One of the truly cool aspects of meeting and playing with the CrossFit community is the wide array of professionals the CrossFit community embodies. There are men and women in every rank of the military, Police, Fire, teachers, doctors, I could go on and on. In addtion to admiring these people for their athleticism I end up admiring them for the paths they have chosen in their careers.
Mikko Salo is no exception to this scenario: a Firefighter and a Rescue Diver. I would admire him even if he had not won the 2009 CrossFit Games. That’s why when Concept2 invited him to travel back to the US in February of this year to compete in the 2010 CRASH-B’s I was nervous. I knew he would be working hard, training hard, and would also be coming to the US for the 2010 CrossFit Games. Could he fit all of this in? I was skeptical but hopeful. When he said he would come I nearly fell over. WOW!
This great possibility, however, was soon to become an impossibility. Mikko trained for the CRASH-B’s, worked hard, was enthusiastic, what could go wrong? Reality — that’s what. There was no way that traveling to the CRASH-B’s would not interfere with his work life and personal goals of training for the 2010 CrossFit Games. I get that, Mikko realized this and in the end we agreed that Concept2 would have fun with Mikko on another day.
This all sounds so sad, doesn’t it? But wait. Mikko totally rocked it at the 2009 CrossFit Games, but he wasn’t the only person who rocked it. Our goal with inviting the winners of the CrossFit Games to the CRASH-B’s, was to simply give back to the CrossFit community something we partake in all the time, being a tiny part of their incredibly competitive, but fun athletic world. We could still do this. We were sad to lose Mikko, but logically why not ask another “Games” contender. Why not ask Tommy Hackenbruck? And so we did.
I was a little worried due to the time constraints. February 14th is just around the corner after all. A deep breath was taken and then a phone call was made, email sent, and fingers were crossed. Lo and behold and true to all that I know about CrossFit attitude, my phone call was greeted by a few logistical questions, a pause and then ultimately a wholehearted YES! I love CrossFitters.
Tommy Hackenbruck has taken the bull by the horns, so to speak. He does not mess around. He has been training since he put the receiver down from our initial conversation. He is signed up to participate in the CrossFit Rowing Foundations class at CrossFit Wasatch, a lucky 30 minute drive from his facility UTE CrossFit, being held on January 30th. Erin Cafaro is coaching the class and gladly offered to spend some “one on one” time with Tommy to fine tune his technique. Damn – it happened so fast. But as Tommy said, “full steam ahead because there is no other option at this point.”
So the countdown continues. Make sure to stay tuned, never a dull moment.
