Gilbert’s Ultimate Fitness Challenge
The Event
This will be a complete fitness challenge putting all contestants through a physical “Grinder” to ultimately crown the fittest man and woman of Gilbert. You must be a Gilbert resident to participate. Check in will begin at 8am on Saturday, December 10th, 2011 at Gilbert CrossFit on the NE Corner of Lindsey and Williamsfield. Cost for the event is $60.00 with proceeds benefitting the American Cancer Society DetermiNation Program.
The competition will consist of 4 workouts (wods) which will not be announced until Friday, December 9th at 6pm. All participants will be eligible to compete in the first 3 workouts with only the top 8 men and 8 women from the Rx division advancing to workout number 4. As a whole the workouts will test cardiovascular capabilities, strength, power, gymnastic skill, muscular endurance, and mental toughness. This event promises to truly challenge all aspects of fitness.
Competitor Divisions
Rx: Male / Female (must be 18 years old) – this division is for competitive athlete’s, gym rats, and experienced CrossFitters. All men and women in this group must perform the workouts as prescribed. No modifications or scaling will be allowed. This is the only group eligible to advance to workout number 4.
Scaled: Male / Female – this division is for the weekend warriors, fitness enthusiasts, and new CrossFitters. All workouts will have a scaled option based on experience level and fitness capabilities.
Event Recap
2011 Inaugural Gilbert Grinder Results
Thank you very much to the judges and volunteers that made today run so smooth. Thank you to all the support from friends and family for the awesome group of competitors we had today. Finally, thank you to all the athletes whos effort made today so memorable!
Fittest Man in Gilbert 2011: Dan Alexander of EVCF
What is your career/job?: I am a Strategic Finance Manager for a company in the semiconductor and life sciences industries.
Outside of Crossfit, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time? I enjoy spending time with family and friends. I love college football Saturdays and I try to read as often as possible.
What is your favorite healthy food & “naughty/cheat” food? Favorite Healthy Food: I love salads loaded with fresh vegetables. I eat a salad every day. Favorite Cheat Food: I am a sucker for ice cream and frozen yogurt. Yogurtland Red Velvet Cupcake Batter yogurt has no rival.
What is something that we don’t know about you? (Interesting fact, accomplishment you are proud of, obscure/unique talent, funny story, etc.): I really have no obscure talents, but I did spend 6 years in the military and I spent a year as an Assistant Professor of Military Science atArizonaStateUniversity.
What motivates you to push yourself physically?: I am motivated to push myself because I like to strive towards continuous improvement in all aspects of my life, however small or large. It feels great to work diligently towards a goal and to see the fruits of your labor. I am not concerned about my improvements relative to others, but rather to my previous accomplishments. Pushing myself physically is one aspect of this approach.
What do you consider to be your biggest Crossfit accomplishment?: I would say that the Gilbert Grinder has been my biggest CrossFit accomplishment thus far. I have been doing CrossFit for about a year now and this was first real competition (more than two WODs) that I participated in. The competition and competitors were great and required everyone to push themselves on each and every WOD.
What is a Crossfit goal that you currently have?: To be honest, I am more of a “lifestyle” athlete. I enjoy having an active lifestyle and CrossFit fits well within that framework. My goals are to be competitive in the events in which I participate and to enjoy spending time with the friends that I have met while a part of the CrossFit community.
Fittest Woman in Gilbert 2011: Jessica Gelder
What is your career/job? Fortunately, I am blessed to be able to stay home with our two kids, Luke (3) and Grace (1.5). I am also the co-founder of Sweet Soiree, LLC. We are wedding and event coordinators here in the valley. We love to design custom dessert tables. This past November, we coordinated the wedding of St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Corey Patterson and designed their 16 ft dessert table.
Outside of Crossfit, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Outside of Crossfit and planning weddings, I love to read and bake. I don’t get to read as much as I would like to these days but a recent favorite from this fall was “Heaven is for real”. I also love to challenge myself by making desserts from scratch. We eat pretty healthy during the week and so there is a little pressure to make sure I get it right when it comes to Friday and Saturday night desserts.
What is your favorite healthy food & “naughty/cheat” food? I don’t know that I have a favorite healthy food. I am pretty sure that if it wasn’t for Trevor (husband) and Crossfit, I would be pretty content with my cheeseburgers, french fries and pizza. Right now, I like spinach and mixed greens salad with feta, cucumber, avocado, bacon and slivered almonds with homemade Italian dressing. I also make these great Paleo-Banana Nut muffins. For a cheat food….We really look forward to our Friday and Saturday night desserts (ok…and sometimes Sunday too). It usually involves chocolate…flour-less chocolate cake, triple chocolate mousse cake, triple chocolate cookies…you get the idea.
What is something that we don’t know about you? (Interesting fact, accomplishment you are proud of, obscure/unique talent, funny story, etc.) Even though I have been competing most of my life…I hate working out.
What motivates you to push yourself physically? I started doing Crossfit after our daughter Grace was born (Feb.2010) and as I mentioned earlier, I hate working out. Crossfit was a “means-to-an-end” so I could fit back into my clothes. Turns out…I’m a competitive person and I like to win. Crossfit grew on me and now I love it.
What do you consider to be your biggest Crossfit accomplishment? I’m excited to be at a place with my training that I can compete. I was really hoping to get to the muscle-ups portion of the last WOD on Saturday. I’ve gotten up once before, so it would have been fun to try within the scope of the competition.
What is a Crossfit goal that you currently have? I think it would be fun to compete on an affiliate team for the Crossfit games.
Additional Donation Opportunity
“The American Cancer Society DetermiNation program is a group of athletes determined to end cancer and save lives by dedicating your training and race participation in marathons, triathlons, cycling, and other endurance events to help the American Cancer Society fight a disease that has already taken too many lives.
