Europa War Games

Yesterday, I competed in my first sanctioned Crossfit competition. The 2013 Europa War Games consisted of 145 teams broken up in to Rx and Scaled divisions. At the end of it, we finished 23rd, missing the cutoff for the final WOD by a mere 3 spots. I couldn't be more proud of and thankful for my team. In looking back, there were several big things that I learned this weekend.

Lesson 1: There's always someone better

"The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord."

-Proverbs 21:31

                                               

I had a very naive view of my fitness level coming into the weekend. I do well in WODs at our box. I would consider myself fit. That means absolutely nothing when you compare me on a regional scale. This became apparent while in registration, I stood next to Jen Jones, the 6th fittest woman in the WORLD. I was surrounded by monsters, guys who crushed butterflies like it was their day job. We moved FAST in our first thruster workout. The transitions were smooth, and besides two quick shake outs we went unbroken on our sets of 12-10-8. The winning team still managed to beat us by 1:15. The second WOD, we again were moving at what I thought was a pretty good pace. It was a 10:00 AMRAP, and besides me dropping from the bar a few times we moved through with a good pace. The winning team beat us by 200 reps. How is that even possible? It was a humbling experience for sure, one I needed. What I learned is that if you want to be the best, or at least competitive with the best, there can be no holes in your game. You must be strong, fast, gymnastically skilled, have phenomenal anaerobic capacity, and be extremely mentally tough. I have some serious work to do in each of those categories.

Lesson 2: Competition Intensity vs. Training Intensity

"My flesh and my heart may fail me, but the Lord is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

-Psalm 73:26

Notice the hands on the knees... I was smoked

For some reason, I thought I was superman and was gonna crush both of these workouts. "30 thrusters at only 135#? No big deal!" What I learned very quickly is that you can be perfectly capable of doing something in training, but that there is no way to simulate the intensity of a team competition. 30 thrusters for time is not that bad when you are by yourself in the box. But as soon as you are in front of a thousand people, and you don't want to let your team down, 30 thrusters will make your quads and shoulders feel like they are about to explode. There were several times in the second WOD were I was starting to burn out, but refused to set the kettle bell down because I knew Kyle would have to stop. I also wanted to stop my burpees or drop from the bar, but I knew he would have to pick the kettle bell back up. There simply is just no way to get that effect in the box. In training, when you get too tired you stop- in competition, when you get too tired you keep moving until you want to puke. Through this experience, I was reminded that though there are times when my body will fail me, the Lord will never fail me- He is perfectly sufficient to sustain me, keep me, and fill me with abundant joy.

Lesson 3: The Value of Support

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

-John 15:13

The CFWR Family in support

I spend so much time walking around our box yelling "there's only 2:00 left! Keep moving and finish strong!!!" These words were ringing in my ears as the 2:00 hit during the second WOD yesterday. I wanted to quit so badly, but I refused to stop moving because of the people who had come to support me that I didn't want to let down. When you are in the zone, you can't hear anything. Im sure they were yelling at me "theres only 2:00 left, suck it up and move Haden!" I never heard a thing. But their mere presence made me move faster than I ever would have if they had not been there. 

Love my team

More importantly though is the value of support that comes from a team. What a blessing it has been having a team that I not only get to do crossfit with, but get to share life with. These are people that I love and respect deeply, and that translates over to the way I perform in the heat of battle. I wanted to stop so bad. I literally contemplated just walking out of the arena about 6:00 in to our second WOD. Im pretty sure at one point I told Kyle to "not pick up the kettle bell" because I knew as soon as he did I would have to jump back on that bar, which was the last thing in the world I wanted to do (thank God he didn't listen to me). The truth is that had it not been for them, I doubt I would have had the courage to compete in the first place, the strength to keep pushing when I was tired, or the joy of knowing that I gave my all and left it all on the dirty floor of that arena. In the end, to me it is about perspective: I know that I will never reach the crossfit games, and likely will never even make it to a regional level. But crossfit is fun, and the fun is exponentially greater when you have people you love to share it with.

Lesson 4: Warm Up

I think that I was so concerned with the competition itself that I neglected a proper warm up. This won't happen again. In my defense, it was a cool 60 degrees in the Expo Center, and the warm up area was the size of my closet....

Lesson 5: Boy, do I look good in red shoes

I mean but seriously, do I even need to explain this one...?

All in all, it was a fun, humbling, and eye opening experience for me. After the first WOD, when everything still hurt really bad, I thought to myself "why do you do this? This does not  feel good at all..." I do it because I love it. I believe we were created to move, to breathe, to feel (both the good and the bad), to experience joy and community. In many ways Crossfit embodies this. What a blessing it has been in my life, and I hope to continue to share it with others. I can't wait to compete again, but I have some serious work to do. Thanks so much to all who came out and supported me, and to those who couldn't make it but support me from afar. Much love to each of you.