Jim Martin 08/26

WOW!  That's all I could say when I saw the email from Channel telling me that I  had been nominated as the spotlight athlete.  I was really excited, honored and surprised all at once.  The surprised part is me doing a 180 from where I was just two years ago.  Let me explain my surprise.  Growing up I was the kid that played every sport (super competitive) so I was always around athletes or in the gym.  I started weightlifting in junior high because my grandfather was big into weights (former Mr. Harlingen).  I saw what it did for his physique and I wanted to be just like him.  I continued weight lifting throughout the Marine Corps but also infused cardio into my routine.  Not by choice mind you, but by force, you either run every day in the Corps or get left behind. Many runs were 6+ miles but usually 3 miles every weekday for 4 years.  So at 23 years old (195LBS.) in the Marine Corps I was in the best shape of my life, or was I?  ...
Fast forward to 2009, and many surgeries later (both shoulders, both knees - more than once,  fractured two vertebrae in my neck and a broken wrist ...etc.). I'm out of shape, stressed from work (all the time) and moving my family (Tracy and our son Chase) here to San Antonio from Keller.  I was not very popular in my family for making that move.  But it was better for me, less travel, more time at home and my own business.  A little time goes by, Tracy, who was not real happy (with Me or SA)  finds this group of women (or it was mostly women way back then) that like to work out at Amazen Bootcamp.  A very small group initially that grew at an astounding pace.  So for 3+ years I listen to Tracy talk about the WOD with Angie, Amy or me if one of them was unavailable.  All the time, non-stop 'guess what I did in today's WOD'?  Didn't get it back then, but certainly understand now.  I was happy for her but at the same time skeptical because I don't know what bootcamp is and think it's probably more of a 'social thing' than a workout.  But also frustrated because she keeps asking me to go try it out but I can't because my knee is so far gone after two surgery's that just a simple misstep shoots pain throughout my body.  2012 I decide to get a knee replacement and follow doctors' orders rehabbing the next year.  So October 2013 Tracy convinces me to go to one of the Family WODS on a Sunday with our friends Amy and Garon.  Now I'll admit that I was way out of shape and probably should have done less weight and gone at a slow pace but that is just not in my nature.  I went for it.  To my surprise I didn't hurt anything and felt great working out again.  Until two days later, I could barely move without hurting, sitting down, forget that, I'll just stand for the next few days.  But my better half said, 'you have to go back and work out the soreness', so here we go back to bootcamp 2 days later for another WOD.  Only now it's not Family WOD day and it's even more difficult and I'm thinking 'what did I get myself into'?  I can't keep up with these women, they are in much better shape than I am and they're running circles around me.  And the cute, little, loud blonde instructor with the megaphone, I think is trying to kill me, or motivate me but I cannot distinguish the difference just yet. (Yes, that's Channel). But everyone was so friendly and encouraging (and still is today) that it was easy to keep going back for more WOD's.  No matter who was coaching Channel or Alisha then, or Tracy and the coaches now they always found ways to help me modify my WOD to meet my body's needs.  So I kept going back and little by little went from 240lbs to 210lbs in about 18 months, participated in my first (not last) CrossFit Open and got back into the best shape for me since my twenties.

I'm feeling pretty good these days at 46 years old, possibly almost like I did back in my twenties (minus the running part), now I just ROW!  So thanks to all of you at ABC/IACF who push me and motivate me to better myself. Thanks to my wife Tracy for not giving up after years of asking me to try it. Thank you Channel and Tommy for giving me somewhere to go workout my stress, where it's never boring or routine but it always challenging!

Sincerely,
Jim Martin


WEAR BLUE!