Grateful for the Experience*

Alright, so Regionals is over… ALREADY and it’s been three weeks since my team and I took the floor to compete in Albany, NY at the Times Union Center. I wish I could write the feeling of being there and having the opportunity I was able to have but I cannot put it into words. It was so exciting and a dream of mine that I have always had. Of course, I have had the dream of making it individually as well, but going team was one of the best experiences I have had. I am not sure how it feels when going as an individual but when you have a team, 5 other people who want this as bad as you do, you do not want to let them down… and unfortunately on the first day I just couldn’t get myself through those HSPU. Three days before heading to regionals I met with my actual doctor and he confirmed that I have a partial tear in my rotator cuff on my right side. Luckily he said no surgery just PT for 6 weeks and rest. SO I am doing whatever I am told to do - so that I can help this and make sure I do not end up needing surgery. BUT anyways, I didn’t get through the HSPU and YES I was the only one on the wall left… BUT I didn’t let it bother me. Was it a little embarrassing? A bit but just like my judge said to me during the workout, “Just keep doing what you can, you’ve made it this far just don’t give up.” So I did just that. I didn’t get through many but I did what I could and the team understood. It wasn’t hard for me to accept it just because I haven’t been able to practice strict hspu since September of last year due to injury so I knew that going in but I just didn’t want the team to be mad. They weren’t and totally understood. For ME, that was my worst movement all weekend due to my injury and not working on them so from after that wod, I was READY for the rest of the weekend.

All of the workouts went well but the two on Saturday really made my weekend. Getting over that finish line first in our heat was such an amazing feeling. It was like nothing in the world mattered at that moment besides being there and winning our heat, we finally showed what we could do! Both those workouts just clicked for us as a team and helped us move up 10 spots on the leaderboard after Saturday. Every workout was fun though and knowing the 5 other people were doing everything they could do to get the best possible outcome for the weekend was always a good thing to keep me going. I had to visit the trainers a bunch just to get taped and worked on before every workout and if I could hug them all and thank them right now, I would! They were amazing and provided all athletes with anything you could imagine to make sure they were good to go.

In all, the weekend was amazing and I cannot thank my teammates, Michela and Michelle for sticking by me the whole Open/Regionals training and believing in me, the Redzone community, my best friends, boyfriend, nutritionist Mike Molloy for being such a great friend and coach etc. for the support all weekend. There is one person I want to give a big shout out to and that’s my boyfriend. I would not have made it through the weekend without him. He stayed positive with me, let me vent, and told me how to approach each workout, listened to everything I had to say and made me feel like I belonged there and on that floor. He is my rock and he makes me happy. When you have that, as well as spending the weekend doing the one thing you love, it makes for a pretty good weekend.

The best feeling for me all weekend was that nothing else mattered. Just for those three days the focus was on me, my team, and just CrossFit. It’s my passion as I have come to realize and I love being surrounded by the sport and the community.

Everyone is like minded and wants the same things. Everyone supports everyone no matter who they are or if they are competition or not. IT is an amazing atmosphere and it put me in the best possible mood. It makes me happy. Just going to CrossFit after work makes my day THAT much better and finally puts a smile on my face. I hope to eventually coach or be able to be surrounded by this every day so I can finally be happy 24/7. It’s not that I HATE my job now, but it’s not what makes me happy which I have clearly found out.  Therefore, that feeling of just … stress free (unless about competing), nothing else matters besides CrossFit was the best part of the weekend for me. It was such a great break from reality that I didn’t want to go back to the norm.

At the moment I am doing PT and trying my best to heal up. I have about 3 more weeks before it reaches the amount of time my doctor told me I need. I am not doing gymnastics or any heavy lifting overhead and doing what I can for now… BUT every day dreaming of picking that heavy barbell up again! The recovery process might take longer than the 6 weeks but I will do whatever I can to come back and I will be back. One thing I will say for anyone who does read this, this weekend made me realize that everyone just wants to be the best versions of themselves and in order to do so, it takes hard work but don't ever think you can't get where you want to be or stop working towards your goal. Maybe I will not make it individually, maybe my injuries will hold me back for a lot longer than I think to do the things I want to do, and maybe I will never get on that floor again but I sure as hell am going to continue to try my best and be the best version of myself that I can be. SO keep working hard and doing what you're doing, no matter what if you show up and put the work in, you're making progress and doing more than A LOT of people out there.