26.2 CrossFit is where I first got the courage to give CrossFit a try. The tagline is Come Back To The Playground and indeed, it truly came to be just that and more for me. Like a child, I did not want to go home and leave my friends.
As soon as I knew we would be transferring to Montgomery, Alabama, I began looking up CrossFit locations in Montgomery. What a relief to see there were several boxes to choose from once I knew where we would be renting a home. Yet parallel thoughts of beginning at a new box, the new person, the slow person, the person who has to scale everything just to make it through the WoD ran rampant in my head. The same fears that caused me to take two months of scouting out 26.2 kicked in as I worried about finding the right box for me. And I was worried if I would fit in on a new playground.
My fears of commitment kicked in. I know that I have to live within ten minutes of a gym or I will not go. There were plenty of boxes but would one be close enough to our new place and would the people be kindly to someone like me, the #RemedialCrossFitGrayHairedLady?
We got into town on June 30th, a Thursday. We found our rental on July 2nd, signed the lease and partially moved in that day. By Tuesday or Wednesday, July 5th or 6th, I had stopped into Guns Out CrossFit to check out the facility, the one closest to my house. And guess what?
What a lovely group of people enveloped me as I stepped in the door. I felt immediately welcomed. The facility space seemed vast with three BIG fans posted about the WoD center section of the box. There was a luscious lineup of Concept 2 Rowers that were stationed in their own section. They were beckoning me to come row a spell and I knew, immediately, that was the place for me.
So later that day or perhaps it was the next, I called the number listed for the box. Coach Charles called me back and it was ready, set, and wait.
It had been six weeks since I had taken a class and it would be two more weeks until we had our household goods delivered and put away. Coach Charles, the owner, encouraged me to come to the Saturday Free Class, which I took advantage of for those two weeks. I just went in to row as a way to start back into my routine. (Thanks Coach!)
It is now my third week back into a regular three times a week at Guns Out CrossFit. I used to do the 6:30 a.m. Endurance class at my old box. To make the switch to an 11:45 a.m. CrossFit proper has been a big change. It is HOT midday. HOT to the tenth power hot. (Yes, the Hate Face is back. It is wondering where the forced smile went. It is trying to find it. The #NoWhiningInTheBox but #WhiningInMyHead is back, too.)
Unlike my old box, most of the time I am the only girl in class but even when I am not, everyone is still way younger. I am the oldest, the slowest, and the most remedial of any of my teammates so there is that is familiar ground between the old and the new. And somehow, that is comforting.
The struggle for me, as a Diva, is doing the WoD in the heat of the day at Guns Out CrossFit. It is a real mental struggle to not want to play the #LittleOldGrayHairLady card. I know my #HatefulFace is really not attractive and it is possible to work both of those hashtags to my advantage. Then, when at my peak in being a truly a miserable wretch, hateful and angry, comes around Coach Charles in his perfectly baritone, manly voice, “Come on, Jody!”
And I feel right at home, on the playground.
I LOVE my Coach Charles just like I love my coaches at my
first box. He has a great style that terrifies me like Coach Allie did in the beginning and yet he has the Coach Shane thing going on too. It is a fantastic blend that has made this transition really easy for me. Coach Charles is like two coaches for the price of one. I consider that a great deal.
Sentinel2Sentinel 
Oh my Gosh! My first day in the box and they were doing a Marc B warm-up https://www.instagram.com/p/BH7N-FHgdi7/ and I thought: Boy am I glad that I am only here to row today! lol
Miss ya!!! Glad you found an awesome new CF home!!! Keep up the great work!!