Last month, more than 40 of our Grand Trunk CrossFit members participated in the CrossFit Open. If you have watched the CrossFit Games, the athletes who participate are the athletes who qualify from various regions across the globe.
Similar to how the United States Golf Association gives anyone an opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Open if they shoot a low enough score in qualifying, anyone can qualify for the CrossFit Open if their score is high enough.
Each week in March, Dave Castro announced that week’s workout online on the night before the competition opened so that our athletes got to sleep on it 24 hours before completing the WOD. It was testament to our members’ mental fortitude that they could prepare for something so grueling, but we watched them do it week after week, and we couldn’t be more proud.
When we opened Grand Trunk CrossFit, we did under the notion that it would be more than a gym; we would turn it into an encouraging community where people could come and work out and not worry about being judged.
Nowhere is this ideology more evident than when we watched our athletes encourage each other during the Open.
Every Friday in March, we chose a theme and opened the gym to those who are going to participate in the Open and we called it “Friday Night Lights.” One week the theme was the 80’s. The next week it was St. Patrick’s Day. To be honest, you haven’t truly experienced CrossFit until you’ve watched someone do double-unders while wearing a wig that would seem more at home in a hair band.
As the athletes yelled and cheered on their friends and workout buddies, we knew, then and there, that if this wasn’t exactly what we were looking to accomplish when we opened the gym, we were damn close.
The CrossFit Open might be an opportunity for our athletes to see what they are made of, but their commitment and drive to make others better is exactly what we signed up for, and we couldn’t be happier to see it coming to fruition.