CrossFit Games 2008
CrossFit Games 2008
First off, let me say thanks to everyone who supported me on my way to the Games. The hard work and sore muscles are all worth it in the end. I did not have quite the results I thought I would have over the course of the weekend’s events, but despite having my ass handed to me, I had an absolute blast. I have no excuses for my form, I just didn’t have it where I thought I would. I could blame it on lack of sleep, bad judgment on my part in the “Fran” workout, or hitting my peak a week too early – who knows.
There was some debate after the fact about what kind of athlete this year’s games lent themselves to, but it’s a moot point. I was personally hoping to see a long, 15-20 minute WOD involving multiple disciplines at high intensity and pushing the envelope of endurance to possibly separate the field a bit more, but it’s neither here not there at the moment.
All the events were roughly 3-4 minutes long for elite level competitors and at the end it was suggested they appeared to be better for some of the more powerful guys with a high strength and more short term burst power. But, that being said, Chris Spealler, James Fitzgerald (OPT), Dutch Lowy, Brett Marshall (AFT) and Pat Barber are all 175 lbs. and below and still had incredible showings. In the end, the most well conditioned athlete was able to face down the challenges thrown at him or her through various physical challenges, testing all the metabolic pathways, and walk away the deserved victor. The beauty is that next year, the format and events will again be a surprise and it will be nothing like this year’s.
I will say this though, in all my years as a competitor in some brutal athletic endeavors, I have never done something quite as hard, yet enjoyable, as the CF Games. Although the workouts were short, they were incredibly taxing and the cumulative effect was very noticeable. I have never been around so many tremendously well-rounded, unbelievably fit athletes across all spectrums of physical fitness – there is no specialization in CF and it showed here. We all know I am fit, very fit, but take my fitness and multiply that by 2 and you have the top 10 of this years Games with the events set up as they were. There were over 200 male and 100 female competitors – all of them were studs regardless of ability.
I also have never been around a more supportive and friendly group of athletes ever, regardless of ability, placing, or rivalry, everyone was cheering for one another and congratulating each other on placings and times. You will be hard pressed to find that in any other sporting event. These were the best athletes, men and women, I have been around in so many ways and that says a lot having seen and done what I have in my past athletic conquests. Additionally, there were loads of vendors and spectators there as well to add to the atmosphere and good times.
The events and format were revealed to all competitors with two days to go before the Games. This was done so athletes could get themselves ready for the rules and regulations they needed to adhere to and understand how the program would be run. At this point, time for training was up and you were going into the Games with what you had under your belt. We were not told what Sunday’s event was – that would be revealed on Saturday after the first three events were completed.
Workout “A” consisted of doing reps of 21-15-9 of 95 Lbs. Thrusters (a front squat exploding up into a shoulder press and back down, etc.) and pull-ups. Do 21 Thrusters, do 21 pull-ups, then 15 Thrusters, 15 pull-ups, etc. The rub was in the pull ups in that the CHEST must touch the bar, not the chin over the bar, but chest must touch or no count on the rep. This would make all the difference in the world.
Workout “B” was 5 rounds of 5 Deadlifts of 275 Lbs. followed by 10 burpees. The deadlifts had to be complete in their range of motion and the burpees had to have chest and thighs touch the ground at the bottom and then a jump with an overhead clap at the top. The very heavy deadlifts followed by a brutal body weight exercise was a killer combo sure to put you in some oxygen debt for some added fun.
Workout “C” was a 750 meter, timed hill run on a very steep, sandy hill. It consisted of one lap of an outer ring, a brutal descent and then ¾ lap of a smaller loop uphill and then a quick descent to the finish.
Competitors were given the option of choosing the order they wished to tackle the events in. I chose them as “A”, “B”, and “C”, figuring that would be best for me. There would be exactly 4 hours of time between events.
Workout “A” – When doing a regular “Fran” workout, the gold standard for elite athletes is sub 3 minutes. I can bang out Fran in 2’43”, which puts me in some pretty elite company, but knowing what the format was, I knew a fast “Fran” time really meant nothing on game day. I knew that this attempt would be more taxing due to the pull up requirement and most times would be in the 3 minute range for the best of the competitors. The biggest issue facing athletes would be missed reps, either in the thrusters or pull ups, which would mean a tremendous amount of extra work expenditure. I was resolute that I was not going to miss reps.
I planned on tempoing through my heat at about 80% of maximum. I was more concerned with the remaining two events and wanted some gas in the tank. I chose to do my 21 thrusters at a nice consistent tempo so as not to blow up a minute later. I hit the pull up bar, easily banged out 10 reps, dropped quickly to shake out the arms and hit the last 11 reps. I can do over 40 pull ups in a row, so my pause was not a forced rest, it was a decision to stave off fatigue. The next set of thrusters was fine, I took a moment of rest at the top rack position after number 10 and finished up before hitting the pull ups. I did 10, shook out and hit the last 5, but now the forearms were starting to hurt. The extra 6 inches of travel and pull was becoming a monster on the forearms. The last 9 went fine except I missed the last two reps on the pull-ups due to the fatigue from the extra travel. I finished in 4’30” and quickly concurred with everyone else, that was nothing like “Fran”, it was brutally harder. My choice to take breaks and not redline myself in an effort to save some energy would bite me in the ass later on in time lost and never regained.
Workout “B” – After a good rest and recovery, I came into this hoping to make up some ground and finish around 3’30”. It was not to be. After the first round, I knew I was not feeling good - there was no gas in the tank. Despite regularly doing heavy deadlifts like this in training, I was straining under the load, getting through my 5 reps at a much slower pace then I had planned. My burpees were hell and I began to break them up at round 4. This is not a normal thing for me when I am faced with less than 20 burpees to do at a time. I was flat and losing time. I finished in 4’35”, which was far off my planned pace and a good chunk back of the winning time. I was not happy with the way things went and I knew it was going to be tough for me to make up a lot of ground now. I had to rely on the run and hope Sunday’s workout was in my favor.
Chris Spealler (CrossFit Park City, Utah) was the current overall leader. Chris is a genetic freak of nature. At 5’6” and 135 Lbs, he destroyed the “Fran” workout, and obliterated the field in the Deadlift workout. Think about this and appreciate it for what it is worth - Chris was deadlifting twice his bodyweight and made it look sickeningly easy before dropping into burpees and banging them out like nothing. Chris placed 4th in 2007 at the Games, which were won by James Fitzgerald (OPT) from Canada, who was close behind this year. Brett Marshall (AFT) from Canada was second last year, but was not faring quite as well this year, but still a threat. Josh Everett, 3rd in 2007, was still in contention and pre-event favorite Dutch Lowy (CrossFit A&M-Tx.) was staying in contact with the top 5, as was Pat Barber (CrossFit Santa Cruz Central). Other dark horses were creeping up in the forms of Rick Farusto (CrossFit Omaha), Matt Chan (Front Range CrossFit – Co.), 39 year old firefighter Jeff Tincher (CrossFit Fairfax –Va.), an unknown Jason Khalipa (CrossFit Unlimited – Ca.) and a very strong Jeremy Thiel (CrossFit Central – Tx.). Speal was seemingly in control of the event and looked to be the overall man to beat as the day wound down.
Workout “C” – The run going to be a beast and I knew it. There was no hiding here, just like in the other workouts. It was all or nothing and was basically a straight up sprint. You had no choice but to go as hard as you could and hold on, especially in my position.
Speal had killed the run a short time earlier, setting a course record at 3’22” and solidifying his overall lead at the end of the day’s events. I had one of Speal’s teammates, Eric O’Connor, in my heat and I could tell he was a runner. I would watch him like a hawk. Also in my heat was Rob Corson, Fitzgerald’s teammate from Canada and another strong runner. The gun went off and up that damned hill we went. A rabbit went off the front and began to fade at which time I surged and took the lead up the hill. Eric and Rob were hot on my heels and the three of us separated at the top of the climb, hit the plateau, up the next short pitch, and then the long downhill.
By now my legs were so full of lactic acid they felt like concrete and I could not get them under me fast enough. Eric took advantage of this and literally bounded down the incredibly steep downhill at Mach 1. Rob followed and it took me several paces to loosen up and get behind them. Eric was absolutely flying downhill, I don’t know how he didn’t blow his knees out, and he had already opened up about 15 seconds on me. Rob was still in front of me at a breakneck pace and kicking up so much dust I could only see the top of his head as a reference point. I hit the bottom about 5 seconds behind Rob and the both of us started the chase of Eric up the final climb. Eric started coming back, although not fast enough, and on the short descent to the finish he opened it up again and hit the line at a record 3’21”. Rob followed a few seconds later and I came in at 3’49” before literally collapsing after the line. The heat went well for me and I made up some ground and time, although I was still not where I had hoped to be.
At the end of the day I was in 39th place overall, which put me amongst some great elite athletes. After cooling down for a bit, the organizers gathered all competitors together and announced Sunday’s workout. It was announced that Sunday would be “heavy Grace”. “Grace”, in and of itself, is a workout consisting of 30 reps of Clean and Jerk at 135 Lbs. – it can be done with power cleans or full squat cleans, which are much harder. It is a brutal workout in and of itself, and doing it “heavy” meant adding 20 pounds to it. Additionally, it was announced that a full squat clean would be required in the competition. My heart sank as it was not a workout I wanted to see. Competitors would either make up great time or lose great time – no other way around it.
I have done “Grace” in the past with full squat cleans at around 12 minutes. The time limit for the event was 15 minutes. At 155 Lbs., I had no idea what to expect and I was going to die trying to get less than 10 minutes. I knew I had the form, technique and power, but 30 reps with an extra 20 Lbs. could get ugly. I left for the night shaking my head and hoping for the best. I was hoping to see a long, endurance type of MetCon workout instead….yeah, right…..
Sunday – My heat was at 1200 hours. I had some serious horses in my group and I knew times would be fast. I warmed up and actually felt pretty good about the event. I walked out in the arena, readied myself at the bar and waited. I was at the very front of the group, facing the crowd, a few of whom knew me and would thankfully cheer me on when I was hurting.
At “Go”, I started in on the movement. Full squat cleans, no problem, up to a push jerk, drop the bar from overhead, reset and go again. Dropping the bar and resetting was a bit slower, but used less energy in the long run. I continued smoothly through this way, alternating between push and split jerks at the top. At number 23, I managed to hit myself in the chin on the jerk and had to drop the attempt and take about 10 seconds to make sure my teeth were still there. By this time, it was getting quieter behind me, so I knew people were finishing already in about 5’30” to 6 minutes. I got through my last reps and hit the clock at 8’41”, which was a great time for me not knowing what I was getting into, but it was also the nail in my coffin as I lost several minutes on the others and fell to 54th overall.
I was disappointed in my overall performance, but stoked on competing and doing pretty well out of the field of 200. My redemption came later on when some of the men in the top 20 had times slower than mine, a few of those competitors, like Brett Marshall (AFT), being very highly placed in 2007. It was a brutal way to end the competition and it lent itself to someone with power, technique, and some serious anaerobic capacity for the short duration of the event.
Men’s Top 10 Final – After toweling off and relaxing after my heat, I went back down to watch the men’s final. The Men’s Top 10 final was probably the most electrifying sporting event I have ever witnessed. It was the USA vs. Russia 1980 Olympic Hockey game, Joe Montana’s 4th quarter, Superbowl winning “Hail Mary” touchdown pass, and Greg LeMond’s 1989 Tour De France win all rolled into one. It was unfrigging-believable!
The format was done in a very unique way. It would be a time delayed staggered start, in essence, a pursuit. Chris Spealler would be front and center and would start first. Moving clockwise, Ricky Farusto in 2nd would start 59 seconds later (his time deficit on Spealler), Josh Everett in 3rd would start 9 seconds later and so on and so forth all the way around to 10th place Brett Marshall, who would start 1’49” behind Spealler. All of them would chase Speal and all of them were separated by mere seconds. If they passed him, they would win –talk about pressure for everyone involved.
Speal gave it everything he had, but he was Clean and Jerking over his bodyweight and about a minute in, it started to catch up to him. This was not the workout he wanted to see come up and he knew it was going to be a fight. Two spaces to his right, Josh Everett – another unbelievable genetic human freak and 3rd in 2007- was going like a man possessed. Josh was flying through the reps and by 2 minutes he had surpassed Speal and was now in the lead and overall spot. At rep 25, Josh slipped and had to reset. A momentary break cost him a few seconds he would regret later on. All eyes were on Josh as he started up again, trying to bang out the last 5 reps in total oxygen debt. Suddenly, from the opposite end of the arena came shouts and cheering. Everyone turned around to see unknown Jason Khalipa finish rep 30 and drop the bar, victorious. No one but the judges saw it going on due to the Josh Everett spectacle taking place across the arena. Khalipa had come from over a minute and a half back in 8th place to take the overall title from Spealler and Everett. Chris and Josh knew they’d been beat and it was a hard pill to swallow for them and harder for us to watch.
Everett finished 2nd a few seconds behind Khalipa and literally collapsed, having to be helped out of the arena. Speal slowed but soldiered on, as did Fitzgerald, last year’s winner, and Marshall. Pat Barber finished next but was slower than 11th place Jeremy Thiel from Texas, who would jump up to 3rd overall. The rest of the top 10 was decimated and staggered in where they could. In the end, Speal’s commanding lead was hammered away and he ended up in 10th place overall. A total unknown athlete walked away from the Games as the 2008 champion and deservedly so. It was purely one of the most remarkable finishes I have ever seen.
Overall, the entire event was a success. I cannot recommend it enough to other athletes looking for a challenge and/or spending their time around a great crowd. I hope everyone strongly considers coming out to the 2009 CrossFit Games for an awesome weekend – you won’t be disappointed. I hope to see you there!
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