Midwestern Sectionals Reflections Part 3

Let's get right into it today. 1200 seconds or 20 mins was the time cap on the Air Force 1 wod and in getting through all 100 reps of that wod (if we're not counting the burpees) it took a lot of athletes to the brink of their physical limits. Many didn't finish in the 20 min time cap but Heather did. And she used 1199.43 of those 1200 seconds to get it done.

This performance was something else to watch and I only wish the video in my mind could be put in a camera. When she got to the overhead squats and I saw her struggling to get depth, reps taken away by her judge I thought to myself "damn it looks like the overheads might knock her out (in terms of finishing the wod)." Active shoulders weren't there, the legs were weakening from the burpees, and 65# just looked like too much to handle for her at that point in the wod.

I literally looked up a few minutes later and I'll be damned she was knocking them out by the 2s! She figured it out I thought to myself and now it was clicking. Active shoulders in place, squat depth perfect, & this fml expression on her face on each burpee told the story of the struggle.

The seconds ticked and she finally got thru the overheads, now on to front squats. The burpees must've taken 30 seconds to do as she was done physically but she had just enough time to get the squats in I thought. And so she pushed, perservered, & got through the burpees, picked up the bar and got after the front squats when she assuredly had nothing left in the tank. The crowd was totally behind her, helping her spring up out of the bottom of the front squats and peel herself off the ground after each burpee. When she picked up the bar for the last time there was no other alternative but to finish the 20 reps and before the time cap. And of course she got it with time to spare.....57 seconds to be exact.

In talking to Heather in the weeks leading up to Sectionals she once told me that she was mentally tough and that the physical strength will come. Not that it wasn't proven to me before, but now a broader audience has a greater appreciation for how strong this woman is mentally. We all can learn from that performance, I know I did...O and of course she backs it up with a 1 rep max on the clean & jerk that drove the crowd wild again in wod 2.

Heather this ones for you...showstopper