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Chris has made some amazing progress in our gym, check out his story

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Janelle is a pretty awesome athlete and was nice enough to talk about her experience here at Integrated Fitness.

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The impact Integrated Fitness has had on me is hard to explain. On the surface it would seem that I am just a fitness enthusiast who enjoys a nice physical challenge. While this is true, the effects of Integrated Fitness & Jim and Josh’s influence run much deeper. If you do not want to take the time to read the entire story then I will just make it clear right here that I owe the achievement of my goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon to Jim and Josh, and all of their hard work to make Integrated Fitness what it is for me.

Reading this you may be asking why the Boston Marathon is such a huge deal. My desire to run this race began three years ago after I lost my childhood friend, Patrick, to cancer. Patrick and I grew up together in a small town outside of Boston. I grew up with all boys, we did everything together, and they taught me how to play practically every sport. Patrick was more like another brother. When I learned of his death it was an awful feeling, a ridiculous sense of overwhelming sadness. Running became my therapy, when I couldn’t sleep or felt sad I just hit the road and tried to pound it out on the pavement. Eventually I decided that reaching Boston would be my way to memorialize Patrick.

I’ve always been an individualist, so I really took this goal head-on by myself and didn’t seek any outside advice on how to approach it. Running was something that I had done all my life, and all I thought I needed to do was put in more distance. I ran every chance I could; things were going well for my fitness at first. Eventually though my ignorance for proper training and balance handed me a huge setback. By over-training I developed compartment syndrome in both of my legs. My doctor gave me two possible solutions for this painful, exercise induced condition: 1) stop the athletic lifestyle or 2) surgery. Of course I could not imagine my life without the physical activities I enjoy, so I opted for surgery despite the lack of a guarantee for a successful outcome and the promise for some wicked scars.

Post-surgery my recovery was slow and painful – just getting the incisions to heal was a long process, never mind how long it took to gain the courage to exercise. Eventually I got the strength to try running again. I told myself I’d try my best but if my body didn’t accept it then perhaps my life as an athlete would need to end. Thankfully, the surgery did fix my legs and I was brought back as close to normal as I could be.

I never forgot about Patrick during my recovery, and although I had my doubts about whether or not my legs would let me take on the challenge of a marathon – I tried it anyways. I trained through the winter and spring, and completed the 2010 Pittsburgh Marathon with a time of 3:58. Despite being far off from my Boston qualifying time, I was just proud to finish. My quest for Boston continued – I tried in Erie September 2010 (3:48), and had an absolute disaster in D.C. at the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (4:15). Following the Marine Corps Marathon I took some time off to mentally re-evaluate. I was pretty defeated since the Marine Corps was where I had envisioned myself qualifying, and it turned out to be my worst performance.

It wasn’t long after this that I ended up on Jim’s website. I am not sure what brought me there, but my stubbornness to not reach out and ask for help was starting to fade. After investigating his site and doing some other research I decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask Jim’s opinion. After all, I knew Jim from High School and figured at the very least he’d give me an honest answer on whether or not he could help me with my struggles.

Since our first meeting I knew that what Jim was offering would be very helpful to me. Although there isn’t much support for CrossFit among Marathoners, it works great for me. My body won’t let me train like an experienced Marathoner. My legs cannot handle a high-mileage, 6 day-a-week training program. But, the combination of running 3 or 4 days a week and doing 1 or 2 CrossFit sessions made all the difference for me.

I would describe my first three weeks with Jim as a process of relearning to be an athlete. Previous to our meeting, I was just a runner. My running muscles were in ok shape, but everything else had pretty much been neglected. After several weeks I felt the difference from Jim’s program. My times got faster, my recovery time was shorter, my heart rate was lower, my muscles throughout were shaping up. Overall, I felt much stronger every time I ran, and every week these physical benefits continued.

What I like about Jim is that you cannot hide anything from him. He knows my weaknesses, and I’m pretty sure he’s known them from day one. I’m ok with that because I know he knows where to push me, and the only way I’m going to get any better is to accept the fact that I have weaknesses and work hard every time I’m at Integrated. I expect that every time I step foot in his gym he will show me something that I can’t yet do, or that I don’t do well. I hope as I continue to train with Jim my weaknesses will start to diminish and I’ll be altogether stronger.

Jim is also a very talented motivator. From the start Jim was extremely positive and I don’t think he ever doubted that I would achieve my sub 3:40 marathon time. It was so encouraging to feel like I had someone in my corner who understood my goal and how important it was to me. I can’t really describe his motivational technique…I’m not real sure how he does it. When I came to him I was very discouraged and I felt doubt creeping in about whether or not I could achieve what I wanted. Without much discussion about it, he wiped that all out of my mind and I just started to focus less on if, and more on how it would be possible. For someone who is not overly self-assured, I have gained a lot of confidence about my abilities and I don’t doubt myself as much anymore.

I also don’t think I can go without mentioning the sense of community that I feel at Integrated Fitness as well. Although I’m not overly social, there still is something to be said about the people I have met and the bonds that start to form throughout the CrossFit classes. I enjoy the healthy competition and support we all get from one another.

May 15th was a great day for me, the day I put my three-year quest for a Boston Qualifying time to rest at the Pittsburgh Marathon. I ran 19 minutes faster than last year, finishing in 3:39. I really can’t explain to you the feeling I get when I think about running the streets of Boston. I know I’ll run proud, imagining Patrick running behind me as he did so often when we were kids. It’ll be great closure to say goodbye to my friend on my own terms finally. If it weren’t for Integrated Fitness & Jim’s influence, I know I wouldn’t have achieved this.

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