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The clock has been put back in its place, which indicates the 2015 CrossFit Open has come and gone.  I must say I am astonished by the participation and effort of CrossFit Dūrātus’ members this year.  It truly is amazing as a coach to see the progress of all our athletes over the course of this last year. 

Each year, I feel like the experience of participating, and watching others participate, in the open reminds me of a few things.  First, competition brings out the best effort in people.  Whether people were fighting for one of the top spots in the gym or fighting to RX their the last open workout - the competitive aspect of the Open drew out some really remarkable performances.  Athletes grow immeasurably when they give themselves to a competitive environment.  Second, mindset is incredibly important.  The successes and failures of an any workout can largely be decided before the timer even begins.  Having a proper mindset before, during and after each workout will make or break an athlete.  There were many “redos” during this open and those who achieved better scores approached their second attempt with a better mindset.  Athletics (i.e. CrossFit) is as much mental as it is physical and therefore its important to work on both.  Lastly, failure brings growth and hardening.  Many of us experienced failure somewhere along the way in the last 5 weeks.  We were disappointed with an outcome.  Someone beat us in a workout that shouldn’t have.  We didn’t reach the goal we set.  A significant weakness was exposed.  And the list goes on, and on, and on….The best athletes take these failures and use them as fuel to get better.  The weaker athletes dwell in the past and define themselves by their failures.  Together, over the course of this year, lets be a community that own our failures and use them to become better athletes and better people.

 

And now, let me end this post with a list of my favorite moments from the 2015 Open:

-the group of athletes huddled around the computer screen every Thursday night watching Castro’s ridiculous announcement.

-adaptive athlete, Scotty Smiley, participating in and finishing his first Open.

-#cjvsbrad

-the battle for the 8 CrossFit Dūrātus team spots - which culminated in an 9th place team finish and an invitation to the NW CrossFit Regional competition (more to come on this in a later post).

-first muscle ups.  first double unders. first chest to bars. clean and jerk PRs.

-the group of athletes willingly taking the challenge to RX 15.5.

-celebratory PBRs!

-the fact that people were always willing to stay around to cheer on the next class, fill in to help judge, or help clean up the gym.

 

As I'm sure many of you are, I too am glad the Open is over and normacly can again establish itself.  But once a year, for 5 weeks, our community gets the opportunity to showcase its discipline, hard work, and generosity…and for that, I am thankful!

Well done to all the Dūrātusians that competed this year.  Im proud of you.