The 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games are underway.
With the threat of thunderstorms throughout the day, the individuals will be racing each other and the weather in the first Games events contested outside California.
Also on deck: Cyclocross—a Games first.
8 a.m., Run Swim Run
The athletes walked to the start area over a bridge above their fans, with former champs Katrin Davidsdottir, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, Sam Briggs and Annie Thorisdottir last in line. In the warm-up area—aka the beer garden—before the first event in Madison, Kirsten Pedri was nervous but smiling. "I just kind of got a little wave of being real grateful to be here."
8:10 a.m., Run Swim Run
Hurry up and wait: Tension mounts near the start line as the athletes wait for the go signal. It's almost silent. Then the announcement comes over the speakers: "10 minutes." It cracked the solemn faces, but only for a moment, and nerves are building again.
8:45 a.m., Shortly After Run Swim Run
It was a no-doubter in Event 1 for Brent Fikowski. In fact, the only athletes close to him were female: Kristi Eramo and Tia-Clair Toomey, who dueled for first on the women's side. Fikowski actually thought the footsteps behind him belonged to Sam Briggs, who passed him near the finish last year in the run at Aromas. Briggs and Fikowski walked back to the warm-up area together today.
"Oh no, that's Sam Briggs again," Fikowski said he thought.
The lanky Brit beside him smiled: " I just needed the run to be a little longer." Fikowski slipped in the transition area and cut his foot but said it isn't serious. "The Professor" explained that he thought it would rain in Madison and made sure to train outside when it poured at home.
Eramo and Toomey both said they didn't think about trying to beat the boys in the race. They were concerned only with each other, and Eramo said she knew Toomey was faster in a sprint because of the beach workout last year. Eramo tried to kick in early but couldn't quite hold on.
"I typically don't have any sprint. I'm slow twitch all the way," she said.
Toomey said she wanted the win badly.
"I blew everything out on that."
Fikowski said he would have let the women pass if they had decided to kill each other, but when they didn't gain on him much, he changed his mind.
"When there was about 400 meters left, I thought I should solidify the win."
9:25 a.m., Headed to Cyclocross Course
Paul Castillo threw a chain in warm-up for the time trial yesterday.
"I bounced the bike off the ground when I went over that little wall," he said.
Someone put the chain back on for him, and I asked him if he knows how to do it.
"No. Do you?" he replied.
He's obviously hoping to avoid a derailing today but will deal with it quickly if he has to. He said the race isn't a sprint.
"Slower than I thought with all the tight turns."
Athlete's are currently being shuttled to the Cyclocross course for Event 2.
11:15 a.m., Cyclocross Course
Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, already dealing with a shoulder injury, confirmed that she dislocated her shoulder in a fall on the course.
"I fell on it and it just came out. ... I kind of wanted to puke. The adrenaline kicked in and I just put it back in."
She was in tears at the finish line but better spirits back at the athlete's tent.
"Now it feels really unstable."
11:20 a.m., Cyclocross Course
Noah Ohlsen rolled by as I was interviewing Jamie Greene.
"I got your bike. Is it good luck?"
Greene said it was but told Ohlsen to push it harder.
"Make it hurt."
Greene confirmed the grind: "It was just burning legs, which I was expecting."
Fittingly, Toomey—wearing the white overall-leader jersey—rode across the line first in the heat. She's off to a very strong start, and she knows she can't falter anywhere if she wants to improve on two years of second-place finishes at the Games. She's looking for top 10s, and she's already got one event win.
"I definitely pushed hard for this. ... Every single workout is important," she said while waiting for the second women's heat to start.
Despite the pressure and fatigue of two events, the Olympian said she had a great time in the relatively lengthy bike race.
"It was just such an enjoyable workout."
That's not something you'd expect to hear from a weightlifter, but perhaps not surprising from someone who has her eyes on the top of the podium.
11:30 a.m., Cyclocross Course
After our "Days of Thunder" conversation a few days ago, I've been asking Cole Sager—aka Cole Trickle—who would play villain Rowdy Burns. After Sager's heat in Cyclocross, he had a confession to make.
"I might have been Rowdy!"
He continued, saying Tommy Vinas was involved in the crash: "I pushed someone into a wall—not intentional."
Vinas walked by and Sager asked him if he fell. Vinas said yes, and Sager looked at me and nodded: "He fell."
Travis Mayer said it's Thunderdome on the course.
"I cut off four people ... and then took off."
I asked him if he used any signals to indicate he was changing lanes.
"I threw my elbows up and I figured that was a good sign that I was going in aggressive."
Noon, Cyclocross Course
Norway is number 1 at the Cyclocross course. Kristin Holte won the second heat to take 100 points with the best time of the day.
She said she tried to draft Sam Briggs for the first two laps but couldn't get close enough. She made up ground in the third lap, passed the Brit very late in the final circuit, and sprinted for the finish.
"I knew that it was the last lap and I have to go all out."
She said she was slower than Briggs on the straights but faster on the obstacles. Originally content to take second, she said she made a decision when she started to close on Briggs near the finish.
"It's not as fun to be number 2."
12:15 p.m., Cyclocross Course
Banter from the Heat 2 boys after Björgvin K. Guðmundsson set the best time of the first heat and ghost-rode his bike to the repair shop.
Alex Anderson: "Hey, Fraser. I've got Bjorgvin's bike.
Fraser: "Oh great."
Anderson: "Remember he threw it at the end? I've got the broken bike."
12:30 p.m., Post-Cyclocross
"It all went to plan—exactly as I visualized it," said Cyclocross winner Ricky Garard.
His plan?
"Get out to the front ... and see if I can hold it."
Mission accomplished.
4:45 p.m., Coliseum
After suffering an injury to her Achilles in the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games, Boon managed to return to the big show.
She won her heat in 9:25 and took fourth in the event.
Be warned: Boon's back.
5:10 p.m., Coliseum
Amanda is named for Amanda Miller, a 2009 Games athlete who died of cancer in April 2010. Stacie Tovar remembers a woman with guns tattooed on her hips ripping past her on the hill during the 2009 competition, and she carried the memory with her tonight.
"Every time I do Amanda ... I think about that moment."
Tovar also did Amanda in 2010, and she laughed that she can now string muscle-ups together—not the case back in Carson that night. Snatches, however, came in singles tonight because the women are using a men's bar.
Tovar was struck by the first individual event in the Coliseum.
"There are a lot more people in the crowd than there were in 2010, but the same camaraderie with the athletes. I don't think that will ever change."
5:45 p.m., Coliseum
CrossFit fans have been waiting to see Jamie Greene in individual competition since she won the 2016 Open. They got their wish in Madison, and Greene is not disappointing. She just took first in Amanda .45 and is now third overall.
Her strategy was to push the limits.
"I was a bit nervous I'd blow," she said.
But she decided to ride the razor instead.
"Fuck it. Just do it."
6:30 p.m., Coliseum
Cody Anderson took a Heat 1 win and is hoping his training will help him bounce back after a long and challenging first day of competition.
"I've put my body through more volume than I've ever done," he said of his prep for the many tests of the Games.
He added: "I think everyone's legs are a little fried."
6:45 p.m., Coliseum
Noah Ohlsen's strategy was to try to crush Amanda—the benchmark event found after the "intro" rounds of 13 and 11.
"What I tried to do was break it up at the beginning and try to go really hard at the end," he said.
He rested just enough to do all 9-7-5 muscle-up sets unbroken, and he did the snatches mostly in threes to stay in motion.
He said he's not beaten up at all yet and felt fresh for the first workout in the Coliseum.
7 p.m., Coliseum
Fraser is back at the top. A year after winning the Games by the largest margin in history, he's taken his familiar place at the top of the Leaderboard.
"I think everything went according to plan," he said.
"In the workouts where I didn't do as expected, I was really happy with the way I pushed."
Fraser always keeps his cards close to his vest during competition and said he feels no additional pressure as the defending champion.
He'll be wearing white once again tomorrow as he continues his quest to become only the second man to repeat as Games champion.
Overall Standings
Men
1. Mathew Fraser (260)
2. Jonne Koski (246)
3. Ricky Garard (236)
Women
1. Tia-Clair Toomey (262)
2. Samantha Briggs (262)
3. Jamie Greene (242)