"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum," Lucas Parker said.
The mountainous view at Canada West Regional was obscured by fog on Friday. Just as unclear were the front-runners in the Region. As the day passed, the fog cleared to blue skies, and the top began to emerge.
Teams
Only two teams – Synergy Strength and CrossFit Ramsay – had finished ‘Jackie’ under the time cap until the final heat took the floor.
“Going into this event, my strategy is not to row too hard. It’s easy to overdo it when you see people get off the erg before you. Just stick to the plan and row at my pace,” Karolina Pawlak of the CrossFit Fraser Valley Centaurs said.
Chelsea Miller of CFC Crew was first to the thrusters, but Angie Hay finished them unbroken and reached the pull-up bar first. 27 unbroken pull-ups carried her to the finish in 6:31, a personal best. Paul Lance, her teammate from Taranis, was inspired to a fast performance of his own.
“Towards the end of my row, I knew I was at the right pace to finish fast,” he said.
Six of the ten teams finished in under the cap, with Taranis, CFC Crew and The Centaurs on top.
1. Taranis (12:24)
2. CFC Crew (13:09)
3. The Centaurs (13:19)
Women
Crystal Shoff set the pace in the second heat with a time of 6:54.
“I feel really good about my performance – I’m really happy. But I do hate Jackie,” Shoff said.
The women's fourth heat featured Games athletes and Regional front-runners.
Delaina Snider was off the rower first, followed closely by Emily Beers. Alicia Connors overtook both with a quick pace on the thrusters and made it to the pull-ups fastest.
With Jayde Quilty, Heather Gillespie and Erin Light in chase, no lead was safe. Gillespie overtook everyone on the pull-ups to win the event.
It was a relief for Gillespie, who thought she broke her hand earlier in the week.
“My hand hurts, but everything hurts during Jackie. I’m mostly worried about the handstand push-ups (in Event 6),” she said.
Emily Beers of CrossFit Vancouver tore her hands in the first event. With six events to go, her thoughts were simple and to the point:
“I’m fucked.”
1. Heather Gillespie (6:49)
2. Jayde Quilty (6:50)
3. Crystal Shoff (6:54)
Men
Thrusters and pull-ups separated the pack. Michael McCabe took the first heat in 5:46.
“I feel good! I came in 60th overall [in the Open] so I wanted to make a statement with this one. And it was a PR!” McCabe said.
2012 Games athlete Jeremy Meredith finished in 5:15.
“It was a one second PR – I’ll take it,” Meredith says.
The males of the final heat were so close that they all hit 750 meters within a second of each other.
Curt Manning was the first to pick up the bar for thrusters, but Lucas Parker was first to the pull-up bar. He finished in 5:09, followed by Takasaki six seconds later.
“This is a 20 second PR for me. I’m not much of a rower, and pull-ups have been bothering my shoulder lately. But I just stuck to my guns,” Parker said. “I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass – and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
1. Lucas Parker (5:08)
2T. Jeremy Meredith and Tyson Takasaki (5:15)
4. Curt Manning (5:18)
