"This year, I hung with the best and proved myself to be one of the best again."
This year’s CrossFit Games meant something different to every competitor. Experiences ranged from new personal records, to higher placings, to defending titles. For Mid Atlantic athlete, Christy Phillips, this year meant going one big step further than last year.
In 2010, Phillips took sixth place at the CrossFit Games. In 2011, she made it to Day 3 and was only cut right before the last event. This year, she went all the way.
“Overall, I am really happy with my performance and place this year. I am happier than 2011 and happier than after 2010,” Phillips says. “It might seem funny that I am happier with 11th place than sixth, but when I got sixth in 2010, I was devastated for a bit because I 100 percent believed that I could take first that year, or at least reach the podium … This year, I hung with the best and proved myself to be one of the best again.”
Although Phillips is happy with her performance this year, she is not completely satisfied. “And that keeps me hungry,” she says.
Phillips’ favorite event this year was the Camp Pendleton School of Infantry Obstacle Course. “It felt like play time with your training buddies and your training buddies just happen to be a bunch of bad ass Marines and CrossFitters,” Phillips says.
Another incredible moment for Phillips was her second-place finish in the Pendleton 2 Event. Her sprint across the finish line was a photo finish with New Zealand competitor Ruth Anderson Horrell. “I was feeling absolute elation. I didn't know if I had edged out Ruth or not, but either way, I felt incredibly proud to have caught up to her, to have finished in the front of the pack and to be able to sprint the finish and pour out whatever was left in the tank,” Phillips says. “My dad is a runner and he got me into running in middle school and high school. One of his mantras that my sister and I hear from him over and over is, ‘finish strong.’ Whether he's giving advice on running a race or graduating from college, that’s his go-to phrase and it was definitely echoing in my head.”
With 2013 in mind, Phillips has set new goals for herself that include improving work capacity when tired, improving her ability to manage fatigue and improving technique and efficiency. Official training begins in mid-August. “Training will change, it will evolve as I have evolved, just like it does every year since I started,” she says.
Although Phillips is considered a CrossFit Games veteran, she doesn’t view herself this way. “I may be a CrossFit Games veteran, but I am just a spring chicken,” she says. “I intend to compete for as long as life’s plans allow me to train, and as long as I am able to qualify for the Games. With the help of my coaches at CrossFit MPH, who I have trained with for three years, I have just barely begun to understand myself as a CrossFit athlete and to understand what I need to improve. I am so inspired by the women who are a few years older than me and who are coming back to the Games as individuals every year better than the last. I aim to do the same.”
