Fit By ___

Last weekend Team “Vicious and Delicious” entered the competition floor once again. This was our second CrossFit Competition and we were super pumped. Justin York and I fell in love with his CrossFit box in Florida called CrossFit ACR. (You can read about them on a previous blog here. )

While Justin and his family traveled down early, I waited to make the drive from Nashville on the day before the competition. (My plan was also to drive back after the competition… crazy, I know!) I left Friday, I made the drive to Florida and arrived just in time to meet Roy and Brandi (Barbell Voodoo) as well as Kris and Sara (CrossFit ACR) for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner and great  conversations. It was one of the highlights for my trip, for sure!

The next morning Justin and I arrived at CrossFit ACR and got everything set up for the day. We ended up having three known WODs and once surprise floater WOD. The floater WOD was a sled pull. Picture a tug of war with a weighted sled you had to pull back and fourth from partner to partner (About 85ft apart from each other). We had 5 minutes to complete as many trips pulling the sled as possible. (We got 6)

Here were to ones we knew….

They did change the jump rope buy ins to 200/400… so, there’s that. haha!

When all was said and done we ended up winning first place in the scaled division. We were shocked. In our heads, we were hoping for third place. I thought we did well and gave it everything we had, but thought we might be third place at best. Third place went to some younger guys who seemed to have been killing the WODs all day and then second place went to the guys who were positioned next to us in our heat each time. We knew they were fast and very athletic… we tried to play keep up with them. I knew we beat them in two WOD’s but didn’t really know what that meant overall with two scaled heats. Once those athletic guy next to us got called for second, I knew that we didn’t place at all. I remember turning to Justin and saying that it looks like we are getting another participation award for this one.

Then… they called out first place from Nashville, TN and all the emotions took over my body. I tried to play it cool, but it was one of the most excited times in my life. I didn’t know if I wanted to yell with excitement or cry with excitement… maybe I did both.

Justin and I are on this journey. We want to work hard and get better… to be more fit. We don’t look like the people who are supposed to win CrossFit events. We don’t look like people who should be the only team to finish WODs. We just don’t… and yet.

So many times in our lives we all make excuses. We allow negative talk to rule our lives. We think the voice that tells us that we can’t is correct and faithfully believe it.

Here I am, days later and still excited and in shock that we won. I keep thinking its a dream… a really great dream. Each day, this week, when I have gotten into my car I look over in the passenger seat and see the golden kettle bell award and I smile a little.

Why is this all a big deal to me?

1. Because stereotypes were shattered.
2. Because I called the “I can’t voice” a liar!
3. Because I though something like that was impossible for me.
4. Because it proves that you can do it too.

I’m nothing special. I’m just a guy on this journey to be fit by 40. I don’t have super powers, I haven’t had a surgery to make this process faster, and I haven’t done anything super natural. All I have done is change my food, work out consistently, and allowed myself to work through all the negative emotions that I carry on a daily basis.

I have believed a lot of things about myself in the past, like:

“I’m not ever good enough.”

“I’m to big to do that.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I will never be able to do that.”

“That I don’t fit in there.”

“I’m not a real athlete.”

“That I’m not worth the work.”

“That nothing I do makes a difference.”

“That I don’t have time.”

“I don’t have the money.”

“I’m ugly.”

“I’m to ____________.”

All of these things I have come to believe about myself. My life and experiences have proved them all to be true in some way or another… and yet.

Last weekend I gave all those things the middle finger and broke through the cloud a negativity. Sure it was a victory for our team and we feel good about that, but it was also a person break through for both of us in our pursuit of fitness. Body, Mind, and Soul.

My story is about a guy who doesn’t believe in himself, who found a new story to tell. May it be the same with you… find your new story and go after with all you’ve got! Just be sure to Keep Going!

By the way, I’m so thankful for the people who helped us get there:

Entre-Nous and Barbell VooDoo!

and our CrossFit boxes: CrossFit Combustion and CrossFit Trivium.