The trouble with competition
I'm just going to come out and admit this. I don't enjoy competition. Or maybe, just not one I know I can't win. Until I'm sure that's not a possibility, I'll fight for it tooth and nail, but the minute I know I'm out of the running, my heart just isn't in it anymore.
Over time, I've found the only real competitor I'm willing to gut it out against is myself. This explains my aversion to CrossFit competitions. Very rarely, I make exceptions. This was one of those cases.
The husband of one of my best friends recently invited me to compete in my first event without any scaled modifications to movements. (Cue nerves here). With one of us being the most insanely optimistic person you will ever meet, the other had to be a realist. That was me guys, obviously.
I said yes because the event wasn't about a podium win; it was about getting out of my comfort zone to participate in a competition, spending the day with besties in the CrossFit community my husband and I cofounded, and raising money for a local non-profit. Let's be honest--my partner still expected a place on the podium😂.
In the final days leading up to the event, I couldn't perform either of the only two known movements well. The rest were unknown. Talk about adapting to "the known, the unknown, and the unknowable"!
As it turned out, my teammate and I were well matched for each others physical strengths and weaknesses. I managed thruster after thruster at 95 pounds, a super heavy weight I wasn't sure I could handle when I first learned about it late the night before the event. He in turn busted out calories on the assault bike. And although he claimed it was a weakness, I assured him it was more power than a shortie like me would've turned!
In our last event, we pulled out all the stops and busted out a top five finish for that WOD!
We went round after round of overhead kettle bell lunges (my teammate) and 30 unbroken double unders (me). In the middle of the workout, I suddenly tripped. Tried again, Tripped. I shouted to my teammate to step in and as he did my husband called from the sidelines, reminding me to not to let my hands drift behind me as I jumped. That was all I needed to regain my composure--going the second half of the workout without another miss. In the corner behind me, a whole team of people cheered.
In the end, team "WOD Bods" placed 10th out of 15 teams. My good friend and coaches Nick Rocco and Maggie Hodges took an impressive (however unsurprising) first place. While my team didn't come close to winning a spot on the podium, just having competed was a win for me! The cherry on top? My first "RX" event! Reaching a level where I'd even consider publicly competing in an event without any scaling represented a huge milestone, both physically and mentally. I think back to the banded pull-ups I could barely do when I started CrossFit and am so proud of how far I've come, even if I still have a long way to go.
I won't lie. I'd potentially consider another event with the right partner😉.
