I enjoy the Albany CrossFit community the best, hands down, second to none. It's all people around my age, with the same goals, the same likes, the same struggles, they understand when I get so excited about achieving a goal because they want those goals too. The Towers (Lynn and Mary) play a big part in my love for the Albany CrossFit community and obviously having met Dave doesn't hurt either.

What keeps me coming back and where have I seen the biggest improvement are kind of the same. I keep coming back because I see such huge improvements in my body. I have shoulders now, abs and hopefully someday knees! And the fact that I finally got myself to go paleo-ish definitely contributes to the change.

It helps in my everyday life because I am super socially awkward. Like, super awkward, you may have noticed. Joining Albany CrossFit totally took me out of my comfort zone and made me talk to people because you are all so G.D. friendly! It has legitimately given me way more confidence and ability to talk to strangers. I even made new friends! Which, as an adult, is hard.

I don't know what my favorite Albany story is… maybe when I met Mary for the first time when we did some insane partner WOD. It was some crazy chipper, I'd never met Mary before, I was pretty new and I'd never done an overhead squat before. Oh! What about when I did one of the WOWs this past year, the Karen + DU + muscle ups. I did it with a 14# wallball for the first time and Chantelle was "judging" me. After about 20 wallballs I put down the ball and told her I was quitting, I tried to walk away, and she told me to pick up the damn ball and get back on the damn wall. It was hilarious! Meanwhile Kia and Ali are wallballing like bosses next to me and I'm crying like a little bitch while Chantelle makes me pick up the ball and yells at me the whole time until I get 7 double unders (I respond best to being yelled at, she knew this and accommodated me very well)

Oh wait! It was when I had hit randy RX and Jodi, who I had never met, told me she wanted to be like me someday and I inspired her. I was like ?!???!? Really????

Oh wait! Mission hope! And the fact I can't drive by a burger king without remembering how we kicked ass. I still can't believe I did that. I literally never played sports in my life and now I do this. It's crazy. Ok, I'm done…maybe.