It’s Games week 2019! Hopefully, if you are planning to head to the Games this year (or are already there) you’ve read our “Road to the Games – Fan Edition” article from last year. It contained our collected wisdom and observations from the 2018 Games in Madison, Wisconsin including how to get there, where to stay, how to get around, what to eat, and what to do. The Games really are (as Jo puts it) “Disney World for fitness enthusiasts”.

But we never did our actual trip review! We never shared the cool things we did and people we ran into. So here (finally) are some anecdotes and pictures to whet your appetite, and if you are going hopefully this will encourage you to keep your eyes open and alert because you really never know who you are going to run into!

The whole thing was like a fitness fairy tale of fun. It was truly the “Disney World” for serious lifters. Everyone there was freakishly friendly. The natives of Madison were so nice we felt like we were in the Twilight Zone. 

We ended up being glad we went during the week. Sure, there are lots of events on the weekend, but it gets orders of magnitude busier too. Earlier in the week we were able to get the lay of the land, squeeze into workouts and sessions that would have been difficult later, and meet a few unexpected people.

For instance, Jo’s eagle eye noticed next to us, on the first day, a tall, older, slightly nordic-looking man with a Sigmundsdottir shirt we’d never seen before. Striking up a conversation we quickly found out it was Sara’s father, scouting the race track for a good vantage point!

Later while hunting for food we encountered two friendly young women wearing Brent Fikowski shirts – but again, as Jo noticed, none we’d seen before. After a few minutes of conversation we discovered we were chatting with Brent’s wife and sister!

The food there was absolutely exquisite and super healthy to boot! We were beyond excited to meet many of the Games athletes including Julie Foucher and former champ Jason Khalipa. 

Then, at the marathon row (ugh), we worked our way down to some seats, plopped down, and (Jo’s good eye again), suddenly realized we were sitting right behind none other than Ben Bergeron. Only one other person nearby seemed to realize this! Deep in concentration while watching his athletes we were hesitant to bother him, but then we thought about the event – hours of rowing – and figured it probably wouldn’t be a huge bother. It also helped that Jo had been carrying his book “Chasing Excellence” around. We pretty much had to get the autograph at that point. He was pleasant but reserved until Jo pulled his book from her backpack, then he lit up!

Jo sports a Neversate shirt as she gets a pic with Ben Bergeron

We also got to meet other fitness celebrities like Bob Harper from Biggest Loser. Crossfit knows how to put together quite the collection of interesting vendors who generously gave away a lot of cool shwag. (We also ended up buying a Surge Riptide slosh pipe and a Marc Pro!)

Since the O-course was located in a completely different area, and was on the same day as a water event we couldn’t go watch anyway, we headed there early and found a great spot where we made friends and camped out for a few hours. I wore a folding solar panel to keep our phones charged all day while we talked to folks from Hawaii

The O-Course was a lot of fun, and since people cleared out after the individuals we got a close up shot at Froning as the teams went by.

Since the Crossfit training teams were there we took the opportunity to treat ourselves to multiple highly educational seminars offered by some of the most brilliant coaching minds around the country.

Matt happened to notice former Games athlete Christy Adkins, one of our all-time favorites, walking around the grounds. We first met Christy at the Arnold Classic when Jo did a contest at the Rogue booth. We ran into her again at a joint weightlifting / powerlifting competition, and she remembered Jo right away. Seeing her at the Games we had to say hi, and she was kind enough to let us get a picture with her.

One of our classic favorites – Christy (Phillips) Adkins

Saturday Matt left an arena to go get food for us in the morning while Jo held our seats. On the way back an exuberant blonde lady came rushing up to me, carrying a child. “Is that mac and cheese? Where did you get mac and cheese?” She was bordering on frantic in her excitement, as her young child was hoping for mac and cheese (as so many kids do). Matt’s reaction was pretty exuberant too. He looked down at his eggs, and never wished more that a plate of food was mac n’ cheese, as he looked back up and told Hillary Froning that “no, I’m sorry, it’s just eggs”.

“Fitness racing”, meeting new people, working out, seminars, vendors, paleo food – huge thanks to everyone from staff to vendors to athletes! Our trip was one of the best experiences we’ve ever had and we are chomping at the bit to go back!

A whole mess o’ pics

(and a few people hidden in there we didn’t want to call out <G>)

The athlete selfies!

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