"I would drive past the CrossFit gym and just look in to see what they were doing. I did that for I don't know how many weeks before I finally showed up on a Saturday because I really wanted to."
Encouraged to take a look by a trusted friend and tired of “being fat” for many years, Rose Mini got her first glimpse into the world of CrossFit in February 2010.
“I was intrigued and I really had had it with my body and I wanted to be fit,” she says. “But I threw it out of my mind.”
Mini, a social worker for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, had her second shoulder surgery five months earlier.
Still, she was intrigued by photos of fit people on the local affiliate website. Nearly a year later, on August 24, 51-year-old Mini had her first coaching session at North Shore CrossFit.
“I just wanted to be really fit,” the resident of Beverly, Mass., says. “I was tired of being fat. I had struggled with being fat forever.”
Mini’s initial attempt at the Baseline workout was not the most pleasant of experiences.
“10:24 and I threw up,” she recalls.
But after four weeks of private sessions, she reduced her time to 6:39. Mini was a CrossFitter.
A scaled version of Helen was her first official workout in a group class setting and now it’s still her favorite workout. But fully engaging with a younger crowd of people who were doing much more than she could at the time was quite intimidating. Mini recalls flirting for some time with one of the biggest aspects of the community: the Saturday team workout.
“I really wanted to do a Saturday WOD, but I was too intimidated to go with other people and actually be on a team because I knew I couldn’t do anything and I was a lot older than a lot of the members,” she says. “So I remember driving past. I would drive past the CrossFit gym and just look in to see what they were doing. I did that for I don’t know how many weeks before I finally showed up on a Saturday because I really wanted to.”
Once Mini got over her fear and integrated into the community, there was no turning back. The woman who never considered herself an athlete jumped in and started setting and achieving goals.
“I had no athletic experience. Athletics were not really encouraged in the 60s and 70s for women, for girls,” Mini says. “I really didn’t even entertain sports as an option for me and I didn’t really know that I would like them.”
Today, she has no doubt CrossFit has developed her into an athlete, both physically and mentally. In 2010 and 2011, Mini competed in the C.R.A.S.H.-B SPRINTS World Indoor Rowing Championships, rowing 2,000 meters in 8:50.56 the first year, and 8:33.1 the second.
She celebrated her one-year CrossFit milestone with the 2011 Wallis Sands Triathlon, finishing in 1:56.21. She also competed in the USA Weightlifting 2011 New England Weightlifting Championships, recording a 30 kg snatch and a 34 kg clean and jerk.
The results of Mini’s training are substantial. More than two years in, she is down 35 pounds, in a size 8 from a size 14 and feels younger than her age. Mini enjoys her increasing strength — saying she loves being strong — and improved body composition. At the New England Weightlifting Championships in December, Mini achieved a significant milestone when she officially weighed in below 150 pounds — a weight she hadn’t seen since the 1980s.
“It’s been fun,” she says. “I can’t imagine, now, life without it.”
