"I feel like these (athletes) are my children. You want them to do well so badly, and when they do their eyes light up, there's such a sense of pride for them," Melissa Mitchell said.
Photos courtesy of Matt Mitchell.
Weeks before Open Workout 14.5 was announced, Matthew Mitchell did 120 burpees in the snow outside of his affiliate, CrossFit Dedication.
The stunt was his payment for a challenge issued on Facebook: 10 burpees for every athlete to register for the CrossFit Games Open.
“Within 17 hours, we had 12 people sign up,” he said.
Just four months into affiliation, CrossFit Dedication boasted an Open roster of 34 athletes, more than 70 percent of its total membership of 46 athletes at the start of the Open. Though all but five athletes had only four months of CrossFit experience, PRs, high-fives and scores as prescribed were just as rich in the infant affiliate as in veteran gyms across the Central East Region.
“You could count on one hand the number of zeroes we posted,” Matthew’s wife, Melissa, said.
The Mitchells began CrossFit six years ago at Practice CrossFit in Troy, Ohio. When their youngest child went off to kindergarten last year, they knew the time was right to pass on what they’d learned.
“We knew this was what we wanted to do,” Melissa said.
In October 2013, they opened CrossFit Dedication in a 7,200-square-foot carpet warehouse on restaurant row in Vandalia, Ohio. And though the floors need work and athletes are green, they never considered sitting out of the worldwide Open.
“It’s just such a cool event that you do not want to pass it by,” Matthew said. “Our new members know that this is basically a new part of their culture and that we embrace it.”
Matthew began preparing athletes for the Open several weeks before 14.1 went down, programming double-unders, toes-to-bars and thrusters into daily workouts to hone athletes’ skills.
“The joke became that Matt had voodoo programming powers,” Melissa said with a laugh.
The preparation paid off for new CrossFit athlete Lori Larreategui, who got her first double-unders in Open Workout 14.1. Three weeks later, Matthew programmed toes-to-bars practice. Though Larreategui only managed three reps that day, when she threw down for 14.4, she finished all 50.
“That was huge for me,” she said. “I don’t think I would have been able to do all 50 in a normal workout. It’s just this awesomeness that happens when you’re in competition.”
Taking cues from their parent box before them, Matthew and Melissa planned heat schedules in advance, making sure the workout stations were set up and taped off hours before “3-2-1 … go!”
“It gave us a comfort level, knowing what to expect,” Matthew said. “Practice (CrossFit) puts a lot of effort into (the Open) and does a lot of things right. … We tried to mimic that as best as we could.”
Still, some things can only be learned in the heat of the moment. The Mitchells found themselves patrolling the floor to reinforce standards, playing head judges, as well as coaches and athletes.
“Having been at an established box the last couple of years, I took for granted that people knew how to be a judge, not a cheerleader,” Melissa said. “(Athletes) weren’t used to being focused on someone else’s range of motion or rep counts.”
But after five weeks of scrutinizing squat depth, she said athletes now no-rep one another with confidence. For some athletes, judging others created a better awareness of their own range of motion.
“I was kind of nervous to judge because I know how it feels to get no-repped,” said athlete Kara Boesenberg. “But after you’ve judged someone, you’re definitely more conscious of how your own form is, too. You want to make sure your own reps count.”
The final workout of the 2014 Open presented an unprecedented challenge. With no time cap for the descending ladder of thrusters and burpees, affiliates were forced to choose between imposing a time cap or the possibility of a never-ending workout.
For the Mitchells, it wasn’t a decision at all. Not even when one CrossFit Dedication athlete required an entire hour to complete 14.5.
“While that’s not necessarily how we would program a workout, emotionally and motivationally we just had to let everyone finish,” Melissa said, “no matter how long it took, as long as they were safe.”
As the lone athlete remained on the floor, struggling through her final few rounds of thrusters and burpees, the community rallied around her. One athlete even picked up a bar and joined her, performing 40 extra thrusters on top of the 84 he had just done.
The display was a testament to how the bonds between athletes had tightened through five weeks of shared pain and effort.
“These are people who just five weeks ago maybe only knew each other through comments on Facebook,” Matthew said.
The Open may be over, but for the Mitchells it’s only the beginning of a lifetime of Open accomplishments.
“I feel like these (athletes) are my children,” Melissa said. “You want them to do well so badly, and when they do and their eyes light up, there’s such a sense of pride for them. It’s been the most fun Open I’ve done so far.”
