"I have come to terms with the fact that regionals is going to be tough for me--extremely tough. But I am going to go out there and give it my best dang shot."
Photos courtesy of Ro Asgari.
“Two weeks before the Open, I wasn’t sure if I should sign up,” said new mom, Andrea Kwiatkowski. “I didn’t feel ready. I was afraid of not living up to my pre-baby standards and letting myself down. I was afraid of failure. I had to talk myself into it and set aside my pride. I wanted to be a good example to someone who just had a baby.”
It turns out Kwiatkowski had nothing to worry about. The 32-year-old finished the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games Open in sixth place overall in the South East Region.
“I feel proud, honored, thankful, blessed, excited, surprised at my ability to rise to the occasion and what I was capable of,” she said. “I feel truly excited to be up there with the best of the best in the South East.”
Kwiatkowski is no stranger to competition. She has qualified as an individual at regionals every year since 2011, sitting out of the 2013 season while she was pregnant with her first child. She has always turned down the individual competition in order to compete on CrossFit North Atlanta’s team, which has qualified for the South East Regional every year since 2010.
This year, Kwiatkowski has decided to compete as an individual.
“I have always described myself as a ‘team sports girl.’ I love the thrill of competing with and for others,” she said. “This year, I felt that it was a blessing to end the Open in sixth place, in a year when I wasn’t even sure I would have the opportunity to compete at all. I felt I needed to ride this thing out … see it through all the way to regionals.”
“Not having Dre on the team felt like losing LeBron (James), but everyone is thrilled to have been a part of her progress,” said Travis Harkey, owner at CrossFit North Atlanta.
Last April, Kwiatkowski gave birth to a daughter, Summer. She had difficulties returning to her former fitness level due to some unexpected circumstances that occurred during Summer’s birth. Her recovery took much longer than expected. On top of that, once Kwiatkowski returned to training, she would bring Summer with her to the gym where she was a distraction.
“Summer is such a happy, active baby. She wouldn't sleep and didn't want to be strapped in somewhere,” Kwiatkowski said. “She wanted to be a part of the action and hated being stuck in her stroller. There were times when I would let her cry next to me while I worked out, but more often than not she won that battle, and I would leave the gym.”
“(Kwiatkowski) was so conflicted at the time because her training had become so important to her,” Harkey said. “She had mixed emotions and the transition was intense. I told her to erase and undo all former expectations. This is the new normal, and it doesn’t stop.”
Despite Harkey’s words of encouragement, Kwiatkowski began to feel “hopeless” about her progress.
“I’d leave the gym in tears in the early months,” she said. “Summer would have a breakdown, and I’d feel horrible guilt for taking time for myself to work out. It was a combination of mom guilt and also frustration for not being able to have time to get those endorphins going again.”
“Gone were the days of socializing with friends before or after a workout, or fitting in extra skill work,” she added.
After five months, Harkey told Kwiatkowski to “suck it up” and join the women’s class, which provided a babysitter three times a week for an hour in the morning.
“The women's class has been the best thing to happen to me because it’s reminded me how important the relationships are in CrossFit,” Kwiatkowski said. “The people drive you to want to do better. The people at the gym believed in me more than I believed in myself. I compared my new self to my old self. I wouldn’t celebrate my new PRs because they weren’t my PRs from two years ago.”
In January, CrossFit North Atlanta team members started talking to Kwiatkowski about rejoining the team. The past year had brought a new group of athletes to the team and Kwiatkowski was worried she wouldn’t live up to their expectation.
“I was basically concerned that I wouldn't have my fitness level back in time for competition season to really help the team,” she said. “They had been training hard all year without me, and I hadn't been able to train with them because of the baby. I was hoping to make the team, but I honestly wasn't sure where my performance would be at this year.”
Kwiatkowski said her teammates’ belief in her gave her the confidence to keep pushing herself at the gym.
Harkey believed in Kwiatkowski all along.
“The evolution of her as an athlete has been cool to watch,” Harkey said. “She is 100 percent homegrown from CFNA. Something had to have happened with the break she took after having the baby; there is something to hitting the reset button.”
“Everyone trains so hard and tries to find their peak, and it’s such a toll emotionally and physically on your body,” he continued. “She’s taken the blinders off and found a more relaxed approach to her training. She’s not being consumed by it. It’s just like making babies, if you think about it. The harder you work the more stressful it is, and then when you relax and have fun, it happens.”
Kwiatkowski, who follows North Atlanta’s programming by Matt Pals, said she signed up for the Open to see how hard she could push herself and to see what her body could do.
“When I want something, I can dig deep,” she said. “Find a pace that works for me, and put on blinders as to what everyone else around me is doing. That is key for me: focus on yourself and your strengths and your pace and your abilities.”
She even surprised herself with how well she did in the Open.
