It was a good run...
More weight dropping excuses was the final straw that broke this camel's back. First, the hamsters were worried about the equipment as weights were being gloriously dropped... But it's all our own equipment (the only thing that Collier Field House owns in the Anti-CrossFit space are the wooden boxes that we ordered from the wood shop for them and some seriously overpriced 'sit up' bars). Then they were worried about the poor little linoleum flooring... Sorry, just indestructible concrete. Then it was just too loud... Ever tried to concentrate in a workout during a Zumba class??? Finally, they got creative and we were dropping the weights from 'above the norm'... What 'norm' do you say? Good question. There aren't really any 'rules' posted anywhere for Collier Field House other than putting collars on all your weights - cuz we all know that those little spring collars are dripping with safety features. So despite Garrison's claims that they are in favor of CrossFit and functional fitness for Soldiers (more on the Trent Gym debacle later...), we are still at the mercy of they retired Colonel mafia and the perpetually complaining military spouse club (where did my favorite thigh burning machine go anyway...???).
You can go to our CrazyWife CrossFit site to see the humble beginnings of CrossFit Yongsan. Yes, our first workout in early 2009 was Fight Gone Bad at Trent Gym (on a Saturday, at 8am) and yes, we crammed all the equipment into our little white car and drove it all to the gym and unloaded it ourselves. Why, because there is never any real weightlifting equipment in an MWR-run 'Globo' gym. Still isn't. Google 'Operation Phoenix' and Marine Corps to see how far their version of MWR will go to keep this equipment out of the hands of our Warriors. I mean an hour on the elliptical and sitting in the thigh-extension machine is good enough to get you up those mountains in Afghanistan right?
We quickly moved to Collier Field House because it had an actual parking lot and more 'stuff' inside. This was before you could move any of that 'stuff' around mind you. There was no dumbbell room in the back racquetball court and we got 'complaints' for daring to move dumbbells out of the weight room and into the racquetball courts or the gym floor for a (gasp) workout. So we were still bringing a car load of equipment to every workout and trying to get things done around the single solitary squat rack at Collier or in one of said racquetball courts since there was no space to workout (too many stupid Nautilus machines and ellipticals taking up all the floor space).
Since there were no pull up bars inside Collier, we were happy to move outside when it warmed up in the Spring/Summer of '09. We ran a lot of boring run-pull up-push up-sit up-squat-kettlebell swing workouts that summer. This was the same time that a little round man named Henry walked by and said, "hey, is this CrossFit?" Henry has a superior command of the obvious to this day. September 2009 brought Fight Gone Bad 4 and we dragged all of our equipment from home and put on a pretty killer event all by ourselves. Marine Corps 'Mike' raised like $500 by himself by going to AAFES and some other places on post. Great kid. By October, CrazyWife was ready to pop so we got a month long vacation in Hawaii when Baby Toa was ready to come out. In December, we bounced around in the back weightroom, cramming five or ten of us around the little squat rack, trying not to get in the bench pressers way too much.
Spring/Summer of 2010 and CrazyHusband went off to school for the summer and CrazyWife grew our little CrossFit group of 3-5 regulars into a dozen regulars. That and she scored the shed of pain during one final ridiculous equipment drop off in front of the Saturday 5k crew with a carload of equipment, a toddler and a baby in tow. September brought Fight Gone Bad 5 and our trip/workout at the DMZ with CrossFit Bonifas. Back inside for the winter and our own racquetball court (after 15-20 of us got kicked out three times by the only two racquetball players in Korea). We ended up with space above the racquetball court to store our equipment (Collier is still lacking), Mr. Jackson created the dumbbell room in the other racquetball court and ordered a boatload of dumbbells and the kettlebells that are in there now. We were finally able to move said dumbbells around so we finally weren't getting in trouble for bringing them into the racquetball court or the gym. Remember the blue mats and barbells on the gym floor??? But once volleyball started, we and our 20-40 CrossFitters per class got kicked off the gym floor due to "safety" reasons with flying volleyballs and those most dangerous volleyballers. We also had complaints about all the kids since we were running childcare on our own since there isn't any at Collier during the busiest time to workout after work. Anyone seeing a trend here??? We once again cancelled classes for the winter and hunkered down until the spring thaw allowed us back out into the shed of pain.
One killer ICE Comment later and we got to sit down with the garrison commander and see his master plan for supporting functional fitness at Collier and Trent. All of these big changes were to be complete by June 2011. We weren't holding our breath.
2011 brought lots of summer weightlifting ('Running Sucks') in the shed of pain after we brought our own barbells and bumpers back out of hiding from Camp Kim and started working out outside. The CrossFit Games Open Sectionals brought us some memorable workouts and a trip to Okinawa, Japan to support Chris at Regionals. September brought the functional fitness renovations (three months late and without equipment) and Fight Gone Bad 6 and our first real workout in the new Anti-CrossFit room. Raising $5,000 for those charities will be the highlight of our 3-year tour in Korea. Thanks again guys.
So here we are. They've complained us out of an effective workout in just two short weeks. At least we still have all those dumbass mirrors so we watch our form on the bicep curls. Who wants to do handstand push ups anyway? Too unsafe for me...
What is the future of CrossFit in Yongsan??? Stay tuned...
