It’s a crazy experience to watch “normal” people make their bodies do more-than-normal things. This past July I took a trip with two friends to go watch the CrossFit games in Southern California.

I loved it all, but there was this one event called the “Climbing Snail” that stood out to me more than the rest the day we were there.

The athletes had to run 600m up a flight of stairs, across the back of the stadium wall, back down a flight of stairs. Climb a rope twice, push a massive heavy barrel, climb a rope twice again, and then start over. 3 times.

There’s this guy that I was pretty excited to see compete.  He’s Australian and I really like his attitude. I wanted him to do well, but this event for him totally sucked.

I don’t know exactly which round it happened, but his hands ripped open on the first rope climb of the second set.  I know what that feels like from personal experience…and it. HURTS. It burns like crazy and trying to hold onto anything tightly right after is insane. But this guy continuously jumped onto the rope, grabbed on, and tried to climb. Again. And Again. And again…until he literally couldn’t hold on anymore, had to sit down on the mat and wait for medical assistance.  I’m pretty sure they just threw band aids on his fingers and handed him a glove.  And that’s when he had a choice.  The event was shot…he had no chance of even getting close to finishing in a good spot.  He could have stopped, but he stood up anyway…jumped onto the rope, made it all the way up, descended, and took off running.

Stuff like that gives my body chills.

Because stuff like that happens in real life.

In a way, we’re all just trying to get through the events in our lives and come out on top…or close to it at least. But we can’t win every event…it’s not realistic. You’re gonna come to the point where you hit the rope climbs. Your hands are gonna rip open and you’re gonna get hurt and defeated.  You’re gonna be stuck in one spot, trying and failing over and over again, getting exhausted with each pathetic attempt to get to the top.

And at some point…you’re just gonna have to sit your ass down and wait for the freakin glove. And maybe it feels like it’s taking forever…like time is just running out and the longer it takes the more it feels like finishing the event is going to be impossible, but it’s coming! And when it comes you have another choice: Put it on and grab hold of that damn rope with all the strength you have left, make it to the top and take off running, or give up.

..Because here’s another thing I know from experience: band aids and a glove do nothing to lessen the pain of holding on and climbing.  So yeah, continuing will hurt like hell. But it won’t hurt forever…the wounds will heal when you finish, you’ll have some time to recover, and then you’ll be heading to the next event. And who knows, it might have something you can absolutely handle. Or it might have an even harder obstacle…but either way, you’ve made it through one, so you can make it through the next one.

Everybody’s rope looks different. But everybody’s ropes are climbable. So wait for the glove…It’s coming. And then climb!

Love,

The girl who’d give you her glove if she had one

Also the girl who can’t sleep

Also goodnight