 38th place!
My worst nightmare!
The atmosphere and people during the weekend were amazing! Highlights for me were (in no order):
- making a whole new bunch of friends
- watching Charity Vale smash the last workout
- Starting the 7km run with 139 other CrossFit athletes
- Competing in front of such an awesome, supportive, excited crowd!
- Jolie's LEGIT burpees
- Jason Khalipa clawing his way back to top 10 after passing out on the run!
- Chris Spealler is the nicest man alive...its official!
- Watching Patrick smash his sandbag run
- Being amongst the fittest men/women alive!!
- Tanya Wagner is a top chick!
- Mikko Salo....enough said :)
- Nadine's deadlift!
- Nadine :)
- Danielle and Hollis from Santa Cruz...best coaches.
- Darren for pushing through his illness to support me
- Surviving Day 1
- Caning the sandbag hill sprint.
- Deadlift PR
- Donna's massage table (and Donna :))
I have spent the last week in a carbohydrate coma, which is now the norm for post competition! My back is feeling a lot better and think it is going to be fine with a bit of treatment and rest. I haven't made any sturdy goals for the coming year but I am really enjoying being home chilling and coaching our wonderful crew at CFNZ. They have been getting super strong behind my back so good thing I came home to do something about that ;) Thanks to Amanda for holding the fort while we were away, I hear she did a stellar job...you rock!
Great work taz, happy to be around to help in anyway I could. I am sorry you and ginger did not bond, you may have to give her a second chance in nz. rest up, eat eat eat!
Posted by: donna- MaD Crossfit | July 19, 2009 at 01:30 PM
This is great read.
Thanks Taz
Dom (CFB)
Posted by: Dominic McKenna | September 25, 2009 at 01:23 PM