One of my favorite things about competing is getting to see how far I’ve come as an athlete. The girl who struggled to do a pull-up on her first day is now able to string multiple together."
I have always been a competitive athlete, I was involved in sports all through school and played soccer through high school. Like most high school athletes, my competitive career was over once I graduated, and I struggled to find something that kept me active that I truly enjoyed doing. The whole traditional gym routine just never cut it for me and I always found myself bored of it.
Fast forward a few years later when I was getting my undergrad at UNO in 2016. We had a guest speaker that day who happened to be one of the gym owners of CrossFit Viral, Coach Kuna. I had heard of CrossFit back in high school and I remember watching them on TV and was always amazed at what they could do. But I never thought I could do it. Coach Kuna spent an entire hour enthusiastically speaking about CrossFit to a bunch of sleepy college students at 10 in the morning. He wasn’t getting too many responses. But as I sat in one of the last rows of the classroom I was soaking in everything he was saying.
It took me a few more months before I finally got the courage to walk in to CrossFit Viral. I worked out regularly at UNO and thought I was in pretty good shape, but boy oh boy was I wrong! I remember my very first workout was a combination air squats, pull ups, and push-ups. The only thing I could do “as prescribed” in that workout was the air squats. I struggled to do the push-ups with proper form and could barely hang on a pull-up bar. After getting my butt kicked, I was pretty much hooked. I showed up day after day, most days never being able to do the workout as prescribed. With consistency, lots of scaled workouts, and some help in the nutrition department from the coaches, movements I once could never do, were beginning to click. I found myself wanting to get better and better everyday; competing with myself, as well as silently pushing myself against more experienced CrossFitters in the gym. I had finally found something to fill my competitive drive with from high school. I discovered local CrossFit competitions and did my first local comp about 18 months after starting at CrossFit Viral. It was relatively small with one other girl in my division, but the thrill from competing again had me hooked even more than before.
I’ve done almost every local comp held in the city and honestly, the best part of them is getting to compete with fellow team members from the gym. One of my favorite things about competing is getting to see how far I’ve come as an athlete. The girl who struggled to do a pull-up on her first day is now able to string multiple together. Almost all my lifts have gone up 50 plus pounds. My other favorite thing is beating Coach Nate.
Joining Viral was one the best decisions I ever made. Katie, Nate, Kuna, and Steph gave me a shot at coaching in 2018. Coach Nate ordained my wedding in October. A fellow friend gave me the start to an awesome career path and I have made lifelong friendships with people I never want to lose contact with.
