I warn you: this will be long. Ask my competitors how long my e-mails are.
With this year’s Expo event in the books I’d like to say a massive thank you to the whole community for helping us to make this a reality. Without the assistance of the incredible people around me I would never have been able to present what everyone saw over the weekend. Community is everything at CrossFit Glasgow. Community separates CrossFit from all other sports and marks out CrossFit boxes from all other areas of the fitness industry in the way that they bring people together and let them achieve amazing things. Our own success can be traced back in all instances to small acts of kindness from our members and those of the wider community.
CrossFit as a sport has grown exponentially since I started. From early days following mainsite with Iain on treadmills in a globogym; through the last 5 CrossFit Games Opens, DWF, The London Throwdown, Regionals, and into the current climate with new boxes opening everywhere and competitions every other week. When I started, CrossFit was just about being a better version of myself and I cancomfortably say that I am fitter and stronger at 32 than I ever was in my teens or twenties. But now, we see all the more frequently the burning desire to compete – CrossFit Glasgow has its own dedicated competitor stream and virtually every box now has additional programming to reflect the demand for advanced skill work.
This trend does not, however, reflect the reality that remarkably few athletes progress beyond the CrossFit Games Open – only 4 Scottish athletes have progressed to Regionals in the last 5 years. Having attended the Regionals events 3 times since they began, I have been able to be a small part of theamazing spectacle and have lamented the fact that for the vast majority of Scottish CrossFitters, volunteering or spectating is the most input that we will get at a competition of this magnitude. Being able to lay on the Throwdown at the Expo is intended to bring as much of that spectacle as possible to Scotland and to give something back to the people that have shared our passion for all this time – over the years we hope that it will grow alongside our community and remain an opportunity for Scottish athletes to attend a large professional event on their own soil.
This year’s event ran perfectly with the exception of the accident in the final. We got confirmation the evening of the event that Olivia was ok – nonetheless, it was worthwhile taking the precaution and getting the ambulance. Turns out that strong people ARE harder to kill.
Thanks to all the teams that came to the event. It was great to have so many from the community in the place at one time. We got to hang out with old buddies again and made a truckload of new ones. I look forward to seeing even more of you next year. If you are ever in Glasgow, please swing by and see us.
Neil and Jamie from the SFN Expo showed a huge level of trust in giving us pretty much carte blanche with the brief which in turn gave us the freedom to really push the boundaries of what has been seen in UK competitions to date. We were able to throw in some movements from the Games and went big on the kit alongside our partners at Clydebuilt.
We have been working with Craig’s team at Clydebuilt for a couple of years now. What started with a few questions about steel fabrication and a stack of crudely hand-drawn rig designs, developed into an amazing working relationship in which we have found ourselves in the company of someone whose attention to detail and level of ambition fuels our own. They are making some industry- leading kit and are constantly refining and improving their designs as we field test them. Expect big things from Clydebuilt over the coming year. Thanks gents. It was a pleasure.
A lot of work went into creating this year’s event and it was only with the support of the extremely talented people in our gym that we were able to make it happen.
Iain Barbour helped at every turn by being a sounding board for ideas, covering classes and correcting my bad maths. Without Iain I would never have started CrossFit and consequently would probably be doing a job that could never give me half the joy and passion that being an owner of CrossFit Glasgow gives me every day (though the money would be better and I’d see my wife occasionally). Thanks buddy – look what we did. Thanks also to my beautiful wife Laura for letting me stay out late and bore her incessantly with talk about all things CrossFit as well as keeping me grounded when things inevitably did not go exactly to plan.
Thanks to Ross ‘The Strength’ McNie for being a sounding board for all the WODs. We did a LOT of diagrams. They never did get to do Fran though.
Thanks to my good friend Gary ‘Red’ Wilson for being the Head Judge this year. His eye for detail and uncompromising stance on the rules made the event a legitimate test of Scotland’s fittest. Kirk Williams and Dougie Eatherington aced their roles as deputies and kept the judging team on their toes. Thanks of course to the volunteer judges, without whom there could not have been a competition at all – you all have my most sincere gratitude for shouldering the burden of being the bad guys all day. Good job Team Judgement.
Thanks to Phil Gillan and Jamie Stephen on the scoring team – we took it up a notch from last year and the live leaderboard was a great addition to the event. You and your score runners kept all the counting safely out of my hands. Thanks too to Jacqueline who squared us away with the screens.
Thanks to Ruari for all of your hard work on the equipment. You and your team were a godsend. Your team allowed us to stick to timeline all weekend – it ran like clockwork. Those books were a stroke of genius and we’ll definitely be having them again. Thanks also for the flyers – we’ve already had two enquiries. Also Stahler for the van – Straight Outta Compton!
Thanks to Andy Mcallister and Craig Lowe for the commentary during the weekend – your help with running the event on the day was invaluable and at times hilarious. Thanks to Andy for making us look very official with our headsets – a lot of profanity went down over those.
Thanks to Louise Mather for her amazing photography and videography throughout the run up to the event and on the day. I’ll be using these images for years. I can’t wait to see the highlight reel. Check out Louise’s stuff at www.nomiddlename.co.uk
A special thanks to Rachel Houghton who made all the score cards, all the workout descriptions and all the tee shirt designs: I don’t know how many times I was told to “f*** off” but after all the drafts, corrections, revisions, changes, requests, suggestions, comments and last minute wholesale changes I’m sure I deserved a few of them. I know: Sea.
Alex and Tracy from Concept 2 were massively helpful in providing the ski ergs which brought a totally new element to the event for virtually everyone. It was a pleasure working with them.
Anthony at Purepharma provided all the prizes for the winners and got goody bags out to all the finalists. Thanks for your help pal – the generous prizes and all the support over the past year has been greatly appreciated.
Thanks too goes to Garry, Mitch, Andy, Mel, Alex, Viv, Beth, Cole, Gareth, Jaimie, Linzi, Cindy, Denise, Jenny, Pamela, all of our athletes, volunteers, supporters and all the CrossFit Kids. I’ve almost certainly missed people from this list but believe me, you have our deepest thanks.
Thanks everyone. See you next year.
#wearecfg