The day of “The Amazing Race” had arrived saturday june 26th,and I was off tomy home away form home gym SPC Crossfit early in the morning, arriving about 8:30AM. When i arrived the parking lot was already almost filled up with all the cars. I suspected at that point that the response to “The Amazing Race” might be more than all of us at spc had expected.
When the final count was in I there were 22 teams of 4 people which means 88 CrossFitters were getting ready face whatever would come with “The Amazing Race”.
There were no prizes, no awards, just the opportunity to try something new, work hard, meet other CrossFitters and face the unknown. Also, it was an opportunity to donate to a popular CrossFit cause, “The Wounded Warriors Project”. i met up with my fellow spc crew of Dan, dan and joe, we gathered all the needed equipment that we would need have to haul to the locations ( weights, 45lb bar, 2o lb med ball, gymnastic rings, abd mat, and off course are bad ass selfs.
The race consisted of 5 WOD (work out of day) for those of you infamilar with crossfit you do one WOD each day you go to the gym but only 3 a week , we would doe 5 total WOD as team, and this was all our fourth day of the week. here we go....oh boy oh boy....
The first WOD happened in the parking lot. 7 snatches, 20 push ups, 30 squats, 3 rounds. 3 team members work, one rests as you rotate through the movements.
Once we finished the WOD we were able to get a clue for the next location. Then is where the real work started.
CLUE 1 : You have just started your DAY down the TRAIL of HAPP(Y)NESS. We figured out that we needed to go to the Happy Day Lodge area in the Cleveland Regional Park System. We figured all that out and actually made it to the venue.
When we arrived at the venue we were pointed down a path and told to run the 3mile trail, and with a “Run Forest, Run” we were off. Big fail on my part because at this point i knew the trails but forgot my team members were not runners my bad we regrouped and of we went.
As the run progressed (and we were moving as fast as we could) we started to get an every increasing feeling of doom. The first problem was no one else was passing us. Could we already be dead last? Then there was some confusion and a fork in the road. As I have statistically proven throughout my life the probability is that without clear direction I will pick the wrong way. Nothing has changed with that.
Long story short we took the extended loop which we didn't have too and were both pisssed and suprised when we emergerged to a pack of runner from other teams, whom we thought had missed a turn and them out and told them they missed a turn, or so we thought...
Eventually we were able to hear traffic and then actually see a road to the left of Us, dan,dan and joe never looked happier! IT IS Route 303 JOE said thank god! Ie truck so my teammates would have to find me to move on.
we came to learn later that getting lost in the woods was one of the most popular part of that WOD and that my team and I were not alone in not being able to find their way down a path in the woods.
Recovering what little dignity we had from our error
we now earned the right to see Clue 3:
1st things 1st, the MAIN reason for this event is community. I was able to come up with “It has to be at 1st and Main”. But what city? we all said must be hudson since the gym is there. off we went and w ended up in a little community park at 1st and Main St, Hudson, Ohio.
Poor residents and shoppers must of thought What the heck is going on here, as this is what conclcusion i drew from their expressions.
This was another suck fest of a WOD. It was handstand push ups and burpees. I can’t remember the number or reps or how we broke everything up, but I do remember dan and dan did the most handstand pushups of us four. basically it went like this 15 HSP, then 50 burpess, repeat HSP and 50 burpees till 75 HSP were completed, then get your clue and get the heck out of dodge.
Once we finished that we had the next clue which almost did us in. We had a cage fighter, poker player, , a Teacher and a me a nurse to figure out the following:
The key to unLOCK the workout is in the equation:
15 X 3=___+20=___-7=___X2=___/4_____
Although it seems impossible to believe all four of us were able to come up with 4 different answers, none of them correct. The actual answer was 29 so we finally figured out we had to get to Lock 29 on the Erie Canal.
We made it to Lock 29 along with the other CrossFitters and every fool in town with a bike, all in a parking lot that holds about 30 cars. I found a parking spot in the over flow area and dan,dan and joe took the equipment to the workout area. At that point the team had learnede j that we got to start this mess out with……a run. Straight up a mountain aka intiation hill. Well, it seemed like a mountain, after these workouts so far, but at least i was on familiar ground. then on to the WOD number 4:
Workout 4: Lock 29
* x 100 Power Cleans . .
x 100 Wall Balls . .
x 50 Muscle Ups
* This is where things got a little sketchy. The “park po po” showed up and shut us down, sort of. We had to bring the rings down (so we improvised and had to do 150 dips). Next time ,i hope toby at spc will get a permit for us. t
WOD 4 done now the pesky CVNP train.. well decided to park and block the drive,s o i ran inthe ditch along side o f it to get the car , when i got back we threw the equipment under the trian to me i loaded, then as you have it, the train decided to move finally after what seemed like hours, (when actually it was just about 20 minutes) but come on now we are in a race! team loads in the car and off we go.
Final clue: was a number scramble with a meaning
this thing thre wus for a loop but we ended back up at spc crossfit for the last WOD,
cant recall the last WOD excpetit involved 200 30 inch box jumps, 100 pull ups and 100 sum sor tof clean lifts. we gave it our all had a blast and met a ton of cool people.
Then the reward was food , fun and pictures afterwords in the parking lot.
Fools Run 50K smart ones were specatators :)
13 years ago
