That's a terrible uncreative headline but it is what it is.The 2016 is officially over and we can now finally get back to exercising for fun! Yaaaaaaay!My disdain for competition not withstanding, I have to say that this was our best and my favorite Open we have ever had. I was thrilled (but not surprised) to see how committed you guys were to being there each week and getting after these workouts. Thanks to the 2016 Open we have story upon story of success whether it was getting that first muscle up, finishing a WOD you didn't think you could finish, or dramatically improving your time on 16.5 Plus we also had the best Post-Open Party we've ever had thanks to Austin and Paige Jones and the INDUSTRIAL PIZZA OVEN THEY HAVE IN THEIR VERY OWN BACKYARD! I'm so thankful for all of you and your commitment to the Open these last five weeks and to CrossFit Renew since the day you joined. During the party at the Jones's house I was looking around and realizing that I know almost all of you guys BECAUSE of CrossFit Renew. I'm so thankful that this gym has allowed me to get to be around a group of people that I genuinely like a lot.I'm looking forward to what's to come with all of you!
The Women's Leaderboard has been close since 16.1 and it finished the same way. Paige Jones and Jess Rhodes could not have been any closer.
Jess dominated 16.1 but they two virtually tied on 16.2, 16.3, and 16.4. In 16.5, Paige cruised to an 19:09 finish to take second in the WOD and first overall. Congrats to Paige on a freaking killer Open. Paige is definitely one of our favorites and we couldn't be more excited for her. As part of her reign as Fittest Woman in the Gym, she has asked that when you speak to her moving forward that you refer to her as "Most Fit" and not make eye-contact with her...Becky ended up winning 16.5 on the women's side with a time of 18.29 which is impressive in and of itself but even more so when you consider her score on 14.5 in 2014 was over 30:00. That's an improvement of at least 12 minutes from last time. In 2014, Jess did a scaled version of the WOD and it took her over 33:00. We love Jess's story and are so super proud of her. Lastly, I get really fired up looking at the leaderboard and seeing that two of the top 3 finishers are people who started at Renew by going through Foundations Training and now they are amongst the fittest in our gym and they are coaching our athletes. I care about that so much more than I do their place in the Open. (Note: Becca Phillips got a pass on 16.5 because she contracted the Black Plague and was bed-ridden for about five days. Going straight from your death bed to 16.5 just really isn't a great idea...)
As if you couldn't already tell from working out with him (or just looking at him), Russell Hene is the fittest man in our gym!
CrossFit is a broad and general physical fitness program that rewards consistency across different time and modal domains and essentially penalizes you for hyper-specialization. What makes Russ the fittest person in our gym is his excellence at everything we do. The Open had long WODs, sprint WODs, skill WODs, and engine WODs and Russ never finished lower than 3rd in any of them. Edsel also demonstrated the same consistencies by never finishing lower than 4th in any of the WODs. That, my friends, is fitness.Now...let's not act like Hroch isn't a super fit dude. If not for a one WOD hiccup, we might have crowned him as the Fittest Guy at Renew. Four 1st place finishes is preeeeeeeettty awesome. Lastly, BIG UPS to Michael Vasko. At 63 years old the man did 16.5 prescribed. Like a frigging boss...
Regardless of your finish, I sincerely hope you enjoyed the Open and that is fueled your enthusiasm for fitness, CrossFit, and specifically, CrossFit Renew. And as much fun as it was I hope you will remember that fitness isn't for competition just like it isn't for looks. Fitness is for something more than that. Our entire team wants you to be fit so you can go out and be more effective and enduring at whatever it is that life requires of you or throws at you. We love you guys so much and we are thankful that you trust us with your health and fitness. See you around the box!Chris