I am a 2013 Crossfit Open Competitor

Despite knowing I am likely going to miss at least one of the open workouts due to a medical procedure scheduled for mid-March, I signed up for the CrossFit Open. How could I not? Especially after calling the world out HERE?

So I logged on, paid my 20 dollars, selected my affiliate, selected my team and then updated some personal records and bio info (a 45# or 22.5% increase in my back squat was my favorite update). Afterwards, I clicked back to the affiliate / team page and what I saw left me underwhelmed. I was the 23rd member of the affiliate and the 12th person to select CrossFit 858 as my team. Yes, the opens are still a few days away, plenty of time for members to sign up, but after reading about the participation among boxes in the region and across the world (http://games.crossfit.com/article/competing-title-worlds-largest-team) and recounting the participation among our athletes last year, I was compelled to blog about it again.

Here's a line graph of my 858 participant expectations*:

Here's a pie graph showing participation year to year*:

(*Expectations based on 2012 actual participation and assumed growth. I have no idea the actual growth in membership)

Here's a picture of puppies:

I can't tell you that the open experience will be life changing. For me, however, there are moments that I won't soon forget.

• In workout 12.2 (a 10 minute snatch ladder amrap), the second weight of 135 was 5# over my 1RM at the time. I only got 32 two total reps, but that 32nd rep made me feel like a champion.

• Workout 12.3 was a more 'conventional' CrossFit workout; a 18 minute amrap of 15 box jumps 12 push press (though the standards allow any shoulder to overhead movement) and 9 toes to bar. I finished with a decent score, but what I remember was Catie's efforts on this WOD. Catie had only been with 858 for about a month. With a whole lot on her personal plate, she dove head first into CrossFit...and got stuck on the toes to bar. If I recall correctly she spent 15 minutes trying to do one. If she hadn't been smiling the entire time, I would say it was one of the hardest things to watch. A few weeks back we redid this wod as part of 858's programming and she got 5 full rounds and 9 push presses. This means she did 45 toes to bar. It's been awesome watching her grow over the past year (figuratively, of course; she's still tiny). Now she holds an L1 Certificate and crushes wods daily.

So basically, sign up and  1) realize how awesome you are, 2) how awesome you've become and 3) puppies.