A Picture is worth a thousand words.

So I know everyone who works out thinks that where they get things done is the best place..... Or do they?
Well, ask yourself this, when you go work out, do you sit in your car and check your email to see if there are any that came to your inbox in the last few minutes cause you literally just checked it 3 mins ago. Do you dread getting on the treadmill and tell yourself you have to at least do 20 mins today before you get off and go check your email again. Do you walk into the weight room and turn back around cause you don't really have a plan of what you should be doing. So you slowly walk to the stretching area to see if you can spy someone while you are stretching who looks like they know what they are doing so you can copy their workout. Well these are all things I used to witness at the gym that we belong to.  Notice I said still belong to. (we still belong because my kids love to swim and use the gym to play basketball)
Well this post is about the community that my family has found at Kirkland Crossfit and Kirkland Crossfit North. I will admit, me and my husband had a pretty easy time meeting people since we already knew a few of the members.... Second shout out to my sister and brother in law, Ryan and Lucita Fox. (that's for you Ryan since you wanted more than one) Through them we met a few other couples. BUT I cannot even begin to explain or describe what we walked into when we joined. It is one of the things I try to explain to my friends who don't belong to our Crossfit box. Its like walking into a room full of your own family members.(family members you like)  Really.... that's what it has become for me and my family.

As soon as you walk in the door everyone is either finishing up a WOD, warming up for a WOD or talking about the WOD. "How was it today?" "What did you think?" "What was the hardest part for you?" "How did you approach it?" "What was your time?" These my friends, are the usual questions that we are all talking about before and after the WOD.  Not to mention Michelle (an awesome coach) will sometimes yell at someone to stop talking about what BBQ you went to that night before, and get warmed up. Which by the way is something I'm finding I need to do more and more.  If I want to do well in the workout I need to WARM UP and STRETCH! Well, who says you can't talk while stretching....

OK, so back to the community that will adopt you as one of there own. Crossfit. I was recently talking to Tish after one of the workout. I know I mentioned her name like everyone reading this knows who I'm talking about. Anywho, I was talking to Tish and we agreed that we think that you become so close to the members in your crossfit box because you are always in a constant process of learning and trying your hardest at doing your best and working your ass off. So when you finish you want to share your experience and learn from what someone else did. That builds camaraderie!! For example today was a three person WOD (see below)

100 Med Ball sit ups  (14lb ball for women 20lb ball for men)
200 meter run

100 Med Ball Throw
200 Meter Run

100 Med Ball step ups
200 meter run

200 Med Ball ab pass
200 meter run

600 meter run
everyone has to run with the ball for 200 meters

So to break down this workout for everyone..... NO ONE RESTS. You are always working. If your are not one of the two doing a med ball sit up you are running a 200. When you come in you relieve one of your partners and they go run a 200 and you pick up where they left off..

So needless to say you are not doing a lot of talking during the WOD. So after it seems like we are first and for most cheering on the groups finishing after you, all the while going over what was hard for you, what you found to be a strength.  What you did that helped you mentally to keep pushing.... Other than your partners that were counting on you. I on one of my 200 saw Josh Pratt with his hungry eyes trying to run me down because our all female group was ahead of their all male group. (I had to turn the after burners on) That's when you find the energy somewhere. So all of this seems to bring us all closer together. Coupled with everyone is so friendly, all of our kids are playing together while we are all working out. We have even taken family trips with our crossfit family and had a blast.
Check out photo below.

I really have a hard time explaining this part of crossfit to people because its just something you have to see for yourself. When you become a part of it you just feel it. I had a friend who just joined a couple of weeks ago tell me that she didn't know if all crossfit boxes were like ours, but now she knows and understands what Ive talking about and proceeded to say that we really have something special there! I didn't know what to say other than "I know" and smile.