CG Games 2017 "Rise Above"

Last year I competed in CG games with 2 Fit 2 Quit.  This year B & I competed together on a co-ed team with Mike & Alli Kelley.  Our team name, Flex n Finesse, was really clever and Alli made our shirts.

Prelims were held in August on 2 different Saturdays.  We competed in both although not everyone did all 4 events.  I did all 4 on the first Saturday but knew that I could re-do them the following Saturday as well.  B's parents were in town for the second Saturday of Prelims so they came to watch and sweat with us.  I love competing with B and hear him cheering me on too.

Our van, Stormy, on the way to CG games

200,000 miles on Stormy!

Once all the times were put in, our team made it to finals as #21 out of 25 to qualify for finals.  We were so excited and wanted to do it even though we knew we were not actually going to win. There was no way because the teams ranked 1 and 2 had times minutes faster than us.  But we were proud of ourselves because there were plenty of co-ed teams that didn't make it to finals.

Finals were scheduled November 18th in Austin, TX.  We made plans to go and spend the night in a hotel for Friday night and Saturday night. Since it was my birthday weekend, we wanted to make it a fun weekend in Austin.  Check-in was Friday night so we met A&M at the CG headquarters.  After checking our team in and getting our bags, we went to dinner at some hamburger place (I can't remember the name) and it was really good.  While eating, we went over the events and all the rules once more and tried to talk strategy about the events for us to split.  We tried to get back to the hotel and get to sleep before it getting real late because we wanted to be at the fields at 6:30 am. 

Saturday was a lot of fun and our team's goal was to just finish and not die.  I was worried about the monkey bars on the peak event and Alli was worried about the endurance.  Our schedule was set for us and we had breaks built in between each event.  Our first event was interval which is one of my favorite and then Peak was next.  Peak was just a big obstacle course sort of that had sandbell throws, bear crawls, monkey bars, balance beam, and a few walls to climb over.  There was also a large inflatable slide that we had to climb up and then slide down.  Since we were a team, we each ran through the course once and had to switch over a timer we wore on our ankles.  Our third event was Endurance and it was tough because we had to carry two 15 lb sandbells on a run after doing mat exercises with those two sandbells.  We made it and none of us quit.  We finished with Strength & Agility where we each had to complete two events for a total of 8 events.  There was one that was a sandbell throw over a bar, so Alli took that one.  In our practice, I tried to throw a 20 lb bell over a field goal post and could never clear it, so I did not feel comfortable with that. 

When everything was over, we packed up and went back to the hotel.  I sort of wanted to stay and watch the finals, but we didn't know anyone who made it to the super finals, and our kids had been out there all day.  We found a dominoes and ordered pizza and went back to the hotel to watch the LSU game. 

CG Games

I started working out with Camp Gladiator in April when Erin B invited me to try and free camp.  I LOVED it and met most of my fitness needs that I wasn't getting from the YMCA.  The best part about CG was I could work out in the mornings before anyone else was awake and then I had my full day and didn't have to drive to the YMCA.  I still went to the Y too because I had friends there and I did like the HIIT class but it was only twice a week for 30 minutes.  I really enjoyed CG so I kept going and then finally we cancelled our Y membership and I joined CG instead.  I started making friends at CG and then one morning Skyler, our trainer, pulled me aside with Hyon & Sylvia and told us that we should form a CG Games team.  The three of us with Ally (Mike's wife) would be a team and compete.  We all agreed and formed our team 2 Fit 2 Quit.

meeting Hyon at 5:45 to drive to the games

Ally (and baby), Hyon, Me, and Sylvia

The first round of prelims was August 20th with another round on September 3.  There were 4 events and our team had been meeting on Sundays for several weeks practicing the events for prelims.  If you wanted to go to the second day and improve your time, then you could so our team actually did perform both days.  Bryce and the kids came to the first location and first day in Pearland and cheered us on.  The second time I just went with the girls and he stayed at home.  We didn't finish high enough to compete at the finals in November, but we had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Our trainer for CG Skyler

Our trainer for the games, Mike (Ally's husband)

 These are videos that B took.  Having him and the kids there cheering us on felt so nice.  The second time we went, they didn't come along and it was different not having anyone cheering for us.  We yelled for each other and we all improved our times for our events.

our times after the first day of prelims.