Wow, what a day!
First of all: huge thanks to Ditte and Sarah for putting up a great challenge, the atmosphere was unbelievably cool!
Also a very special thanks to all friends, competing and none competing, old and new for showing support and just being as great as you all are! Competing in all honour, but all the time in between events, chating and bonding with just about everybody sharing the same love for this kind of lifestyle is what makes this all so great.
To avoid making this a 2 hour read, I think it’s easier if I try to make a small summary for every event? Most likely it will be a long post as always anyway..
10.00 Event 1 – ”Skill Session, pass/fail and minus points for failed skills.”
- 1 Rope Climb, approx 5m(?)
Easy.
- 70 kg Squat Snatch
1st try!
- 10 Hand Stand Push Ups, within 2 min.
Unbroken.
- 30 Unbroken Double Unders, within 2 min.
1st try.
- 10 Pistols each leg, within 2 min.
Alternating right & left, easy.
- 500 m Row sub 1:35 min
1:32’6 PB!
- 7 Muscle Ups, within 2 min.
Singles, no miss.
My dream was to get through all these. With 10 min warm up, including only three snatches at 40-50kg which felt horrible, I didn’t expect to get that one though. But, the adrenalin pumping through ones body in this kind of environment with the audience roaring meters away brings out the best in anybody. Somehow I just pulled the bar into my best Squat Snatch ever! I even sat in the hole for a few seconds while my judge yelled, ”it’s a rep, it’s a rep!” 
The ones that was suppose to be easy for me, everything except rowing and MU, was. Rowing was also such an amazing feeling. Expecting to crash and burn I started out at a sub 1:30 tempo to give my self some kind of buffert at the end. Wisely enough, after 60 seconds I realized it was smarter to go a little slower and I made a new PB with almost 5 seconds, and it didn’t even feel like a 100% effort! I was tired however and am very pleased that I was able to get the MU’s at a steady pace, one at a time.
11.45 Event 2 – ”Strong Rasmus”, Amrap 7 min:
Only KB and Burpees counts as points!
- 5/5 KB-Snatches@32kg
- 60m Weighted Run, 30kg Sandbag
- 10 Burpees
- 60m Weighted Run
Score: 54p
This is the only part of my own performance that I’m not satisfied with. During the first half of the men’s heats, including mine, the rain fell at a steady pace making the kettlebells super slippery. For my now ”proper” technique with these snatches it was just devestating, think I aborted atleast 8 attempts since it just about slipped out of my hand. However, the conditions were the same for all of us in the first four heats and my conditioning felt off. Goal was to complete at least 3 full rounds (+60 points) and I should have done better..
A little odd scoring system didn’t balance the first two events evenly and the second one had a much bigger impact on the ”cut”. But, 62 athletes made it through to the 3rd event and I made it at 54th!
14.00 Event 3 – ”CrossFit Total II”
The athletes have 9 min to establish a 1 RM in the 3 lifts. 3 attempts are allowed on each lift. Warm up must be done prior to the start of event.
- Over Head Squat:
90kg/1, 100kg/F!
- Clean:
90kg/1, 100/1, 105/1 PB!
- Bench Press:
120kg/1, 130/1, 140/1 PB!*
Total Score: 335 kg
This was for me the coolest event. The audince was crowded up inches away from our lifting spaces and the atmosphere was just electric! My plan was to set the bar up for an OHS, dump it infront of me (had to dump it in controlled manners infront for a good rep) and then just clean it asap. Worked fine for the first round and I got my safety lifts at 90kg in OHS & Clean very fast. For the second OHS at 100kg I got all the way down and almost all the way up, but for some rason I lost my shoulder stability and had to drop the weight approx 15-20cm from full lockout. Very annoying. The clean however was easy.
Since I now doubted my shoulders and due to the fact that we didn’t had any time to warm up, I chose to take a step down from my plan and started my Bench at 120 instead of going straight for 130. Both, 120 and 130 was super light and when I got to 140 there was no chance in hell I was gonna miss it with the crowd screaming around me as Ditte announced what I was going for. Very smooth lift and maybe I could have got more, but anyway it was an awsome feeling right there and then!
*I won’t count this as a Bench PB however since we in this compeition was allowed to ”sky hump” as much as we wanted, which I of course then did.
After that lift I dropped the bar, put on 105 and full of adrenaline I just power cleaned it without any problems! My only regret in this event is that I at that point with only seconds to go didn’t put that weight up overhead, then I also would’ve got a new PB in C&J… 
Going into every new event from the 3rd and forward the previous scores was erased. This obviusly rewarded the strong athletes and I was now at a split 10th place.
17.00 Event 4 – ”The F*cked up Bear Complex”
Athletes have 45 seconds to perform 1 round of the following barbell-complex, without letting go of the barbell.
- Clean
- Front Squat
- Over Head Anyhow
- Back Squat
- Over Head Anyhow
After 45s there will be a 15s rotation and the athletes move up to a heavier bar. 5kg increase from 60kg to 105kg or until the athlete fail at any weight.
Score: 95 kg
This was done on a parking lot outside with athletes standing on a line moving forward to the next weight at every rotation. Again the atmosphere provided by the audience sitting and standing around us was amazing. I actually expected this one to be much more taxing but it wasn’t until around 90 that my technique started to crack. Not surprised however, at this point my body was pretty tired. I went all the way up to 100kg, but there I missed at the very last overhead, from the back position, which might seem close. But hey, no cigarr..
8 athletes went through to the final and I think that at least 7 got all bars up to 105 done so I was far away from that anyway, which I think is a good thing. So far the events had been very much to my advantage and the final it self was a monster of a duet triplet which would have displayed many of my weaknesses at once, making that scenario only embarrassing.
Summary:
I can’t in anyway be anything else than happy with my own performance, setting a couple of new PB’s and feeling very strong overall. Think I ended up somewhere around place 15-20, (they’ll release the final scores within soon), with only one or two other swedes beating me with this scoring system, but that’s not really the point. In another competition many other would still beat me over and over again and my only goal for this competition was to get to do as many events as possible and to beat my self in as many ways as I could. And I did! 
So many memories from this weekend will cling on for a long time and to compete in this kind of environment, which I think only the CrossFit-Community could provide, is something I would recommend to anybody. No matter at what level you think you are, no matter how much you think that everybody else is so much better than you, just do it! The reward is always worth it and you will perform at a higher level. The adrenaline, friendship and just plain inspiration this day brought to me is undescribable.
As for the Finals it was just a super cool thing to get to watch such impressive athletes from the sideline. Finish Mikko Arenpää was in a league of his own and after crushing the competition it looked like he was barely breaking sweat when he crossed the finishline with almost a full 400m lap to the nearest competitor!
The girls was just as insanely impressive. Annie from Island could probably beat most of the guys with her strength and yet, this time she was only second to British Samantha who was unstopable during the 400m runs at the last triplet. Looking from the side it looked like she was going at full speed all the way and she just flew away on the last lap. Also, Jenny showed as always that she is without doubt the best girl in Sweden and finished in a strong 3rd place, well done!
After the competition we headed back to Copenhagen and went to a place that according to our friends, (no names), supposed to have ”The best meat in the world”. Let’s just say, that life is all about perceptions. Your world doesn’t necessarly have to be the same as my world… But, I did get very full, it was a ”all you can eat kind of restaurant”, and even though I’m not sure I even wanna know what kind of meat the ”veal” or ”beef” really was, I had a really fun time.
At the after party venue however, I was a beat man and even though that too was very friendly and nice, I was way to tired to be able to socialize for long. A couple of beers and even a missjudged attempt to find some energy in a sugary Gin and Red Bull was all I could do before dropping off to the hotel for some much needed and if you ask me, well deserved sleep…
Namaste!
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