“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” In this episode, I share my perspective on why you should participate in the 2023 CrossFit Open. The Open truly is for everyone and can help you set the tone to tackle future challenges and rack up wins on your personal fitness journey. Visit me at CrossFit Hampton Roads if you’re in town!
The 2023 CrossFit Open is almost upon us, and here are my three reasons why I’m competing:
Keeping the streak alive
This will be my eleventh year competing in the CrossFit Open. I competed when the Open was originally 5 weeks long, I know exactly the feeling of Open WODs dropping on Thursdays, Friday Night Lights, coaching and throwing down on Saturdays, second chance Sundays, and everything in between. This will also be my fourth attempt within the Master’s 40-44-year-old division, where 2021 was my best placing. Keeping up that streak is important to me to show my dedication and belief in CrossFit as a program and cement my status as an OG in the sport. As long as I’m not injured, I plan on competing in the Open every year.
For most of us, the Open is the culmination of our year of training
To be honest, I enjoy training in CrossFit more than the competition. When I was younger that was probably different as I had different motivations to compete, but now I enjoy having CrossFit as both parts of my fitness and stress relief regime. I try to incorporate working on my weaknesses and maintaining my strength as much as possible. At CrossFit Hampton Roads, we currently follow CrossFit Affiliate Programming, which I find very well-rounded and a perfect fit for our athletes. However, just because I don’t actively seek out competition doesn’t mean I don’t understand the benefit of it. Hence, why I’m participating in the Open again. The Open is an annual competition that I can always look forward to. I know it will only be three instances of competitive workouts, and that is perfect for me. The Open is the time for me to objectively see where I personally stand in my fitness journey. Like all athletes, I have weaknesses that I don’t want to see get programmed and strengths that I do want to see. It’s a roll of the dice, and I love it. CrossFit athletes train for the unknown and unknowable, although there is enough history and evidence to indicate what will probably be programmed during the Open. That being said, obtaining my scores for 23.1 through 23.3 is both scary and exciting, and I can’t wait to compete and return to training.
Create memories you look forward to every year
If you participated in the Open in 2012, you are familiar with 12.1: AMRAP 7 of Burpees, and you know how much it sucks. And now you can share stories with others like “Remember how much that sucked? I hope that never shows up again.” What if another Open WOD shows up again? Are you excited or dreading it? By participating in the Open, you’ll begin to build your experiences to help build confidence throughout the entire year. Heavy deadlifts? We worked on those. Wall Walks? Yeah, probably should’ve done more of those. Pull-ups? I’ve been working on those and I want to earn an Rx score. All of the choices you made during the year will culminate in your performance in the Open. I hope for you there are more celebrations than defeats, but all of them are important within your fitness journey. You won’t earn those feelings without participating, so what are you waiting for? Sign up for the 2023 CrossFit Open today!