FIGHT GONE BAD II: THE AFTERMATH

by Analisa Naldi

How much fight is in you? Written in big, bold letters on a whiteboard in the FIT weight room, this saying loomed over the 47 participants that competed in the FIGHT GONE BAD II fundraiser. In 2006, Athletes for a Cure, a fundraising and awareness program for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, teamed up with Crossfit affiliates across the country for a fight against prostate cancer. Participants of all ages and skill levels competed in a grueling 17-minute workout that was originally designed for a professional fighter and has since been adopted, modified, and included in the Crossfit exercise regime worldwide. The workout consists of five “functional” exercises (wall ball, deadlift sumo high pull, box jumps, push press and rowing/indoor ergometer).

In the inaugural year, 2006, Team CrossFIT Los Altos raised just over $22,000 and completed 10,000 repetitions. We were the national champions for the highest number of repetitions completed by one affiliate! With every intention to repeat our championship this year, our team expanded from clients and trainers, to FIT KIDS, FIT TEENS, FIT BUDDIES, and friends from outside our FIT family. Our team recruited as many participants as we could in order to raise as much money as possible for prostate cancer research. We reached a whopping $33,180 in donations, beating last year’s amount by $11,000.

As a team, we completed 12,389 repetitions on the day. Our top three men’s competitors were Scott Kolasinski (372 repetitions), Jimmy Noriega (350), and Chris Barbin (348). Our top women’s competitor was Rebecca Voigt (372), who flew up to join our team from southern California for the second year in a row! Our other top women’s competitors were Heather Galuteria and me, each with scores of 351 reps. Our top kid competitor was Nathaniel Wipfler (359), who was also the star of FITKid Spotlight for the month of September. Everyone left on Saturday feeling exhausted but rejuvenated.

I have to be completely honest here. The Monday following Fight Gone Bad, when I received the results from across the nation, I was completely bittersweet. The bitterness was a result of our 4th place finish in total repetitions completed, along with the fact that Petrenak Fitness (Santa Monica) beat us in fundraising for the second year in a row. However, as fast as I realized I was bitter, I realized how sweet our entire event actually was. We not only completed over 2,000 repetitions more than last year, but we bested last year’s donation by $11,000, and we received $3,000 more than what we set out to raise. We had every single type of participant you could imagine to represent Team CrossFIT Los Altos. We had 7-year old FIT KIDS, 15-year old FIT TEENS, FIT BUDDIES, and non-local athletes drive and fly here to be a part of the fight. We had a facility full of family and friends, some with signs, many with cameras, cheering, screaming, coaching, counting, and thriving off of the massive energy exuded from those participating.

While talking with Scott Zagarino, the Managing Director for the Athletes for a Cure organization, I also realized that our “sweet” is so much more than we actually realize! We are 1 of 3 (that’s right, only THREE!) affiliates that allowed children and “non-Crossfitters” to participate in our event and represent team CrossFIT Los Altos. He said he was blown away by how our facility managed to place in two categories AND keep with the spirit of the event… raising community awareness and support through a feverishly difficult workout. On top of that, CrossFIT Los Altos is featured on You Tube with a Fight Gone Bad II highlight reel that was professionally edited.

So, to revert back to my comment above, I was bittersweet. Fortunately, the sweet outshined the bitter here, and the Fight Gone Bad II aftermath is surrounded by feelings of accomplishment, success, passion, and a killer instinct to take back our title next year. And next year will be even bigger, yet. We’ll need more fighters and, judging by the size of our FIT family, we hope to have the biggest team in the country next year. Until then, thank you so much for all of your support, both financially and morally. Thank you for your belief in our athletes and yourselves! Thank you for representing the FIT family and the true spirit of the event! Remember, train hard, play hard, FIGHT hard.