Crossfit Invitational

So NOW I can spill all the fun and hard work I’ve done over the last few days now the event is all over.

I had a blast volunteering at the Crossfit Invitationals. I’ve made some awesome friends and contacts, watched some amazing affiliate athletes and incredible international athletes. I got to cheer on these people from the closest point on the actual floor. I met some of my heroes. 

But my goodness, I had to work hard for it. 

I started on Thursday as a small group of volunteers in an empty Margaret Court arena. Everything had to be set up, and as I was part of the signage team all weekend, this was our job. So we laid floor. Lots and lots of floor. And then we assembled some worms. With 300lbs+ in these things, you completely underestimate how heavy these are. 

Day 2 was a longer and harder day. We set up the court outside. These rolls of flooring and tracks were SO heavy, to the point my shoulder started playing up a bit. I bear crawled up and down the Arena floor smoothing out tape - and my legs still haven’t recovered! We made the barricades with signs, and set up all the affiliate competition.

On Saturday, the competition began. My teams job was mainly to change the signs between heats but any changes to the floor (like if the tape needed changing or if heat numbers etc needed changing) then it was also us. By Saturday morning I had had enough of Melbourne weather. It was cold. It was windy. Then it would be hot. Really hot. Then it would go back to cold. I wasn’t impressed. Then Saturday was beautiful. It was sunny and I was in my happy crossfit bubble. At the end of the competition, the international athletes came out and kindly stopped for photos with us. It was brilliant and I felt like a complete little fan girl, but I was happy. 

Sunday was the day we were all preparing for. We were only allowed to know heats 1-3. Heat 4 was announced at the beginning of the comp then heat 5 was announced literally before it was going to happen. Hard to prepare for something we didn’t know. The morning was spent practicing transitions and clarifying what we were to do. We had 12 mins max between events. But ideally we needed to change over the events within 8. 

It went beautifully. We were great. (Until some guy started ripping up the tape I had just laid because he thought we didn’t need it... haha). Obviously it was great to see an Aussie win but I was cheering on my home team the whole way. 

We then had 2 hours to pack up. Whilst packing up, the Americans gradually brought out free stuff for us. Free reebok leggings and tops, event tops, hats, badges, wristbands, and left over judges shoes. Not any shoes but reebok nanos. The weave ones. All too small for me, and if my backpack was bigger I would have gone for it and got a pair anyway! The banners were being given away too, which all disappeared in a heart beat. 

The best thing? The friends I made. Crossfit has a funny way of connecting people and making communities. In a few short days, the volunteers became this big community and I made so many friends. I have connections at different boxes across Oz, an offer to stay somewhere in New Zealand and an offer to come back and serve at the Pacific Regionals on the signage team (I wish!!). Maybe the Northern European ones?!