June
It wouldn’t be 2020 if everything was entirely on schedule {{laughing}}. My initial book launch date came and went, but I continued to plug along and finally landed on July 7th. I finally just started saying, “Hey, it’s 2020,” anytime something didn’t go according to plan. Nothing during the year had really gone according to my penned list. Believe it or not, that didn’t change a bit.
The first week of June started with a bang; a tweet by the owner of CrossFit and the fitness world as I knew it soared into chaos. I got barraged with angry messages saying, “Why haven’t you posted a public statement? You need to quit CrossFit right now. Walk away”!
I suppose I never saw CrossFit as one man. I saw it as a movement, quite literally. A community, a family, something that helped save my life, and quite frankly much more significant than one person. Optimistically I believed it could survive, so I wanted to wait and see what happened. Watching what was happening in CrossFit during the same week my city was on fire, the fears and anxiety about the book, not having my regular outlet of being able to go to the physical gym, being worried about Covid, feeling couped up, getting over-stressed because everyone else was stressed was a lot to process. Either CrossFit would crumble, or there was a glimmer of hope that it could come back stronger.
(Sigh)
On June 9th, with my fingers trembling, I shared my first of what would become almost a month of daily teasers from the book.
Two weeks later, I took my first run up and down the driveway, hit 155 lbs on a deadlift, and the book scored a #1 New Release for the pre-order. It doesn’t seem like much, but they were huge milestones. I was getting more comfortable sharing little teasers, and it actually became something I looked forward to every morning.
By the end of the month, gyms had reopened, but with limited capacity and no guaranteed sign of getting back to some regular schedule. Sometimes change happens in our life not because it was a good idea or some midnight revelation but somewhat out of necessity. I felt that Covid wasn’t just going to go away, and more and more, I was convinced that a fall lockdown was ahead. I was incredibly frustrated at the gym situation, and although it wasn’t anyone’s fault, I reached my boiling point one morning. I couldn’t lose the ability to work out again. Not again.
On July 1st, I was standing out in the middle of the wrecked cesspool of a garage with cobwebs, old paint cans, and stacks of wood and thought….
“Hmmm.” Wouldn’t it be great if I could turn this into a box?
I’m not really sure I spent a great deal of time thinking about it. Maybe a minute or two. I did the simple calculation of square footage and realized it might become CrossFit’s smallest affiliate, but it could be done. That was it. I made my mind up and instantly posted the picture of my embarrassing cluttered garage on Instagram. I was proud. I saw the vision, and I was so excited at the prospect it could be something I could call my own. I knew the direction I wanted to take it, and that was that! New Mission!
An hour later, after I had already committed myself because I just announced it to everyone, I’m back in the garage sitting amongst the cobwebs and makeshift walls with dead flies on the ledges, wondering where the hell I was going to put everything in the garage?
“WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING TO PUT ALL THIS SHIT,” I yelled.
I looked over at my snowblower. *gulp*.
What did I just commit myself to?
July
July was super fun. During the first week of the month, I went on to do quite a few podcasts to talk about the book release. However, there was one podcast for a moment during the show that became a bit awkward over a statement the host had made regarding seeing heavy people at the CrossFit games. I thought I handled the question well when asked, but I won’t lie and say it didn’t stick with me. When the podcast went live, I was contacted by many followers asking me if I would say something about it publically; meaning call him out. Calling him out wasn’t necessarily something I would do blatantly, but it did bother me the more I thought about it. I don’t think it was so much the comment – it was that one last thing.
How many of you understand what “one last thing” is? Sometimes when we get upset, it doesn’t have anything to do with one thing in particular. It sometimes is a long sequence of events, and finally, there is that little cherry that gets thrown on top, and it’s just enough to rock the boat. It’s either going to fall left or right, but it’s not going to stay afloat.
That single day on this particular podcast opened a more significant issue. My followers shared things with me for several years—microaggressions in CrossFit toward the larger-bodied athletes. I had been the receiver of many of these types of things. Nasty grams for being a larger-bodied coach and being told I didn’t belong coaching because I wasn’t setting a good example. I heard many things over the months and years, but I had also heard hundreds of stories from followers.
The #webelong Instagram page was born the following day. I didn’t want a place to complain about it. Instead, I wanted a place where people could share their stories. If the opportunity presented itself, we as a group could make recommendations on handling the situation. It could bring awareness but offer a safe place to discuss. I wanted people to have a place to put their story rather than telling it to me.
Most of July’s weekends were spent with my parents, who (I have no idea how) got talked into helping me with the garage box. Let’s face it, they were doing most of the work because I had no clue what I was doing.
It was a hell of a year, but I do remember a lot of smiles that month. It was a lot of hard work, and I had several blender explosions, but {{laughing}} I made it to August. I was lucky to have my family. Without them, this beautiful little box wouldn’t have been possible. We went whole heart and I believe it shows.
I like the positive ways you act rather than just react.
I’m not on social media and don’t get to follow you except when you post on this blog. Thanks for doing a recap here.
I remember the #webelong thing when it started. I had mixed feelings then and I still do. Of course everyone should be welcome in a gym. And everyone with coaching credentials should be respected for what they know and are able to teach others. But there isn’t anybody that hasn’t been judged in his/her life, and probably unfairly. But that’s probably the way we are wired, to favor quick judgement while sacrificing accuracy, and in some cases, getting it completely wrong. There just isn’t a way we can know everyone’s life history and what path they are on. All we get most of the time is a snapshot. And so it goes.