Home, Sweat Home

July 20, 2016

Mike Warkentin

CrossFit Games athletes grind their way through the dust of The Ranch for the first time since 2009.

It’s not about how you start a trail run at The Ranch.

It’s not even about how you finish it.

It’s how you navigate the sections where the “run” is more accurately a determined trudge for some or brutal crawl for others.

Competitors from 2009, commentators including Games champ Tanya Wagner, and event staff who tested the event all said the same thing: It’s a mistake to go out too hard.

“It’s a long race, and you can get hurt if you go too fast right out of the gate,” Wagner said

Mat Fraser, Josh Bridges, Brent Fikowski and Sam Briggs were having none of it.

Bridges had the lead at about the 4-minute mark, just after the athletes returned from the flat road section that opened the 7-km course. Fraser was just behind him, perhaps surprising some who know the athlete from the East as a tremendously strong lifter.

As the pack slogged up the hill in a sweeping crescent of dust, deltoids and traps, it was clear the early energy was wearing off and the grind had begun.

Those who thought Fraser had opened up too quickly were proven wrong when he was the first to appear back over the hill to pass the barn. Bridges had taken up residence in second, with Fikowski in third, looking relaxed and comfortable. Briggs, long known as a great runner, coasted by in about 10th overall, well ahead of any other females.

By the 17-minute mark, Fraser had opened a 46-second lead over Bridges, who was being stalked by Fikowski, back about 14 seconds.

About 11 minutes later, Fraser came bursting over the top of the hill, moving very well and looking powerful. He was well down the road with an insurmountable lead before Bridges even crested the hill behind The Ranch. Briggs had moved into fourth overall, behind Fikowski. The lanky Brit just nipped the tall Canadian at finish to take third overall and best all but two men.

“I had no idea what I would do,” Fraser said after the event, soaking his legs in an ice tub near second-place finisher Bridges.

Fraser, second-place finisher at the Games for the last two years, said he hadn’t emphasized running in his training, but once he had the lead, he tried to hold it while keeping a close eye on Bridges—spending “half the second half of it walking backwards” to spot his rival, he joked.

Briggs, also in for a cold soak, said she felt great after the test.

“Legs feel fine, feet just feel like they’re blistered,” she said.

She’s not worried about how the run will affect her deadlift, though she’s aware the 30-second lifting intervals won’t leave much time for recovery between efforts.

“Adrenaline is a wonderful thing,” she said with a smile.

Kristin Holte, smiling as always, looked like she had a great time on her way to a second-place finish among females.

“It was hard,” she said. “It was fun because you were able to crawl. … I found that it was faster to crawl because you could use your hands.”

Holte said she had to crawl two or three times, sometimes navigating entire hill sections on all fours.

She pointed to the flat road section that was a relief to many athletes: “This part was the least fun part.”

Kristi Eramo was third on the women’s side.

At press time, the slowest runners were being prepped for The Ranch Deadlift Ladder, with bumper plates thumping heavily in the barn.

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