There is of course copious material on the CrossFit Games on their web site and elsewhere, so I'll limit my comments here to Nicolé's experience.

My previous posts from the scene were cryptic and a little dis-jointed I know (I was submitting them from my cell phone, typing onto a screen I couldn't even see in the bright sunlight), so I'll try and fill in some blanks here and give you my final thoughts on the event.

Saturday featured 5 events - some single-station movements and some circuits - intended to weed out the bottom tier of the field through 2 elimination rounds. As I previously mentioned, Nicolé survived both of those in spite of a single-rep deadlift event which is clearly not her strongest event. She did enough in the others to keep her in the game through the end of the day. The last event of the day was a wicked wall ball and barbell snatch combo in which half of the remaining women did not finish in the allotted time. No surprise; it was the end of a 9-hour day containing more work than most people get in a week. Nicolé came up a few reps short herself, and thus ended her run.

I can't tell you how proud I am of her and the effort that she gave to this competition. She was most of all smart. She used her experience and intelligence to every possible advantage. Next, she was prepared. No surprises (except for the sledgehammer station) and very little about the outcome that wasn't predictable based on the chosen work and her natural attributes. The only thing left then is heart. And she had it in truckloads. Willing to subject herself to high levels of discomfort for the goal. You have to admire that.

And I am proud of the work we did to get her there. That showed up as great technique and the fact that she exited the competition due to failing capacity and not injury. She is an extremely well-balanced athlete that deserved to be there.

I hope you will all let her know that you followed her adventure and are proud of the courage it took to participate in this merciless competition. She is deserving or our greatest respect and admiration.

The end of the day Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind, which explains the lack of posts until now. Here's a brief review of the last hours of the day:

The specifics of the final workout for Saturday came out at about 4P. I think the individuals that were making that decision were becoming concerned about the shear amount of work that had already been demanded of the competitors and the extraordinarily high level of competition, not to mention the waning day. It was decided that the final workout would be scaled back a bit, and the result was 3 rounds of wall ball (14#/20#, 30 reps) and barbell snatches (45#/75#, 30 reps). The other item of significance is that the wall ball targets were slightly higher than the previous standard, at about 11 feet.

They placed a cutoff time of 20 mins; a deadline which roughly half of the competitors couldn't meet (probably by design). The end of this workout would produce the final cut and reduce the field to 16 men and 16 women from an original field of 150 total.

Nicolé had survived 2 cuts to the field already, and was put up a great effort in this final workout. Time ran out on her with about 20 snatches remaining. This is where her Games competition would end.

I have much more to say about this experience and I will write more about it in a summary blog in the next day or so. But right now I knew that I needed to bring those of you who were following this blog all up to speed as soon as possible. We will be flying back together to Seattle on Sunday, and I'll be back in the gym as usual Monday morning.

The 3rd event is still running, so we're still a waya away from the final event of the day. And there's still some question about the event. We know it will consist of wall ball and barbell snatches, probably 5 rounds for time. But we do not know the rep count for each station. We do know that the snatch load is well within Nic's capacity, so her remaining stamina is the only issue. It has been long hard day already, but she's tough and my confidence in her is high. Her spirits are good.

4th event is done. Row / sledgehammer combo. She rocked. that's just a seat of the pants assessment and I don't have an official standing. She'll definitely finish out the day - then we'll see. Back soon.

3rd heat is done. Nic completed the sandbag run in 1:30. don't know how that will affect her standing yet. she was great. still healthy, but tired. She's already done more in 1 day than anyone should. 2 more heats. check back soon.

On the first heat Nic was nothing short of amazing. among the 70 or so fittest woman on the planet, Nic placed 13th.

The second event was a progressive deadlift. The rapid pace of the lifts makes this a relatively dangerous event. Nic's max to date is 242, and my biggest concern was getting her thru this event injury-free. I'm happy to say we did that. She lifted 225; a load that will drop her standing but leave her in good shape for what's coming.

Next up is a sandbag run - short but uphill. She'll carry 35#. This ought to be another strong event for her. More soon.

On the first heat Nic was nothing short of amazing. among the 70 or so fittest woman on the planet, Nic placed 13th.

The second event was a progressive deadlift. The rapid pace of the lifts makes this a relatively dangerous event. Nic's max to date is 242, and my biggest concern was getting her thru this event injury-free. I'm happy to say we did that. She lifted 225; a load that will drop her standing but leave her in good shape for what's coming.

Next up is a sandbag run - short but uphill. She'll carry 35#. This ought to be another strong event for her. More soon.