The third ranked woman in Canada West is fighting to get out of Pye and Connors' shadow.
Getting out of the shadow of Angie Pye and Alicia Connors won’t be easy. With only two berths to the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games on offer at the Canada West Regional, the fittest women in the region will have to oust Pye or Connors from 1st or 2nd place to advance and get their name in lights.
Chelsea Miller knows the challenge, but she’s game.
Last year, Miller took 4th at the 2011 Canada West Regional behind Pye, Connors, and Heather Gillespie. With 35 points, Miller was 11 points behind second ranked Connors at the end of the weekend. A 13th place finish on the first workout (Run/HSPU/Row) gave Miller a heavy load of points from the very beginning. Despite earning a top 5 finish on all the remaining workouts, Miller couldn’t catch up to the consistently high finishing Taranis duo, Pye and Connors.
This year, Miller has her sights set on Connors and she’s closing the gap. At the end of the Open, Connors held 2nd with 27 points and Miller took 3rd with 33 points. They’re the closest in the point score of the top 5.
Her plan? To dig a little deeper, push out a few more reps, and never relent during the Canada West Regional.
Miller believes that to make it to the podium, one can’t rely solely on physical strength. One has to be mentally strong enough to accept pain and haul out a couple more reps before the buzzer. The fittest two competitors—physically and mentally—will make it to the Canada West podium.
“When I’m pushing hard and I want to stop and drop the weight, I’ll think to myself ‘I bet Angie isn’t stopping right now.’ If you want to catch them, you have to find a way to keep pushing because you know they are, too,” Miller says.
Imagining the actions of her fellow competitors and the words of her recently deceased grandmother—who passed away after 12.4--have helped Miller drive herself harder in the workouts.
“I kind of imagined her prodding me with her cane, and saying ‘keep going’,” Miller says. “She was an amazing women, very strong and supportive.”
Whatever it was, it worked. Miller posted a win over her rivals in 12.5, edging Pye by one point. She also took 12.1, although she credits a previous prolonged burpee workout with giving her extra push.
“I did a charity event where I did 500 burpees for time in just over 40 minutes, so I had been there,” she laughs. “I just kept falling down and getting back up.”
The two wins also bolstered Miller’s confidence. “It’s encouraging mentally to know I can get ahead of them, can beat them,” she says.
Still, while Miller was close to her rivals in all the other workouts, she faltered badly in 12.3 posting a score of 374 (10 rounds + 14 box jumps), well over a hundred points behind Pye (493, 13 rounds +) and Connors (498, 13 rounds +).
“Push press is definitely my Achilles heel,” Miller admits. “I was a bit surprised, though. I usually do better over the longer times.”
Pye and Connors may be the two women standing between Miller and the Home Depot Center, but she doesn’t see them as the enemy.
“I’m actually friends with them,” she says. “They’re great girls. I did the Winter Challenge in Victoria at their box and we hung out a lot and chatted quite a bit. I still keep up with them on Facebook.”
But friendship doesn’t stand in the way of competition.
“I still want to beat them, that’s for sure,” Miller says. “It’s hard to be that close and not make it, especially two years in a row. I’ll really be gunning for it this year.”
