Pain and Destruction…Day One of the ’09 Games
Day one at the 2009 CrossFit Games was all about survival. In what had to be one of the most grueling days of athletic competition ever assembled athletes were asked to fight through 5 devastating events. At the end of each event the athletes were ranked from first to last and were given points based on their positioning in each event. So if you got first on each event you would get 5 points for the whole day. Obviously you wanted to receive as few points as possible.
The first event was a 7.1K trail “run” (video [wmv] [mov]). As you will see in this video much of it was hardly a run. It started on the road for about a mile and then continued up the side of “the hill” in which you did three loops down and up the steep and dusty terrain. After reaching the top of the hill on your third pass you headed down the back side to a single track trail traversing sideways along the treacherous terrain. At this point you headed deeper into the back country down into a ravine and up the other side to the top. All of this portion of the run was done single file with little chance of making a pass. The up hill portions here were primarily scaled on hands and feet all while choking in the hot dust kicked up by the athlete in front of you. The downhill portions were so steep they were mostly tackled by sliding on your butt. After conquering the ravine the athletes headed back to the front side of the hill and back down to the road. At this point Charity said it felt like she had just finished Fran and she still had another mile to run in which any lapse in effort meant giving up points to other competitors.This event took out three athletes that I know of. Two to shear exhaustion and dehydration and one to an ankle injury. I believe Charity placed 9th in this event and Jenny ended up in the middle of the pack somewhere.
Event number two was a deadlift “medly” which was held shortly after the run. The females had 20 bars laid before them starting at 185# and ending at 365# each moving up in ten pound increments. For this event think “heavy day” gone bad! You started at the first bar and every 30 seconds you moved to the next bar. You continued along until you got to a bar you couldn’t lift. Both of our girls PRed on this which is crazy considering the run shortly before and the short rest periods before each attempt. From now on our heavy day warm up is a 7.1K run. Charity lifted 315#, a 7# best and Jenny pulled 355# a 25# PR (CRAZY)!
Event number three was a 170m sandbag sprint. The athletes shouldered a 35# sandbag and ran up a ridiculously steep hill to the finish line. The event lasted little more than a minute, but was grueling enough to get Charity’s “most painful event of the day” award.
Event number four was silly…I mean event number for was a rowing/sledge hammering combo. Actually I like the idea they were going for here I just had some issues with it. The athletes had to row 500m and then hammer a 3 foot metal stake into the ground with a sledge hammer and then finish up by rowing another 500m piece. What I like about this event was the random unknown aspect to it. That is what CrossFit trains us for right? My issues are in the details. They made a great effort to get all the ground even by digging out the area and dropping yards and yards of a uniform sandy gravel mixture and tamping it down, but despite their efforts it appeared to many that some stakes went in much easier than others. This may have been because the middle portion of this area had been trampled down at least three times by over 150 pairs of running feet during events one and three. Anyway, both girls held their own on this event.
The final event of the first day was a more traditional CrossFit WOD, a three round couplet consisting of 30 wall ball shots and 30 hang squat snatches each round. The ball was 14# for girls with a ten foot target. The snatch weight was 45#. At first glance this doesn’t seem so bad, but after the brutal leg day that proceded it the 180 weighted squats that comprised this WOD were enough to nearly break people. After this event the top 16 competitors moved on to the next day.
All told going into the second day Charity was in 5th and Jenny was in 13th.
Check this link for a nice visual on how the girls ranked on each event.
The breakdown I have given here and even the videos could never give you a good sense of the physical, emotional and mental pain and anguish experienced on that first day. Both of our girls were almost broken after the first day. Both admitted that they wouldn’t be upset if they didn’t qualify for the next day.
One other issue of interest, there was absolutely no gymnastics included in the first day, a huge oversight in my opinion that would become a huge determining factor in the outcome the second day.
AM Classes
Happy rest day!
PM Classes
“Badger“
Complete three rounds for time of:
95 pound Squat clean, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters
Post time to comments.
I was there for every moment and I have to say, I was extremely proud of my friend, Charity. Not only did she push through when it seemed utterly impossible, she performed extremely well. She was a quality competitor not only in performance but in attitude as well. There was no one who cheered on her fellow competitors as much as Charity. This event just further highlighted what I already know… Charity is a pretty special, wonderful person!
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