This Week In Running A Gym - September 14, 2014 [Throwdown Edition]

I missed my article last week since I was busy preparing for the throwdown with Gig Harbor and Federal Way. So let's start this week there.

The event was at CrossFit Federal Way. Several of the core members and owners at Federal Way used to be members here for a few years before they caught the bug and opened their own gym. Although I miss training with them regularly, it's awesome to see what they've built and I'm impressed with the caliber of staff and athletes they've put together. That said, I really really wanted to beat them so that we could talk trash for a year. I'm not going to lie, a secret motivation for putting this thing on was just to be able to smack talk. We also invited Gig Harbor, who we haven't seen before because their team finished a couple points ahead of us in the Open last year.

Each gym brought three teams of four (2 men, 2 women). Two teams were open, one team was masters (40+). There were three events. A max effort deadlift; a progressive series of rowing, thrusters, and pull-ups; and a final workout involving sled drags, ball slams, push-ups and squat thrusts (which I designed). Gig Harbor won the open division, Federal Way won the masters, and Tacoma won the overall (combination of masters and open), although it should be pointed out that Gig Harbor had to pull out of the masters division due to a lack of 40 year olds there.

Anyway, it was fun to watch virtually all of our athletes PR their deadlifts. And I was pleased to see how well our athletes moved and the quality form we displayed. Really couldn't have been happier on that score. We also had a great turn-out from our members to support and cheer. My only complaint on the day is directed at myself- I had wanted my event to be more of a sprint. It's my fault for not testing it as it would be done in the competition (I had gone up there and tested certain parts of it, but not all together). But that's small beans. It was a great day and I'm proud of our athletes, especially of those for whom this was their first CrossFit competition.

Other notes in running a gym: I'm glad it's September. August gets pretty quiet up in here. It's by far the slowest time of the year when people are on vacations and the weather is sunny and warm so people have options to go play outside. But in September, kids go back to school and people start getting back into work mode. So over the last week I've started to see some old familiar faces that I've missed these past couple months.

[Author's note: I've traveled to the Atlantic coast in the time that I've started this til now. I doubt I have time to make the publishing deadline still, but I'll stop here and get this to Craig and David. There's more stuff I want to tell you about- the beginner program, a facility remodel, yoga, nutrition, and the new website. But that'll have to wait until next week.]

By Morgan on Sunday, September, 14, 2014