The first time Joshua Melling tried a rowing workout, he did 5,000 m for time. At the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
“The closest CrossFit gym is probably 40 minutes away from my house,” said Melling, who lives in Arcanum, Ohio, a village with fewer than 2,200 residents.
Still, he finished the workout in 24:01, 59 seconds before the 25-minute time cap.
“I've watched all the athletes (row) plenty of times,” Melling explained. “So I kind of knew the basic principles of how to move on it.”
The 33-year-old has trained alone in his garage — sometimes accompanied by his brother — since he discovered CrossFit about two years ago. Since then, he’s PR’d his mile run and developed a consistent 95-lb. snatch.
“I definitely feel a lot healthier,” he said.
Melling competed in the worldwide CrossFit Open this year, his first CrossFit competition. Seeing how his fitness ranked against hundreds of thousands of others — “not very high,” he said, laughing — was a thrill he couldn’t shake.
So he signed up for the 2021 CrossFit Virtual Games.
The Virtual Games, introduced this year, present a chance for CrossFit athletes of all abilities to follow in the footsteps of the world’s fittest, competing in workouts that parallel the individual events from this year’s Games. The hardest so far?
“You can talk to me afterward,” Melling said.
In total, 10 events were released in tandem with the Games events themselves, resembling the official events in both design and stimulus. Participants had the opportunity to log their scores on a worldwide leaderboard and earn the title “Virtually a Games Athlete” — plus some exclusive swag.
“Every participant gets a shirt, but only the ones who submit all their scores get this shirt,” said Nicole Fuller, another Virtual Games competitor. “I was like, ‘We need to do that!’”
Fuller, a third-grade teacher, joined CrossFit Liger in 2014 after having her first child.
“I was like, ‘I need to do something for myself,’’’ she said.
Hooked from Day 1, Fuller is now a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer and this week traveled from West Palm Beach, Florida, to enjoy the Games with friend Dylan Anderson.
“It’s a little more motivating,” she said of doing nearly the same workouts the Games athletes also completed this week.
Melling agreed.
“Last night, seeing them do the workout I’m about to do, I’m like, ‘OK, I gotta go hard the whole way,’” he said before attempting Virtual Games Event 5: 21-15-9 reps of Echo or Assault bike calories and snatches prescribed at 65 and 95 lb. “There’s no stopping for a breath. … If (the CrossFit Games athletes) can hurt for eight minutes, I can hurt for 10.”
Matthew Holman, 38, was taken by surprise by how demanding the Virtual Games events were.
“Because the first thing coming out was a 5-k row, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s not gonna be too bad. I’ll sign up,’” he recalled. “And then the other ones start coming out, and you’re like, ‘Son of a — !’”
Holman, who trains at Refuge CrossFit, is a business teacher at Houston Jr./Sr. High School in Big Lake, Alaska. The school participates in CrossFit’s K-12 School Club, and Holman serves as the students’ P.E. teacher-turned-CrossFit trainer.
“I just try to be a model for them,” said Holman, who has lost 50 lb. since he started CrossFit.
The Virtual Games, he continued, serve as a great incentive to stay active while spectating at the Games.
“I'm just trying to maintain my fitness,” he said. “Especially when we leave (the venue) and go enjoy the Madison food.”
So far, more than 1,200 athletes have logged at least one score to the Virtual Games leaderboard (competitors have until Tuesday, Aug. 3, at 12 p.m. PT to submit their scores). Those who post scores for all 10 events get the glory and honor of being Virtually a Games Athlete — plus a T-shirt to prove it.
And by the time Melling finished the bike-and-snatch burner, he’d come to a conclusion.
“That one was the hardest!” he called as he collapsed to the floor.
Cover photo: Dylan Anderson and Nicole Fuller
All photos by Wendy Nielsen