Let me tell you about Crossfit...

So another long weekend is winding down and I'm cooking up some grassfed ground beef that I'm going to toss with some Rao's and pile on to a heap of spaghetti squash before I have to start tonight's grad school laundry list (including an exam on the psychology of terrorism).

When I say I had a long weekend, I mean that in the best. possible. way.  I left work a touch early on Friday, got some laundry and cleaning done, then rolled up to Ashburn with two of my teammates in tow.  We would stay there overnight to be up and at 'em early the next morning as part of the Capital Affiliate League championship tournament.

A day spent at CAL is a day full of everything I love about Crossfit: competition that is 100% fueled by community, the most supporting environment you could ever imagine when teams are going head-to-head.  They're days full of teammates and friends, paleo snacks and beer (well, sigh, not always beer), championships and shared misery at the inevitable losses.

My team, CFSA Team Black, despite a brave showing in the first 3 heats, fell out of the double-elimination tournament in the 3rd round.  Instantly, though, we did what we do best: we rallied around the other team from our box.  And they brought it home - by a margin of about half a second, they were the division champions and we get the trophy for our box.  I am so unbelievably proud of all the athletes on both teams from my box.

CFSA Teams Black and Green (and cheerleaders).  More on how training with team CFSA has impacted my training and me as an athlete later.

A little sore (not sure what from as I didn't actually compete yesterday -- maybe from hauling my overpacked bags around?) and a little tired, I got up early with the intent of doing homework.  At 10 I rolled back over to the box for a little Sunday morning workout.

It was a memorial workout for a former member of CFSA, Justin, who passed away around this time last year.  While that was a month before the thought of coming to CFSA even crossed my mind, he was a good friend of some of my friends, and I wanted to go support them.

My thighs are twinging, but Justin's WOD was another example of everything I love about Crossfit, and CFSA in particular: the community.  Even though a lot of the people I was working out with today were at least as new to CFSA as I was, we all showed up (some athletes who came had just competed yesterday!) to support our community and come together in memory of a fellower Crossfitter.  You don't need to have personally known somebody to be impacted by the good they did and their mark that they left on the world. 

All the memorial WOD athletes from today.  Stolen from the CFSA FB page, where I posted it to begin with.

Afterwards there was pie that I couldn't eat, but in true CFSA communal fashion, I wasn't the only one not eating it.  Part of my post-nutrition-program pie can be dedicated to today.

And that's it.  I wrote this whole huge blog post on how competition forced a fundamental shift in me as an athlete and how I need pull-ups and blah blah blah, but that wasn't what I needed to talk about today.  What I needed was to reflect on what makes this community so awesome, what pulls people in and what keeps people coming back.

So I'll leave you with this:

"You haven't heard of Crossfit?  Let me tell you about Crossfit . . .  

It's this team atmosphere that ends up making you better as an individual. It's camaraderie, that family that you end up building and the energy that you get back from it yourself, that's CrossFit to me. . .

You come to a CrossFit gym everybody knows your name, everybody loves you and you're a part of something bigger than just getting a workout. Everyone is welcoming, everyone is cheering you on. They don't let you quit even if you wanna quit.  We all share this experience, which is emotional. It doesn't look emotional, it looks like people working out ... but it's emotional. I mean it's raw, it's intense, it's incredible, it's freakin' awesome."