In 2008, after stumbling upon some CrossFit Games footage on YouTube, the Catalyst coaches thought it would be a good idea to host our own local fitness championship.
There was already a "fitness" championship in town - bodybuilding and various other posing events - and we thought a demonstration of real fitness would show people what we were about. Competition isn't everyone's goal, but it provides a great snapshot of what we celebrate at Catalyst: fun, support, and hard work. Each element supports the other two.
Catalyst Games 2008 had thirteen competitors. Many of them were coaches. The events revealed our programming bias: we like to make people really strong, and our first two events were tests of strength. In the first, athletes performed as many bench presses as possible with their bodyweight. As soon as they stopped, they racked the bar and jogged to the waiting truck pull. A max deadlift was the second event, and I guess we hoped "Murph" would balance out the others, because we programmed it third. Matt Keating and Crista Wardell were pulled out of the crowd to do the workout, and Joe Scott changed out of his referee hat to do "Murph," too.
2009 saw some fun changes: a cross-country running track, a "catch-the-coach" bonus, and a staggered start on the fourth event. This was Event #1:
The run was exciting (and very muddy.) The highlight may have been watching Miranda Mayhew compete in her bright green wedding veil; she got married a few hours later.
Event Two was a ground-to-overhead challenge: men would complete 5000lbs overhead using 75% of their bodyweight; women would use 50% and more reps. Nancy Leblanc had a very memorable experience in Event #2. The third event was a chipper called, "Cherry On Top," and that cherry - muscle-ups - cost several athletes dearly. The last event was a sandbag carry with a staggered start: the athlete leading after the first three workouts got a head start, according to their lead. Nicole Gignac enjoyed such a large margin that she had almost a full 400m lap under her belt before the next competitor began their run. In the end, Gignac and Adrian Vilaca took the title.
2010 was our first venue change: we moved to the chilly (but VERY photogenic) Roberta Bondar tent. We gave athletes 100 Reasons To Do The Games, and met our first non-Catalyst competitors, each of whom quickly became good friends. It was also the introduction of our Varsity division, and produced our first 300lbs deadlift by a woman (MaryAnn Lindquist.) Our focus didn't change, but our emphasis became achievement over victory. We published, "Don't Shoot The Piano Player", shattered the fallacy of the immovable object, and painted lizards on our plyo boxes to help us overcome the Lizard Brain. We tried Dynamic Scaling for the first time and somehow survived the math.
In the first event, athletes ran 1 mile and then pulled a max deadlift under a time cap. Though they battled for plates, several hit Personal Bests, including MaryAnn.
Event #2 featured a real weakness in Catalyst programming: overhead squats. 10 reps, in 2010, was as tough as 50 in 2013. Though meant to be a quick test of anaerobic threshold, the jumps over a box and burpees didn't really effect the outcome of the event. The best overhead squatters dominated.
Event #3 at the 2010 Games will long be remembered as one of the toughest mental challenges we've ever done. A shuttle/double-under combination with a tight time cap, we saw dead-heat sprints with wooden quads and even a few tears (the crying kind, not the ripping kind.) Athletes collapsed across the finish line, and crowd noise during the sprints drew spectators from all along the waterfront. It was a barn-burner, and Aaron Bell's staggering effort made him a few dozen friends for life. The final event, a 12-minute AMRAP, was a 'classic' CrossFit workout, but the climb onto the stage each round made things quite a bit tougher. In the end, we gave away a cruise to two athletes, and the day was carried by Cam Wilson and Melanie Rose (final results are here.) The Scaled categories were made more interesting by the math-bending required to accommodate Dynamic Scaling, which we altered in 2011.
The Games returned to the Park in 2011, but the events were just as interesting. We hosted the first competitive event on the Hub Trail - a 2k run with pushups, squats and burpees added - to open the events, and introduced the very popular Team category. This wasn't the first appearance of the Green Mules, but it may have been their best. The 2011 Games featured another prize generously donated by Troy Woods: this time, a cruise in a helicopter instead of a ship. Thanks, Woodsy!
Watching the athletes progress through the clean ladder was exciting, and many PRs were claimed, but the real thrill was "Krannie": a compilation of "Annie," "Fran," and "Karen," that put mental fortitude ahead of everything else. Sally Moore, unsurprisingly, proved toughest in the gym, and her performance was both agonizing and thrilling to watch. "Divine," a SEALFIT-style challenge, featured a truck push, sandbag carries, and thrusters with a log. Teams carried their log and did situps with it, too. Good times. Watching Pam do it all while requiring the use of a can was one of the year's highlights for everyone.
The final score revealed a dominance by teams from LSSU, led by Coach Jay. Womens' events scores were so close that any one of FIVE women could have won if they'd scored one or two points higher in any of the events. SFM took the title, of course, and Cam repeated as Mens' Champion.
Elevation wasn't the only change at 2012: rather than Rx and Scaled categories, we used the names "Competitive" and "Amateur." We moved the whole circus to Searchmont, and to no one's surprise, the first event was a hill climb...weighted. With burpees. It was a cold morning, and runners couldn't see the top of the mountain from the bottom. Many believed the course would end "just around the next corner," only to find another mammoth climb in front of them. Mel called it "Sandy Mountain." Everyone else called it...something different.
2012 saw a large-scale draw from other CrossFit gyms: CrossFit Genetic Potential (Manitoulin,) CrossFit Sudbury, and CrossFit 807 (Thunder Bay) were all well-represented.
It was almost a relief to see a clean-and-jerk ladder after the hill run, and despite the very short rest, there were a LOT of impressive lifts. At 155, Brent Fryia cleaned and jerked 225; eighteen-year-old Lucas Proulx scored 265, matched only by his teacher, Jon Balfe.
Another first: a 'skills' competition featuring a softball throw; handstand walk; broad jump; and max double-unders. This event shook up the standings, and helped some gain huge points while others dropped.
Where 2009 had muscle-ups as a 'cherry on top,' they were necessary to compete as Rx'd in 2012, and were only the midpoint of a longer pyramid event. Deadlift/carry/snatch/carry/press/muscle-up, and then work back through in under a time cap. Few finished everything, help up by loading their own plates or their own lungs.
Balfe and Proulx ruined Wilson's three-peat (though his cowboy hat won the hearts and minds of the crowd in the final event,) and Tina Balfe sealed up the podium for CrossFit Genetic Potential. Jessica Sally and Cindy Henson were #2 and #3, and all three are back in 2013.
Zavitz made a great video of the day:
2013 may prove to be the best year yet. Returning to the Bondar Pavilion with all our colour, noise, and a new pullup rig, we're going to churn up the waterfront.
There are many, many other memories, of course. You can read about them on this blog; you can see the winners of 'Best Picture' contests from previous years, watch videos, and read summaries. None will be as good as being there, and no story will every be more important than your own. Want to live through the experience? Good. Click here to register (we won't even keep score, if you don't want us to.) It's not ALL about the t-shirt.
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