Doing What Scares Her

February 19, 2014

Laura Watler

"I moved more weight than I ever thought possible."


Photos courtesy of Dona Karlowee
 

Two years ago, 35-year-old Erin Marshall overheard her friends talking about their workouts. To her surprise, they weren’t complaining about the drudgery of it. If she wasn’t mistaken, they actually sounded like they enjoyed it.

“I heard them all talking about how they lost so much weight, and CrossFit was all they talked about,” she said. “Things like kettlebells, Fran and PRs. But the one thing I noticed was that they were all happy talking about it.”  

She tried regular gyms in the past, but never stayed more than six months. Since her friends seemed genuinely hooked on CrossFit, she decided to give it a go. In the spring of 2012 she walked into CrossFit 7 Mile, one of three affiliates on the Cayman Islands.

“I couldn’t squat or do a pull-up, but I kept coming back,” she said.

Over the next nine months, things started to change. She changed her diet, and her body responded by shedding the 25 lb. she gained after the birth of her son, Kayden, seven years prior.

Her view of her body changed, as well. When she looked in the mirror, she didn’t focus on her perceived faults. Instead, she was proud of the body that could pick up her sleeping son and bring him upstairs to his bedroom.

Emboldened, she charged into 2013 determined to do whatever she wanted to do, even if it scared her.

When people in her box started to talk about an official CrossFit competition called the Open, she pushed aside her fears and signed up.

For five weeks, her stomach would knot every Tuesday night. Every Wednesday, her box put the competitors through the week’s Open workout shortly after Dave Castro announced it on the live stream.

“I have never been so afraid and yet full of anticipation for Wednesdays,” she said.

Almost every week, something came up in the workout that exceeded her personal records. To her surprise, almost every week she set new PRs.

“I moved more weight than I ever thought possible,” she said. “(Open Workout) 13.2 had a 75-lb. shoulder-to-overhead and 13.4 had a 95-lb. clean and jerk for three reps. Those were my one-rep-max numbers, and to do that much weight multiple times was daunting, to say the least, but I did them. I had multiple rounds for 87 points on 13.2, and had two reps on the clean (and jerk) for 13.4. I was pretty proud of what I had accomplished.”

Once she was done, she turned around and cheered for her friends at the box.

”There were many Saturdays I couldn't talk because of all the yelling and cheering from the night before,” she said.

The competition gave her an adrenaline boost that helped her push harder than she ever had. She finished the Open knowing she could give more each day of training, not just when there was a judge by her side.

“CrossFit isn't about easy; it's about the challenge, and being better than yesterday or last year,” Marshall said. “It's about constant improvements.”

Now, after another year of training, Marshall is excited to compete in her second Open. She has three rules for herself during the Open:

1. Do my best.
2. Try everything.
3. Learn from the experience.

The mental side of CrossFit is still challenging, she said.

“Getting my brain to be quiet and letting my body do what it knows how to do—that's the aspect that I want to focus on,” Marshall said. “And have fun.”