Gateway Garage Games 2013

Oh, hello Thursday. Nice of you to sneak up on me! We spent most of our weekend up at the Family Arena either spectating or competing in the Gateway Garage Games 2013, so I’ve been playing catch up and trying to recover as much as possible. It’s amazing what not having a weekend to clean, plan meals, grocery shop, and food prep will do to your week! I seriously feel like I’ve been drowning in my to do list all week!

Anyway, back to the competition. Friday afternoon we headed out to watch the first night of individual competition. Our box was sending 2 teams, but we didn’t compete until Sunday. When we walked into the arena and saw the set up it was that “oh crap, this is really happening” feeling. It’s one thing to do a throwdown at a local box, it’s another thing to see a huge pull up rig and lifting platforms set up in an arena like this.

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It was exciting to watch all the individuals compete in the first WOD which was a 10 minute cap for a 1 mile run and finding a 2 rep Max on Hang Cleans. It’d be a stretch for me to finish the mile in 10 minutes, let alone get a 2RM hang clean! It was exciting and there were several moments we were on the edge of our seats wondering if they would hit their lifts in time. I cheered louder than I have at any other sporting event!

We had classes on Saturday morning so we missed part of the competition but we showed up just in time to stalk casually run into Kate from CrossFit for Hope!

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I told her how much of an inspiration she is and then let her continue eating her lunch…

Anyway, we watched all afternoon as the individuals CRUSHED it.

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And then it was our turn. We got home prepped our stuff and were in bed by 9. When the alarm went off on Sunday morning I was ready to go!

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Yes, I had two Fitmark bags and a cooler full of food. You never know what you’re gonna need! We waited outside for a bit before doors opened and we went in and found our section. The place was buzzing with excitement. We found out we were going to be in the first heat, which wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but oh well. We went through the event briefing and then went outside for our first event… 4x400m Relay (8 min time cap) followed immediately by 1RM Snatch for each of the 4 members on the team (6 min time cap).

I was likely the slowest runner on our team so I went first. I just didn’t feel warmed up and couldn’t get speed at all. and my pants were falling down. The other 3 went after me and did awesome, but we finished in 5:11…. a decent time I thought… and under the 8 minute cap…. but we were literally last. When our 6 minutes for snatching started we had one judge, a mens bar, a womens bar, and a handful of weights. If you wanted more weights you had to run and get them. We threw on what we had to quickly get a score up. I started with 85lbs. Hit it easy. Went to 95lbs and hit it easy. We then jumped to 105 and I failed it twice in a row so I let my teammate go. She was able to get 105 and eventually 110. I went to try 105 again but time ran out right as I started to pull it. I know I could have gotten it. Ah well. I’m not sure how the scoring was set up exactly, but the run was weighted far heavier when it came to scoring than we thought. We finished 18th in the Snatch portion of the event putting up a combined team total of 555lbs.

It felt good to get the first event over with. There was a bit of a delay due to an injury so it was kind of hard to figure out cooling down/warming up for the next WOD along with fueling. Before we knew it we were setting up for our next event. This was a 6 min EMOM of 25 Double Unders and then as many Clean & Jerks as possible in the remaining time. Girls went first and we set it up to have my partner do the double unders and I would do the Clean & Jerks. It was supposed to be at 95lbs, but they ran out of weights so we got to do it at 85lbs. This event was in my wheelhouse for sure, love me some Clean & Jerks! The countdown was on and we were off! My teammate killed the double unders, giving me plenty of time to get in the Clean & Jerks.

It was a taxing, but fun, WOD. 6 minutes is a long time to do Clean and Jerks! The guys went after us and did awesome too. We could have been a little smarter on this WOD having both teammates technically allowed to do the Clean and Jerks instead of segmenting it like we did, lesson learned there. I gave it all on this one though.

Since we were behind schedule they cut out a scheduled break so there wasn’t much time in between this WOD and the next. I don’t think I drank enough and started to get a bit shaky. I was, however, super excited for our Final WOD. It was the most “WOD like” of all the WODs… 80 Kettlebell Swings — Females push Prowler while Males do Buddy Carry — 80 Goblet Squats — Males push prowler while Females do Buddy Carry — 80 Box overs. The Kettlebell movements and box overs had to be divided evenly between males and females, with the females completing their 40 reps before the males could start. The female kettlebell weight was supposed to be 44 but there was an equipment mix up and they ended up using 35. Considering I did a ton of training with the 53lb Kettlebell I was excited about that. The KB swings were easy.

My partner did 3/4 of the sled push and I just pushed the last 1/4 and jumped right into goblet squats. They burned but weren’t too bad. I ended up doing 25. Then it was time for the partner carry. Not only did we have to carry our partner, but we had to carry a kettlebell too! I carried my partner the full 100m.

Then we jumped (literally) right into box overs. I’m not sure how many I did I just kept going as much as I could. We finished that WOD right around 10:40 or so. I’m not sure how we could have gone faster, on the parter carry maybe? Any way, we didn’t make top 12 for finals so we were done for the day.

We got to watch our other team compete, they actually did amazing. I am super proud of both our teams. Over half our people had been CrossFitting for 6 months or less! We put it all out there and had a good time. Of course we wanted to place better, doesn’t everyone (except the 1st place team…) But we had fun, learned a lot, and really had an amazing time. We are already planning our next competition and figuring out how to improve for next year.

I think competing is an awesome motivator for anyone doing CrossFit. It kept me focused through the summer, pushed me to find an amazing nutrition coach (who came out on Sunday to support me!), and inspired me to work my weaknesses. I would, and plan on, doing it over and over again. Having a goal to shoot for and a team of people supporting you along your journey to that goal is really what this whole fitness thing is about for me. Small goals, big dreams… they add up. If you would have asked me a few years ago if I would be competing in anything physically active I would have laughed at you. If you would have told me that I would own a CrossFit and coach people on this journey to better themselves I would have probably had you institutionalized. Just another reason to never say never!

Have you ever competed? Would you?