Four days from now will be the opening day of the CrossFit Games.  As many of you know, this is the third year of the world championships of CrossFit.  I figured we’d take an opportunity to recap some of the history of the games.  This is what things were like back in 2007:

The first CrossFit Games were a big deal, but at the same time they were a smaller  and more informal event with a much more personal community feel to them.  There were three events.  The first was the hopper, or random workout with metabolic conditioning which consisted of  a 1000M row followed by five rounds of  25 pull-ups and 7 push-jerks a5 135/95.  It was capped at 20 minutes.  The second event on the first day was the run, which felt like an eternal 5k from hell up and down hills that seemed more like small mountains.  On the last day there was the CrossFit Total, consisting of three attempts at a max effort of back squat, shoulder press and deadlift.  It was led and organized by Mark Riptoe, who was very professional about orchestrating the judging and execution of it all.  There were the fire-breathers vying for top performances, but at the same time there were athletes completing  scaled down versions so they could participate as well.  It was a very friendly competition.  James Fitzgerald, aka as OPT (an acronym for his gym and CrossFit affiliate, Optimum performance Training), was the champion the first year by taking second in the hopper and the run and turning in a descent performance in the total.  Brett Marshall, aka AFT, (Advanced Fitness Training) a firefighter and coach who teamed up with James to create CrossFit Calgary came in second overall winning the hopper.  Chris Spealler took third overall by winning the run and coming in third in the hopper.  He also turned in a descent score overall for the total despite being much smaller than most of the other competitors.  Connor Banks from CrossFit Oakland won the CF Total, thereby spoiling the title for Josh Everett, who might have won the whole thing had he been able to win the Total and instead came in third overall.  On the women’s side, Jolie Gentry dominated the field coming in first in the hopper and second in both of the other events.   The final standings were Jolie Gentry, Mary Rigney, Nichole Dehart and Tara Muccilli, with two of the final four girls being young athletes from Brand-X martial Arts.  Today, to my knowledge only Jolie Gentry and Khalista Pappas, fourteen years old at the time, remain  serious contenders for this years title.  Here are some highlights:

Back then there were people flying in from all over North America and probably a few from Europe.  The men’s field was about 40 and the women’s field about 20.  I claimed the title of “2007 CrossFit Games Marin County Champion”, albeit oportunistically, since to my knowledge the only other competitor from Marin County was Russell Bruel who did us proud at the event, actually completing that run from hell and being the only other competitor from CrossFit Marin.  CrossFit Santa Cruz, the united original CF headquarters won the affiliate cup.  Some of my other acheivements at those Games included naming the butterfly pull-ups that the Canadians had inovated,   learning how to row on an erg during the hopper, and performing my first CrossFit Total under the tutelage of our judge, Jeff Martin, virtuoso coach and founder of CrossFit Kids and Brand-X Martial Arts in Ramona, California. Last year the field for men was about 200 and for women it was about 100 with the CrossFit headquarters crew accomodating all of the competitors at the Ranch in Aromas.  I came in at about the middle of the filed around 90th.  This year those numbers were slightly smaller for the Northern California Qualifiers.  I came in 64th overall, but you had to come in top 5 in Northern Cali in order to make it to the finals.  There are thousands of athletes around the world this year who competed at various qualifiers and the top performers will be only two hours away next week at Aromas, California.  If you wish to attend as a spectator you may want to sign up in advance.  I clipped this from the Games page:

All 3 days’ events are $30 if purchased in advance online
All 3 days’ events are $60 if purchased at the door
$20 per day for single day pass only (purchase these at the door)

Children 13 years and younger can attend for free and do not need to register.

Oh, and yes, here are the other videos:

Connor Martin David Shanahan from Brand-X: (with Russ showing up here and there)

Run:

{  No sound =((  }

Please let us know if you are planning on joining us down there next weekend for any part of the event.

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