A huge thanks to all the athletes, fans, organizers, volunteers, and supporters. To say this weekend was amazing is an understatement. What an incredible effort by all athletes this weekend. You all deserve to know that everyone watching was in awe of what they saw, and will be trying in various different ways, to be more like you!
I can’t assume that you all know the results of this weekend, so here goes. For those that are unaware of the system, only the top 2 move on to the CrossFit Games in July.
Men:
Jeremy Meredith
Lucas Parker
Steve Howell (Our Hero)
Woman:
Angie Pye
Heather Gillespie
Emily Beers
Team:
Team Taranis
CrossFit Fraser Valley
CrossFit Synergy
How can I not start by talking about Steve’s performance! For some that have been following Steve’s CrossFit career might be saying, it was last year all over again. I couldn’t disagree more! Steve, as always, finished strong by putting up the best time, and finishing first in the last WOD. Quite possibly the hardest WOD of the weekend! I take that back, it was definitely the hardest! He absolutely showed the field what it takes to dig deep. A skill, that by far, Steve is no doubt the class of this region. That, I would agree was a repeat of last year. What was different this year was how much Steve improved on his weaknesses. There was not one single workout to look back on to try and re-write. His performance in all 6 wods was full effort. Yes, he did not win every one, but not due to performance. Steve’s competition this year, just like every other year was stiff. At the end of the day, both Jeremy and Lucas used their strengths to their advantage, and earned their shot to compete at the games. I sound like a broken record, but, Steve, your performance was inspiring. Your cheering section, your boom shirts, the crowd yelling “Boom” after every rep. I can guarantee that every single person watching will try a little harder at the gym this week, try and be more like you. I know I am going to step up my game. And that if I can improve only half as much as you did this year, I’ll be twice the athlete.
I can’t talk about the Men’s division without mentioning Ray Krumme’s performance. If you don’t know Ray, he graces us with his presence about once a month, and uses our workouts as his warm-ups. He is still so raw, but his strength and fitness is through the roof! A top 10 performance in his first CrossFit competition, and it’s only been about a year ago since he started. I’ve said this to most of the Whistler crew watching Ray train. His fitness is no doubt elite, all that needs to happen is a little more time getting mobile, working on positions, flexibility, and when mentioning the top spots, you’ll be talking about Ray.
Because we had no Woman competing in the individual portion, I am going to tell a much shorter story. Angie Pye, showed why she did so well in Last years’ games. She has no weaknesses. Her worst placing was 4th. Seriously?! This year, however, she will not be going with her training partner and friend, and of course our little sweetheart, Alicia Connors. And although Alicia will miss her first games as an individual (She can very well be added to boost Taranis’ team), she did have the highlight of the weekend. During the row/pistol/60kg hang clean, she performed those cleans faster than I thought humanly possible. It absolutely blew my mind. Those were the fastest cleans, at a heavy weight I had ever seen. I sure hope HQ got footage of that performance. I am still in awe! The second place finisher was Heather Gillespie, an athlete I had a pleasure of judging last year. Who, narrowly missed the games last year, had her chance to jump up a few spaces to qualify, and she did just that. A year of training, of year of experience, and a year of not willing to let history repeat itself resulted in a qualifying position.
And last but not least, the teams! It goes something like this….1st, 2nd, 3rd, blah blah, and Crossfit Whistler’s 14th place finish was incredible! We moved up 10 places, which is quite the feet considering both Steve, and Don scores contributed to the 24th place finish. In all seriousness, the team held their own, and showed some heart (As we always do). Most probably the most memorable workout was Marcie and Rob tackling the 70# and 100# Dumbell Snatch respectively. There was quite a bit of pressure, because if they failed to get through the first round of that WOD, we would have DNF’d. It was no DNF, we continued to hang with, and creep our way closer to the top. Overall, it was a great weekend, and magical to be a part of.
I’d personally like to thank all of our community that came out to support. It’s not all that hard to give it everything you’ve got and then some, when all you can hear is a Crossfit Whistler peeps yelling and screaming. Ask Steve, when he was feeling the pain in workout #4, and every time he stood up from a squat, the crowd yelled BOOM! You better believe that kept him moving to do another rep.
If you are curious as to where the title comes from, and why the question mark comes after Athlete, here’s why. I am 100% a fan. 100% a coach. But, when it came to watching the Steve’s, Angie’s, Jeremy’s, Alicia’s, Lucas’s, etc… workout, it is pretty obvious there is a clear cut difference between how they train, and how they perform. I by no means minimize what I do for training, and how I compete, but they are professional crossfit athletes, and I give them all props! Keep pushing the limits of physical fitness, you are unreal.
Even now, as I type this blog, I keep telling myself to close my keyboard and start lifting heavy weights! So, who’s with me, we’ve got a lot of work ahead to get our team back to regionals. And this time, we’re gunning for a top 10!
The 12 month training cycle begins today 
Jordan
