Having Gone - Going Back

Having gone - Going back

This picture was taken by my friend Ian MacDonald in 2011...my first trip to the Games.

In 2010, before The Open was part of the Crossfit Games, athletes went to Sectionals and then onto Regionals.  Anyone could enter into Sectionals to earn a spot to Regionals.  I remember a few athletes going...and thinking then, "I'm going to go." And of course wondering why Coach didn't ask me if I wanted to go that year.  It's hard to explain the fire ignited in me by Crossfit in that first year.  I left the competitive arena many years previous for running and yoga.  Looking back I was still competitive in running, racing the clock or the friend who, once a week, would do my short intense interval run with me.  And yoga, I was always trying to get that next progression in any pose.  Yet it was not the same as going to class at Synergy Strength.

In that first year I remember Coach asking me, "Laurie, how many days have you been here in a row?"  He knew exactly how many days I had come consecutively...too many. I was hooked.

I watched the Crossfit Games that year as much as the poor streaming would allow.  That's where this picture comes in.  I clearly remember seeing this place on the screen, the place where the Gladiators stood waiting to come out into the Colosseum.  I know...I was really hooked.  I wondered what it was like to stand under that banner that was screaming "Here are the Fittest on Earth!!".  How incredible it would be to be THERE.

In July 2011 I stood in a hot California breeze looking up at that very banner waiting to head out for the finals of the 45-49 Master's competition.  AND it was incredible...surreal in fact. AND I look forward to it again!!