The question of just why we CrossFit has been asked many times.  I’ve asked you all myself in a previous post, and we’ve all had to answer this query at some point to curious friends or onlookers.  “Why would you do something like that to yourself?” is a legitimate question when seeing torn hands, bruised shins or someone hobbling around due to soreness.  The beauty of this question though, I believe lies in the fact that the answer is always changing.  It changes as your CrossFit career gets longer, it changes as the stages of your life transition and it changes from time to time due to certain poignant experiences.

Competing this past weekend has changed my answer to the question of why I CrossFit forever.  I used to say that I did CrossFit because it got me in better shape than any other modality on the planet and simply allowed me to perform all of my favorite life activities at a higher level.  Those amazing results haven’t changed in any way. However, it’s not the whole picture.  This weekend I came to two very strong conclusions that I’d like to share: 

1) I CrossFit because it is ridiculous.  It is ridiculously hard, ridiculously fun, ridiculously effective and most importantly, doing CrossFit has taught me that a life lived with anything short of “ridiculousness” as a main goal is not a life worth living.  CrossFit has allowed me to wallow in ridiculousness and enjoy every sweet, excruciating moment of it.  If someone had told me 5 years ago that running a mile, doing 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats and then running another mile would be a workout that non professional athletes would be able to do in under 45 minutes, I would have told them that that not only was that workout nearly physically impossible but also that, “they should be more realistic”.  Now I’d tell them that not only can most of my friends do it, but also I’d like to consider wearing a weight vest while doing it – which to be honest, is nothing short of ridiculous!  CrossFit has made me to question everything that I was ever told was impossible – both in the gym and out of it and I implore you to do the same.

2) I am madly in love with this crazy little modality of ours because of the people in it.  This weekend I felt like I was at my first Trekkie convention (if everyone there had 5 % bodyfat and had had sex).  I was asked by a journalist after the first event why I would want to participate in a competition like this and I told him flat out that if I wasn’t competing I would have been there anyway because most of the people that I know and love in my life are going to be there!  I highly doubt that anyone else there would have given a different answer.  I saw extraordinary displays of sportsmanship this weekend, competitors sharing equipment, cheering for their competition, whole gyms cheering for athletes that were competing in the same heats as people from their own.  I got handshakes and good luck wishes from guys in my own heat, heats before me and after me.  I got hugs from members of numerous gyms, watched people stay long after they had finished their own heats to stand around in the cold and dark and cheer on a competitor. This type of camaraderie was displayed over and over again throughout the entire weekend.  That is the way that I was always taught that competition was supposed be – but seldom witnessed myself.  These are the type of people that I want to share my life with.

A very special thank you needs to go out to KJ, Hogans and Kate for volunteering and giving of their time (waking up at 3 in the morning to get to UCLA) and energy to be part of the supporting caste of the event.  A very special thank you needs to also go out to Baker and Malzone for giving up their entire weekend to judge the whole event!  Please also allow me to express a very special thank you to all of the members of CPC for your unwaivering support before, during and after the event, and to the members of CFV and CFLA who gave me a blanket to rest on between events, feed me and cheered for me like I was one of their own. 

The goal that I wrote in the post in January was to make the top 20 in this competition and I ended up in 44^th place overall.  However, I will take the experience of the event, the understanding of just how amazing the sport is that I am a part of and the clarity about what was written above over a ranking in the top 3 any day.  My hope, goal and mission now is to make it as clear to you all as it is to me, of just how powerful of a medium CrossFit is; not only for literally getting yourself into world class shape, but for living a life surrounded by beautifully empowered human beings – a life that is fully steeped in awesome ridiculousness.

- Traver

Today’s Workout:
Split Jerks:
5-3-2-2-1-1-1
Followed by:
AMRAP 8 Min
10 Box Jumps
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
100 Meter Run