It’s been a "few" years since I did my first CrossFit workout. Here is the story of how CrossFit Moncton came to be...I was teaching Phys Ed at Tantramar in 2006. On the night of Parent-Teacher interviews, a parent, who was also an RCMP officer, gave me a link to a website. He said it was filled with workouts that I could possibly use with my students. I think I lost the paper that had the link and completely forgot about it.About a month later, his son, Justin, asked if I checked out the CrossFit site. I hadn’t, so we went to my computer after school and saw it was a workout called the Filthy Fifties. 500 reps? Really?! I had some spare time, so Justin and I gave it a shot.Box jumps, no sweat! Jumping pull-ups, piece of cake. Dumbbell swings, ok, this is starting to suck. Walking lunges...they have to be with weights...let’s try 50 pounds in each arm...ahhh, this is bad! Anyway, I managed to get to the back extensions before my body called it quits.I was hooked!I continued doing the workouts on the main CrossFit site and tracked my progress. On December 14, 2006, my CrossFit Total was a lowly 568...and that was using a Smith machine for the squats! Now, I’m up over 900. In two months of CrossFit, I gained 10 pounds of muscle. This stuff is potent.Interest was sparked and I began my certification courses to become a personal trainer in 2007. That’s where I met Jeanette Pearson. We were on a break during a course and somehow found out that we each did CrossFit. Over the lunch break, we did a workout at NuBody’s and got quite a few odd looks from others. She planted a seed by mentioning the idea of a CrossFit in Moncton. I smiled.When I found out about a CrossFit in Fredericton, I headed down to see what a REAL CrossFit gym was like. I think the workout was Fight Gone Bad. And boy was it bad! Jodi and Anthony Bainbridge were an incredible resource for me and answered many questions about running a CrossFit gym.The next step was affiliation. I needed to go to a CrossFit certification, so I checked the main site everyday for one that was fairly close. MAINE! That’s about as close as it comes! I drove down with Janine Daigle, who used to be a CrossFitter in Moncton, but had moved to Bathurst (and opened CrossFit Bathurst). The weekend course was amazing and on June 22, 2008, I was a CrossFit trainer. My affiliation application went through quickly, got insurance, did up a business plan, and held the inaugural CrossFit Moncton workout in the park at Queen Elizabeth school playground on July 5, 2008. There were 20 participants and lots of supporters.It was all happening so fast. It was real.I had over 75 people come out for workouts in the park over the course of the summer. As summer was drawing to an end, it was starting to get dark and cold. I needed a space before the snow fell. I spent countless hours looking for an ideal location. It was a lot harder than expected. After seeing MANY unsuitable spaces, 94 Rideout St. was found. It was a large room (not quite empty – filled with kayak building materials and other thingamajigs), with 10 foot ceilings. I had the freedom to transform the room however I wanted to. Perfect!After securing some money from the bank, I filled the room rather quickly with CrossFit equipment. Some of the people from the summer workouts joined the gym, new members started trickling in and business was growing.We have since moved to a few bigger and better locations over the years.So there you have it. The story of how CrossFit Moncton came to be. I want to thank everyone who’s helped, supported, motivated, and encouraged me to get where I am today. I am very grateful!
