Day 3 album - A little late, sorry about that. Refunds will be issued.

I'm in the airport now, waiting on my flight. I've got lot's of time to kill, because I'm really neurotic about getting to the airport early. I think it's a product of never getting on a plane until I was 21. You get to benefit, though, because I've had plenty of time to go through yesterday's pictures, pull out the ones that didn't need much fixing, and upload a gallery. Today's thumbnail shows MK looking strong in the middle of Fran.



The results for the weekend are as follows:

Men's individual:
Graham Holmberg edged out Rich Froning in the last two back-to-back events. Froning had a commanding lead going in, and was the only man to finish the push-up, wall climb, OHS WOD. However, he struggled on the toes-to-bar/ground-to-overhead WOD and then basically fell apart on the rope climb/burpees from hell WOD. Apparently, Rich Froning never learned to use his feet to climb the rope, and with his arms destroyed by the first two WODs, he couldn't make it up the rope until he'd had a substantial rest. Chris Spealler came in third basically by turning in solid performances in all the WODS.

Women's individual:
Kristan Clever held onto her lead with three very strong performances in the final events. Annie Thorisdottir held onto the coolest last name ever, as well as the second place spot, actually turning in the fastest time for the women on the burpee/rope climb. Valerie Mackenzie Voboril secured the third spot.

Affiliate:
Crossfit Fort Vancouver was basically uncatchable going into the final event, and sure enough, they weren't caught. Their second place finish on the obstacle course didn't hurt. Crossfit New England and Crossfit Omaha rounded out the top 3, with one point difference in their scores.

Masters Men:
Brian Curley took the men's Masters event, turning in an impressive 4:39 fran in the process. Joel Nessa and Paul Flores grabbed second and third, both of them also turning in fran times that put mine to shame, at twenty+ years my senior. (I guess I need to step it up a little, huh?)

Masters Women:
Laurie Carvie won the women's Masters division, basically by not having any weaknesses. She didn't win any of the events, but she didn't do worse than third place either. Gabriele Schlicht and Heidi Fish rounded out the top three, with both of them suffering on the deadlift event. (That's only relative to the others, though. Heidi pulled 230, and Gabriele pulled 235)

Fairfax:
You should be proud of your Fairfax team. The affiliate team placed 19th in a very competitive field. MK earned a fifth place spot in a field of women who's top competitors beat my PRs in two out of three events (Thank God for the deadlift. A man needs a little pride). Excellent jobs all around.

MK, in the heat, with a 65 lb. candlestick

MK murdered Fran - sub 8:00 in a stadium where I was sweating nearly to dehydration just sitting there. It was another phenomenal performance from Fairfax's Master's competitor. Honestly, the entire masters division was awesome to watch. The fact that MK pulled out a 5th place finish in that field of competitors is simply amazing.

The individual finals are about to start at 1:00, so I'm going to go over and watch. It's supposed to be three events in one, and no one knows what they are. There's an obstacle course still set up from the affiliate cup final, but it's not clear at all if they're using it for the individual event or not. We'll see...

It's been quite a day

Here's a selection of pictures from the day. Like yesterday's set, these are pictures that didn't need much attention to look presentable. Also like yesterday, you should click on the thumbnail if you want to see the gallery. (Unlike yesterday, the thumbnail shows Maggie, not Maricar)



It was a very full day, with lots going on for the individual competitors. The men's competition has had pretty constant shifts in the top five. Rich Froning is in the lead right now, but he's definitely catchable. Kristan Clever had a literal upset (of her wheelbarrow) in the sandbag move event that not only ate up what we were assuming was an unbeatable lead, but even dropped her into second place behind Iceland Annie. Christy Phillips is in third, but it looks like she'll need a little good fortune to go with her strong performance if she wants to pull ahead of the top two.

It's late here, so that's it for tonight. Just a note, though. If you clicked on the first day's gallery yesterday and then again today, you may have noticed it changed. Picasa ate the original one, so I had to recreate it as best as I could. Sorry about that.

That track looked like a fat man's hell.

Fairfax just finished today's event. Their time was 21:44. So, we're sitting here waiting for the last heat to finish to find out if Fairfax will be going on to the final round or not.

That's not the whole story, though. Here, take a look at these shots:

SBJ shot out of the gate like a comet. She led the pack for most of the first run, until she remembered that the plan had been for Jeff to go through the gauntlet first, so she had to slow down and let the rest of the team get into position (She didn't have long to wait, though. They were setting a mean pace too.)


Jeff powered through the box jumps and moved right into the squat cleans. As the team churned its way through the movements, you could see the level of effort written clearly on everyone's face. This event was no joke.


Double unders


GHD situps


Then, when everyone had made their way through, it was time to head off around the track and do it all again.

Awesome job, Fairfax.

Correction

The affiliate team's heat will be at 12:45, not 1:00.

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Who's going today

The preliminary word is that Mike, Jeff, Lee, and SBJ will be the team for today's heat.

Maggie just said they'll be competing at about 1:00.

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Today's team event

The team event for today is:

Two rounds for time of:
Run 300 meters
15 Jumps over 24” Box
15 Dumbbell squat cleans, 45/25 lb.
30 Double-unders
15 Push-ups, hand must release from floor
15 GHD Sit-ups
30 yard Lunge

Everyone runs the 300 meters, and then the first person starts on the box jumps. When they're through, they go right to the squat cleans and the next person starts on the jumps. The team moves to the next stations only when everyone is finished with their current station. So, if you're done with your double unders, but your teammate is struggling with the squat cleans, you've got to wait until they're done to move to the push ups.

After this round, 16 teams will move on to tomorrow. (No word on how many events for the teams tomorrow, but I'm predicting just 1). That means that Team Fairfax needs to move up one spot in the rankings to stay in it.

Individual event 2/3

We're watching the ladies do their first individual event of the day, from the comfort of tent city. Here's their crazy workout:

Run 1200 meters
63 Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1 pood)
36 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters
42 Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1 pood)
24 Pull-ups
Run 400 meters
21 Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1 pood)
12 Pull-ups

THEN

90 seconds to establish a 1RM shoulder-to-overhead (behind the neck jerk allowed)

So, they're coming directly of a cthulian version of helen, and going right into the overhead 1RM. As an extra level of difficulty, they've only got 90 seconds, and they have to load their weights in that time. That means they've got 2, maybe three, tries to get it right.

It looks like Kristan Clever has taken this one for the women. She was definitely near the top finishers on the first part, and I think she won the second part with 205. Brutal.

Now the men are starting...

It's late here, which means it's even later there.

I've taken the shots from today that looked respectable pretty much straight out of the camera, and posted them in a web album. I hope, if you click the thumbnail image of a smiling Maricar below, it will take you there.



These pictures show a progression throughout the day, from first event to last. The last few are of the individual competitions, so you may or may not know anyone in them, but I thought they were interesting. Notice the clock in the background of the one with Chris Spealler. That's his last rep of the WOD, which means he rocked it.

It also might interest you to know that this first individual WOD was named after Amanda Miller. It was:
9-7-5
Muscle Ups
Squat Snatch (135/95)

They played a short video of her before the last heat as a kind of memorial.

MK wouldn't face the crowd while she was being awesome.

That's a picture of MK pulling a PR of 245 on the deadlift, sumo style. She says the judge made her face that way, but I think she's just shy. Her lift got her 5th place in the event, which has her sitting in 6th overall right now. As Jeff pointed out, though, there are only five points between her and the first place athlete. Can anyone say "dark horse?"

Everyone gets involved

Team Fairfax has finished event 2 and 3. Everyone had to participate, which was a nice opportunity for me to get a few shots of the whole team at once. The overhead work gave the team a little trouble, but they've stayed in the top 20 after day 1. (17th place)

In a few minutes (4:00pm), MK will be competing in her second and final event of the day. It's a 1RM deadlift.

Fairfax heat for event 2

Fairfax is in the 3:10 heat, in case your trying to catch them online. We seem to be running pretty much exactly on time.

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2nd affiliate event announced

All six members have to participate in this one. It's a little involved, so hand on tight:

There are six stations, in order:
deadlift (263/174 [stupid metric weights]) - max reps in one minute
rest
alternating pistols - max reps in one minute
rest
row - max calories in one minute
1RM shoulder-to overhead any way you can (behind the neck jerk is even allowed)

The team lines up single file, and the first person starts at the deadlift. Every minute, everyone moves forward one station (so, the second minute, person 2 is doing deadlifts, and person 1 is resting). When person 1 reaches the 1RM portion, they stay there until the last person is done with the other stations, plus 2 minutes. So, the first person through has the most time to work on 1RM and the last person through has the least (2 minutes). Everyone has to use the same bar, though.

Also, this is being scored like it's two events. The stations up through the row are like one event, and the 1RM is like another. Only the top 48 teams will advance after this event.

Got all that?

How does she do that?

MK turned in a solid performance in her first event. She hit the 18 minute time cap on her last round, which puts her in 4th place.

Here's a picture of MK doing an OH squat.



You know what amazes me about that picture? It's not her first squat. It's her LAST squat. Look at her form. Still solid, weight on the heels, good shrug, upright torso, the works. Awesome job MK.

MK is ready to rock the house.

The first event of the masters has been announced. It is:

5 rounds
400m run
15 OH squats (95/65)

MK looks prepared to me:


She starts at 11:45

First Team Event

Fairfax has finished its heat in the first team event. I'm unofficially saying their time was 10:47. Great performance, especially considering that a lot of teams aren't finishing. The thrusters were heavy, the pullups were brutal, and the buddy carry was crazy.

I've got an apology. I'm going to take a lot of pictures this weekend, and I'm hoping they'll be awesome, but I'm sorry, none will be as awesome as this one. Sure, the composition is bad, and it could be better lit, but do you see what it's a picture of? It's a picture of Team Fairfax, RIDING Team Fairfax! I simply cannot beat that for subject matter.

Dave Castro cuts a striking figure

Dave Castro just announced the standards and movements for the first team event.

It is:
2 rounds
70 thrusters (155/105)
50 C2B pullups
"buddy carry" across the field.

One person works at a time on the thrusters and pullups, but they can be broken up however the team likes. The "buddy carry" is pretty much what it sounds like. Two people carry the other two across the soccer field (width-wise), but then, they switch places and the carriers become the carried for the trip back. So, just having the men carry the women seems like a bad idea for most teams.

Fairfax team:
Jeff, Craig, Lee, and Sarah

Lee has an excellent rocker face.

The team is psyched and ready to go. Everyone's warming up, and we're trying to keep cool.

Here's the setup for the team event:
Jeff is thinking thrusters, pullups, run.

What we know so far

The games will use the system of "place = points" and the lowest score wins. So, first place gets you 1 point, second place 2 points, etc. This is just like last year's scoring system.

If you haven't installed the latest flash player (10.1) it's apperently important if you want to watch the live coverage online.

According to Mike, the affiliate teams were told they needed to be in place and ready to go by 9am tomorrow, instead of the 10am time that was originally stated. There's been no official word on a schedule update as far as I know, but if you're planning to watch from home, you might just want to quickly check at 9am to make sure they haven't moved things up. (The likeliest case is that the teams will be briefed at 9, and the organizers just want to make sure that everyone is there)

That Smoothie is Totally Paleo, I swear.

I'm officially on the road. Here's a picture of me in the airport to prove it. This picture was taken with my computer's webcam, so it's super crappy, but I needed to make sure I had a handle on posting pictures to the blog. Future pictures should be better, since I'll be taking them with better equipment. (Or, at least I'll have no excuse for bad pictures then)

There's another sneak peek on the games site, here:

http://games2010.crossfit.com/blog/2010/07/sneak-peak-day-2,660/

It talks about the media setup for the games, so if you're watching from home, it might be interesting to see what kind of coverage you can expect.

As a side note, does anyone else think it's funny that they keep misspelling "peek?" Spelled "peak," it implies that the video is of a particularly stealthy mountaintop - like you might be walking along and then, all of a sudden, you'd be like, "Holy crap! Mountaintop."

I've cracked the case wide open with this one!

If you're following the games on twitter (@crossfitgames) then you probably got a tweet pointing to a sneak peek video. If not, you can find it here:

http://games2010.crossfit.com/blog/2010/07/sneak-peak-day-1,653/

I watched it, and I wanted to bring everyone's attention to some information that (I think) I picked up from the video.

Dave Castro referred to Friday as the "big day of pullup bars everywhere"

• So, it looks like some gymnastic elements are in the mix for the early rounds.

Dave and Tony Budding seem to let slip that the Friday affiliate competition will be happening on the soccer/track field.

• That's an awfully big field if they're not going to put in a run.

Probably no pole vaulting (Although Tony Budding wouldn't commit to that)

• There's a pole vaulting track, but the guy who was unloading the truck seemed to imply that there was no equipment being brought in for a pole vault event. If pole vaulting does make an appearance, I promise to get as many hilarious pictures of it as I can manage.

Dave Castro let slip something about a "time cap" on the first individual event, but he caught himself before saying how long it would be.

• That means the first individual event is likely to be task priority rather than time priority

It will be possible to watch every event online. There will never be two events happening at once.

• Good news for everyone watching from home. The link is http://live.crossfit.com

Hey Everyone! (for very small values of "everyone")

I've set up this blog as a simple way for me to keep everyone up to date on what's happening at the 2010 Crossfit Games finals. I'll update it throughout the event with pictures and information about the CF Fairfax team (both the Affiliate Team and MK) and anything about the event or trip that strikes me as awesome. I expect the posts will start going up some time on Thursday, so stay tuned.