Athlete of the Month: Bill McClory

“When Suzie told me I was athlete of the month, I said No!!! She said YES…. and you do not argue with Suzie. So many great athletes at CrossFit 128 I am honored to have been selected.

I’ve loved sports my whole life. Never really considered myself an athlete. When I was growing up, my younger sister (3 years younger) always got picked for football and baseball before me. That made me think I was not a great athlete. In high school I found football. I Loved being a part of team not just game day but practicing and lifting in the off season with my buddies. After high school, like most of us, I bounced around from gym to gym, my weight going up and down and not really getting strong. I was getting frustrated. I wanted to look and be as strong as Arnold. 

In 2011, I promised my dad I would run the Boston Marathon. So that fallowing April, my father told me to shit or get off the pot, words of wisdom from a great dad. I may have said I wanted to run it a few years in a row. SMH. I thought I was in great shape in 2012 while I ran I it but I was a fat-skinny. My cousin kept bugging me about going to this thing called CrossFit. I ended up doing boot camp classes for a little while. It was fun for a few months but them my favorite trainer left and my other friends started taking different classes. The fun was gone. That’s when life happened – I stopped working out, my runs got shorter and frequent pizza, ice cream and fast food became my friends. I gained 50 lbs, became grumpy (an ass) basically miserable. 

I started to run again with my Lynn Woods running peeps (love those guys) and I did an online workout system. After a little while I would start to skip the warm-ups and end my workouts early because I was getting bored. My friend Deena posted about a special at her new gym – CrossFit 128. I had an OCR coming up so I signed up and I came in for class on a Saturday. I told Deena and Kevin everything I could not do. So Kevin started me with Dead-lifts kettle bell squats, one arm dumb bell snatches, cleans, thrusters and jerks. I didn’t think there was any way I was going to be able to clean or squat a barbell. That’s when I realized it was unlike any other gym I had ever been to. 

After weeks of doing kettle bell squats, Coach Chris showed me that if I balanced the bar on my shoulders, cross my arms and do a front squat that way. Everyone there helped me out, especially my 5 & 6 a.m. peeps who kept pushing me to go way out of my comfort zone. They have amazing patience no matter how dumb I thought the question was or how many times they had to explain it to me. Hearing Chris Conroy say “trust the process”. Kevin fixes my technique and helps modify the movement to get the most out of my workout. Ryan reminds me it’s about the journey. Suzie say “it’s all in your head.” and she’s right. Jon reminds me to work on one thing at a time and I will hear everyone cheering me on. 

Seeing how hard everyone works out, even in open gym working on their weaknesses to make them stronger. I’m the king of scaling. All the Coaches and members worked hard with me to figure out modifications for the movements and ways for me to be able to get to the point to be able to use a barbell. Just having so many great people at the gym willing to help each other out, cheer each other on, as well as see them push themselves makes me push a little harder. When you see Chris Bell, Kristin, Josh, Matt, Tom, Eddie, Jon, the Joes or the Lindsey’s. Christine, Sam, Craig, Irene, Lauren, Mike, Dave, Jeannie, Greg, Linda, Debbie, Dan (if i forgot anyone please forgive me) giving it everything they have, you can’t help but try to push through that next rep or that next round. It has helped me do things I never thought possible! 

Now I’m cleaning, (w/the Barbell) , squatting, even jumping rope! I did a headstand! Doing all the things I told Kevin and Deena I could not do. I would never be able to do. I’m hitting all kinds of personal records with my running! Even ran Stone Cat (a trail marathon) no way I could have done it with out every ones help. Around mile 22 I kept telling my self. If I can get through one of Suzie’s Classes (she is the evil genius of Crossfit) I can get through the next 4 miles. I’m stronger now that I believe I have ever been at 41 (still call myself the old slow fat guy). No way I could have done all of this without  such great people at Crossfit 128! Bottom line is, 6 a.m. and Saturday are the best part of my week. Can’t wait to see where 2020 brings us all! Such a great culture and I feel lucky to be a small part of it. Thank you all for being great.”

“OHS-athon”

For time:

100 Overhead Squats (95/65)

*10 Toes to Bar any time the bar comes down from overhead

*15 min time cap