Saturday 23 October

Written by Gareth Millings

22/23 October 2010

Divided We Fall Games!

We closed the gym early on Friday 22 October to embark on our epic road trip to Swansea to take part int the CrossFit Velocity, Divided We Fall Affiliate games.

Myself, James, David, and Alice loaded the car. Alice decided it would be a good plan to put diesel oil in her petrol engine, until James advised her otherwise and we were good to go. We jumped in and all was ready until Dave and James aired there concerns about the locking capabilities of the rear doors to Alice's passion wagon or lack thereof. This stressful situation invoking childhood memories for Dave when he decided it would be a good idea at 7/8 years old to open his door while going around a round about, falling out but holding onto the handle and sprinting by the side of the car before hurling himself back in, a little flustered to say the least. Once Alice had reassured the guys by smashing her hip into the doors while screaming at them to lock them quickly we were finally ready to go.

We moved quickly to Ludgershall where we met up with Boltz who was already deep in preparation for the comp and Kala in her tea cosy hat. It was a quick rendezvous-vous and we were back on the road within 5 mins.

The journey up was bookmarked with BOOM's and "There's always next times" (team names) throughout and the odd nibble nibble for Alice when she got wound up. We stopped at the Chippenham services to refuel as none of us had eaten. Luckily we were all able to stay Paleo. I went with the paleo double whopper with cheese meal, Kala went for a Texas burger thing, James went free range chicken royal as did Alice and Boltz hit the bacon and cheese burger meal, he also took the opportunity to warm up on guitar hero. On leaving the services we got our first handstand group photo. Not quite the colosseum in Rome but there we go.

Bristol came and went which took us upto the entrance to Wales, aka the merry go round which is the toll booths. This isn't a drama usually and when telling Alice to head for the coin bins, as last time I went through I managed to pick up a tenner in change I couldn't see any problems. When 500m away, and aiming left when we should be going right I started to question my instructions. When we got 250m away and she was still zig zagging I began to contemplate if I had my will upto date. At this point I decided to take our relationship to the next level and start directing Alice, my lovely girlfriend towards the booths. I thought I was pretty clear with my instructions and with her Joe 90's on i thought we were a dead cert to hit the coins, but we still missed. Oh well, we were now Croseo e Cymru (Welcome to Wales I think) so onwards and upwards.

The rest of the journey went as clockwork and we arrived at destination el Martin around 2330. We quickly dropped Matt, Kala, James and Dave at casa del Russell then proceeded to sign in for the comp and hit the hay.

Competition Day

After a restless night with Alice hyperventilating with nerves we met Adam at Macdonalds, sadly with not enough time for a paleo sausage & egg mcmuffin and got to the comp for 8am. Matt, dave and James decided to leave Kala stranded at Tescos to be on time and I think Darren, Tara, Michelle and Fi must have taken a scenic route to get there for around 8:20.

The Row

Event 1 was the team 3k row. Darren and myself found ourselves judging heat 1 with team "There's always next time" in heat 2 and team "Boom" in heat 4. Dave, Boltz and Adam spent a lot of time working out strategies and settled for 50 stroke change overs. On the word 3-2-1 Go this strategy evaporated and Dave pulled the rower at around 1:18 500m splits, then The changes came. Adam took over from Dave, Alice took over from Adam and then Boltz anchored. Everyone pulled heroically and they finished with a respectable 10:33.

Team"Boom" also had a strategy. Grip it, rip it and fall off. This worked a treat. I started us off and tried to rip the chain out of the fan and bunny hop back to Andover. James took over from me and pulled like a train. Darren grunted and swore and spat all over the display to keep up our planned 1:35 500m split and then Fi anchored us in smiling the whole way through to finish in 10:11 and around 11th overall.

The GTOH

Event 2 was a maximum lift of a barbell from the ground to overhead in any way possible. The most effective way chosen was the clean & jerk. However some variations involved backward rolls, forward rolls and even bouncing it off your head (don't try that at home folks).

"There is always next time" went first. Strategy again had been discussed but this time it went like clockwork. The guys decided to start Alice on 47.5kg's without telling her. She pulled hard, racked it solidly before rifling it overhead with a push jerk of authority to hit a PB. The guys then moved the weight up all hitting 80/90/100kg and then all achieving PBs of 105kg with Dave failing the jerk on 107.5 and Boltz doing the same at 110. Alice was last up and attempted 50kg but also just missed the jerk. NB must work on jerks in the gym.

Team "Boom" stepped up next and tried the same strategy. Fi smashed up 45kg and stood back. I moved the weight upto 80kg not realising this was a PB for Darren but as a t-shirt scene on the day said, and I quote "CrossFit, just F-ing do it" and he did, easily. James also smashed it as did I. 90 followed successfully as did 95. James then decided it would be interesting to clean 97.5 then shoulder press it to 2/3 rds lock out and hold it. I actually heard his shoulders tap out. Once he decided to drop it Darren achieved his PB of 97.5. I moved the weight up first to 100, then 105, then 110 a PB, successfully lifting all comfortably. A little bit of adrenaline kicked in and I jumped upto 117.5 and subsequently used the backward roll technique to good effect. GTOH Done!

The Prowler

The mystery WOD turned out to be a Prowler (giant sled) push and pull event over 100m. Not a very complicated event but not very nice either. Team 'Theres always next time' did it in 9.30 in the wet, team 'Boom' in 10.24 bone dry, read into that what you like......nibble nibble!

The Metcon

Firemans carry 200m, 20 x thrusters (40/30), 20 x deadlift (80/50), 20 x burpees, 20 x kettlebell swings (24/16).

Team 'Boom' were up in heat 2. As the 3.2.1 Go happened I grabbed Fi like a man possessed, Darren threw James over his shoulder prison style and we bolted off into the horizon elbowing the competition out the way as we went. We hit the first exercise in the lead and proceeded to knock out the required reps. Fi doing brilliantly on the thrusters while I tried to re-insert my lungs through the back passage they fell out of on the deadlifts. James busted out the swings and Darren destroyed the burpees. We changed very quickly yet fell to second by the time we got to the final carry. I again hurled Fi over my shoulder while James and Darren did a salsa to decide who carried first. When they eventually got mounted up we hit the road. To say it felt like quick sand was an understatement and with Fi gripping her thighs around my chest like a python breathing was not possible. Luckily I had no need for it as my lungs were back at the burpee station. We finished in a very respectable 10:12 and pretty confident our days activities were done.

Team 'TANT'

Sadly we were doing the Prowler when Team 'TANT' started their metcon and by the time I got over they were on the exercises. I did see Alice smash out the best thrusters of her life, with Dave pacing himself to stick with her. Boltz just destroyed everything as we have come to expect from Andovers Fittest and Adam did the team proud on all 4 stations. Alice particularly enjoyed being driven on by Sam Briggs, the only Brit to qualify for the games this year. I think a little crush happened and they nearly exchanged phone numbers. The final carry ended up with Boltz carrying Dave and Adam carrying Alice. Boltz shot off in the distance but Adam had left it all on the table and struggled to the halfway point. Boltz then threw Adam over his shoulder, Dave man handled Alice up and off they went to finish in 10: 40 ish.

The Final

Team Bath, the Sheep Slayers (with Sam) and CrossFit Leeds took the final spots. The final WOD was a relay event. Each member having to complete 7-5-3 power snatches and overhead squats, a 300m row 3 rope climbs (1 for women) then 7-5-3 power clean and front squat and then overhead lunges to tag the next member. The teams started off evenly up until the rope climb. Team Bath crushed their 3 but the slayers made a right pigs ear of it. By the time Simon had completed his 3 team Baths 2nd athlete was on the cleans and they won easily. CrossFit Leeds took second and Sam Briggs anchored the Slayers home carrying out all the elements unbroken and climbing the rope hands only. Alice fell in love there and then.

All in all we had a brilliant weekend. Team 'TANT' finished 15th and team Boom finished 19th not bad considering we are only 6 months old. Next year I'm sure we will have more participants and will be far better prepared to battle for the win. Everyone who took part did themselves proud and the gym proud. A special thank you to Tara, Kala and Michelle for supporting all the guys and girls and for taking all the pictures and videos and conducting some awesome interviews.

The End!