ESTEVAN — After several years of trying, Tracy Grube's dream of competing in the international CrossFit Games has come true.
The Estevan woman has qualified for the event, scheduled for Columbus, Ohio, from Aug. 21-24, and she'll compete in the masters' division for women ages 55-59.
In an interview with SaskToday, she said there were steps she had to take to qualify for the global gathering.
The first was the CrossFit Open from Feb. 27-March 17. She needed to tackle a workout each week, which she could film from her garage in front of a judge. Among the 3,600 women from around the world entered, Grube was 48th, which sent her to the semifinal round from April 3-6, in which Grube had to finish five workouts in a four-day span.
"CrossFit changed a lot of their rules this year for the semifinals. Normally I could do those in my garage, and do the same video submission process with a judge. But [this year] they required that you had to do it in an affiliated gym, and there had to be two judges on the floor, one being a head judge and then your floor judge, and they had to have extra judges' courses."
Grube flew to Houston. Her son lives in the Texas metropolis, and his neighbours, Nick and Liz Aranda, own CrossFit Anavah, where she completed her workouts.
Exercises were daunting. For example, she had to complete 30 snatches in 10 minutes. There were power cleans, lunges, dumbbell snatches and box jump-overs. There were pull-ups, head-stand walking and lateral burpees over a dumbbell. She had to burn 60 calories on a rowing machine and then lift a barbell with a certain weight, and go through the same process again.
It took about two weeks for the CrossFit headquarters to evaluate the videos. Grube was 27th out of roughly 200 women in her age group, which punched her ticket for the games, as the top 30 qualify.
She has been to other CrossFit competitions before, including a couple trips to a Legends event for women in the masters' age group. The people who run the Legends competition will be in charge of the Masters CrossFit Games.
"Most people who are competitive in CrossFit and want to go further, their end goal is to try to get to the CrossFit Games. I was one of those people, and I can finally say I get the chance to go there."
People from around the world will be converging on Columbus for the CrossFit Games. Grube said her goal is to go there and be competitive. When she looked at the standings for the top 30 during the semifinal round, she saw there was little separating her from the woman who finished 20th.
"My goal is to climb up the ladder a little bit more and improve my 27th-place finish. We will start at zero again, and as the competition goes, you'll be on the leaderboard according to how you perform with the workouts that are given," said Grube.
She became interested in the sport when Estevan had a CrossFit gym for a few years. She found the more she did the workouts, the more she enjoyed the challenge of learning new things and pushing herself. She described it as a passion and even a "healthy addiction".
"I think it's been really good for my mental health, and I've got to meet a lot of great people along the way. A person looks forward to being able to qualify for these things, so that you can catch up with those people you've met along the way and who live far away."
People can always learn new things, she said. They often underestimate themselves, especially as they get older, and they should be trying to be healthier as they get older.
Grube has seen the workouts from previous years. They're tougher than the qualifying rounds and will require a lot more skill and strength. She expects organizers will throw in challenges that they don't train for regularly to change things.
"We're always supposed to be prepared for the unknown, so they will likely throw something in we don't practise too often, but our training should be able to get us there and be able to do what they're asking of us," said Grube.
Her coach, Daniel Colpo with Ascend Athlete, is based out of Amsterdam and Grube said he has been a big help. The distance can be overcome. He's been helping with extras he thinks she should be doing. Nutrition, rest, recovery and proper execution in her training will help prevent injuries and strengthen her training.
"It's definitely a sport where, when things are getting tough in workouts, you have to have the mental fortitude to keep pushing through until you hear that buzzer," said Grube.
She expects the CrossFit Games will be live-streamed on YouTube, allowing friends back in southeast Saskatchewan to watch her compete.
