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Yesterday was Memorial Day, a day where we remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. When you really take a minute to think about that, doesn’t it put everything else into perspective? Memorial Day for the lucky ones also consists of bbq, family gatherings, time at the pool or the lake -the unofficial start of summer! And to crossfitters around the country a time for a crazy intense workout called the “Murph.” This workout is in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy who was killed in Afghanistan. Some super fit crossfit bad@sses do it with a twenty pound vest or body armor. In case you were wondering here this is the “Murph”:
They post their times in their gyms and on social media and I’ve watch the number roll in every year thinking “I could never do that.” The fastest times I’ve ever seen is something crazy like 28 minutes, I’ve seen it take others 1.5 hours. Well, I decided to try it this year. It took me 38:20, a very respectable time until you consider that I completed it with assisted pull-ups, more than half the pushups on my knees and certainly no 20 lb vest, and I still felt like I was going to DIE!  Me recovering laying on the living room floor under the fan. I could have made a million excuses for not doing it: it’s way to hard, I’m not going to be able to do it all the “right” way so why do it at all, I’m not a member of a crossfit gym, it’s weird to do that workout by yourself, I overslept and didn’t wake up until my son came home from his dad’s (yes, that happened, I can’t believe I slept that late!). I made all of those excuses plus some but something inside me made me still do it. About halfway through, I thought no way, this isn’t not going to happen. Then about three quarters of the way through, I got that holy sh*t I’m actually doing this feeling and it powered me through the rest. I guess my point of telling you all this is that our bodies really are stronger than we think. There are so many things we can do that we tell ourselves we can’t. Not just physically, it can be anything. A new career, being a mother, a new relationship, a new hobby. Don’t ever look at something that you want to try and tell yourself you can’t do it.  At this point I was so freaking excited that I only had one more set of each exercise. So I had to take a picture. Ok, back to my story, during the last quarter of a mile I was spent. I thought about stopping to walk but then I thought about the man that this workout is done in memory of. I’m sure he was tired often, he didn’t stop, he pushed harder. So I pushed harder….if you are a man (or a woman who hasn’t had a baby) skip to the next paragraph sh*t’s about to get real… and then I peed a little. Almost three years after giving birth and I still pee when I run hard on a tired body (or sometimes even when I sneeze). As much as I know about strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, as strong as my core is now, it’s still not the same. Being a mom changes your body! Some of it might never go back to normal BUT that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop pushing my limits...and neither should you!
When I finished the workout I laid on my living room floor and began scrolling through Facebook. I came across this post. and began scrolling through the stories in the comments. Next thing you know I’m bawling like a baby laying on my living room floor. There is something about complete and utter physical exhaustion that make me vulnerable to raw emotion. I spent much more time than I would normally do thinking about what that day really means. It was the best way for me to really honor the service and sacrifice. I will definitely do it again next year. Thank you for reading my ramblings. I don't normally just write from the heart, but I felt like it after yesterday. Much love, Alison Maire |
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