Upper East Side

A Glimpse at The Games – What Are They?

For anyone who’s been CrossFitting for a while, there’s a buzz in the air this weekend.  I can’t contain my excitement as yet another year of the CrossFit Games approach.  This event had it’s beginning on a meager ranch in Aromas, CA in 2007 with less than a hundred athletes competing, and it hardly seemed to justify the title ‘Fittest on Earth’ that was being handed out.  CrossFit founder “Coach” Greg Glassman had a vision then though, and today we see just how true it is to say that this is the Sport of Fitness.  This year thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individual athletes and teams competed across the world to earn a chance to go to California to compete in the 2012 CrossFit Games.  Each year more and more people compete.  Each year the Games test athletes capacity across a wider range of domains and never fail to surprise athletes, proving our testament to train for the unknown and unknowable.

I don’t think anyone would have guessed that this year the competitors would have to start the competition two days earlier than expected with a sprint triathlon that included a 700m ocean swim, a half mile single speed bike leg, a mile and a half run through shifting sand, and a 3+ mile pavement run.  The athletes would then move directly to a trail run up and down a mountainside in CA.  The competitors weren’t even told when the run would end – they just had to reach the top of a peak, hoping that it was the end of the line, only to find a seemingly endless trail laying ahead of them and winding around yet another switchback.  In total the event took the top competitors around 2 hours to finish, proving that CrossFitters do indeed have the capacity to go long.  Check out some coverage of the Camp Pendleton event of this incredible test of athletic capacity!

So tune in to watch the action live on the CrossFit Games site or on ESPN 3 at select times and see what’s in store for the athletes.  Check the schedule for the Games to find out what events are happening and at what time.  And while you’re watching, we ask you to cheer along a few friends of CrossFit U.E.S. as they put it all on the line at the Games this weekend:

• Amy Mandelbaum
• Camille Leblanc-Bazinet
• Christy Phillips (Currently in 2nd place after Camp Pendleton)
• Team CrossFit Athletic (Sydney, Australia)
• Team Invictus (San Diego, CA)
• Team Schwartz CrossFit Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia)