A rainy Memorial Day morning brings us to another year of doing Murph with CrossFit compatriots across the country (world). It has been two years since my last effort (though I can’t find any record of it). The Murph is a CrossFit Hero WOD named after Michael Murphy who died in combat in Afghanistan while requesting support for his team that was taking heavy enemy fire. The workout that now carries his name was his favorite. It starts with a mile run, then 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats followed by a mile run – all while wearing a 20# vest!!
The rain made the first mile interesting as it was coming down steadily. I tried not to let my feet get soaked in puddles and like several others wore a rain coat. The rain coat was quite helpful. I remember another workout last October where we did a run and then pull-ups right afterwards. It was hard to get the hands dry enough and to keep the pull-up bar dry as well. This was similar to that! The normal breakdown for the work was 5-10-15 or Cindy. Someone suggested that since some of us didn’t have 5 pull-ups in a row we should do sets of 3 or 33 rounds of 3-6-9 (with one last round of 1-2-3 to round it out). Despite being hard to keep track of 33 rounds instead of 20 it was a good breakdown for me! I finished my first mile in around 8:30. I tried making it nasal breathing only but that didn’t workout for me!
When I got back to the gym I took the rain coat of and tried to dry my hands. I did 2 rounds before chalking up and my hands were pretty dry at that point. I did the first several (maybe 5-6) rounds with push-ups from the ground. I kept chugging away at the pull-ups and felt pretty strong with those. When I switched from the ground I skipped a 20″ box and went for a 24″ one. I ended up sharing with Sarah as I didn’t grab one. We did them at the same time for awhile, but then ended up alternating turns for several rounds.
I kept pushing through the rounds slowly moving the stick that marked my rounds up the rig. I dropped it once and I couldn’t remember if I finished round 9 or 10 so I put it in round 9. Sometime in the final third of the workout my left palm ripped at the pinky finger. I remember my hand kind of slipping off the rig as I jumped down. I put a band-aid on it and kept moving. At this point as well most of the people were finishing their work and going for the second run. Keep moving. That was my goal. The pull-ups continued to feel okay and the push-ups were killing me. In this last 3rd of the workout I switched to a 36″ box which was still soooo hard!
Eventually I was the last one working and some of the spectating kiddos came over and starting playing on the rig. I almost kicked one or two of them. I kept moving. My right hand ripped at the ring finger with about 7 or 8 rounds left. I put a band-aid on it too but it didn’t work as well. Kira came over and helped me wrap tape around my palm which definitely helped! I kept doing the pull-ups which surprisingly were still doable. Only on one round did I have to do one at a time. I only no-repped myself one time and that sucked, but it was super obvious. When I finally got to the last round almost everyone was cheering me on. I tried to combine my last full round with the remainder that I would have to do. So I did 2 pull-ups, took a breath and did 2 more. Then when I got to 6 push-ups I needed a break so I did 9 squats and went back and finished the last 2 push-ups and 3 squats. Those last push-ups were so hard! I almost couldn’t get my body up even at the 36″ box!
Then I went back out into the rain!! I didn’t seen anyone on my run as I think they had all finished. I didn’t wear a rain coat and the rain actually felt good at that point! Though it was really weird to try and run! My legs were a little jello from the squats, but it was my arms that were hard to move and it felt so strange to try and do a normal running form! It looks like my last mile was 10:30! A big difference! I was glad to finish!! Pretty much everyone was still there and created a tunnel of high-fives for me as I finished! That felt great!! I finished in 1:04 and change.
What an accomplishment!! I’m sure my last one was much faster as I was doing ring rows at the time. It’s too bad I can’t find any record of it. Weird! Updated: I found a picture of the whiteboard and I did it in 53:35.
My body will definitely be sore as it was super hard to shower!!
