2013 Regional Wrap Up

2013 Reebok CrossFit Games - South Central Regionals have come and gone, and the team, Mollie and myself (Jeff) would like to thank you for your overflowing of support, love, and encouragement.  We might be the affiliate with the most distance to travel that competed last weekend, and it was incredible to have some supporters in the stands (shout out to Ben, Alyse, Lynn, Matt, Mary, Lauren, Lexi, Rowen)!  I don't know if I will ever get used to seeing the beard shirts, it definitely means a lot!  

I wanted to share some results with you, with some context.  I cannot believe how far CrossFit has come as a sport and watching some of the video highlights from this weekend gives me chills.  We have more pictures to come, Lexi took over 1700 of them, we still need to sort through some of them...

Team 

The 2013 team finished in 15th place, in a more competitive field than last year.  Some highlights:

They turned in a 3rm overhead squat total that would have won other regions, but in ours, was good enough for 12th place
They were the highest placing team outside of Texas
They turned in CrossFit NOLA's highest ever team finish with a 4th place on WOD 6, led by Brandon and Kelsey
Both Liz and Kelsey overhead squatted 165# for 3
Liz nearly got a miricle muscle up, and she did climb a rope
Andrea and Ryne turned in a top 10 finish on Jackie with 8th place
Aaron anchored the team with a "moose" type role, tackling the heaviest weights for the most reps in his workouts
They improved 5 places from their open finish in workouts that were not necessarily suited to their strengths.
The team represented the state, the city and the gym with class and poise and made us all proud.

Mollie

Mollie got a last minute, second chance invite to compete as an individual, and she took the opportunity to be the oldest competitor in the south central region.  She is literally competing against competitors that are half of her age.  She took it as a challenge and made it a goal to make it through all workouts and not receive a DNF.  The best example of this is when she took a risk and jumped her starting weight on the 3 rm overhead squat to 125, and then proceeded to fail on her first attempt.  She quickly regrouped and made  and completed a second attempt at that weight. She then went on to make 3 reps at 130# as well.  Her best finishes were 28th on Jackie with an 8:10 and 26th on the 100's by completing 315 reps. Mollie consistently turned heads and developed her own cheering section throughout the weekend.  She even did some things that she has not done before, such as completing 50 handstand push ups in a row and 100 chest to bar pull ups in a row.  Mollie plans to train for the masters 40 - 45 next year, and the new season starts next week!  Mollie finished 34th out of a field of 40.

Jeff

I came into this regional off of my best open finish ever, in the best shape of my life. My goal was clear, to finish top 3 in the region, and I knew I had a realistic chance of doing so. Knowing that I generally do not win workouts, I knew I needed a flawless, consistent performance during the whole weekend.  I did this on 6 out of the 7 workouts, but unfortunately did not do it on the 7th.  The low point of the weekend came on the 30 burpee muscle ups, on the first day.  I failed to complete the 30 burpee muscle ups in a 7 minutes time cap and earned a 41st place finish.  I still am not totally sure what happened, as I had finished this workout while testing at the gym.  The combination of adrenaline, overhead squats prior and longer straps on the rings did me in.  I slowly clawed back over the course of the weekend, getting to 8th place by the end of the third day.  This was the same result as last year, but earned in the opposite way, with a comeback.  The feeling I am left with after this weekend is a bit sour.  The best I can equate it to, is losing the conference championship game on the way to the Superbowl.  Even though I fell short of the goal, I am trying to, with the help of everyone else, look back and see that I had a good season.  Once I can walk properly again, I am going to consider training again for next year, but until then I am going to enjoy the first days I have not touched a barbell since October.  I am also going to eat a whole pizza...