Festivus Games Recap!
I’m back with yet another recap! This time it’s for a fun CrossFit competition that took place over the weekend. The Festivus Games is a CrossFit competition that markets itself as “a competition for the rest of us”. This competition is for the athlete that isn’t always at the top of the gym leaderboard but still wants to compete. Festivus puts on a great competition with scaled movements and modifications that most everyone can do. This fall, the competition was for Teams of Two and I paired up with my gym buddy, Jeff.
Quick background on Jeff and our friendship! We both started CrossFit about a few months apart back in 2020. I actually didn’t talk to him too much when he first started going to the morning class because we literally worked out in opposite corners of the gym. Then slowly but surely, we began talking as I noticed that he was there EVERY SINGLE DAY. When we met, I had been running and weight lifting for a while so it definitely caught my attention that a beginner was so committed to showing up every day. Some people fall off after a while but not Jeff! Two years later and he’s still a staple of the 5am crew with his jokes and sarcasm.
Prior to the Festivus Games, I had been thinking about doing a team competition. I know I can be very hard on myself for absolutely no reason so I knew that having a teammate to think about would help me stay off the negative feedback cycle. Earlier this summer, I had considered asking Jeff to do Hyrox with me but the dates wouldn’t have worked with my schedule. I mentioned it briefly and then he suggested Festivus! It would be our first team comp and I knew that he’d work hard so it was an easy yes for me!
Prior to the competition, we practiced the workouts during Open Gym and after class. We have a good idea of each other’s strengths so we used this time to work on strategy. I think being able to have a plan for each workout prior to the competition helped us do well on Saturday. It also kept me from freaking out and getting into my head.
Day Of The Festivus Games
The gym hosting the Festivus Games was on the opposite side of town so Saturday was definitely an early morning. I managed to get some sleep so even though it was early, I still felt good. Our gym had a handful of teams competing so we brought chairs and tents to set up our little area. Even though we were competing in different categories, it was nice to have a group of people to chat with and strategize.
Our first event was the main one I was worried about. It had box jumps and if you know me, you know that box jumps and I don’t always get along. Jeff and I did a quick warm up and then we took our spot. While we may have had a bit of a slow start once we got into our groove, we were moving! During my second set of box jump overs, I actually felt like I was moving a lot better. The atmosphere and the crowd cheering us on made me move faster. I was really proud of our performance on that one!
We opted to do the Echo Bike workout second since there wasn’t a set time for that one to take place. It was four minutes on the Echo Bike, get as many calories between us as possible. We have a different kind of bike at our gym so it felt weird and I know I didn’t get as much feedback from the bike as I usually do. However, we did way better than our run through and ended up getting 90 calories between us!
Our third event was a spicy weightlifting event. It was alternating minutes for a total of 6 minutes to get as many reps as possible of Cleans. We talked about this one a lot and we practiced it at our home gym but we didn’t do all 6 minutes. Looking back, I’m glad we didn’t. By the end of those 6 minutes, my forearms felt MASSIVE and my grip was absolutely gone. This was the one where I wanted to quit but having my husband and my coach yelling (there was so much yelling) at me to not let go of the bar, I sucked it up and kept picking it up. I kind of wish I was in Jeff’s spot because he had his back to them and probably had no clue who was yelling what.
Our last event was total chaos. We did well I’m not saying we didn’t. I just know that I was exhausted and we had been going at it all day. It’s safe to say, we both hit a wall. I will say that I’m proud of our syncho-toes above hips. We practiced that and I’m glad that we were both able to stay on the bar even after our grip was dead. At that point, we were both just trying to hang on for 10 minutes but when we finished we were absolutely DONE.
Festivus Games was a success and I’m so dang proud of us! I think we were both well matched and were able to use our strengths in each workout. That’s one thing about us, we’re both so stubborn and determined that we were going to finish, one way or another! I can see us doing another team competition in the future!
What’s next for me? Well, this week starts the beginning of my half marathon training! My weekly workout schedule will change a bit but there will be plenty of CrossFit and strength training still happening. Thankfully the weather seems to be cooling off so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some cooler miles!
Have you ever done a CrossFit competition? Have you competed in a team?
