After placing 20th in the regional qualifier, Colleen McQuaid is headed to the Reebok CrossFit Games
Colleen McQuaid didn’t think weightlifting was for her, until she decided to take up CrossFit four years ago.
Now, she’s set to compete against some of the fittest people on the planet.
“I think I did one workout and I just fell in love with it,” said the 36-year-old Quispamsis mom.
CrossFit is a fitness regime the involves a combination of different high intensity workouts, like deadlifts, pull-ups on gymnastic bars, rowing, running and skipping.
After placing 20th in the regional qualifier, the physiotherapist and co-owner of Complete Balance Physiotherapy in Rothesay is on her way to compete at the Reebok CrossFit Games in Wisconsin from Aug. 1-5.
McQuaid picked up the sport eight weeks after giving birth to her third child. She ran into an old friend she used to play ball hockey with who had picked up CrossFit.
“I had actually never lifted a weight before I started CrossFit,” McQuaid said. “It was boring to just stand in a gym and look at yourself in a mirror and lift weights. It was just something I was not interested in.”
McQuaid said she’s been told no one from Atlantic Canada has ever qualified to go to the Reebok CrossFit Games as an individual.
“It was a bit of a shock. I think I’m still in shock,” she said. “I won’t believe it until I get there.”
Fuelled by the challenge
McQuaid said she was a bit intimidated at first, but she said learning new techniques was all part of the fun.
“As soon as you get one movement, then you want to learn more and if I’m not good at something, then I would stay after hours or come to open gym and keep working until I got that skill, or that movement, or that weight that I wanted to accomplish,” McQuaid said.
“The challenge is what keeps me going, keeps me interested.”
Leading up to the games, the workouts the competitors will have to perform are kept secret. In the meantime, McQuaid is preparing for everything the games might throw at her.
“That’s the whole fun of it for me. I like it when you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
Last year, she finished 60th at regionals and wasn’t expecting to place 20th this year.
She has no expectations going into the games and is just happy to have the opportunity to go.
“I think from this I’ll just come back and know different things that I need to work on for next year.”
