The Good:
First off, everyone kicked serious ass on Sunday. The effort put out by everyone through all three events was epic. Nevertheless, there was one competitor who surprised everyone. We all knew he was a good athlete and worked hard, but his performance on Sunday was quite awesome. Ryan Hackett finished 2nd on Event 1, 3rd and Event 2, and 4th on Event 3. In the end, he finished in 2nd Place overall. Ryan demonstrated excellent ability in a variety of exercises and moved incredibly efficiently through all three workouts. All that with a hilarious voice.
One the female side, all the ladies did amazingly well. For starters, Jess dragged her ass out of bed, despite a stress fracture in her foot and a rough cold/flu coming on, and did the first two workouts.
Even though frustrated and struggling with the overhead squats in the final workout, Whitney Maymon gutted it out and finished it, capping off a solid all-around day. Not bad considering we haven't seen her in a little while.
Rocket Sarah got a 1st place finish in the clean & jerk and kicked major ass in the chipper to round out the day. Her second clean of 110lbs, however, definitely belongs in the "Ugly" category (check Facebook), but we still adore her.
Katie Schmidt aka SchmidtStrong absolutely destroyed the final event, with a time of 18:45 - almost a full four minutes faster than the next closest lady. She also failed her first clean & jerk because of... well, anatomy is a funny thing.
Greg put together a solid day to finish in 4th place - I don't think anyone was more surprised than him, actually. Even though he finished 7th in Event 2 with 145lbs clean & jerk, he finished 3rd both metcon events.
The only time I'll ever say Greg looks like a badass
Amazingly, Nils, Peter PC, and ODB finished the day in a three-way tie for 5th place. The tie was broken by the amount of higher place finishes a competitor finishes with. For instance, if Peter finished in 2nd in one event and ODB and Nil's highest finish was 3rd, Peter would take 5th place. After sitting down with Bin for about 15 minutes (I needed his brain since I had been awake for about 20 hours at that point), ODB finished in 5th, Peter in 6th, and Nils in 7th. The proximity between these three really shows how well balanced you guys were on Sunday. Peter just needs to work on the rings (and his elbow issues), Nils needs to work on his double-unders a bit more, and ODB needs to warm-up for his damn clean & jerks!
The Bad:
"Nasty" Nate Nash won on Sunday due to a very well balanced effort throughout the day - 4th place finish on Event 1, 2nd on Event 2, and 1st on the chipper were enough to catapult him into 1st Place overall. Unfortunately, despite his great work, he was recently informed that he will have to go to Afghanistan for work-related matters, so he will be unable to make the trip to Ohio. Regardless, he performed exceptionally well. Deloitte = Bad.
The first workout started Simon off to a rough start. For his size, chest-to-bar pull-ups and ring dips are no joke. This was exacerbated by missing his two clean & jerk attempts. Regardless, he put together a marvelous run in the final chipper, finishing 2nd in that event.
On the final workout, ODB decided to smack himself in the head with the barbell. He recovered and finished the workout under the time limit, but he scared the shit out of a lot of us. Nevertheless, despite being unhappy with his overall performance, he managed to finish in 5th place overall. Solid.
The Ugly:
As expected, Eric's multiple outfits were simply top-notch. Few work as hard on their workout wardrobe as EGP and he always pulls it off. He's also quite a badass athlete, winning the first workout with a blistering time of 6:14. He followed that by winning the second workout with a 245lbs clean & jerk - at a bodyweight of 195. Scary strong. The ugly? Well, while absolutely crushing the final workout, Eric ruptured his Achilles tendon in a freak box jump accident. It was truly fucked up. Despite a DNF on the final workout, Eric still managed to finish in 3rd place overall. Not too shabby. FYI: He'll be going into surgery on Friday for his foot, so friend him on Facebook and wish him well. FYI2: Eric spends more time on Facebook than any human being on the planet.
Note: I didn't put Nate/ODB/Simon in "Bad" and Eric in "Ugly" because they suck, I did it so I could use all three adjectives from the Clint Eastwood movie title. I'm trying to be clever here, damn it.
Engagement?
Interestingly enough, the most special moment came long after the events ended. With a small group eating wings and drinking beers at Duffy's, Liam and Sarah announced that they'll be getting married next weekend - Congratulations, you two!
Be Cuter
Volunteers:
The success and awesomeness of Sunday would not have been possible without the help of our volunteer judges. Strict but fair, they took time out of their schedules to help make everything run as smoothly as it did. So I would like to take this moment to personally thank Jesse, Liam, Randi, Joe, Todd, Mac, and Bin. Without your collective efforts, I (we) would've been shit out of luck. Thanks, guys.
Best group photo I could find and I like it
A-Teamers:
Whether or you not you "qualified" you all certainly demonstrated some serious goddamn quality. For the past three months you have all worked exceedingly hard to improve and it really showed on Sunday. It's remarkable watching people do things that only three months ago they constantly struggled with. Hell, I remember when Sarah's max overhead press was 65lbs... yesterday she threw that weight around with ease in a bunch of different movements. I don't even remember how many of you couldn't do double-unders (I know it was a lot), but Katie did 40 in a row to start off the chipper. As a frame of reference, I've never done 40 in a row. And yes, I'm slightly embarrassed by this.
And to top off all of the dedication you guys have displayed these past few months, you all decided to be even more awesome and buy me a whole shitload of amazing meat - you know I'm a sucker for animal parts! And as much shit as I give each and every one of you, please know that I really do appreciate how hard you've all worked since we began this endeavor. Basically, without getting too sentimental because I hate Ryan Gosling, I just wanted to say that I am proud of each and every one of you. Thank you so much for your efforts, your camaraderie, your commitment, your willingness to trust me, and pretty much everything. You guys are the salt of the Earth...
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Sunday was absolutely awesome albeit a tad nerve wracking and eventually a bit painful. Seeing everyone work that hard was stellar and going up in the final heat for round three was almost vomit inducing. Everyone kicked ass.
ReplyDeleteQ - I really don't spend THAT much time on Facebook but I do have a lot to say. If I were allowed to video my surgery I would. I'm thinking of writing something like "suck it" on my butt prior to so that after they knock me out and flip me over to cut me the surgeon gets a nice surprise.
Everyone kick ass in Ohio. Wear a bandana for me...or maybe a little glitter. Or both.