Carolina Crossfit’s Famously Hot Showdown

More CrossFit!

Saturday morning Wendy and I went out to the first half of Carolina CrossFit’s Famously Hot Showdown at the Field House in Columbia, SC. Two hundred athletes competed in CrossFit games, including a sandbag run, kettlebell swings, farmers carries, back extensions, burpees, pullups, something called an “angry root hog”… Yes, these people chose to get up before the sun to come out and do this on a Saturday. Look at ’em, they’re so happy!

You know how CrossFitters sometimes say “Our warmup is your workout”? They’re not kidding. The guy below is just getting ready for the first event.

And this was the first event: the sandbag run. (It’s pretty much what it sounds like. Grab a sandbag and run.)

I appreciate that it’s apparently this guy’s idea of a great time.

This dude? He’s just won the second event of his division…and I asked him to pose for a portrait.

I suspect he would have rather been posing like this:

It was really impressive watching the athletes push themselves to their absolute limits. One thing I love about the ethos of CrossFit is that even when folks are competing against others, they’re still primarily competing with themselves.

Big thanks to Paul and Dorothy and the rest of the folks at Carolina CrossFit for inviting us to photograph this great event! Everybody was friendly, upbeat, and just generally a blast to hang around.