The Play by Play
CrossFit Games Open 11.1
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
30 Double-unders
15 Power snatches
The Power snatch loads are as follows:
Men and Masters Men 45-49, 50-54: 75lbs/35kg
Women and Masters Women 45-54: 55lbs/25kg
Masters Men 55-59, 60+: 65lbs/30kg
Masters Women 55-59, 60+: 45lbs/20kg
CrossFit Games Open 11.1 workout instructions – video wmv/mov
Jason Khalipa 7 rounds + 3 snatches, Laurie Galassi 6 rounds + 27 double-unders (25kg).
Watch the amazing story of the CrossFit Games over just five years wmv/mov
I just finished my first marathon this past Saturday, check out the video above and my thoughts below, enjoy…
THANK YOUS
-Big thanks to Kevin and Lara for joining me on this crazy mission. An experience that will bond us forever!
-An even bigger thanks to my beautiful wife for riding alongside us for 5 hours, delivering water upon command, and encouraging us even though her ass hurt as much as our feet.
-Thanks to Alex, G, Maru, and Jess for riding alongside us at such a slow pace, enduring the cold and not too exciting show until the end. I owe you a Saturday night!
-Thanks to Zeb and Joe D for the use of your vehicles, I’m glad you enjoyed the park view:)
PRE RACE
-The run began at 6:45 at Temescal Canyon Rd in Pacific Palisades at Will Rogers Beach
-Lara and I had never run a marathon before and both made somewhat foolish shoe choices. Lara decided to buy a new pair of shoes and wear them for the first time on her run, while I decided to go the opposite route and use the shoes I’ve been wearing for the past 6 months, my DC skate shoes. The results of that later…
-Lara and I went with the SFH Endurance powder a half hour beforehand and I ate a regular meal for lunch, Steak and kale.
-We did a little DROM, active stretching of the legs and calves, a couple jogs to the bathroom to calm the nerves, my mind was finding a million little tweaks in my body as I tried to stay relaxed
THE RUN
-The first 4 miles flew by, but I already felt my hip flexors and a little weirdness in my feet, after stopping for a bathroom break, got in a little stretch and I felt much better when we continued
-Cruised past the Santa Monica pier and into Venice where we picked up Alex and went on our first detour through Abbot Kinney
-I can imagine how running a marathon in the official capacity would help. Seeing all the people on a Saturday night reenergized me!
-We ran the length of the Venice Pier with a little encouragement from a drunken fisherman, beautiful waves, half moon lighting up the ocean, it was fantastic, just up Washington to the gym and we were almost halfway!
-Alex departed our company and then Jess and Maru joined us right after, sweet timing
-Made it to the gym at about an hour and fifty minutes to refuel: went with a scoop of the SFH endurance protein mixed with a half liter of coconut water and half teaspoon of salt for electrolyte replenishment. Also a half a banana. G joined the party.
-I couldn’t believe it, we were halfway and I wasn’t out of breath at all, just a little tightness in my hips and the feet started to ache a little, but I was confident in my running form carrying me through! At this pace we would be done at just under 4 hours and 20 minutes!
-About a mile later it hit me, the vast blackness extending out in front on me, and the damn concrete path wasn’t straight, so it was taking forever to make forward progress and my feet started to really hurt.
-The three of us were now side by side for about 14 miles and I wasn’t about to walk at this point, so I suffered in silence for the next 5 miles or so, every step was painful, but we were making forward progress, maybe I could make it
-The mental break came around mile 19 or 20…I was waiting for the next mile marker on the beach front path, my ankle was killing me and it seemed an eternity since I last saw one, perhaps I passed one in the dark. All I wanted was to see that next marker, to know how much progress I had made, another mile at least! When it finally appeared beneath my feet I couldn’t believe it. We had only gone a half a mile! I started walking soon after.
-The group has disbanded at this point. Lara is moving slow and steady, I am intermitently walking and trying to run, and Kevin is bouncing between the two of us and says his feet hurt, but generally seems unphased by the whole production.
-We arrive at the Manhattan Beach pier and all thoughts of how cool the view and experience of running the pier will be have evaporated. All I want to do is keep running down the beach, but noooo, I had to run the length of the damn pier! Didn’t anticipate that:)
-The pain in my right ankle is where its at, I feel nothing else. I try walking in the longest strides that I can to change the stimulus on my foot and to keep making forward progress.
-As I approach the longest pier yet, the Hermosa Beach pier, I see Lara and Kevin are standing at a locked gate. The pier closed at 10pm, nooooo! The disappointment fades quickly.
-With about 3-4 miles to go the time is at 4hrs and change, I get pissed off thinking that I won’t make the 5hr mark so I make a plan to count my steps. I will walk 50 steps and jog 200 steps.
-After one attempt at that pace, I change to walk 100 steps and jog 200 steps.
-By the time I make it to the Redondo Beach pier I am walking 150 steps and jogging 100 steps, the pain is unbearable, but I never stop, just keep going.
-I catch up with the lead pack, who are waiting for Lara, because she is running the length of the Redondo Pier (not on the map) to make up for the previous pier that was closed…damn! I decide to ‘run’ it as well, with no shirt on, limping and moaning through the latenight fishermen and restaurant goers. I make eye contact with a group of people staring and I blurt out something about how I just ran from Malibu to get there.
-This is the last I see of Lara and Kevin before the finish, the rest of the time is just me counting steps, with Gretchen and Martina silently riding behind me.
-The last mile is finally upon me and I start really pumping the arms hard to swing my body upwards to take the pressure off my foot, I have a nice rythym going now. It was a strange type of hard work, I was actually kind of cold, and I could talk normally, not out of breath at all. Just in miserable pain. One more step, one more step, almost there is all that I could think about.
THE ENDING
-Lara and Kevin sprinted ahead, but didn’t know exactly where the finish line was so they accidentally ran about a half mile too far!
-They finished around 4hrs 45min and I came in exactly at 5hr 6min 28sec
-I was surprised by the ankle pain, I had expected knee or hip pain, but I guess thats what I get for never running longer than 8 miles in my life and then pounding on my feet for 5hrs straight!
-Lara and I both escaped with no blisters amazingly! I like to think it was the running technique:)
-I was definitely thinking during the race how god awful it was and how I couldn’t wait for it to be over and how it is something I would never do again…buuuut, now that its over and I look back at how well the first 13 miles went, I am thinking if I trained, maybe I could extend that pain free, relaxed state to a longer distance. To clarify, if I were to run another marathon, I would probably run a bunch of half marathonesque distances first.
-I wonder if this will become an annual tradition, just saying:)
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