Taranis Winter Challenge Wrap-up


What an amazing weekend! We met up with some old friends (great to see you again Morgan!) and we got to watch a great friend accomplish something with unbelievable determination and heart that she has wanted to do for the past 3 years!

A little back story on Jen and the Taranis Winter Challenge. She has wanted to compete in this competition since watching Jesse compete in the very first one back in 2009. I remember talking to her in the middle of that competition and her telling me, "I what to do this next year!" Every year asked her if she was going in and every year she answered, "Ummm I don't know I still can't do this or I'm not very good at that." This year I didn't ask and one day Jen came up to me with a sheepish look on her face and said, "Uh Marc... I signed up for Taranis this year..." I was shocked and excited all at once! I was instantly proud of her for finally taking the leap of faith required to enter your first competition. Anyone entering a competition for the first time has their head swirling with doubt, "But I can't do this or that very well", "Well everyone else is going to be better than me" , "I'll probably come last" , "I'm going to have a few hundred people watching me as I fail and thinking, why the hell is she even in this thing?!" Of course none of that is ever even close to the truth but as humans we are insecure and that insecurity often peaks out from behind the shadows to infest our minds with negative thoughts and self-doubt so the fact that she was able to overcome that was an accomplishment in itself.

Of course Jen being Jen her expectations were pretty low going into this. In the very first workout all bets were off and she blew all those low expectations and doubt to hell finishing 7th in a workout that was so difficult that only 9 out of 30 women and 11 out of 40 men even finished it!!! When all was said and done she finished top 10 in a few of the workouts and hit 2 PR's in the Snatch and the Clean and Press! Expectations and doubts be damned! By the end of the first 2 days she was ranked 13th with the final day being a kind of obstacle course race type knockout bracket workout that made it difficult to determine her final placing.

Perhaps the most impressive sight I had the pleasure to see was one of heart, anguish and absolute frustration. WOD 4 was announced and it included pistols. Jen had never done a pistol in a workout before and could barely do one in practice. She was devastated by the announcement but went into the WOD with her head held high and for 15 minutes grit her teeth and gave it her absolute all. She managed to grind out just under 6 rounds while other competitors were closer to 20. To she an athlete and friend have to go through that frustration while watching others around her hammer out rep after rep was excruciating but from it came a sense of pride that I hadn't realized existed before. In other workouts when things weren't going well for other athletes they slowed down and some even quit in frustration. Jen grit her teeth and through tears of frustration continued on battling until they made her stop. She would say that that was her worst workout ever and that she would want to forget it but for me it is her most memorable as it was evidence of her character. It reminded me of the movie Rocky. The night before the fight Rocky lies in bed dismayed and Adrian asks him what's wrong. Rocky responds, "I can't win." With total disregard for that fact he fights as absolutely hard as he can and doesn't win but within that is a hidden victory. Sometimes a loss can be a victory. A victory of character. That is what we got to see with that workout.

To say I am proud of Jen and her accomplishments is a drastic understatement. To see a good friend overcome doubts and unsuredness (i know it's not a real word but screw it!) with such spectacular strength and abandon was definitely one of the best things I have seen in a long time! Thanks for the show Jen it was definitely worth the price of admission!