It's Wednesday.
After a day seated on airplanes and in terminals, you're not too inclined to attend an athlete "meet and greet" at a hotel across town. Your brain and body need to move, dammit, not listen to speeches from sponsors.
Then you see the athletes' kit: boxes FULL of quality gear, individually numbered and branded, with more than any one athlete could possibly use (three hats?) The quantity was great; the quality was excellent; but the care given to each individual athlete out of more than 500 (bags embroidered with athletes' names!) was beyond any expectation.
Then you see the spread: Paleo, and plenty of it. Creative skewers, massive variety, and more than enough for a crowd of 700 athletes and coaches.
Then you see them through the crowd: Orlando. Thorisdottir. Clever. Froning. Shaking hands and eating from the same fruit bowl you are.
Then you get to the speeches: short. Relevant. Bill's history of Rogue makes you want to buy their stuff. Reebok's "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are..." video makes you want to carry a bunch of dumbbells to a beach.
Then Castro reveals the first and second events for the morning, and you know you're not going to sleep.
And then....the true light of CrossFit shines from a very high peak: an introduction to a secretary from Reebok. She's lost 30lbs in two months doing CrossFit. She's down to a half-dose of insulin, and soon, she won't be diabetic anymore. She'd like to thank her trainer, Austin (that's Austin Malleolo, for those keeping score at home.) She gets the biggest round of applause. More than Castro, more than anyone. Worth the plane ride, worth starving all day, worth the kinks. THAT is CrossFit.
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