I started doing CrossFit during the 2015 Open. I didn’t know what it was, only that everyone in my box was coming to work out and party on a Friday night. As the months went by, I realized that the CrossFit Open is the first stage leading to the CrossFit Games. That context made the open seem more exciting and I couldn’t wait for it to come back around in 2016.
In 2016, I went into the Open full force and did each workout as if I was going to the games. Of course, I knew I wasn’t going, but I put my everything into doing well. I even did a couple of the workouts twice.
2016 OPEN Results (Masters 40-44)
| YEAR | OVERALL RANK (WORLDWIDE) | OVERALL RANK (BY REGION) | OVERALL RANK (BY STATE) |
| 2016 | 1567th | 136th Mid Atlantic | 10th Maryland |
I was pretty proud of those standings and went 2017 hoping to improve those standings.
2017 OPEN Results (Masters 40-44)
| YEAR | OVERALL RANK WORLDWIDE) | OVERALL RANK (BY REGION) | OVERALL RANK (BY STATE) |
| 2017 | 2774th | 230th Mid Atlantic | 27th Maryland |
Even though it seems like I didn’t improve, there were more people in my age group in 2017. So percentage-wise, I did fairly well.
Now, registration for the 2018 Open has begun and I have a decision to make. I move up to the 45-49 age group this year. From what I’ve seen, the women in this age groups are beasts. However, I am recovery from an injury from a workout I did in late December. I started physical therapy this week. However, given the recovery time frame I am looking at, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to do the CF Open this year. I made this decision partly because despite knowing that every single workout can be scaled, I know that in most cases, my desire to do well, can not. I am an “all-in”, “100% effort”, “leave it all on the floor” athlete on a regular day. During the open, 100% can easily increase to 150% in an instant, even on workouts that include movement weaknesses. From a mental standpoint, I don’t think that I can shut that off as easily as I would like to during this recovery period. But from a physical standpoint, I may not be cleared to workout, much less to do the Open by late February. Since I’m not a regionals athlete, I have plenty of time for recovery. I can take my time and focus on healing.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I had a realization yesterday. This time last year, 2015 Games athlete Brooke Ence was facing the same decision. She chose out to heal up and she had the opportunity to participate in the Open, Regionals and the Games in a different way, doing media commentary. I bet she would have wanted to be on the competition floor. But when she speaks about her time off, she always talks about coming back stronger than ever. That’s the attitude I’m taking. I have set a goal doing the 2018 Open workouts over to see how I would have done.