First of all I wanted to say Hello and Welcome to all the new visitors from SkinnyMeg and Fit and Free With Emily! I absolutely adore both of those ladies and I am honored to be featured on their sites! If you are stopping by from either of their pages leave me a comment and let me know! I love meeting new people! Also – I have a pretty sweet Sparkly Soul giveaway going on, so make sure to enter that!
Now, on to the juicy part… The part where I show you pictures of 2 amazingly fit guys working out (shirts optional). Last night I got to be a part of the live audience for the Announcement of CrossFit Open Workout 13.4 For those of you who are new or unfamiliar with CrossFit, check out my post “What is The CrossFit Open?” – Summarized version: The CrossFit Open is a 5 week world wide competition. A new workout is released each Wednesday for 5 weeks. They do these announcements live in different CrossFit Gyms around the country. Then immediately after the announcement two elite athletes compete head to head in that week’s workout… This all eventually leads to the CrossFit Games in July.
So, last night’s announcement was at a local CrossFit – about 30 minutes from where we live. So, of course, we were going to be there!
We had heard that previous Open WOD announcements had lines of people waiting to get in and running out of space, so we arrived extra early to make sure we got a good spot. The doors were going to open at 5:30 and we got there at 3:30. We were 8th in line. Yes, we are crazy. A little after 4 the line started to get pretty thick.
Once we got inside we got an awesome seat right in the middle on the second row of bleachers. They had free food and beer and everyone was just hanging out having fun. CrossFitters know how to party, y’all. Miranda Oldroyd was there. I love her! She has an amazing story about how CrossFit literally saved her life on her blog. You really must read it, it is unbelievable. They had a few contests between the trainers of the host gym as well as a strict dead hang pull up contest. Miranda busted out 18. That is crazy. EIGHTEEN STRICT DEADHANG PULL UPS. Check out the muscles on this girl…
Sidenote: Miranda is probably one of the more “bulkier” women in CrossFit. A lot of women are afraid to lift heavy because they don’t want to get bulky. I used to be that way. This physique would be something I previously thought was a little too muscular for me, but now I know the work it takes to look that way so I respect it. This did NOT come from casual lifting. She trains competitively. This is NOT from putting 5 pound plates on the end of her barbell. She easily took 135 pounds from the ground to overhead yesterday. So don’t use not wanting to get bulky as an excuse not to lift heavy. End Rant.
Then it was time for the Athletes to arrive. Facing off in the workout would be Six Time CrossFit Games Competitor Chris Spealler and 2010 CrossFit Games Champion Graham Holmberg. They spent some time warming up and getting in the zone.
Before they started the workout they had to find out what it was! With much anticipation it was time for the announcement. Open WOD 13.4 would be:
So it was a 7 minute timed event. The male athletes had to do 135 pound clean and jerk (Bar goes from ground to shoulder, then from shoulder to overhead) and Toes to Bar, which Julie Foucher is demonstrating in the picture above.
Literally just a few minutes after hearing the workout the timer started 3…2…1….GO!
It was a 7 minute frenzy! These guys were incredible. Spealler, the crowd favorite, pulled ahead during the round of 12 by going unbroken on the Toes to Bar. He kept the lead until the end winning with 110 reps over Holmberg’s 102. One of my favorite things about CrossFit is exemplified in that last picture of the collage above. Both men were spent. Both men gave their all. But they, even in their exhausted state, took time to congratulate each other on a job well done.
After the camera’s turned off people were flocking to meet the athletes, poor guys were still spent though.
After we got to walk around and meet everyone Dave Castro announced that Rory McKernan and Adrian Bozman would go head to head too. Apparently they have been doing it each week after the announcement and Rory was in the lead by just 3 points. Until Last night.
Rory was ahead for the first half but eventually fell behind and Boz took the win! Watch the footage here
The whole event was such a blast. I can’t tell you enough how much I love the community that is CrossFit. Jason Khalipa said it best when he said nothing brings you closer to someone than suffering through the same thing with them. That’s what we do day after day, WOD after WOD. I’m so glad to have found such an amazing sport and community to be involved in.
These guys are my biggest supporters! I don’t know what I’d do without them!
Have you been to a live event like this? Did it pump you up?
Who are your biggest supporters?
imperfectly courtney 
omg I would be SO pumped! I wish they would do the next one here in DC. Oh well! Sounds like a blast and I most definitely woudl have been in line with you at 3:30! A great workout too — did mine this AM!
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It was SO fun. Seriously, CrossFitters know how to party. It is a good WOD! Though I suck at T2B, lol.
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Looks like a super fun way to spend the evening! I am intrigued by crossfit but living in a small rural area I don’t think such exists here.
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They are everywhere – you should look it up! You can do some of the workouts on your own!
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umm…can I tell you how much I’m smitten by Speal?! Seriously jealous you got to go, I definitely watched the broadcast twice. This seems like a BRUTAL WOD. I despise toes to bar! UGH! I definitely respect Miranda’s body as well and honestly? If I somehow miraculously end up looking like that? I’d be ok with it. haha!
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He is SO sweet. For real. But so small! Holy cow, I’m amazed at how much he can lift compared to his size. He is 151lbs… and was doing 135 C&J like it was nothing. SO unreal.
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Very cool experience girl!
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Awesome post and photos and experience 🙂 So awesome!!
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Hi Courtney! I found you through SkinnyMeg and I am also addicted to CrossFit and just started the first week of January. I have never been leaner and in better shape (I still have about 15lbs to lose). I’m also doing mostly clean eating (Paleo-ish as someone else said) and really love the way I’m feeling lately!
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So nice to meet you Jenn! Love me some Skinny Meg! I have been going strong since June of 2012 and I have a long way to go, but I’m in the best shape of my life too!! I’m typically Paleo-ish but am doing a Whole30 this month! Can’t wait to see my results!
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I sure wouldn’t complain if I looked like Miranda!
What a cool experience. I watched it online but would love to be able to see these athletes one day. Stupid Canada and nothing cool ever happening here.
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It was so fun! Seriously electric. Ah Canada… I’m surprised they aren’t doing anything there actually! There are some big CF up there I think!
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I am SO jealous you got to experience the Open WOD Live! It seems you had an awesome time. I wish I could borrow Speal’s motor for 13.4!
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He was unreal. It blows my mind that he weighs 151 and was doing the WOD with 135. Seriously, dude is beast.
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How exciting to be able to be there and watch live!!! I would have been in line that early too! Oh, and I’ll take Miranda’s “bulky” physique any day! I hate when people say that crap too about “not wanting to get bulky” – they truly have NO IDEA what it would take to get that look!
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AH! For real! I’m like do you know how hard they work to look that way? You don’t get that way on accident people!!
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Man, Miranda is sexy! I have only watched her from the Games recap shows over the summer and never seen her actually working out, but wow her back is amazing!! And love that you have to put in the disclaimer about being bulky lol
That is SO awesome that you got to be right there. Literally next to Spealer, and that you probably got sweat on from Rory. Jealous! 😉
Crossfit is seriously lifechanging. It is the best thing in my life right now, and I can tell it is for you as well ! (well, next to hubby and daughter) 😉
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Seriously, I was lusting over Miranda. I was like that is a lot of muscle. can I just have half that? ha. She busted out those pullups like nothing. Strict, Deadhang pullups. 18. Shut the front door. I got sweat on from Spealler and Rory. ha. Rory’s preworkout? Corona. Dude is hilarious.
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I was there too 🙂 It was so awesome! My fiance and I were laughing that these athletes are much cooler for us to see live than TV or movie stars. I was slightly worried my eardrums would explode, it was so loud in there! Great experience!
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It was CRAZY loud. Do you workout at TNT?!
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I don’t, it seems like a really nice gym though. My fiance was in a competition there a few weeks ago so I spent a loooot of time there those two days lol. I workout at Crossfit St. Louis since we live in Clayton. I’ve only been doing it for a few months but I love it!
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