A Brief Story About the CrossFit Games...

Here is a short story about my behind-the-scenes experience at the 2015 CrossFit Games in Carson, California. 20 hour days of hard work forged experiences I will never forget and friends for life. Whatever could go right, did.

The sound of Kubotas towing trash bins was a constant throughout the night. The tent that housed our kitchen and control center for the CrossFit Games at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, was a solid toss from the collective dumpster. I’m not sure who was producing so much garbage, nor the subsequent banter that carried on upon its disposal in the early morning hours of July 24th, but it was making any sort of real sleep impossible. I’d taken up residence in the tent on the second night in Carson in order to maximize the amount of work I’d be able to get done. Work until I pass out, wake up a few hours later and do it again was the point and that’s exactly how it happened. The phrase “sleep when you’re dead” had been used often earlier in the week, but now “eat when you’re dead”, “brush your teeth when you’re dead”, “go to the bathroom when you’re dead”, and so forth had been added to the daily vernacular.

Seven months prior, in January, I’d reached out to Nick Massie, my friend that seems quixotic until you realize that he actually achieves his lofty dreams, about working with him at the CrossFit Games. He’d ask me in 2014 but the timing wasn’t good for me, mostly, because I’d be cohosting a Paleo culinary adventure with him at the Tordillo Mountain Lodge a month later. Leaving my company, J. William Culinary, for a week in July and another in August just wasn’t in the cards. That said, I was certain that I was not going to pass up the opportunity again. As soon as it was brought and Nick secured the contract with CrossFit, I was in. This year, though, was going to be different. Nick had caught the attention of CrossFit last year at the games with the polished paleo fare that was served at the Paleo Nick food booth. In addition to vending to the attendees, we would be responsible for serving the staff, volunteers and media for CrossFit. Throw in feeding the Rogue employees, some athletes and the food booth and we were looking at the real possibility of serving over 20,000 meals in a week. I’d never heard of a company attempting to serve high-level paleo cuisine in that kind of volume, which is what made the whole project that much more exciting to me.

The iPhone alarm went off at 4:AM but my mind hadn’t stopped since I laid down at midnight. Even if I could slow my mind down enough to sleep, the lights and the noises wouldn’t let me. For the past 12 days, I’d been sleeping on cots, air mattresses, a couch for a night and once in the Paleo Nick’s GMC Sierra during the caravan in which we transported the food and equipment from Reno to Carson. Some deep exhaustion had set in a couple days prior. It was the kind that makes forming coherent words difficult and you lose trust in your motor skills. Things I’d taken for granted my whole life now took effort. Today was a new day, though, and we were so close to the end of this expedition. I was just three very long days away from boarding a plane back to my Jacksonville home and my son William. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. I had a renewed energy to finish what we had started and finish strong. Life doesn’t present you with many opportunities to be exceptional. This was one.  I was determined to board that plane with nothing left to give.

A walk across a dusty canvas floor to the three-compartment dish sink for my morning hose down had become my morning ritual since Cal St. University-Dominguez Hills, an institution adjacent to the StubHub Center, had decided to secure its locker room doors, leaving me without somewhere to shower. By 12 after 4 my personal hygiene was addressed, the signature Mohawk pompadour was in place and the lights and ovens are turned on. I throw on a t-shirt, basketball shorts, footwear and my olive Knife & Flag apron and prepare for everyone to arrive.  

As though it was carefully orchestrated, several automobiles arrived promptly at 4:55. Jaded, but resilient, people start filing out and into the tent, 21 total. Some, like me, are getting paid for their efforts. Some are Paleo Nick’s immediate and extended family. Many are friends and believers volunteering their time and energy for a community that has been formed with the Paleo and CrossFit movement. It’s a network of people drawn to each other by a passion for all of the positive things that a healthy, energetic lifestyle can create and foster. At its epicenter is this community’s magnetic leader, Nick Massie, AKA Paleo Nick. Stacy, a fellow Texan, has traveled to Carson from Oman to sweat it out every day in order to experience what it takes to run this sort of operation. When I first saw him, I assumed he was competing in the games. He is a few years removed from being a fullback on Texas A&M’s football team and is contemplating enrolling in culinary school when he gets back to the middle east. Glinda has taken leave from her dentistry in New Hampshire. Floyd and Susan, a couple that I spent a week with recently on a Paleo culinary adventure in Playa Maderas, Nicaragua, are here from British Columbia on vacation. To this point, their vacation has meant coordinating and the distribution of meals to the various stations. They gravitated to this responsibility from the beginning and run it with precision and perfection. For their exhaustive efforts, they have received access to the games, shoes and some T-shirts. It’s easy to tell, though, that their real compensation is something deeper. The two Ernestos and Silvia have driven the 16 and a half hours from Mexico to represent CrossFit Chihuahua is the kitchen tent. The quick bond with those like the Yepez family, folks also of Mexican descent, is a pretty natural one. Geography and language tend to do that. The kinship that they have forged with the Hammond family from Alaska is one that took a desire for friendship, a trait that everyone here seems to share. Some, like Gabby Gomez, the Hilkeys, Josh and Rebecca Klindts, are California residents, but, surprisingly, they are the exception among the volunteers.

Paleo Nick has arrived, too, and addresses the hired guns, Memo Yepez, Arantxa Kovis, Nick Knutzen and myself. By this point, we all know what needs to be done and very few words are spoken. Nick Knutzen is here from Minneapolis. I’d never met him a year ago, but we have spent over a month together out of the last eleven. I first met him on a paleo/crossfit culinary adventure at the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge in Alaska in September, spent another week with him on another paleo trip in Nicaragua in May and now we are working very closely for these two plus weeks here. We both have been sober for some years and have had similar victories and struggles. He and I talk often. Arantxa is the first and last line of defense in this operation. If you need something, ask her. As a veteran in the industry, I’ve learned to manage my stress and redirect my frustration over the years. To her, it seems to come naturally. The backbone of this operation is Memo Yepez. He is Paleo Nick’s comrade in every sense. Both get emotional when speaking about the impact that one has made on the other. You know from the beginning that they are in this together.

This day would be the most trying. As the Games have progressed, the times that the various groups want breakfast ready and delivered has gotten earlier. The numbers have also increased. It’s a good sign that people are enjoying what we are doing and the feedback has been very positive. Originally, the total number of people to be served for today’s breakfast was 850. Now, the amount is over 1,000 and the first round is to be out by 5:30 A.M. There is no time for pleasantries. The portable Camp Chef burners are fired up. Food is being cooked immediately. On this morning’s menu: Chorizo, Scrambled Eggs, Pico de Gallo and Fruit. There is one major problem that keeps rearing its head. An outbreak of avian flu has affected 47 million chickens in the Midwest. Eggs, particularly pasteurized liquid eggs, have been expensive for months but now are three times the normal price. What is worse is that they are getting scarce. Paleo Nick has routinely gone to Restaurant Depot and clean them out of liquid eggs, paying a hefty price in the process. For the last two days, though, Restaurant Depot has been completely out, leaving whole eggs as the only option. So, before cooking the eggs, 4,000 would need to be cracked and whipped. The rush is intense. Everyone, workers and volunteers alike, understands the urgency. Cases upon cases of watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew are cubed and put into large white bins. As fast as the eggs can be cracked and whipped, they are poured into Teflon-lined sauté pans to be scrambled with chorizo. From there, into aluminum pans and into Cambro food storage containers to stay hot.

The Rogue Fitness employees are the first that need to be fed. By the prescribed 5:30 sharp, a Kubota utility vehicle, one of four at our disposal, arrives. Breakfast is laid out for them and the table is stocked with utensils, plates and napkins. Rogue is a company that thrives on order. They are clean. They are curt but friendly. They don’t straggle or linger. They are not picky. Be precisely on time and have everything right, and they are wonderful to serve. I don’t want to find out what happens if you are not.  At 6:30, the tent that accommodates the 700 members of the CrossFit staff and volunteers will start filling, which means the food needs to be headed that way by 6:00. There is a feeling that we are asking the impossible of each other right now; that regardless of all of our hustle and intentions, the food cannot cook fast enough to be on time. In what can only be described as the quintessence of true CrossFit spirit, everyone is encouraging her and his peers to overcome the obstacle that it we have in front of us. I have rarely been more emotional and inspired to achieve in my professional career than at this moment.  Six people are cooking on 12 burners. We have been counting 20 servings of eggs per aluminum pan, so we need 35 of them. Floyd and Susan load up the Kubota with the filled Cambros, bins of fruit and condiments for the first of three trips to the Staff and Volunteer tent at 6:10. It’s going out late and everyone is aware of it. These are the people whose opinions decide whether the contract is extended for the next year or not. These are the people that spread the word, positive or negative, about their experience. We are not here to disappoint. All hands are on deck and pushing hard. The pace is near true chaos. The need for organization that has been stressed all week has completely gone out the window at this point. I am scrambling three pans of eggs and grabbing fruit bins off the refrigerated truck at the same time. I’ve acquired some good mental timing over the years in the kitchen, but this is pushing it. We are in no position to waste time and product by burning eggs, which can happen in seconds; seconds can easily turn into minutes with so much to distract.

Overlapping the last of the staff and volunteers is the need for food to serve the approximately 300 members of the media. As the sunrise brings natural light into the tent, the last of the breakfast for over 1000 people leaves the kitchen tent. It’s like a vacuum has sucked out all the food and left dirty tables, full trash bins and listless people. All of this and most people’s day hasn’t even started. As we have breakfast ourselves, hydrate, clean up and regroup, the attention turns to the need to prepare for lunch.