Prove to yourself that you have improved yourself.
Sitting down to write this, I literally don’t know where to start. Seriously, this is the fourth opening sentence I’ve tried, and this time I’m just going to leave it and speak from the heart. I don’t care if it comes out sappy or not, I just need to explain why you simply HAVE to do the 2016 CrossFit Open. But first here are some logistics for the newbs…skip to the sappy part if you know what the Open is.
The CrossFit Games Season starts every year in February and runs through the summer culminating with the CrossFit Games in July where the “Fittest” Man, Woman and Teams are crowned. There are three stages to the Games Season; The Open, Regionals and The CrossFit Games (or the finals). The beauty of the Games season is that anyone in the world can participate and test their fitness. Less than 1% will qualify for Regionals and even less will get an invite to the Games. For the large majority of us The Open is our chance to be involved, and it’s a lot of fun to take that opportunity and run with it.
The Open is a 5 week segment of the Games season in which all participants must complete one workout per week. The workout is released by CrossFit on Thursday and everyone has until Monday of the next week to complete the workout and upload your result to the Games site. Historically the workouts have been inclusive in order to allow high levels of participation, but now there is also a scaled division which opens things up for even more participants.
In the spirit of community, CrossFit Thermal hosts the Open workout each week on Saturday starting at 9am. Everyone who is signed up for the Open is encouraged to make their best effort to show up at the gym to complete the WOD on Saturday morning. This is the only way to feel the significance of what the Open has to offer. We host make up times throughout the week to accommodate as many people as we can as we know that not everyone can make every Saturday. Once you show up on Saturday you can select a heat complete the workout then hang out and cheer on you fellow members and friends throughout the morning. It’s a great way to kick off the weekend, and if you’ve never seen it before, check out a photo album or two from last year..
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.819687128078499.1073741863.587889771258237&type=3
And the sappy part…
Why are you here, at Thermal? I’ve sat down with almost each of you at some point and asked you the question, what do you want out of this? Most often that question is met with basic things like, “I want to lose weight” or “get stronger”, “I want to be more fit”, whatever that really means. Well, now I’m asking you, “are you”? Have you come in to train every day and gave it all you had? Have you really tried to get outside of your comfort zone and be a better version of yourself? The Open is about proving that to yourself. It’s about throwing your hat into the ring with hundreds of thousands of people just like us. Standing side by side with people that want to live healthy lives as long as they can, people that want to be an inspiration to their friends, families and children.
At the end of the day, yes, you’ll be ranked worldwide, and everyone will know what kind of performance you put in. It’s not about beating the next guy or girl, it’s not about getting to regionals, it’s about showing yourself what you can do. I’ve watched you guys (some of you for years now), and its inspiring to say the least, to see what our members have done. But there is a certain magic to the Open, I can’t explain it, but it’s a time when personal bests are broken, and new goals are discovered. It’s a time when new friendships are made and old friendships grow stronger. For 5 weeks CrossFit Thermal Saturday’s are transformed into a living breathing sea of possibility and inspiration. I dare you to show up and not get chills watching us give it everything we have week after week.
When the dust settles…
You’ll probably be ranked like 87,000 in the world or something, so what? There will be billions that never experience the camaraderie and the fun that we’ll have had over the last 5 weeks of the Open. You can say to all of them that I did the CrossFit Open last year, did you? But you’ll be able to say to yourself, that I’m better now than I was yesterday.