Our first CrossFit Festivus Games!

Brian and I did our first CrossFit competition. And we are hooked. I'm almost tempted to do a scaled ladies-only "No Baby, Leave The Stockings On" event in December, but not sure I'd have as much fun without watching Brian compete too. And probably better to get a little more practice under my belt. And I'm a little scared of some of the events. ;)

We arrived about 30 minutes before the games began, and wandered around doing some warm-ups among all the other athletes. Because Festivus is geared toward novices and intermediate CrossFitters, there were competitors of all shapes and sizes, which made us feel a lot more comfortable! There was a group of big girls whom I initially thought must be newbies like us, but when the games started and the mc asked if anyone had done Festivus before, they all raised their hands, so I had no doubt they were all very strong since they'd already been at it at least 6 months. And they were! In fact, one of the bigger girls was the winner. So much for looking the part of a toned athlete to have the power and endurance to win these things!

Powering through the
first 35# thruster

The first event was the thruster ladder, where a 10 barbells were laid out in 8x8 boxes in order of ascending weight, and you have 1 minute to lift the weight before moving onto the next one. For me, they started with 35 pounds and increased by 10#s. For Brian, they started at 65#. They had the female novices go first, alphabetically, so I was 8th - so glad I could watch a few other girls go first! There was one tiny girl who topped out at 65#, so I hoped I could at least get that far! I hadn't done a max 1 rep test for thrusters yet, so I really had no idea how far I could go. Turned out I was able to get through 85# no problem. But when I got to 95#, I had trouble. I tried 3 times: the first 2 times, I just couldn't get enough power coming out of the squat to get the barbell up over my head. The third time, I did finally get the barbell up, but I forgot to squat. Oops. So, no rep; I was out. I really thought I could do it, otherwise, I would have given up and jumped rope to earn some extra partial points for the remaining minute. As a novice, I just had to do single unders, but it was amazing to watch the intermediate girls do double unders - each girl had their own crazy form, and although some seemed really inefficient (and aggressive!), they still got the job done! I can't wait to be able to do that - my record right now is 3 double unders in a row! Of the 29 novice women, only 13 got past 85#, so I was in good company (however, 11 of them jumped rope to get a slightly higher score than I did). Only 1 girl got to the end of the ladder, lifting 125# - strong girl. Next year, I want to be that girl! I really felt that I could have lifted more if I just had more experience. I'd only done the full squatting version of a thruster maybe a dozen times - not nearly enough. But, hey, not bad considering. Brian kicked butt on the men's novice ladder - he made it through to 135# beating 2 other guys (including some good jump roping after giving up on the 145# thruster).

Brian enjoying his 
burpee box steps

A couple hours later, it was time for the second event, which was the one I really feared I wouldn't be able to finish in time: 21 calorie row, then 15 burpees with step-ups onto a 20" box after each burpee, then 9 cleans with a 65# barbell , then 15 more burpee step-ups, then another 21 calorie row - all within 7 minutes. And I did it in 6:57!!! Holy crap!!! By the last stretch of rowing, I just had to close my eyes and dig in hard, tuning out all the people who were cheering me on (which was really nice of perfect strangers to do!). And when I was done, my chest was on fire, and my arms were DEAD. And my chest stayed on fire for a good 10 minutes - haven't felt that way since the Jillian workout where I had to sprint up a 15 incline. Apparently the limit of 7 minutes didn't seem to actually matter, but I gave it everything I could to make it in under 7 mins since I didn't know that! I actually had a better time than 12 other girls - if the 7 minute limit was actually enforced, it would have increased my ranking quite a bit since there were 9 people ahead of me in the final rankings with times over 7 minutes. Oh well. I was just very proud that I was able to blast through all the burpees without having to rest in between - that is a huge improvement from when I did the FitAthlon in June! I guess watching some burpee efficiency videos on YouTube did help, even though I kept meaning to practice more! Brian had to step up onto a 24" box and lift 95#, but he still finished in 6:42 beating one other guy. Sucks to be a guy! ;)

Finishing up my deadlifts

I felt confident that I could finish the third (and final) event since I'd already done a successful run-though at the Y in under 9 minutes: 15 deadlifts at 95#, run 800 meters, then another 15 deadlifts - all with a 10 minute limit. I got a little slower start on the deadlifts than the other girls in my heat (it wasn't that it was too heavy, I just should have gone faster!), so I was the last to start the 800m run. And, I was the last to finish, by far. I felt a little dumb when everyone was cheering for me to keep at it while on the final stretch. And when I did my last 15 deadlifts, I was the only one still lifting, so the entire crowd counted out my reps for me. Again, felt kind of silly, but that was a lot of positive encouragement coming my way! I banged through them and finished in 6:11, WAY faster than my trial run at the Y. So, despite being the slowest runner, I was still going a lot faster than the 5.5-6mph pace I usually keep while jogging. When I finished, the MC, who happened to be one of the trainers at my CrossFit, gave me a fist pump and announced to everyone "And how long have you been doing CrossFit?" To which I replied "Almost 4 weeks!" and I got a huge round of applause for being such a newbie and still doing pretty well, which was cool - I felt a little better finishing last after he explained why to everyone! ;) However, had I been in the one of the next heats, I would have felt even better - my time was better than 4 other girls (one by more than 2 minutes) so I wouldn't have finished last. Oh well. Brian had to lift 135# which got pretty heavy toward the end, especially after he ran pretty quickly - he finished in 5:19, beating one other guy.

Prik King beef stir fry

Magenta!

Once we finished our final event, we treated ourselves to some of the on-site vendor's BBQ brisket, pulled pork, and sweet potatoes while we watched the other competitors finish up. Bri also indulged in some bacon-wrapped meatballs that I skipped since they contained breadcrumbs (boo). Then, poor planning on my part - I bought tix to go to a Rocky Horror Picture Show play that night, so once we got home, we ordered some quick Thai take-out (tasty Prik King beef stir fried with red curry paste, string beans, bell peppers, kaffir leaves - never had it before...even treated myself to a little white rice), got dressed in my best Magenta costume complete with big hair & make-up, and went off to the show. I had a couple well earned drinks there, splurging on tonic with my gin - yum! I finally got to bed around 1am and slept 6 hours or so (and subsequently took a nap with my son later that afternoon). In the morning, my shoulders were pretty stiff, but that was it, really. Although I did develop a bruise on my collarbone from all the barbells I hefted into rack position there so many times. Nothing compared to the bruises that Brian had on his collarbones though! He was a mess! And he was a bit sore in the lower back too from lifting such heavier weights.

So, in the end, I finished 26th of the 29 novice girls, and Brian finished 7th out of the 8 novice guys (see the scores). We really didn't go into it with any expectations, other than the hope to just be able to finish each event. We not only finished each event, but we didn't get injured, and we didn't come in last - that's really all we could ask for! We are really looking forward to the next Festivus 6 months from now, and are hoping to kill the novice division after CrossFitting that long and gaining tons of strength and endurance!