All text from Pat Vellner. “In the wake of the Games I’ve been thinking a lot about the competition and I wanted to share my top 5 moments from the 2018 Crossfit Games, one per day.”
Event 1: Crit Race Crash
First of all I want to clear something up. I’ve seen lots of talk about the unlucky nature of my mechanical failure in the bike race, but let’s be clear, my chain did not magically break, i got in a crash. Coming around the last corner of lap one i got clipped by a rider and it sent me off balance. In an attempt to stay upright i had to swerve and went straight into an unfortunate and unsuspecting Brandon Luckett.
It was maybe an unlucky position to get put in, but one that a more experienced rider likely would not have found themselves in.
Now crashing was not exactly the best moment for me, but what happened after was very cool. While I ran to swap out my bike @bluckett123 dusted himself off and started riding again and we rounded out the first lap together. Brandon looked over to me and said “let’s go catch em” and took the lead. We rode cooperatively for 9 laps and ended up catching 4 or 5 riders. Having Brandon to team up and ride with kept me mentally engaged in the event when I easily could have just mailed it in and fallen off. It still didn’t make for a great finish, but Brandon pulled me along with him and the camaraderie kept me focused on the competition. It was he and I against everyone else.
It was obviously a bad mistake to start the competition, but I got to share a cool moment with another competitor that i won’t forget. It sucked to be in a crash and start the week off in a hole, but I had been there before. We knew there was potential for that. It would be a long climb out.
I thought the Crit race was a great event and I got an awesome memory from it. Brandon Luckett is the man.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmUGR7QhGWV/?hl=en&taken-by=pvellner
Favorite Moment 2: Total Surprise
I have to admit that when the crossfit total got announced i was less than excited. Raw strength events have never been my strong suit and I’m usually lucky to scrape out a top 15 performance. That combined with the fact that i rarely test my 1 rep max strength made it a challenge to strategize. My squat and press are fairly unremarkable, but I’m built to deadlift, and I knew I’d have to make my money there. I squatted and pressed well enough, I actually hit a 30lb back squat PR that matches my projected best squat that I used to do my percentage training. I made some aggressive jumps in the deadlift, energized by the crowd each time. I actually meant to lift 585lbs in the end, but just threw on the extra 5s since they were sitting right by the clips. Easy lift, another 40lb PR.
In hindsight I wish I had lifted 600. It would have looked way cooler and won me the event, but hindsight is always 20/20. That event really swung the competition momentum my way and got me back into the conversation. Building my strength has been one of the biggest priorities in my training since I started crossfit so this event was a massive personal victory. I’ll never forget looking out into the crowd before that last lift. Goosebumps.
Besides that Mat after the event admitted that he would always try to deadlift at the same time as me so that he’d feel like people were cheering for him, so that’s a win. Always nice to big league the champ haha.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmWTgImBSA_/?hl=en&taken-by=pvellner
Favorite Moment 3: Battlegrounds Blunder.
Yes, I’ve seen all of the Internet remixes of our fall. I must admit, they are hilarious since @mathewfras and I are both ok. The internet is a magical place.
This is another moment that on the surface might not seem like a great one, but stick with me. I made A mistake on the cargo net, my hands ended up dangerously close to the black line (which means a no rep) and I had to scramble a bit coming over the top to stay in bounds. I ended up in an awkward position and i hooked my heel when I went to drop off the net. I fell really hard and winded myself pretty good. In the moment I was focused on just finishing the event and feeling sorry for myself later. I had some sand and blood in my mouth which made the run back delightful.
When I hit the finish I rinsed my mouth to find out where the blood was coming from and found it was only there when i coughed. Bad sign.
I was swooped up by the medical team and spent the next hour being assessed and continued to cough up some blood so I was taken to the hospital for a CT scan. The results came back that I had bruised my left lung in the fall. Bummer.
I had a lengthy discussion with the medical staff. They are amazing and no one wants to cut our competition short but our safety is their concern. I was allowed to conditionally compete, a similar situation to 2016 after tearing my bicep. At best my lung capacity is a bit reduced and I’m sore, at worse the bleeding continues and high exertion causes more damage. Bottom line was if they saw any more blood I was out.
This made me really appreciate every bit of time I spent on the competition floor from then on. It’s a privilege to compete at the games and we often get caught up and forget to appreciate it for what it is. This event really changed my outlook on the competition and made me take it one event at a time. It was oddly calming.
In the end I survived, and I’m proud to be an example of resiliency if nothing else. No more blood, I’m still a little sore and haven’t exercised since the games. I’ll get to it. I’m gonna try to spend less time with the medical team next year. ??♂️
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmZA_3kBmuR/?hl=en&taken-by=pvellner
Favorite Moment 4: Fibonacci Fans
The Fibonacci event this year stands out to me for a couple of reasons. Initially I wasn’t super pumped to be redoing an event at the games, half the fun is the novelty of the events each year, but i had done a lot more parallette work this year and was excited to test myself.
It was only Friday and I felt as though I had already suffered more mishaps than I would like to in a whole season. I was a little frustrated, but ready to keep trucking.
I started to notice about halfway through the event that whenever we would transition movements and I was keeping a close gap with @mathewfras , that the fans would erupt in cheers. When I closed out my last set of deadlifts the roar from the crowd gave me goosebumps. I’ve never really noticed the crowd much during events and this was really a first for me. It was sort of a surreal feeling. With everything that had happened so far I could feel the fans rallying behind me and willing me forward to chase down the champ. In that moment I really felt like the crowd had picked me as their guy to go after Fraser. It pulled me forward and I took another top finish to end the day and was one of only 4 men to complete the event this year. That was a huge win for me and a massive, much needed mental reset.
Obviously things didn’t end as closely as I would have liked overall in the competition, but something about that cheer stuck with me and really motivated me for the rest of the weekend. It really made me feel like the “people’s champ” that the announcers keep talking about. It just made me deeply happy. Those are the moments that we work for, so thank you. Next year it’ll be a real race, I promise.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmbeOG2BRFk/?hl=en&taken-by=pvellner
