Congratulations to Trish Shanahan on being selected as April’s Athlete of the Month. Trish has been consistent with working on her weaknesses. Though she loves running and you can always find her at the box on the endurance WODs. She works just as hard if there is a barbell in the WOD. She juggles 2 kids and her full time position in the military with such ease. For those reasons and many more is why Trish has been selected as our Athlete of the month.

Started CrossFit– July 2016

Favorite WOD– I really like Murph because of the running and body weight movements.  If there is a WOD that has more running than Murph, I would like that one better.

Least favorite WOD– Heavy lifting WODs. Not. My. Jam.

Favorite lift– Clean. This lift has wormed its way into my heart.

Least favorite lift- Snatch. It is very humbling, but I am starting to feel more confident and improve my technique. I can respect the lift now…. but it will be awhile before it becomes special to me.

Story– Initially I was not interested in CrossFit at all because I was a devoted long-distance runner (since high school) and could not understand why people would want to do these high intensity workouts that were “short” when they could enjoy a nice long run.  I would lift weights to augment my running, but nothing too heavy.  I ran throughout my first pregnancy and started right back running after my first child.  At the time, I stopped lifting weights because I “didn’t have enough time.”  I kept getting hurt, but ran through the pain (I don’t recommend doing that).  By time of my second pregnancy, I was running less and less because of pain and lack of mobility. After my second child, I had almost given up on running all together. I was eating more, working out less and actually was perplexed as to why I was gaining weight.  In 2016 while stationed at Ft. Gordon, GA, the on-post gym began hosting CrossFit for active duty service members. One of my residents invited me to a class… I agreed, but still had all sorts of negative ideas about CrossFitters.  Surprisingly, the class was not like the stereotypes or memes about Crossfit and the people were normal-ish (kinda). I kept showing up and eventually started doing things that I had never been able to before. I got my first ever pull up (it took me 9 months to get one, but I did it!!!!) and was able to climb a rope.  This was such a big deal for me. I began to respect my body more, eat better (most of the time), and my running naturally started to come back. I got back into running races and increasing my distances beyond what I ever thought I would— I also hook grip when I run now as it keeps me from clinching my fists too much while running. I have muscles in places that I didn’t know muscles exist. And the best part was when I overheard my daughter tell her friend “my mom is so strong.”