United We Stand 2014 from a CCF view!

What a weekend!

If you look closely in this picture you'll find +30 family members from Cape CrossFit supporting their 6 coaches who were competing in the final event of the weekend - Cape Town representing for sure!

The CCF Family.

I'll get to the competition itself shortly, but I have to start with some gratitude from all us CCF Coaches to all our epic members that took part and/or supported each other this weekend and made it one that we will never forget! Out of all the 120 teams that took part, we probably travelled the furthest and still had a whopping 6 teams from CCF (Gardens and Newlands combined) which is just insane! The teams represented in a way that we will always be proud of, and it was really cool to see so many of our guys working harder than ever before to help their specific team. But, performance aside the biggest memory from this weekend will without a doubt be the huge feeling of family that was present among the CCF members the whole time. We all spent hours poolside on day one after our early heats to wait until one of the last heat started since the "CCF Victorious Secrets" was part of it, and the support continued and eventually hit a crescendo when the Coaches team, the "CCF Legend...ary's", were fighting it out with the other top teams in the final heat of the final event of the competition. There was deafening support rolling down like thunder from the CCF stands throughout the 20 minute AMRAP and we coaches admittedly had goosebumps for every rep that the +30 man strong CCF support crew loudly counted out for us in our max efforts - hands down one of the absolutely coolest experiences I personally have ever had as an athlete my self.

The Teams.

Without getting too technical, each team performed beyond our expectations and we couldn't be prouder of the athletic potential we had on display - especially since so many of our athletes did their first "real" competition with us.

• CCF Newlands Crew (109th place): The young team got off to a really bad start in their competition where the entire day 1 was just a string of bad luck, but nevertheless these guys came back on day two all smiles and ready to go to war. Coach Mike showed epic leadership with what we think was the biggest Squat Clean to Over Head of the entire UWS competition(?) with his 140kg, and the guys definitely showed us their hunger for more events in the future. [caption id="attachment_6635" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Almost both the Newlands team in this pic![/caption]
• CCF Bro Reps (107th place): Same thing here, a disastrous swim event put the Zelmas in this team far back from day one but yet they came back on day two and I personally really enjoyed watching the team work and support for each member during the Bar Muscle Up event where old Corona pulled off all the teams Muscle Ups by himself!
• Newlands Knights (96th place): This team was on paper even more inexperienced than the other Newlands team, but the youngsters showed that hard work pays off and with consistency and great team spirit we guess that they now own the bragging rights in the Newlands box for another year or so!
• CCF Victorious Secrets (90th place): Lead by team Captain Richie, these guys showed that no one could chill poolside like the Secrets! Their best event was the beach WOD and that definitely showed how well rounded they actually were as a team. Swimming may be on their to do list for next year though, even though Richie definitely had the longest time in the water out of all athletes this weekend.. ;)
• CCF Amraptors (45th place): I sound like a broken record but the prehistoric athletes were also off to a really bad start. A late change in the number of Rope Climbs threw rockstar Francois off guard and even though that set the dinosaurs back a bit after event one, Francois came back in the swim event and when it was time for the cleans he showed a new meaning to the Speed in Speedos! For the rest of the weekend the Amraptors placed top 40 in 5 out of 6 WODs and definitely showed that they deserved a higher placing overall. Nonetheless we are pretty sure that they might have had the best victory pose of the weekend? [caption id="attachment_6634" align="aligncenter" width="400"] T-rex arms without even doing Fran..[/caption]
• CCF Legend...ary's (5th place): We were aiming high, and we definitely showed once again that we belong up there with the top teams. A pool event that didn't play ball (pun intended) was the only one where the coaches team placed higher than 13th and even though there was a lot of "coulda, woulda, shoulda" in our minds after each event, I can only be super proud of my team mates. Being the old dawg in this team I was lucky to be surrounded by superstar athletes that carried us all on their shoulders in different events and as a team I think we really complemented each other. On top of this, the biggest reward from this weekend for me personally is the fact that all of us coaches agreed on that as much as we really wanted to win, the massive support we received in that final heat made placings secondary - our CCF Family is all we really need to be feeling like winners! [caption id="attachment_6636" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Seconds after the final heat - just look at the crowd behind us and you'll understand the smiles on our faces. (Yes, that is a smile from my side).[/caption]

I know I'm speaking for all of us coaches...

...when I say that weekends like this is a great reminder of why we do what we do. The love from our community is unmatched and to get to spend time with a big part of you guys over a weekend like this is truly humbling and incredibly rewarding. The massive gathering at the after party where most of our guys listened to the later on self-electrecuting Tiaan's "fine list" and then sang songs about our adventures like hobbits late in to the night will be forever edged into our memories! Thank you for bringing the family vibe from the most epic box in the world all the way to Durban - with you by our side home really is wherever we lay our knee sleeves..

PS. We also have to take our hat off for Andy from Integrated Fitness for running yet another massive and successful event - to gather +700 CrossFitters over a weekend and pretty much run almost every single heat on time throughout is very impressive. Even more important than that, the competition it self was fun, fair and the WOD's were very cool to do.

Thank you UWS - we will be back in troops in 2015 as always!

Coach Chris, on behalf of the entire coaching staff at CCF.

[caption id="attachment_6639" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Team CCF Selfie #sorrynotsorry[/caption]