One year ago, I naively signed up for my first CrossFit Open.
I had been doing CrossFit for about six months. Most of the members of my box were relative newbies, not just to CrossFit, but to high intensity training and barbells.
We all knew we were far from being seasoned CrossFitters, though some of us were seasoned recreational athletes. At that time, none of us had ever competed in this realm. We figured it was a way to put some more fire into our WODs, so we signed up.
It turned out to be one of the most emotionally and physically demanding things I had ever done. I wrote about it extensively.
Back in the day, when I was a kid, there was no such things 24 x 7 x 365 sports channels. There was ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Every week, they opened with the tag line, “The Joy of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat!”
Those words rattled in my brain for the weeks we did the 2013 Open. I know this will sound perverse, but the “defeat” was the sweetest thing I have ever experienced. Why? Because it was in our weakness and in our failure that we grew as athletes. It was in that pain and despair that we grew as friends. The 5:30 and 6:30 CF2a Crews bonded tightly during those weeks.
The 2013 Open was really the genesis of the Defiant Wellness blog, as I used the platform to journal my highs and lows. If you have are thinking of doing the CrossFit Open for the very first time, or you want to revisit last year, here is my summary of the CrossFit 2013 Open.
Not signed up yet? What are you waiting for? Do it right now!
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