And in the waning minutes, prior to 'THE ANNOUNCEMENT' all us CrossFitters treasure so dearly, the first Open workout, I brought up the site, typed in my name and credit card, and caved, signing up for another year of shenanigans with my crew at the box. WHY?
I could say it was because I didn't want to feel left out. When I was younger I was always the child who wanted to go to school, regardless of how full of sick I was, because I was afraid of missing something critical. Whether it was something lesson related, or something social, I didn't want to be stuck behind the times. I feared not signing up for the Open, but cheering my friends on over the weekend would cause me regret and the feelings of "being left out the fun". But that's not why I signed up.
I could also say I signed up to get a benchmark of where I stand, fitness wise. Feeling like I regressed a bit, I knew the idea of getting a clue of all I needed to work on did seem important. A laundry list of things I could turn into goals; linking pull-ups, working on control on overhead squats, etc. Weaknesses I know will be exposed in the Open again, like they were last year. But that is also not why I signed up.
I could also claim that with a scaled division I didn't have a reason NOT to sign up and do the WODs. That the option of a lower weight, a more "doable Jess" version of an Open WOD would make them more accessible to me to accomplish. But after 2 years of seeing myself achieve goals I didn't think I could, in the Open workouts, that is DEFINITELY not the reason why I signed up.
Plain and simple, in the easiest of terms, I signed up to have fun.
Fun you ask? How is 5 weeks of crazy stress every Thursday when the WODs are announced fun? How is forcing yourself to do weights or movements that are often hard on a regular WOD day, going to be fun, just because they are in the Open. How is it going to be fun to potentially get the lowest amount of reps, or the highest amount of time on timed WODs in the Open. How is it going to be fun.
The reason, is simple. The first year I did the Open was fun for me. I was a year into CrossFit and excited to test myself on things I knew I was a ways off on (at the time I didn't have a pull up yet, and barely mastered a 65 lb thruster 2 weeks before the kick off of the 2013 Open). I was excited, and wrapped a few of my fellow newbie ladies in my gym into the excitement as well (they signed up, challenging themselves also). The vibe in our tiny box of a gym was electric that year.
Living off the high of the first year, I signed up again last year. Weaknesses were exposed. The time that wasn't spent in the gym (life simply got in the way of my regular routine that included WOD time), was exposed and the fun, seeped away. Our gym's vibe was no longer electric, as the focus hit more pushing harder, for the reps, for the scores. Coincidently our gym made it to regionals last year, and while I went to support, and cheer in Utah, a part of me felt lost in the mix of achievements of others, and anger and frustration in myself. The Open was no longer fun.
So when this year and the end of February meant the buzz of the Open again for a third straight year, I was super apprehensive. What would assure me that this year wouldn't be like last, that I would not end up in tears on the last WOD simply because I was frustrated and ready for the 5 weeks to end?
The answer was simply inside of me all along, my attitude, my drive to make it fun. Five minutes before Rory came on to welcome all of us to another Open season, I entered my credit card info. Took ownership of another year, qualifying as a Masters this year. On the day of my birth, 40 years ago, I decided to have FUN again. To make the Open about the excitement of the WOD, but not the stress. To push myself to a level of achievement, but not to stress if I decided to do a scaled version. To cheer on my fellow gym members, many who I get to see being bad asses in classes before mine at 6:30pm, but see their game faces during "competition" mode now. I promised myself this year was about fun!
Cut to Saturday, and WOD time. I was excited..but nervous. I was stressed, but not overly analytical and worried. And I achieved what I had hoped with a decent 15.1 and a PR on 15.1a. The Open had again become fun.
Here's to the next four weeks, and to the fun of the challenges, to the PR of my fellow competitors, and to the excitement of what makes us CrossFitters in the first place.
