It seems like Mark and Kelsey definitely started a trend around here. Is there something in the water up in New England or what? It was a sad day at Thermal when Mark and Kelsey left, they hadn’t been around us all that long, but they made a huge impact on our community while they were here. Moving on for career purposes, we wished them well and we stay connected with them through social media. From all I can tell those guys are kicking ass up in Beantown, and now we have some more changes coming down the pike. (I-95 in this case)
I wanted to extend warm goodbye and good luck wishes to long time Thermal members, Grant and Molly. I’ve known for a long time that they had planned to get back up to New England when the time was right, but I guess I was never really ready for it. Getting back to their families and having Will and Luke grow up around their grandparents is what the VDBs always wanted, and it looks like next month, that’s exactly what’ll happen. These two were our perennial members – without a doubt. Always welcoming always friendly, always willing to pitch in an help coach or install a pull-up rig, I know they will surely be missed. Over the past 3 years, I got pretty close to the VDBs. With the growth of the gym, Hannah, Will and Luke coming into the picture and the many changes that life will send you both personally and professionally Grant and Molly stood by and remained great members and even better friends. Whatever box claims these two, up north, will be privileged to call them members.
My favorite Molly moment was definitely her PR (and still gym record) for the 1RM Overhead squat. She was pumped and proceeded to have a pretty awesome PR dance after the lift. This was especially exciting for me since Molly never really gets jazzed up for big lifts, she is more of a met-con’er. So it was an awesome day for sure!
I remember the first day Grant showed up – he was traveling through, and Kate told me if he moved here he’d be looking for a box. At the time Thermal was a shell of what it is now – limited equipment, small membership base etc. Grant decided to show up on a snow day, kinda like yesterday, and he wanted to practice an open WOD from a past year. Since no one showed up for class due to the snow, I figured I would get changed and work out with him. I crept through the games site records and looked up Grant’s stats. After realizing I was dealing with serious CrossFit athlete, I had to put my game face on. I thought to myself, how do I impress this guy with no members and get him to join, all while still beating him in this workout? We went head to head and our friendship started, the rest is history.
I’ll miss you guys, kill up in New Hampshire.
As if New England hadn’t taken enough from Thermal, I just got word from Stephen Payne this week, that he too is leaving for Boston. Stephen has been an awesome member for us, showing up everyday and being an all around positive guy around the community. I remember how pumped Stephen was when he snatched 209# a couple months back, his progress has been amazing the last few weeks, and he’ll also be missed.
A few years ago, I remember talking to Daniel, the owner of CrossFit Mainline. I was just getting my feet under me as an owner, and I asked him, “Why do good people quit?” His response was simple, he said “because they move”. I remember thinking to myself how great of a problem it would be to have people mostly only quit when they move. While its always better when that is the reason, and not because your product is weak, days like today are still tough as an owner. Your customers become your friends and you eventually have to say goodbye.
While I know there are amazing things on the horizon for Mark, Kelsey, Grant, Molly, Stephen and Monique, I still know that I, as well as a lot of you, will miss our friends. Good luck up north guys….