2014 Recap & A Look Ahead

I posted a year ago and before I knew it, 2014 was over. I blinked and a year happened - and  a lot happened while I was blinking. It started with CrossFit, but check out where it took me!

In January, I decided CrossFit was my new path and left my contracting job to become a full-time coach at CrossFit Rubicon. I love watching people transform, gain confidence and overcome their fears and decided it was time to make the leap myself. I continued coaching at CrossFit Walter Reed, became a coach at CrossFit Balance Georgetown in the Reebok Fit Hub Facility and participated in the Crossroads Adaptive Athletic Alliance trip to the 2014 CrossFit Games in California, where we promoted Crossroads, sharing what we do and raising funds for the new Adaptive Coaching seminars we started. I also coached as a Subject Matter Expert at the first Crossroads Adaptive Coaching Seminar at CrossFit Redefined in Spring, Texas.

All of that was already really cool, but winding up on the cover of the September/October issue of Box Magazine was a surprise… and an honor.

I supported the Pat Tillman Foundation, raising $2,500, running in the 2014 Pat’s Run in Tempe, Arizona with fellow Tillman Military Scholars, with a 42lb (Pat Tillman’s college football number) rucksack strapped to my back, and I attended the Pat Tillman Foundation annual Leadership Summit in Chicago.

I got active with a Virginia based non-profit called Warrior 360 that provides rapid response to the needs of those in public service who put the welfare of others before their own. I competed in the 2014 Frederick Highland Games in Mt. Airy, MD and then the Virginia Scottish Games and Festival at Great Meadow, Virginia, with another Warrior 360 athlete. Then, I ran the Army 10-Miler with no training while wearing a ballistic vest, to help raise awareness and funds.

I became Team Captain for the the Yellow Ribbon Fund’s Veteran TUF team, a program that encourages veterans to use CrossFit, or any other sport, for rehabilitation and reintegration after leaving the service or being injured. I also competed and recruited with TUF at the Civilian Military Combine events in Brooklyn, New York, Bryce Resort, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland.

I also somehow managed to get two semesters in toward my B.S. in Kinesiology.

THEN, things got interesting…

In November, I was invited to compete and train as a possible member of a para-bobsled team that is vying to have the sport included in the 2018 Winter Games. I pushed a two-man sled on one leg, loaded with my driver, nearly as fast as some of the non-adaptive two-man teams, and won the exhibition races for the week with another wounded service member from the UK.

Because of my performance, 2015 is promising to be just as exciting as 2014 was.

I will be traveling to the Olympic Sliding Centre in the town of Igls near Innsbruck, Austria, and St. Moritz, Switzerland in January, to compete in a 1-man bobsled for the Para-bobsled World Cup races. I have been working on securing travel and sponsorship for travel to these events.

When I get back from Austria and Switzerland, I’ll be competing with adaptive CrossFitters in the Arnold Classic, a huge strength, power and CrossFit competition in Columbus, Ohio. I’m completely addicted to Highland games now, so I’ll be competing in them again, I’ll be attending Adaptive Coaching Seminars in Virginia Beach, San Diego, Miami, New Jersey and Boston throughout the year, and I’ll be working the Wounded Games in the US and UK.

Twelve years ago, I was career Army, but life had other plans. I would never have guessed that going with the flow would land me where I am; CrossFit coach, ambassador for adaptive athletics and wounded soldier programs, and looking at the possibility of becoming an olympic athlete. To me, it’s proof that you can’t waste your time looking back. Accept where you are right now, who you are, and then take a step forward.

What’s your next move going to be?